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This article commits the cardinal sin of homeless discourse -- trying to conflate two things: 1. The "homeless problem", that is, the problem of mentally deran
by andrewla 1y ago
This article commits the cardinal sin of homeless discourse -- trying to conflate two things:
1. The "homeless problem", that is, the problem of mentally deranged or violent vagrants that make public spaces less usable or unwelcoming. This is difficult to impossible to measure, both in impact and in extent.
2. The "transient homeless", that is, the down-on-their-luck or otherwise situationally homeless people. This is easy to measure because these people will attempt to secure housing and services to get back on their feet.
Fixing #2, while worthwhile in itself, does nothing to fix #1. But well-intentioned people trying to fix "homelessness" find it much easier to address #2 because there are measurable outcomes, and no messy compromises to be made about civil liberties or individual freedom vs civil order. And this relies on the fact that since the same word is used, that it carries the same connotations. People hear "reduce homelessness" and they think that this means fewer people screaming about brainwaves and starting fights on the subway, but that's a completely separate issue.
EDIT: removed discussion of SROs to another top level comment to avoid confusing discourse here
- throwmeaway222 1y agoI think there is also 3. Transient homeless that tried to get back on their feet but was met with the notion that all the options were eventually exhausted (they lived on their friend's couch until he got married). They even had dishwasher jobs, but inevitably, because rent was $2000 more than they would ever have - they decided to do drugs and live on the street because no amount of work at the wage they would be paid would ever make their life meaningful.
- tenuousemphasis 1y agoYes, absolutely. They aren't two separate groups, there's essentially a pipeline from group 2 to 1. Imagine struggling with addiction or mental health issues. Now imagine doing it without a safe and secure place to even sleep at night.
- andrewla 1y agoI'm sorry -- I fail to see how "mental health issues" is an interesting version of this. For serious mental health issues (of the form of #1) we simply do not have reliable treatment options aside from involuntary confinement. For drug addiction the problem is more subtle but I question whether this part of the pipeline is worth considering when looking at the problem at scale. There is no serious attempt as far as I'm aware to measure the number of people that transition from #2 to #1 style homelessness, and since it is difficult to measure this it is very likely that solutions to #2 will have no effect on this pipeline.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]