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People are homeless because they don’t have a home. There’s all sorts of reason why but usually it’s because housing is expensive. More expensive cities see mor

by drewrv 4y ago

People are homeless because they don’t have a home. There’s all sorts of reason why but usually it’s because housing is expensive. More expensive cities see more homelessness. No doubt many people who can’t afford housing lost their money to addiction, and giving them housing will not solve the addiction. That being said: getting clean is way more likely in a stable living environment than in an unstable one. I’d also add that homelessness can exacerbate an existing addiction. It’s a stressful and traumatic experience. So yes, giving them housing will not solve addiction. Addiction is hard to overcome even for wealthy people with loving, supportive family.

xyzelement 4y ago
// why but usually it’s because housing is expensive Is that really true? "Housing is expensive" suggests that these people are working but the rent is too high, and that's not what's happening in most cases. The druggies had dropped out of working a long time ago. // More expensive cities see more homelessness. Are folks living in tent cities natives? A lot of them migrate as part of their homeless experience because these cities are better for being homeless than wherever they are coming from.
- drewrv 4y ago
  You might find this interesting: https://news.uchicago.edu/story/employment-alone-isnt-enough-solve-homelessness-study-suggests https://news.uchicago.edu/story/employment-alone-isnt-enough...
vba616 4y ago
>usually it’s because housing is expensive I'm sure you don't mean that as an endorsement of giving people bus tickets as a "solution". Can you explicitly state why that is not helpful, to educate people?
- drewrv 4y ago
  Bus tickets are unhelpful because it further uproots their lives. People (including homeless people) have support networks, communities, etc that get destroyed by being forcibly relocated. They’re human and like all people they build a life over time, they have neighbors and friends and possibly family nearby that love and support them. There are also annoying logistical challenges to moving that are harder if you’re homeless. Finding a new doctor is hard, harder still if you’re restricted to free or reduced cost clinics. Finding a food bank or getting a PO Box or a church or a job.
  - seanmcdirmid 4y ago
    If you look at greyhound popular destinations (SF, LA, Seattle), busing is already very popular, into those cities. It isn’t really a thing society does, rather Texan prisons will give releases inmates open bus tickets if they have no one picking them up, and they go to cities where they’ll survive. I took a greyhound as a kid from Vicksburg to Seattle (along the southern then northern route, over 4 days), and got to witness this first hand. Anyways, you just don’t survive being homeless in Great Falls Montana, so either you are dead or you first wind up in Spokane, then eventually in Seattle.
  - vba616 4y ago
    >Bus tickets are unhelpful I see where "bus tickets" sounded like "sending people on an odyssey to a huge metropolis a thousand miles away" but I wasn't thinking of that so specifically. Five miles can make a drastic difference in the cost of housing.

by drewrv 4y ago

xyzelement 4y ago

// why but usually it’s because housing is expensive Is that really true? "Housing is expensive" suggests that these people are working but the rent is too high, and that's not what's happening in most cases. The druggies had dropped out of working a long time ago. // More expensive cities see more homelessness. Are folks living in tent cities natives? A lot of them migrate as part of their homeless experience because these cities are better for being homeless than wherever they are coming from.

drewrv 4y ago
You might find this interesting: https://news.uchicago.edu/story/employment-alone-isnt-enough-solve-homelessness-study-suggests https://news.uchicago.edu/story/employment-alone-isnt-enough...

vba616 4y ago

>usually it’s because housing is expensive I'm sure you don't mean that as an endorsement of giving people bus tickets as a "solution". Can you explicitly state why that is not helpful, to educate people?

drewrv 4y ago
Bus tickets are unhelpful because it further uproots their lives. People (including homeless people) have support networks, communities, etc that get destroyed by being forcibly relocated. They’re human and like all people they build a life over time, they have neighbors and friends and possibly family nearby that love and support them. There are also annoying logistical challenges to moving that are harder if you’re homeless. Finding a new doctor is hard, harder still if you’re restricted to free or reduced cost clinics. Finding a food bank or getting a PO Box or a church or a job.
- seanmcdirmid 4y ago
  If you look at greyhound popular destinations (SF, LA, Seattle), busing is already very popular, into those cities. It isn’t really a thing society does, rather Texan prisons will give releases inmates open bus tickets if they have no one picking them up, and they go to cities where they’ll survive. I took a greyhound as a kid from Vicksburg to Seattle (along the southern then northern route, over 4 days), and got to witness this first hand. Anyways, you just don’t survive being homeless in Great Falls Montana, so either you are dead or you first wind up in Spokane, then eventually in Seattle.
- vba616 4y ago
  >Bus tickets are unhelpful I see where "bus tickets" sounded like "sending people on an odyssey to a huge metropolis a thousand miles away" but I wasn't thinking of that so specifically. Five miles can make a drastic difference in the cost of housing.