I used to be a lot more sympathetic towards homeless people until I had to work and live in a shitty neighbourhood in an increasingly shitty city.
My sympathy has mostly dwindled away at this point. I wasn’t paid enough to have deal with the unstable crackheads trying to break into my store’s stock room. A friend of mine has been attacked on transit twice in the last couple years while just trying to mind her own business. The train stations are fucking overrun with homeless people. The city couldn’t be assed to even wipe blood off the wall for weeks after someone got stabbed in a train station.
I wish I had the power to do something about the massive systemic problems that creates this mess, but I’m outvoted by the huge amount of conservative dipshits in my province. I’d settle for being able to walk around my neighbourhood without the risk of getting stabbed at this point, but I don’t get that either.
It helps to realize that there are two distinct groups of homeless. One is just people who experienced financial hardship because capitalism and just need some help to get back on their feet.
The other is a group that is chronically homeless because they are severely mentally ill and don’t want to take their meds (which fair, the side effects of antipsychotics blow), addicts who have no desire to get sober yet, or a combo of the two (self medicating their mental illness). Some of these people are literally feral (skid row in LA is a good example).
Even though they are a minority of homeless, those people are what makes homelessness such a difficult issue to tackle. At some point you’d have to involuntarily commit them and force them to get help and stay compliant. It’s not just an issue of lack of affordable housing.
Part of the problem is that the first group, untreated, can turn into the second group. Which is why early intervention and support are so important, and a lot cheaper.
When it gets bad, it can take a long time for a policy change to really start working. :(
It would be interesting to see the conversion rate there.
From what I’ve seen from addiction and severe mental illness (wife was an addiction counselor and I’ve volunteered at the local shelter), when they become homeless they’re past the point where a simple hand up will help. At that point they’ve typically burned all of their bridges and have effectively zero trust from their previous support network.
Most of them would greatly benefit from an inpatient facility. Thanks Reagan.
Yeah. What’s worse, is that you can see how it would play out. Suppose, for instance, that we had a wildly successful public program that “solved” homelessness. Imagine that it’s wildly cheaper than the current system! People experiencing housing insecurity get rapid intervention, which prevents a big backlog of people with mental illness on the streets.
Then, give it 20 years. Suddenly, we’re spending all this money on these moochers, giving them “free” housing and treatment. MILLIONS of TAXPAYER DOLLARS being spent!!!1! on these LAYABOUTS who REFUSE TO WORK! Funding is cut.
A few years after that… East Hastings Street is an open-air drug market again and people are afraid to walk down it, and now we’re spending ten times as much money on medical care, property protection, and police clearings. A ton of people who would have been productive citizens, now in a death spiral. So, not paying taxes. =p
I used to be a lot more sympathetic towards homeless people until I had to work and live in a shitty neighbourhood in an increasingly shitty city.
My sympathy has mostly dwindled away at this point. I wasn’t paid enough to have deal with the unstable crackheads trying to break into my store’s stock room. A friend of mine has been attacked on transit twice in the last couple years while just trying to mind her own business. The train stations are fucking overrun with homeless people. The city couldn’t be assed to even wipe blood off the wall for weeks after someone got stabbed in a train station.
I wish I had the power to do something about the massive systemic problems that creates this mess, but I’m outvoted by the huge amount of conservative dipshits in my province. I’d settle for being able to walk around my neighbourhood without the risk of getting stabbed at this point, but I don’t get that either.
So I stew in quiet resentment.
It helps to realize that there are two distinct groups of homeless. One is just people who experienced financial hardship because capitalism and just need some help to get back on their feet.
The other is a group that is chronically homeless because they are severely mentally ill and don’t want to take their meds (which fair, the side effects of antipsychotics blow), addicts who have no desire to get sober yet, or a combo of the two (self medicating their mental illness). Some of these people are literally feral (skid row in LA is a good example).
Even though they are a minority of homeless, those people are what makes homelessness such a difficult issue to tackle. At some point you’d have to involuntarily commit them and force them to get help and stay compliant. It’s not just an issue of lack of affordable housing.
Part of the problem is that the first group, untreated, can turn into the second group. Which is why early intervention and support are so important, and a lot cheaper.
When it gets bad, it can take a long time for a policy change to really start working. :(
It would be interesting to see the conversion rate there.
From what I’ve seen from addiction and severe mental illness (wife was an addiction counselor and I’ve volunteered at the local shelter), when they become homeless they’re past the point where a simple hand up will help. At that point they’ve typically burned all of their bridges and have effectively zero trust from their previous support network.
Most of them would greatly benefit from an inpatient facility. Thanks Reagan.
Yeah. What’s worse, is that you can see how it would play out. Suppose, for instance, that we had a wildly successful public program that “solved” homelessness. Imagine that it’s wildly cheaper than the current system! People experiencing housing insecurity get rapid intervention, which prevents a big backlog of people with mental illness on the streets.
Then, give it 20 years. Suddenly, we’re spending all this money on these moochers, giving them “free” housing and treatment. MILLIONS of TAXPAYER DOLLARS being spent!!!1! on these LAYABOUTS who REFUSE TO WORK! Funding is cut.
A few years after that… East Hastings Street is an open-air drug market again and people are afraid to walk down it, and now we’re spending ten times as much money on medical care, property protection, and police clearings. A ton of people who would have been productive citizens, now in a death spiral. So, not paying taxes. =p