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Mental healthcare may be relevant to this issue. But the cost of housing is not. These people cannot hold jobs because they are mentally ill. They need state p
by archaea_hao 7y ago
Mental healthcare may be relevant to this issue. But the cost of housing is not.
These people cannot hold jobs because they are mentally ill. They need state provided institutional care, otherwise they will remain on the streets.
- ajross 7y agoThat's a caricature. In fact there are a near infinite variety of reasons for being homeless, and many homeless folks not only can hold jobs, but work them already. Yet they're on the streets anyway because of financial pressure, look like the "these people" you want to lock up, and would probably get picked up under the same ordinance.
- stOneskull 7y agoShitting on the street and being homeless are two issues here.
- ajross 7y agoThe proposal in the linked opinion piece is literally to lock up all homeless because some of them shit on the street. You can't treat them as two issues while insisting on a remedy that doesn't.
- turtlecloud 7y agoYes I agree. We should use the term street shitters to differentiate. I see a huge issue when talking about homeless is that people have different ideas what we are talking about and get easily offended.
- archaea_hao 7y ago"In fact there are a near infinite variety of reasons for being homeless" Near infinite in the sense that there are near infinite ways of dying. You could be hit by an asteroid. You could fall off a cliff. But that obscures the fact that most people die from some sickness or disease. I've done volunteer work with the homeless. There are 2 major causes of homelessness: mental illness and drug addiction. Everything else is insignificant in comparison.
- CydeWeys 7y agoIt sounds like you've only done volunteer work with specific types of people. The homeless people who simply can't afford housing and thus live in vehicles, and have jobs, want to stay under the radar. It's unlikely you'd make contact with them during volunteering unless you specifically sought them out. You're not going to find them at soup kitchens, homeless shelters, skid row, etc. They're normal people like you and me who just can't afford to live in a building, and are taking the next best option.
- Vervious 7y agoThe group that stays under the radar... is likely not the same set that shits on the street? I kid you not, there are some seriously crazy people in SOMA who have a schedule. Morning, mission and 5th. Evening, mission and 6th.
- xyzzyz 7y agoThis kind of people doesn’t contribute to defecation crisis, and they tend to not stay homeless for very long anyway (unless they start doing drugs).
- CydeWeys 7y agoThey likely are not, but I wasn't saying they were. I was responding to someone who was claiming that these types of homeless people don't even exist, which is far from true.
- bryanlarsen 7y agoAbout 20% of the population has a mental illness issue. Almost 10% of the population have an addiction. Obviously the vast majority of these people aren't homeless. Being homeless is a good way to turn a minor mental illness or addiction into a major one.
- zamfi 7y agoThat’s also a caricature. Some of the homeless are indeed able to hold job, and pay bills, etc., and just need a little extra help. They are not usually the ones defecating in the streets. Others need serious mental help. The line between the two is not the subtle “infinite variety” you make it out to be.
- turtlecloud 7y agoDude. Most of the time people complain about homeless it is the crazy people that shit on the streets. Don’t change the subject by saying people that sleep in cars or on friends couch’s shouldn’t be criticized too. They aren’t. That is why I propose a new term for the people most of us complain about. I use the term crazies or untouchables.
- zamfi 7y agoHuh? I’m not sure who you’re replying to. There are a number of people who are mentally ill, are unhoused, and need professional mental health help on an ongoing basis. They also need compassion, not a loaded stigmatizing label. The other folks down on their luck need shelter beds and housing they can afford.
- daenz 7y ago>there are a near infinite variety of reasons for being homeless Ah, the old "flatten that distribution graph and treat every point as equally probable" argument. Arguments like these are so intentionally misleading that it's easy to construe them as malicious. You'd rather make an asinine point than use language that addresses the true distribution of the problem set, because it doesn't capture every single fringe case you can think of.
- Noos 7y agoNah, the core of this are problem homeless who can't hold jobs or are even coherent much. Someone who is just down on their luck and could recover if they had a job is not someone who drops their trousers n the middle of the street to shit there.
- eli_gottlieb 7y agoThis may only apply in New York, but last I heard, most homeless people have jobs.