Salem's Increasing Hobo Population

Salem, Indiana is generally a relatively nice community with people who really do care about their neighbors, their community and have a sense of civic pride at least to some extent.

That being said, the quality of life in Salem, Indiana is being brought down by a variety of factors including the local drug use problem that exists in most counties and most communities in America. Salem is now starting to have problems with homelessness which in past times was hardly a problem but since the economic crash of 2008 and 2009 and the illicit drug trade in Salem, Indiana the homelessness problem has skyrocketed.

The point is that the homeless problem that is increasing in Washington County is having bad effects on the community at large along with the local economic situation which could use a definite improvement.

From some of my sources, I've been told that there are now homeless camps in a couple of areas of Salem that have sprung up in out of the way places that are harder for law enforcement to monitor and patrol. Not having seen these two places I would suspect that this is largely due to the drug problem in Salem and with the inability of the local population to hold jobs or at least try to stay clean.

Why isn't Washington County stepping up public safety and security to make sure that in Salem and other communities these people are in some decent level of shelter and housing instead of allowing a hobo encampment to remain in the city limits in one place and at the edge of the city of the City of Salem

One of the places that one finds much in the way of trash and refuse is along the Salem By Pass carrying State Roads 60 and 135. Of which it is alleged that inside of the bypass in the area between SR 160 and the Wal Mart Supercenter these is now a homeless camp somewhere in that area. Why is this allowed if true because obviously there is no law enforcement activities against such camps to encourage those to find shelter.

Instead what this allows is for more petty crime, violence and criminal activities against those in society that are following the law, paying their taxes and without being bothered or harassed by such individuals. Another such encampment was at one time in the center of Salem behind a local shopping center however that area did flood severely in 2017 so its quite possible nothing is any longer at that location.

With our community having problems due to opioids, methamphetamine, cocaine and other serious drug issues, this isn't the type of public policy that we should be allowing or encouraging. Not to mention the trash and waste that is being produced without any oversight by government bodies such as environmental agencies and health departments. This is leading to more problems by tolerating such activities that create more problems and more dependence as well. It's time for Salem City government and the Washington County government to start cracking down on these activities including the rampant drug use in our city and county and finding ways to combat the problem.

Not by encouraging these behaviors because they just want to push the issue out of the way and behind closed doors like they have with political corruption and corrupt police and politicians and lawyers. Active Search Results (ASR) is an independent Internet Search Engine using a proprietary page ranking technology with Millions of popular Web sites indexed.