5 ms·
Don't most US cities have social services that provide shelter, food and other assistance? [How nice that this is getting downvoted. It's a legit question. I h
by throwkeep 5y ago
Don't most US cities have social services that provide shelter, food and other assistance?
[How nice that this is getting downvoted. It's a legit question. I have family members who are social workers and know these services exist, and it seems like it's most cities, but don't know for sure, hence the question mark.]
- dragontamer 5y agoIts hard enough to convince a friend to take unemployment checks, let alone go to a shelter or pull out a food-stamp debit card. There's a toxic culture in the USA that looks down upon welfare. For those people, welfare doesn't exist, even if they find themselves in that environment. And since they've convinced themselves that they'll never take welfare, they expect others to follow by their own rules. This culture leads to a particular anti-welfare voting pattern.
- MisterBastahrd 5y agoYou say that, but as someone from bright red Louisiana, you will find that the loudest anti-welfare ranters are the same people who are first in line for every government handout after a natural disaster.
- throwkeep 5y agoThe loudest "anti" voices tend to be those who engage in the very thing they advocate against. It's so common there must be a term in psychology for it.
- quintushoratius 5y agoThere is. It's called "projection." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection
- reidjs 5y agoTrue, but in many ways I am more afraid of living in a shelter than on the street, or more realistically, in my car. In your car at least you have some sense of ownership, safety, and personal space. In a shelter you are potentially surrounded by mentally ill unstable drug addicts. It makes sense that many people refuse to use shelters. This is coming from someone who has never lived in a shelter, so I may be wrong, but it's definitely my fear and a source of motivation when working not-great jobs.
- kelnos 5y agoMost of them are overcrowded and often over capacity. People wait in line before they open and are sometimes turned away when they're full.
- ranma4703 5y agoMost US cities have a policy of buying homeless people one way tickets to another city, and if they do provide homeless shelters, they are often full, underfunded, and have issues that make using them difficult
- belatw 5y agoThis is only partially true. There is no “policy” aim any city do do this. What does happen is that charity groups like catholic churches or st vincent de paul will buy homeless and runaways one-way tickets, but only if they have a verifiable destination.
- ranma4703 5y agohttps://www.vice.com/en/article/bvg7ba/instead-of-helping-homeless-people-cities-are-bussing-them-out-of-town https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvg7ba/instead-of-helping-ho... has examples of several cities that do this, not just charity groups
- pault 5y agoIf you mean homeless shelters, yes, but they're horrible and most homeless (or underhoused) people would rather live in a tent than go there. The justifications given are usually assault, thievery, and not being able to bring any personal possessions. I can understand why someone wouldn't want to stay in a shelter if it meant leaving all of their belongings unattended (if you're homeless you probably don't have a storage space or a friend's garage).
- goat_whisperer 5y agolol