3 ms·

how people got there is one thing, the main tools to "fix it" are fairly straightforward: give people housing The solution sounds straightforward, the path to

how people got there is one thing, the main tools to "fix it" are fairly straightforward: give people housing The solution sounds straightforward, the path to get there looks like a Gordian knot. How do you pay for it? How do you get that funding source to go along with your plans to pay for it? Etc.

davidw 8y ago
Well, we could stop making it illegal. That'd be a great first step. https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/amid-seattles-rapid-growth-most-new-housing-restricted-to-a-few-areas/ https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/amid-seatt...
PavlovsCat 8y ago
What do you mean by "Gordian knot" here? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_First https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_First > In August 2007, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development reported that the number of chronically homeless individuals living on the streets or in shelters dropped by an unprecedented 30 percent, from 175,914 people in 2005 to 123,833 in 2007. This was credited in part to the "housing first" approach; Congress in 1999 directed that HUD spend 30% of its funding on the method. The page is full of more success stories like that. If it's so impossible, why is it already being done all over the world? > Studies in New York City and in Utah have shown that every homeless person housed in programs such as Housing First saves taxpayers $10,000 and $8,000 a year, respectively. A research study at University of Northern Carolina also reported that a housing project for the chronically homeless called Moore Place had saved the county $2.4 million. Yet it "seems like a Gordion knot" because how would we pay for it... that's the answer, you don't pay, you save money. So if the problem is how some people feel about something, because they haven't informed themselves, then they should feel something else, problem solved.
DanBC 8y ago
> How do you pay for it? You'll be diverting people away from the criminal justice system and away from involuntary mental health hospital stays. Those can be fantastically expensive, and not particularly useful. > How do you get that funding source to go along with your plans to pay for it? Yes, that's a problem that seems hard to fix.
rivp931 8y ago
Pay for it in taxes, let the government set up an agency providing assistance. Would require big changes in the system you have in the US though, ugly bureaucracy, and whispering some forbidden words like "socialism". But it's reality, not fantasy: https://www.kela.fi/web/en/social-assistance-overview https://www.kela.fi/web/en/social-assistance-overview
InclinedPlane 8y ago
Taxes? I believe they were invented (let me check) in the stone age, so that might be something we could look into. You speak like this is something nobody's ever done before, but it's been done, repeatedly and often throughout the world and even in America.

davidw 8y ago

Well, we could stop making it illegal. That'd be a great first step. https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/amid-seattles-rapid-growth-most-new-housing-restricted-to-a-few-areas/ https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/amid-seatt...

PavlovsCat 8y ago

What do you mean by "Gordian knot" here? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_First https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_First > In August 2007, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development reported that the number of chronically homeless individuals living on the streets or in shelters dropped by an unprecedented 30 percent, from 175,914 people in 2005 to 123,833 in 2007. This was credited in part to the "housing first" approach; Congress in 1999 directed that HUD spend 30% of its funding on the method. The page is full of more success stories like that. If it's so impossible, why is it already being done all over the world? > Studies in New York City and in Utah have shown that every homeless person housed in programs such as Housing First saves taxpayers $10,000 and $8,000 a year, respectively. A research study at University of Northern Carolina also reported that a housing project for the chronically homeless called Moore Place had saved the county $2.4 million. Yet it "seems like a Gordion knot" because how would we pay for it... that's the answer, you don't pay, you save money. So if the problem is how some people feel about something, because they haven't informed themselves, then they should feel something else, problem solved.

DanBC 8y ago

> How do you pay for it? You'll be diverting people away from the criminal justice system and away from involuntary mental health hospital stays. Those can be fantastically expensive, and not particularly useful. > How do you get that funding source to go along with your plans to pay for it? Yes, that's a problem that seems hard to fix.

rivp931 8y ago

Pay for it in taxes, let the government set up an agency providing assistance. Would require big changes in the system you have in the US though, ugly bureaucracy, and whispering some forbidden words like "socialism". But it's reality, not fantasy: https://www.kela.fi/web/en/social-assistance-overview https://www.kela.fi/web/en/social-assistance-overview

InclinedPlane 8y ago

Taxes? I believe they were invented (let me check) in the stone age, so that might be something we could look into. You speak like this is something nobody's ever done before, but it's been done, repeatedly and often throughout the world and even in America.