4 ms·
What about people who refuse to use the shelter?
by konart 5y ago
What about people who refuse to use the shelter?
- brazzy 5y agoPeople refuse shelter when it's dangerous to them or comes with prerequesites they cannot fulfill. I think you can figure out the rest. Here's an inside view: https://www.reddit.com/r/vagabond/comments/o5yalm/accordong_to_a_hobo_the_problem_with_the_homeless/ https://www.reddit.com/r/vagabond/comments/o5yalm/accordong_...
- xyzzyz 5y agoLike, for example, inability to consume alcohol or use drugs, which is half of the reason people in US refuse shelters (the other half is that shelters are full of homeless people).
- brazzy 5y agoYes, a shelter program that does not adress addicts (and keeping them out does not count as "addressing") is in fact designed to fail.
- seanmcdirmid 5y agoOr designed to handle homeless cases not related to addiction. That the arguments “Not all homeless are drug addicts and/or mentally ill” and “homeless services not designed to deal with drug addiction and/or mental illness will fail” are often located close to each other annoys me. There is plenty of low hanging fruit to be had in dealing with the easier homeless cases. While we shouldn’t ignore the harder cases, it’s no excuse for waiting to pick that low hanging fruit.
- zdragnar 5y agoThe problem is, you cannot (legally) force addicts to stop (in the US). They either accept the help, or they don't. Some do, many more do not.
- xyzzyz 5y agoYou can, at least for some drugs: in many places, possession of drugs is a criminal offense, carrying jail term. However, it is commonly understood today that jailing addicts so that they can recover in controlled setting is inhumane, as opposed to letting them overdose under the bridge.
- brazzy 5y agoNote that that is only a problem as long as you consider addicts consuming drugs in government-provided shelters a worse problem than addicts consuming drugs on the streets.
- ceejayoz 5y agoWhich is precisely why "Housing First" works as a policy; it solves both issues via private apartments.
- seanmcdirmid 5y agoHousing first works for easier homeless cases that don’t involve substance abuse or severe mental illness (or both). It makes sense to give people housing if they can handle maintaining it on their own. For the harder homeless cases, at best they will sublet for drug money and at worst, the neighbors aren’t going to be very happy. You can’t just handout housing without some treatment or supervision.
- ceejayoz 5y agoThat's why it's housing first, not housing-only. Utah's successful experiment in it included using that housing to enable regular access to social workers and other services, for example; it's a lot easier to deal with a mental illness if you're not worrying about a roof over your head.
- seanmcdirmid 5y agoThe Utah system has huge gaps, however, especially related to mental illness, eg https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/utah/articles/2021-07-17/family-system-failed-woman-who-died-of-heat-on-utah-streets https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/utah/articles/2021-0...
- ceejayoz 5y agoThe Utah system got defunded. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-homelessness-housing/once-a-national-model-utah-struggles-with-homelessness-idUSKCN1P41EQ https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-homelessness-housing/...
- seanmcdirmid 5y ago
- vardump 5y agoI once went to talk to a group of homeless guys. That's exactly what they told me as the reason. They were offered proper apartments, but they refused it because it came with a condition: no alcohol allowed.
- antiframe 5y agoMaybe a better title would have been "Finland ends involuntary homelessness".
- jamil7 5y agoI got the impression from the article that they would have to go through a social worker and explicitly apply for housing but that it's granted more or less unconditionally. I didn't look into details (actual website is down) but it doesn't seem like it's forced on people in a way that they would have to "refuse" it.