The State of Homelessness

[exploited]

[fstarcstar]

Exploited, everything you mentioned above already exists and is actually a proven failure a majority of the time. There are areas of Dallas where Habitat for Humanity, local government and other organizations attempt to build homes, provided cheaper housing, distribute local food banks and other items and yet there is still a larger homelessness population/ dirt poor Detroit style homes.

Just a simple walk into some of the poorest neighborhoods and meeting some of the poorest people in these places gives you the sense that homelessness can't be fixed with money or material items. Some of these people literally cannot function in a regular society, and I don't mean that in a horrible fashion.

Drug Addictions, Alcoholism, Mental Illness and Veterans we left on the streets are a majority of people homeless. I think decriminalizing drugs, and using the excise tax revenues for treatment instead of jails might help. Mental Illness, I honestly don't know what to do about it, but there are probably experts that know what's best. And for veterans, we already know we shit in their cereal, but nobody does anything about it. At some point it will come back to bite us. We need a formidable plan for low cost higher education and skills for the homeless or jobless to prevent people from falling far into poverty. Whethers that's from a government funded program or a local business that receives grants or tax benefits from the government. Building homes and providing shelters is only a convenience factor with a short term gain and mid-long term issues, we have to look at homelessness as a life-long disease.

[Saz]

Wow. That was actually a solid solid post. I agree, but I think the biggest thing is really ending the drug war and getting proper mental health. Like you said, a significant majority of these people are just unable to function as adults, and no amount of monetary help or shelter will set them on the right track. Because of the war on drugs, a ton of homeless people just don't get the addiction counseling and help that they need. They get jailed or just ignored. Half of them really need to be in rehabilitation clinics and I think we need to accept the fact that a large number of them will never be productive members of society and will have to be subsidized until death. The only long term way to address the issue is with prevention, and that involves a whole host of social changes that won't come quickly or easily.

One thing I will say for the homeless though is that they really aren't bad people and generally don't engage in serious or violent crime. I just got some homeless bro a milkshake at mcdonalds and really don't mind helping out a fellow american like that if you know they need it and generally won't abuse your goodwill. I think many people have this misconception that the homeless are somehow dangerous or are trying to trick something out of them when that's not really the case. I'd much rather a guy just ask me for a milkshake than try to rob someone to get the money for it or get into some dangerous hustle that's going to hurt them and empower people who actually are violent and dangerous.

[John Galt]

habitat for humanity requires each owner to put in 500 hours of work into their house before they get it. they get it interest free, and the cost is for materials, basically, so it's a really good deal. i like volunteering for them because i like doing the actual work, it's fun. but i don't think it really addresses the problem of "homelessness". it's more for people who need help out of shitty housing and they need someplace nice to raise a family, people willing to do the work. this isn't to say it's not worthwhile, but i think it's addressing a different type of problem. so i agree with fstar and saz, it's basically a mental health issue at its core (largely addiction)

[spacemonkey]

Homelessness exists in every state. Poverty and poor is probably the fastest growing segment of the population. The pathetic part is many of them actually work.

[Philly]

[spacemonkey]

[MarkG]

That's exactly what I meant to say!

[eynon81]

Mental-health and addiction issues often over-lap.

the difference between a high-functioning addict and a junkie is often some type of mental-trauma or mental-illness.

[Stratego]

Is not having a traditional home a bad thing? Why do we build homeless shelters in the city? Why not in the forest?