3 ms·

Thanks for taking the time to provide background data. This is all really great. I'm skeptical of the percentages you shared, not because I think people are li

Thanks for taking the time to provide background data. This is all really great. I'm skeptical of the percentages you shared, not because I think people are liars, but that rooting out causative effects is complex, especially in self-reported cases. I have an aunt who was homeless for the better part of a decade. If you had spoken to her during this period of time about why she was homeless, she would have said many things such as (1) she lost her job (2) she got evicted (3) her family kicked her out. In reality she is a paranoid schizophrenic, who does not understand when she's not on her medication that she has schizophrenia. So, was she homeless because she lost her job? Yes. Did she lose her job because she was scaring customers due to her mental disorder? Yes. When my father was in the hospital and detoxing from his alcohol abuse, he was asked repeatedly "Russ, do you have an alcohol problem?" He uniformly responded "No I do not." He only changed his tune when he believed answering in the affirmative would get his release. My general point is that homelessness and substance abuse are deeply intertwined, and that if we pull on the thread long enough in someone's backstory, we'll often find that substance abuse was a catalyst in the chain reaction that resulted in their homelessness, but they aren't willing to, or aren't self aware enough, to recognize it.

darpa_escapee 8y ago
Research that goes beyond self-reports echoes the sentiment that homelessness is overwhelmingly an economic issue. That's not to understate the impact that health, substance abuse and domestic violence play, either. This is important to recognize, because families are falling victim to homelessness due to loss of jobs, insufficient income and the rising cost of living. You could probably shake a few alcoholics out of that population, just like you could with the general population, but the overwhelming majority of them became homeless because of economic reasons. Those reasons, from here[1], include lack of affordable housing, unemployment, poverty, and low wages, in that order. I have an uncle that became homeless after his divorce. It's a hole anyone can fall into if just the right bad things happen. There's plenty of research available. I implore anyone who is reading this to Google "causes of homelessness", or start here[2] and continue researching by checking out the citations. [1] https://www.nlchp.org/documents/Homeless_Stats_Fact_Sheet https://www.nlchp.org/documents/Homeless_Stats_Fact_Sheet [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_the_United_States#Causes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_the_United_Sta...
- wjossey 8y ago
  Reading more on what you shared, and a more contemporary study [1], I think the issue is that when I say "homeless", I'm talking about the chronic homeless in unsheltered situations in Los Angeles. Many of those who are also commenting here live in LA & SF, where we have the largest number of unsheltered homeless in the US, per capita. All that being said, this survey seems to be absolute junk (the mayor survey, which is cited elsewhere). The survey instrument is at the bottom of the page and is remarkably subjective / at the whims of the reviewer. The word "alcohol" shows up once in that whole report. As does the word "drug[s]". [1] https://endhomelessness.atavist.com/mayorsreport2016 https://endhomelessness.atavist.com/mayorsreport2016

darpa_escapee 8y ago

Research that goes beyond self-reports echoes the sentiment that homelessness is overwhelmingly an economic issue. That's not to understate the impact that health, substance abuse and domestic violence play, either. This is important to recognize, because families are falling victim to homelessness due to loss of jobs, insufficient income and the rising cost of living. You could probably shake a few alcoholics out of that population, just like you could with the general population, but the overwhelming majority of them became homeless because of economic reasons. Those reasons, from here[1], include lack of affordable housing, unemployment, poverty, and low wages, in that order. I have an uncle that became homeless after his divorce. It's a hole anyone can fall into if just the right bad things happen. There's plenty of research available. I implore anyone who is reading this to Google "causes of homelessness", or start here[2] and continue researching by checking out the citations. [1] https://www.nlchp.org/documents/Homeless_Stats_Fact_Sheet https://www.nlchp.org/documents/Homeless_Stats_Fact_Sheet [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_the_United_States#Causes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_the_United_Sta...

wjossey 8y ago
Reading more on what you shared, and a more contemporary study [1], I think the issue is that when I say "homeless", I'm talking about the chronic homeless in unsheltered situations in Los Angeles. Many of those who are also commenting here live in LA & SF, where we have the largest number of unsheltered homeless in the US, per capita. All that being said, this survey seems to be absolute junk (the mayor survey, which is cited elsewhere). The survey instrument is at the bottom of the page and is remarkably subjective / at the whims of the reviewer. The word "alcohol" shows up once in that whole report. As does the word "drug[s]". [1] https://endhomelessness.atavist.com/mayorsreport2016 https://endhomelessness.atavist.com/mayorsreport2016