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What a total disaster the threads on articles about homelessness turn into. No wonder most of the developed world has a serious homeless problem when people ar
by wffurr 7y ago
What a total disaster the threads on articles about homelessness turn into. No wonder most of the developed world has a serious homeless problem when people are so completely lacking in both empathy and insight.
Straw men about "rights" and "coercion" abound, while there's very little acknowledgement of the scale of human suffering that can be solved by just providing housing instead of half-heartedly funding shelters, halfway houses, ERs, etc.; the usual leaky uncoordinated sieve of a "safety net" that exists in most countries.
How about instead a Y Combinator applicant that takes the idea in the article of cost-benefit analysis in terms of public service usage and scales it up across cities, states, and nations?
"Keeping people homeless, instead of providing homes for them, is always more expensive for the society. In Finland we have some scientific evaluations of the cost of this program. When a homeless person gets a permanent home, even with support, the cost savings for the society are at least 15,000 Euros per one person per one year. And the cost savings come from different use of different services.
In this study, they looked at the services that homeless people used when they were without a home. They calculated every possible thing: emergency healthcare, police, justice system, etc. They then compared that cost to when people get proper housing. And this was the result. I'm quite sure this kind of cost analysis can also be found for Canada."
- jbob2000 7y agoProviding housing is not the solution. A previous partner of mine worked as a social worker for an organization that did "housing first". She would house homeless individuals in apartments, advocated on their behalf to the landlord, get them some basic furniture, and helped them get financial assistance to afford rent and food. That part was easy. The biggest problem she faced was that people would leave their homes. She would come by a few days after housing them and they weren't around. She'd call them up only to discover they'd taken the train over to the next town and spent the night on the streets there. One lady complained that she thought the apartment was too small and preferred to be outdoors. She housed a family of 4 who were sleeping in their car, only to find that they crossed the border a few days later because the father thought that there were better opportunities there. Homelessness is not about "not having a home". It is a mindset and lifestyle that people develop over many years. The best solution is to try to stop the incoming generation from developing this lifestyle - get 'em while they're young. Keep troubled kids in school at all costs. Double down on drug and addiction education. Police the shit out of poor neighborhoods. And then provide some health and wellness support for those who choose this lifestyle. Because that's all you can do.
- throwaway7392 7y agoThis conflicts with the very article posted in this thread though, backed by empirical data vs your anecdotes.
- jbob2000 7y agoPerhaps. The experiences came to me from someone new to the profession, who was probably given all the troublesome cases so the established employees could have an easy ride with the ones who were interested in changing their lives around.