Quote:
Originally Posted by tech12
So the ACLU is "bullshit" now? I'm sure all the people who have had their civil rights defended by them would agree with you 
Also, the homeless situation is fueled by many things. The lack of mental health care, drugs, the housing crisis, overwhelming debt, etc. I know a lot of people like to pretend that every homeless person is a lazy moocher that doesn't want to change and is also a crazy person/addict/criminal...and that is true for many. But many others are just like you and me, except they got evicted or went bankrupt from medical bills or something, and can't find a new place to stay.
Believe me, most homeless people do have a desire to get of the streets. But if it were that easy for them to do it, we wouldn't have so many homeless people, now would we? |
Mostly, I disagree. There unquestionably are, over time, substantial numbers of people ("like you and me") made homeless by circumstance but studies have repeatedly shown such people fairly quickly (within weeks, a month or two) find homes or move somewhere they can:
https://aspe.hhs.gov/system/files/pdf/180411/report.pdf . Very few of the long-term homeless are wthout some other disabling issue such as the ones you mentioned (drugdependence, alcoholism, illness (mental mostly)). One category you didn't mention that is slightly unique are runaway or abandoned (sometimes orphaned) youth, too young and/or naive to successfully make an independent life and often taken advantage of.
But the point here is that, aside from the quite young, most of the homeless one encounters on the street have severe mental health issues and/or sustance issues; not simply money issues or lack of a "home". That means simply offering them money or even a place to live is a wholly inadequate solution. So is offering them treatment for their problem in most cases. The irony in San Francisco is that we are one of the few cities that has a strong network of community health centers and clinics where these people can get treatment. The city even funds walk-in substance treatment in many cases*, holds regular "homeless fairs" where they can get information about what's available, and has vans patrolling the areas where one finds concentrations of homeless to offer them help. But the aggressive homeless people one increasingly encounters on our streets these days do not want and will not accept such "help" too often. By that I do not mean they won't take a handout with no strings attached, but they will not (or cannot) accept even reasonable and appropriate stings/rules/limits--even such a simple thing as showing up (using a free Muni voucher) to a mental health clinic periodically to get their medications.
I think if we ever hope to have safe streets (I have been assaulted by the "homeless" and I have friends who've been mugged by them) free of impromptu camp sites and human feces, we probably need to return to involuntary mental hospitalization for the worst of the worst.
*For over a decade I worked in such a place providing walk-in detox and other treatment for opiate and other addiction