3 ms·

Homelessness isn't caused by a lack of homes. These are people who have checked out of society; many of them are very mentally ill or addicted to drugs. Where I

Homelessness isn't caused by a lack of homes. These are people who have checked out of society; many of them are very mentally ill or addicted to drugs. Where I live in the Pacific Northwest there's also a tragically misguided subculture of people who choose to be homeless.

PhasmaFelis 10y ago
It's really dangerous to make generalizations like that. Some homeless people are societal dropouts, drug addicts, mentally disabled, etc. Some are people who are trying their best to make ends meet but just can't. I used to know an older fellow who lived out of a van half-full of tools, and did odd jobs where he could. I saw him around my favorite coffee shop; I think he got free coffee in exchange for fixing stuff sometimes. There was an article on HN not too long ago about a guy who went from an nice house and a swanky tech job to homeless and living out of his car in less than a year; he managed to crawl back out by doing freelance work on his laptop, but things were pretty awful for him for a while. It's way too easy to say that homeless people are all beyond help, and therefore we can ignore them and leave them to rot with a clear conscience. But it's not true. And even for the people you mentioned--die-hard "lifestyle" homeless may be out of reach, but public assistance programs can sometimes give the addicts and the crazies a hand up, or (better) prevent them from ever becoming homeless in the first place.
- geebee 10y ago
  In fairness to marcoperaza, this is partly a problem with the term "homeless". It is ambiguous, and in a way that can cause problems in meaningful discussions. San Francisco has a number of problems with "homelessness". Our most visible problem is a very serious one - there are a lot of alcoholic, drug addicted, and mentally ill people living on the street, some of whom are prone to erratic, aggressive, and violent behavior. There is also a large and less visible problem with people who are not addicted or mentally ill, but who are in difficult economic circumstances and who are having great difficulty finding a safe place to sleep. These two things are related some of the time, but I don't believe that they are simply two sides of the same coin, they also exist as acute if not orthogonal problems. I appreciate that "homeless" was, at least in part, intended as a more humane term than various derisive terms like bum, vagrant, and so forth. This I am in favor of - regardless of how you feel, I see no benefit in derisive terms, I don't think it requires a derisive term to express an opinion, even if it's an unsympathetic one. But while it's a mouthful, I do think it's probably more descriptive to say that SF (and other cities as well) have a serious problem with "mentally ill and/or addicted people who live on the streets" when discussing that specific issue, rather than using the blanket term "homeless" which encompasses much more than this. The story about the couple having sex in a tent on a busy street with the flaps open while a pit bull stands sentry, or a person getting chased around by a crazed man with a sharpened screwdriver - well, I hope we all know that there exists a large population of of people who desperately try to maintain appearances (and sanity) but are actually in pretty dire economic circumstances. You don't necessarily notice them. The two situations call for very different solutions.
- jospoortvliet 10y ago
  Indeed. If homelessness would be caused by lazyness, encouraged by free money, nobody in europe would work anymore... yet things are not remotely like that. If you get in trouble, you are cought and helped back on your feet (a favor usually fully repaid in taxes). The few who have mental issues get into mental institutions, not under bridges or in jail. And the few who have enough issues to be unable or willing to get/keep a job and house, even with help, but are not troubled enough to be forcible taken in an institution are the only ones on the street. And lo amd behold, it neither results in massive taxes nor everybody stopping with working.
  - marcoperaza 10y ago
    Massive youth unemployment in Europe tells a different story. We're talking about a massive lost generation.

PhasmaFelis 10y ago

It's really dangerous to make generalizations like that. Some homeless people are societal dropouts, drug addicts, mentally disabled, etc. Some are people who are trying their best to make ends meet but just can't. I used to know an older fellow who lived out of a van half-full of tools, and did odd jobs where he could. I saw him around my favorite coffee shop; I think he got free coffee in exchange for fixing stuff sometimes. There was an article on HN not too long ago about a guy who went from an nice house and a swanky tech job to homeless and living out of his car in less than a year; he managed to crawl back out by doing freelance work on his laptop, but things were pretty awful for him for a while. It's way too easy to say that homeless people are all beyond help, and therefore we can ignore them and leave them to rot with a clear conscience. But it's not true. And even for the people you mentioned--die-hard "lifestyle" homeless may be out of reach, but public assistance programs can sometimes give the addicts and the crazies a hand up, or (better) prevent them from ever becoming homeless in the first place.

geebee 10y ago
In fairness to marcoperaza, this is partly a problem with the term "homeless". It is ambiguous, and in a way that can cause problems in meaningful discussions. San Francisco has a number of problems with "homelessness". Our most visible problem is a very serious one - there are a lot of alcoholic, drug addicted, and mentally ill people living on the street, some of whom are prone to erratic, aggressive, and violent behavior. There is also a large and less visible problem with people who are not addicted or mentally ill, but who are in difficult economic circumstances and who are having great difficulty finding a safe place to sleep. These two things are related some of the time, but I don't believe that they are simply two sides of the same coin, they also exist as acute if not orthogonal problems. I appreciate that "homeless" was, at least in part, intended as a more humane term than various derisive terms like bum, vagrant, and so forth. This I am in favor of - regardless of how you feel, I see no benefit in derisive terms, I don't think it requires a derisive term to express an opinion, even if it's an unsympathetic one. But while it's a mouthful, I do think it's probably more descriptive to say that SF (and other cities as well) have a serious problem with "mentally ill and/or addicted people who live on the streets" when discussing that specific issue, rather than using the blanket term "homeless" which encompasses much more than this. The story about the couple having sex in a tent on a busy street with the flaps open while a pit bull stands sentry, or a person getting chased around by a crazed man with a sharpened screwdriver - well, I hope we all know that there exists a large population of of people who desperately try to maintain appearances (and sanity) but are actually in pretty dire economic circumstances. You don't necessarily notice them. The two situations call for very different solutions.
jospoortvliet 10y ago
Indeed. If homelessness would be caused by lazyness, encouraged by free money, nobody in europe would work anymore... yet things are not remotely like that. If you get in trouble, you are cought and helped back on your feet (a favor usually fully repaid in taxes). The few who have mental issues get into mental institutions, not under bridges or in jail. And the few who have enough issues to be unable or willing to get/keep a job and house, even with help, but are not troubled enough to be forcible taken in an institution are the only ones on the street. And lo amd behold, it neither results in massive taxes nor everybody stopping with working.
- marcoperaza 10y ago
  Massive youth unemployment in Europe tells a different story. We're talking about a massive lost generation.