2 ms·

"Homeless" refers to many things. It can refer to a person living in a car, a person living in a shelter, a person living a tent, a person living in a homeless

"Homeless" refers to many things. It can refer to a person living in a car, a person living in a shelter, a person living a tent, a person living in a homeless camp, a person living under a piece of cardboard, etc. Some people become homeless at a point and manage their way out, others stay homeless. If you are an alcoholic, or a drug addict, and want to get drunk or high or both in a regular basis, you don't like the rules at the shelter... what place is best for you? a shelter with strict rules where you can't drink or get high, or a homeless camp? The homeless camp. The problem with people like the article author is that they try to monopolize common sense. A person working at Walmart, earning minimum wage while living in their car, has a very different reality to a drug junkie living in a homeless camp. The term "homeless" refers to both. I would not try to begin a serious analysis by mixing such different things.

Aloha 4y ago
A homeless shelter is not solving homelessness - Furthermore - lets just look at some of the common rules imposed on the homeless seeking housing - * No Pets * No Visitors * Curfew Time * Limits on the number of people per unit (meaning, families and couples cannot always be accommodated together) - and a host of others. Also in some places there is a requirement that you have a social worker, and/or receiving mental healthcare treatment - except there are long waiting periods. For most long term homeless people telling them "you have to give up your dog" will keep them on the streets - we need "housing, no questions asked" rather "housing with rules". Most short term homeless do not qualify for these programs - it turns into a kind of License Raj to try to get in, and maintain your status in these programs. If you want to impose your moral vision on people, thats fine and dandy, the jesus-people have been doing it for decades with their missions on skid row, but that wont solve homelessness. I believe there is no such thing as 'unworthy poor' all poverty is worth solving, because the broader societal costs in not solving poverty is corrosive on wider society - and the first step to solving poverty is attacking the homelessnes problem.

Aloha 4y ago

A homeless shelter is not solving homelessness - Furthermore - lets just look at some of the common rules imposed on the homeless seeking housing - * No Pets * No Visitors * Curfew Time * Limits on the number of people per unit (meaning, families and couples cannot always be accommodated together) - and a host of others. Also in some places there is a requirement that you have a social worker, and/or receiving mental healthcare treatment - except there are long waiting periods. For most long term homeless people telling them "you have to give up your dog" will keep them on the streets - we need "housing, no questions asked" rather "housing with rules". Most short term homeless do not qualify for these programs - it turns into a kind of License Raj to try to get in, and maintain your status in these programs. If you want to impose your moral vision on people, thats fine and dandy, the jesus-people have been doing it for decades with their missions on skid row, but that wont solve homelessness. I believe there is no such thing as 'unworthy poor' all poverty is worth solving, because the broader societal costs in not solving poverty is corrosive on wider society - and the first step to solving poverty is attacking the homelessnes problem.