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A substantial portion of people think the "homeless problem" is visibility and having to interact with homeless people more than the existence of homelessness.
by majormajor 4y ago
A substantial portion of people think the "homeless problem" is visibility and having to interact with homeless people more than the existence of homelessness.
(Setting aside for now the amount of heavy lifting "if they fixed the homeless problem" is doing there... gee, why did nobody try to fix it ever before, anywhere?)
- OkayPhysicist 4y agoIn the US, the political will for "eliminate homelessness by giving them homes" is a political non-starter in a lot of places. In the left-liberal places, you've got entrenched interests fighting tooth and nail to prevent any housing at all from being built, and in right wing areas you've got a "being poor is God's punishment" attitude pushing back against any positive change at all. To make matters worse, any effort to solve the issue results in a large influx of homeless people, because when the standard across the country is one step above "hunt them for sport", you come across as a haven. In the places it has been tried, housing-first solutions have been wildly successful. It turns out getting your shit together is a lot easier when you don't have the constant stressors of living on the street.