Louder! I often get the impression that most people have never had to actually deal with the homeless, and I don’t mean passing them on the street.
When I worked downtown I was constantly on guard. About got into a fist fight 3 times. Downtown is one of the rare places I always carry a gun.
Mostly, people are homeless because they can’t handle the bare minimum of living in society. Of course there are all the exceptions we care to being up, but they almost all have one more more of these qualities: antisocial, aggressive, substance abuse problems, mental problems, or are flat out too stupid.
So what do we do with such people? It’s a sticky problem. Seems we could go a long way by simply housing them and giving them money. That easily gives the hard luck cases the boost they need. But others are always going to be a problem.
It’s solvable, and we’ve seen Finland do it. There are only roughly 1,000 willfully homeless people in all of Finland, and there will always be a small sliver of them anywhere, because some people are nomadic by nature.
Two independent studies in California both found around 70% of unhoused were productive members of society before accident or illness caused them to lose their job, insurance and home. Structural impediments prevent the unhoused from getting back into employment and housing. In majority of cases substance abuse came as a response to their situation, not as the cause.
Louder! I often get the impression that most people have never had to actually deal with the homeless, and I don’t mean passing them on the street.
When I worked downtown I was constantly on guard. About got into a fist fight 3 times. Downtown is one of the rare places I always carry a gun.
Mostly, people are homeless because they can’t handle the bare minimum of living in society. Of course there are all the exceptions we care to being up, but they almost all have one more more of these qualities: antisocial, aggressive, substance abuse problems, mental problems, or are flat out too stupid.
So what do we do with such people? It’s a sticky problem. Seems we could go a long way by simply housing them and giving them money. That easily gives the hard luck cases the boost they need. But others are always going to be a problem.
It’s solvable, and we’ve seen Finland do it. There are only roughly 1,000 willfully homeless people in all of Finland, and there will always be a small sliver of them anywhere, because some people are nomadic by nature.
Two independent studies in California both found around 70% of unhoused were productive members of society before accident or illness caused them to lose their job, insurance and home. Structural impediments prevent the unhoused from getting back into employment and housing. In majority of cases substance abuse came as a response to their situation, not as the cause.