36 replies \ @kepford 22 Feb \ on: The Homelessness Crisis mostly_harmless
Homelessness has drastically increased in the last 20 years. It is pretty mind blowing to watch. I have heard these causes as the root over and over again.
- Breakdown of support systems for people. Their community / family / friends.
- Drug / substance addictions which usually leads to the breakdown of support systems
- Fewer entry level jobs due to minimum wage, business license requirements. Greater barrier to entry in workforce / business.
- Housing costs. Many factors here but in many cities it is hard to build low cost housing due to zoning, codes, and permitting.
- Mental health. After the scandals that led to mass closures of mental hospitals following the release of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" many have no place to go.
- Drug laws result in people becoming felons and making it even harder to find work, leading them back into crime.
My take is that it is a very complex problem that is primarily created by state policy but not 100% state policy. Some of it is a moral and cultural issue. The break down of society and basic decency. Cities could do a lot more to help but most aren't recognizing the root issues. They focus on housing primarily and throw money at the problem. Many private groups are doing good work but its not enough.
Churches could do more. Many are very active but not enough. One issue I believe contributes to apathy is that many people think, well I pay my taxes. Let the government fix this. Or I payed my fair share. Why should I do anything more. The issue with that is that the government SUCKs and allocating funds. Private orgs are much better. The government is not fixing the issue. They never will. One thing I can tell you is not the cause. Free markets. But, if people do want to see the government become smaller private citizens are going to have to become more active parts of solving the problem.
A few weeks ago I attended a grand opening for a new facility that is doing good work in this space. It has financial support from community members and businesses. They not only feed hungry people but provide job training, safe apartments, counseling, mentoring, and general support to those that want help. It was very encouraging to see how many people were there in support. Over the past ten years at least I've observed cities getting in the way of people trying to help the homeless many times. It makes me angry. The state is evil. Most don't see it. They think when I say this that I mean the people that work in government are evil. That's not what I mean. Its the institution. It does evil. Even when it pretends to be doing good it is producing bad outcomes. I wish the state would get out of the way, stop stealing from us, and remove the barriers that prevent us from solving these problems.
i think these are pretty comprehensive..
A thought that comes to mind: Sadly the state mainly creates or exacerbates the crises, but also simultaneously crowds out the previous community and culture that was there to help or alleviate people on hard times..whether it was church ir a small community / town. Now that the state has utterly failed as the caretaker of our needy, we as a society are left with no infrastructure to help.
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Sadly the state mainly creates or exacerbates the crises, but also simultaneously crowds out the previous community and culture that was there to help or alleviate people on hard times
YES. For years my mom helped administer her church's food bank program. Over the decades they eventually dropped it because (a) the state floods the market with food stamps, govt food handouts, and (b) the church used to provide its food with some strings attached....meaning you couldn't come in if you were obviously drunk/high and they would help you (ie. push you) to find work if you were obviously able....the state does no such "tough love".
So we've wound up in a situation were those who are best positioned to help (those inside the community who know the people they are helping) are crowded out by the state who simply continually rewards bad behavior.
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Your position is that the state giving homeless people food is part of the problem? Because there aren't enough strings attached?
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Sure, it sounds bad when you put it like that.
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I'm not trying to straw man here. But we've got threads in this conversation saying the evil state isn't doing enough, and then comments where feeding people is the evil state causing the problem.
It's a complex issue -- I think we all agree on that. But the goalposts are moving a bit too much for my taste.
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Due to the state's theft from the population and squandering of these funds we have a population that is resentful towards the homeless instead of the true enemy the thief. That said, if you killer all state aid to the needy at once you would have a disaster on your hands. It would need to be transitional and charities would need time to scale up to meet demand. I have no doubt that this could be done and in a few years more people would be helped far more efficiently. Today most people have no connection with how their stolen money is used. If it were voluntary that would be drastically different.
We will always have needy people. We will also have lazy people. The current system lumps them all together and creates divisions that we should reject.
My 2 sats
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Part of unravelling complex problems is running up against "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situations.
There's a clear incentive problem with subsidizing homelessness that is directly at odds with helping those who are currently homeless.
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I'm pinning this comment because it's so good that don't want it to get lost in the shuffle.
If I had taken the time to write my own response to this post, I wouldn't have done so well.
My view on how to approach the problem is based on the same understanding of this issue. There are many factors driving this problem and some are more approachable than others. If we start by undoing some of the bad policies (minimum wage, drug prohibition, etc), that will allow some of the homelessness to dissipate. As more of those marginal cases are dealt with, it will be easier to get a clear picture of what the problem is with the remaining cases.
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I can't zap it now though.
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Well, shit.
I thought they fixed that.
That's ok. You can zap this I guess. lol.
I didn't know pinning removes zapping... interesting choice of functionality.
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You can. If you click on the time, the comment becomes the root item and then you can zap it:
it's not ideal but it works
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neat
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Sometimes we prefer to just bitch and moan
Yep, I agree. Also I don't think waiting for that to happen is an option. I don't live in a city. But we are involved in efforts to help those that want help. I think that many people's views on homeless are way off.
There are people that just wanna be bums and use drugs. There are also many people who are completely captive to drug addiction and want to be free of it. Very few can do this on their own. I have lost family to drug addiction. I also know people that lived on the streets, were addicted to drugs and have been able to rebuild their lives through the help of God, people, and organizations. The government is making it worse not better. Your tax dollars aren't gonna fix this.
I will caveat my strong stance on the state by saying that if I was made king the first thing I would cut would not be financial assistance to the homeless. I know enough people that it has helped. But on the whole it isn't good. Its not a solution.
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We're mostly talking about solutions that increase the marginal benefit of not being homeless.
Someone brought up all the "freebies" as part of the explanation. Do you see room for making homelessness more unpleasant (in some dimension) as part of a solution set? I'm certainly not proposing anything inhumane, but even just allowing private property owners to remove them might help in some cities.
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I am 100% in favor of removing government "freebies". I do not support handing out cash to people on the street. It enables drug abuse. I think organizations and individuals are better at deciding what is help and what is enabling self-destructive behavior. Private property rights help. There have been people that have tried to provide housing but were stopped by cities because the state doesn't respect property rights. Many of the functional problems caused by homelessness could be improved if there weren't any "public" property.
I think what these people are doing is amazing.
https://mlf.org/
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