Spotted: Lifted Porta Potty in Downtown Billings. What For?

Check this picture out. Things are so bad around the downtown area that construction people are raising their crappers in the air with lift trucks to keep the transients -- or whoever -- from using them apparently?

I took this shot yesterday on my way in from Montana Avenue. There is construction going on at the Post Office and they had to hoist this thing in the air to keep people out it looks like.

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Have you driven by the library lately? If you look in the alleys around it, people have little camps set up where they are living. It looks like a tailgate party. I don't know what the answer is because nowadays you are not allowed to run anyone out of town or even ask them to move. You might get called a racist or bigot or judgmental or an uncompassionate person.

You have to be sympathetic, you don't know their situation. The problem is growing all around the country and our community is not immune anymore.

Housing for them doesn't work, jobs readily available don't work. Programs to clean them up don't seem to make a difference in the numbers either.

So what do we do? We have loitering laws, open container laws, and trespassing laws, but nothing seems to make a difference. There is no room at the jail or other shelters so now what?

Maybe we need to look elsewhere to find out what to do, or is it just going to be a fact of life from now on?

No matter what, the problem is growing to the point where it seems not fixable.

See ya tomorrow at 5 a.m.