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According to established research, there are two types of homeless. 80% of the homeless recover within several months with the help of existing private and publ

According to established research, there are two types of homeless. 80% of the homeless recover within several months with the help of existing private and public social programs. They work. Unfortunately, they only work for normal people “down on their luck” The other 20% is what is referred to as the chronic homeless. These are the ones we see on the streets. Very few of them recover if ever. This group is mostly made of the mentally ill, drug addicts, or most likely an individual suffering from both problems. Only federal medical institutions can help them. The problem is that they were expensive and extremely mismanaged (stacks of abuse) in the 20th century. Consequently, the Kennedy family waged a successful crusade in eliminating them. Sadly, given what we know now, instead of ending those programs; we should have reformed them instead. What we have now is a bunch of cities playing a never ending game of “hot potato” with the mentally ill, using free bus and airline tickets that send them to another metro to deal with and vice versa. Most proposed solutions like the ones outlined in the blog post only deal with the symptoms and not the root of the problem. It’s a mental health issue

Damorian 7y ago
This should be the only post in the thread. I've been "homeles" as both a child and an adult and it's impossible for a "normal" person to stay homeless. The only people who stay homeless do so because of mental illness, typically brought on by drug abuse. If you want to solve homelessness it has nothing to do with affordable/free housing and everything to do with healthcare and restorative justice.
- eanzenberg 7y ago
  And, also, drug enforcement.
  - wang_li 7y ago
    Seattle has more or less given up on drug enforcement. This policy has increased the number of visible drug users on the street.
    - eanzenberg 7y ago
      And on the number of people who become homeless. Unless leftists are willing to take their heads out of the sand then the problem will never end or be solved. But I wouldn't be surprised if it's in their best interests not to solve it..
      - jschwartzi 7y ago
        I would wager that you run into a ton of people in your daily life who use drugs on a regular basis. You just don’t see them as drug users because they otherwise keep their lives together and are productive members of society. Frankly our war on drugs has done nothing but disenfranchise and harm people who would otherwise be law-abiding citizens.
        eanzenberg 7y ago
        Just because there are functioning members that are drug addicts doesn't mean we shouldn't toss the bathtub out with the bathwater. To me, enforcement should be on particular types of drugs and geared towards young people who's brain is still developing (doesn't stop till 25).
        jschwartzi 7y ago
        I'm fine with regulating drug use. What I object to very strenuously is that the government should regulate my experiences in life and that I should be jailed for trying something new. Every argument against drugs boils down to anecdotes plus an argument lumping the many functional drug users in with the guy OD'ing on the corner. In fact the guy OD'ing on the corner is not the tip of the iceberg. Drugs don't frequently destroy lives, but the cops do so regularly when enforcing those laws. They take houses, cars, money, and time away from people. They take your children and brand you for the rest of your life as a criminal. Someone who is 21 has an entire life ahead of them. Are you really advocating that that kid be prosecuted, jailed, and branded simply because they chose an intoxicant that you don't approve of?
  - chaostheory 7y ago
    We’ve lost the Drug War. That experiment was already done decades ago. Enforcement doesn’t work. IMO we need to focus more on medical facilities. It’s a mental health issue
    - eanzenberg 7y ago
      Enforcement works. Drug use went down from 1990 - 2007. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3787412/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3787412/
      - blaser-waffle 7y ago
        Did you even read the study you cited? From the "Conclusions" section: > "With few exceptions and despite increasing investments in enforcement-based supply reduction efforts aimed at disrupting global drug supply, illegal drug prices have generally decreased while drug purity has generally increased since 1990. These findings suggest that expanding efforts at controlling the global illegal drug market through law enforcement are failing."
DoreenMichele 7y ago
This group is mostly made of the mentally ill, drug addicts, or most likely an individual suffering from both problems. I'm the author of the piece. I was homeless with my adult sons for nearly six years. None of us has a mental health diagnosis and none of us does drugs or drinks. We are all tea-totallers. I'm really tired of the "junkies and crazies" meme about homelessness. I don't think it's accurate. It's just another way we throw our hands up and claim "It can't be solved, and not because I don't care." I think we need to solve our health care issues in the US. Medical issues contribute to chronic homelessness. I think other special needs, such as being ADHD, contribute. ADHD isn't a mental health diagnosis of the "he's just insane and can't be made to behave" variety. But such issues do create inherent challenges to regular employment. I have inherent challenges to regular employment. I began doing freelance writing online while homeless and that helped me get back into housing eventually. My blogging mostly doesn't pay my bills. I occasionally get tips and I have a little Patreon support, but I've been told for years "Get a real job. Writing just doesn't pay, you slacker you." and it's like "Writing is something I can do without it creating high medical bills and making me unable to work at all. I do it well enough to sometimes hit the front page of Hacker News. Why the hell shouldn't this be a means to support myself?" And I think some portion of it is I'm a woman and I'm poor and those are contributing factors. People don't want to admit sexism and classism influence which websites they are willing to support financially. But, regardless of all that crazy making stuff, doing what I could do helped me improve things: https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/2019/03/a-twist-on-spoon-theory.html https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/2019/03/a-twist-on-... Anyway, it's probably time for me to walk away and not reply to too much stuff here. A lot of it will likely end up being personally offensive to me, but I didn't want to just let this remark pass without some push back. I'm so tired of the "junkies and crazies" meme. The data I'm familiar with says it's not true.
- j8014 7y ago
  I worked in HMIS for years and the chronic homeless are almost ALWAYS "mentally ill, drug addicts, or most likely an individual suffering from both problems." Additionally, you make a choice to support yourself however you want but "Why the hell shouldn't this be a means to support myself?" is nothing more than entitlement and wishful thinking. There are a bunch of other things that I do that make money, make sense for me, but dont pay the bills, so I adult and find work that does support me.
prostheticvamp 7y ago
Can you provide any citations for that 80/20 breakdown?
- wespiser_2018 7y ago
  of almost 100k surveyed homeless on a single night, 24% are chronically homeless. https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/who-experiences-homelessness/chronically-homeless/ https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/who-expe...
deleted 7y ago
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Damorian 7y ago

This should be the only post in the thread. I've been "homeles" as both a child and an adult and it's impossible for a "normal" person to stay homeless. The only people who stay homeless do so because of mental illness, typically brought on by drug abuse. If you want to solve homelessness it has nothing to do with affordable/free housing and everything to do with healthcare and restorative justice.

eanzenberg 7y ago
And, also, drug enforcement.
- wang_li 7y ago
  Seattle has more or less given up on drug enforcement. This policy has increased the number of visible drug users on the street.
  - eanzenberg 7y ago
    And on the number of people who become homeless. Unless leftists are willing to take their heads out of the sand then the problem will never end or be solved. But I wouldn't be surprised if it's in their best interests not to solve it..
    - jschwartzi 7y ago
      I would wager that you run into a ton of people in your daily life who use drugs on a regular basis. You just don’t see them as drug users because they otherwise keep their lives together and are productive members of society. Frankly our war on drugs has done nothing but disenfranchise and harm people who would otherwise be law-abiding citizens.
      - eanzenberg 7y ago
        Just because there are functioning members that are drug addicts doesn't mean we shouldn't toss the bathtub out with the bathwater. To me, enforcement should be on particular types of drugs and geared towards young people who's brain is still developing (doesn't stop till 25).
        jschwartzi 7y ago
        I'm fine with regulating drug use. What I object to very strenuously is that the government should regulate my experiences in life and that I should be jailed for trying something new. Every argument against drugs boils down to anecdotes plus an argument lumping the many functional drug users in with the guy OD'ing on the corner. In fact the guy OD'ing on the corner is not the tip of the iceberg. Drugs don't frequently destroy lives, but the cops do so regularly when enforcing those laws. They take houses, cars, money, and time away from people. They take your children and brand you for the rest of your life as a criminal. Someone who is 21 has an entire life ahead of them. Are you really advocating that that kid be prosecuted, jailed, and branded simply because they chose an intoxicant that you don't approve of?
- chaostheory 7y ago
  We’ve lost the Drug War. That experiment was already done decades ago. Enforcement doesn’t work. IMO we need to focus more on medical facilities. It’s a mental health issue
  - eanzenberg 7y ago
    Enforcement works. Drug use went down from 1990 - 2007. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3787412/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3787412/
    - blaser-waffle 7y ago
      Did you even read the study you cited? From the "Conclusions" section: > "With few exceptions and despite increasing investments in enforcement-based supply reduction efforts aimed at disrupting global drug supply, illegal drug prices have generally decreased while drug purity has generally increased since 1990. These findings suggest that expanding efforts at controlling the global illegal drug market through law enforcement are failing."

DoreenMichele 7y ago

This group is mostly made of the mentally ill, drug addicts, or most likely an individual suffering from both problems. I'm the author of the piece. I was homeless with my adult sons for nearly six years. None of us has a mental health diagnosis and none of us does drugs or drinks. We are all tea-totallers. I'm really tired of the "junkies and crazies" meme about homelessness. I don't think it's accurate. It's just another way we throw our hands up and claim "It can't be solved, and not because I don't care." I think we need to solve our health care issues in the US. Medical issues contribute to chronic homelessness. I think other special needs, such as being ADHD, contribute. ADHD isn't a mental health diagnosis of the "he's just insane and can't be made to behave" variety. But such issues do create inherent challenges to regular employment. I have inherent challenges to regular employment. I began doing freelance writing online while homeless and that helped me get back into housing eventually. My blogging mostly doesn't pay my bills. I occasionally get tips and I have a little Patreon support, but I've been told for years "Get a real job. Writing just doesn't pay, you slacker you." and it's like "Writing is something I can do without it creating high medical bills and making me unable to work at all. I do it well enough to sometimes hit the front page of Hacker News. Why the hell shouldn't this be a means to support myself?" And I think some portion of it is I'm a woman and I'm poor and those are contributing factors. People don't want to admit sexism and classism influence which websites they are willing to support financially. But, regardless of all that crazy making stuff, doing what I could do helped me improve things: https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/2019/03/a-twist-on-spoon-theory.html https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/2019/03/a-twist-on-... Anyway, it's probably time for me to walk away and not reply to too much stuff here. A lot of it will likely end up being personally offensive to me, but I didn't want to just let this remark pass without some push back. I'm so tired of the "junkies and crazies" meme. The data I'm familiar with says it's not true.

j8014 7y ago
I worked in HMIS for years and the chronic homeless are almost ALWAYS "mentally ill, drug addicts, or most likely an individual suffering from both problems." Additionally, you make a choice to support yourself however you want but "Why the hell shouldn't this be a means to support myself?" is nothing more than entitlement and wishful thinking. There are a bunch of other things that I do that make money, make sense for me, but dont pay the bills, so I adult and find work that does support me.

prostheticvamp 7y ago

Can you provide any citations for that 80/20 breakdown?

wespiser_2018 7y ago
of almost 100k surveyed homeless on a single night, 24% are chronically homeless. https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/who-experiences-homelessness/chronically-homeless/ https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/who-expe...

deleted 7y ago

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