4 ms·

Every single homeless person in Boston can get free transitional housing but the Mass and Cass street area is still packed with tents and drug users

solfox 4y ago
Yet isn't this more due to control and oversight versus desire or location? Perhaps the options that are presented to them as "free" contain other entanglements that tips the scales towards camping?
criddell 4y ago
What is required of the homeless to qualify? Often there are big strings attached like you have to be sober or at least be working towards that. They often don't want to help addicts who don't want to quit using.
- seibelj 4y ago
  Right there will never be something good enough. They want an amazing hotel they can shoot up and congregate and party in with all of their druggie friends. It’s totally reasonable to expect a bare minimum of compliance in order to get taxpayer funded housing. I don’t know if you have friends or family who are heroin addicts but I can promise you they are not pleasant people to be around, especially when they start stealing to fund their habit.
- taxcoder 4y ago
  Do you think it is wrong for society to have contractual requirements such as "I will help you if you are trying to help yourself"?
  - SEJeff 4y ago
    Counterpoint: do you think it’s wrong to let the sick stay sick and not help them? Addiction is a sickness and often requires a lot of help addicts can not themselves do to quit. You can’t expect someone who isn’t able to help themselves help themselves. This is the crux of the issue. Also, people in half way houses or assisted living absolutely should be sober so they don’t cause anyone else in the facility to regress, but it is a hard problem. These people often need intense rehabilitation and these programs are neither quick or cheap. Someone has to run the program and success is never guaranteed. Mandatory government funded rehab would be AMAZING, but imagine how many people would crow about their “freedom” to shoot up meth is being infringed if that happened at the federal level. This is a very hard problem and there aren’t easy solutions. My opinion changed a bit after I married a girl with a masters in social work. This is very draining heavy emotional capital work.
    - taxcoder 4y ago
      Agreed we need to help the sick, I didn't make that clear enough. I was trying to understand if the previous poster thought it was wrong to say "Here is housing and a program. You can't have the housing without the program." After working with foster and adoption of two preteens from an unhealthy home situation my opinions have changed a bit as well. Compassion is hard - it should push us to do. Now if I can just work on being less blunt ...
      - SEJeff 4y ago
        Empathy is the solution to many of society's current problems. That and more social workers.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - criddell 4y ago
    Sometimes, yes. When someone has thrown themselves off a bridge, do we send out rescuers always or only under particular circumstances?

solfox 4y ago

Yet isn't this more due to control and oversight versus desire or location? Perhaps the options that are presented to them as "free" contain other entanglements that tips the scales towards camping?

criddell 4y ago

What is required of the homeless to qualify? Often there are big strings attached like you have to be sober or at least be working towards that. They often don't want to help addicts who don't want to quit using.

seibelj 4y ago
Right there will never be something good enough. They want an amazing hotel they can shoot up and congregate and party in with all of their druggie friends. It’s totally reasonable to expect a bare minimum of compliance in order to get taxpayer funded housing. I don’t know if you have friends or family who are heroin addicts but I can promise you they are not pleasant people to be around, especially when they start stealing to fund their habit.
taxcoder 4y ago
Do you think it is wrong for society to have contractual requirements such as "I will help you if you are trying to help yourself"?
- SEJeff 4y ago
  Counterpoint: do you think it’s wrong to let the sick stay sick and not help them? Addiction is a sickness and often requires a lot of help addicts can not themselves do to quit. You can’t expect someone who isn’t able to help themselves help themselves. This is the crux of the issue. Also, people in half way houses or assisted living absolutely should be sober so they don’t cause anyone else in the facility to regress, but it is a hard problem. These people often need intense rehabilitation and these programs are neither quick or cheap. Someone has to run the program and success is never guaranteed. Mandatory government funded rehab would be AMAZING, but imagine how many people would crow about their “freedom” to shoot up meth is being infringed if that happened at the federal level. This is a very hard problem and there aren’t easy solutions. My opinion changed a bit after I married a girl with a masters in social work. This is very draining heavy emotional capital work.
  - taxcoder 4y ago
    Agreed we need to help the sick, I didn't make that clear enough. I was trying to understand if the previous poster thought it was wrong to say "Here is housing and a program. You can't have the housing without the program." After working with foster and adoption of two preteens from an unhealthy home situation my opinions have changed a bit as well. Compassion is hard - it should push us to do. Now if I can just work on being less blunt ...
    - SEJeff 4y ago
      Empathy is the solution to many of society's current problems. That and more social workers.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- criddell 4y ago
  Sometimes, yes. When someone has thrown themselves off a bridge, do we send out rescuers always or only under particular circumstances?