Homelessness

[easye]

This is a sticky topic, but one that has had growing impact in the US and Politics as well.  Let's talk about it.  

Here is a story to get us all started: 

A huge homeless camp will be cleared after neighbors sued. What happens to its vulnerable residents is an open question

www.cnn.com/2023/05/08/us/phoenix-homeless-encampment-the-zone/index.html

In the latest chapter of America’s increasingly polarized approach to homelessness, Phoenix must permanently clear the area that’s become known as the Zone after a judge ruled in favor of neighbors who sued the city, calling the encampment – next to a non-profit social services hub and blocks from the state Capitol and the city’s Major League Baseball stadium – an illegal “public nuisance.”

Their lawsuit could be a model for those looking to force other US cities to clear similar encampments, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said. But the prospect worries advocates for the unhoused, who say it simply pushes a critical problem out of public view, especially as soaring home prices and expensive borrowing have pushed households to the brink.



As Phoenix officials prepare to start moving tents out of the Zone this week, they’re also scrambling to create safe options for the displaced: leasing more hotel rooms and vacant buildings to convert into shelters, and building an outdoor campground with security, restrooms and hand-washing stations, the city’s Office of Homeless Solutions director told CNN.



But those won’t be available right away.

My local communities preferred solution to the homeless is mentioned in this article: 

a bus ticket

I.e. make it someone else's issue so we don't have to look at it. 

How do your local communities deal with Homelessness? 

[Disciple of Fate]

Not the US, but the government in The Netherlands has started a plan to get the homeless housing and financial help/advice, because the shelter system currently in place does not resolve it as a long term issue. The plan is to have no one be homeless by 2030.

There is the major issue of a current housing shortage they're also trying to resolve, so how achievable 2030 is will have to be seen.

[maddocgrotsnik]

I’ve been homeless. It fucking sucks.

And it’s not a problem you can wish away as an individual or a society. In the U.K. Churches often run some kind of shelter programme, particularly during the winter months.

What doesn’t help are right wing fuck knuckles at once insisting all homeless people are there solely by choice, and that they’re not really homeless and sOmE bEgGaRs EaRn SiX fiGuReS,, stigmatising the issue still further.

Of course in the U.K. we have more empty houses/flats than we have homeless people. So there is an easy fix. I mean, just at the end of my road is an Edwardian Townhouse currently crumbling. No sign of habitation. No sign of maintenance. No sign for sale or rent. Just…rotting. Happens that’s big enough for three or four very spacious flats. But instead, it’s just…derelict.

Let local Councils seize such abandoned properties, bring them up to code and let them at as Social Housing.

[bobtheinquisitor]

The city I live in has a lot of homeless shelters and a few tent towns that get moved around every few years. The two cities west of mine have angry NIMBY’s over every issue, chronic housing shortages, and police whose sole purpose seems to be destroying tents. There are a lot of solutions we just aren’t ever going to try because of all the Boomers, landlord types and culture warriors. They make the problem permanent and then complain about the festering social sores they enflame.

[easye]

The derelict building thing is interesting MDG. I would wager that who ever owns it doesn't even live in the area, and could care less about their property as it is doing exactly what they want it to do in their "portfolio".

We ran into this problem in my small, rural downtown. The buildings were crumbling and the owners (even as far away as Germany!) had no interest in doing anything with their "investment/tax break" properties. It took a lot of effort by the City Council to charge ordinances to tighten up regulation until these owners either had to do something or started getting big fines for maintenance and the like.

Eventually, the downtown started to modernize, new owners, or/and the old owners actually started looking for tenants seriously again.



Are there any English sources about the effort in the Netherlands? In the US, a lot of studies have proven that the easiest way to end homelessness is to simply give people a home to live in, with or without social safety nets built in. Despite these successes domestically there is little or no effort to simply house the homeless. Instead, they want to criminalize being homeless.

[Disciple of Fate]

Sadly not as far as I can see, beyond the vaguest of descriptions. Google translating the government site on it is pretty decent though, some odd choice of words, but nothing really out of context. Only real note is that it translates 'wonen' to living, while a more accurate translation is hard to make, the verb 'wonen' can mean both living in general (i.e. living in a country) or living in a house (i.e. occupying a residence), the translation loses that nuance a little.

www.rijksoverheid.nl/actueel/nieuws/2022/06/01/kabinet-presenteert-vernieuwde-aanpak-dakloosheid-wonen-eerst

[herzlos]

It certainly seems to be worse in the US, I'm guessing due to the lack of safety nets and access to mental health care.

It's not great in the UK either - the Tories are firmly of the stance that poverty is a result of bad choices and not the reverse. There are many charities providing housing and support but they can rarely keep up.

One of the big problems is lack of affordable housing; almost all new build's around here are luxury houses which are eye wateringly expensive. There's often a clause with the larger new estates to provide x% of affordable housing as part of the construction but it seems more profitable for the house builders to just pay the fines for non compliance than build a £90k house instead of a £250k house. New social housing is virtually non-existant, whilst old social housing stock has been sold off at a huge discount for decades without replacement, though at least that's slowing down as it's not open to new tenants.

Waiting lists are so bad here, where there are some new houses, that unless you're in an vulnerable category then you're completely screwed.

As with everything else, it's a probably that can easily be solved if there's a political will. It's not even about money because it's often cheaper to address things properly than just push it around a bit or making half-asses attempts.

Finland seems to have nailed it by providing housing without condition, saving about EUR15K each :
www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jun/03/its-a-miracle-helsinkis-radical-solution-to-homelessness

[nfe]

May 10, 2023 2:21:46 GMT -5 herzlos said:

As with everything else, it's a probably that can easily be solved if there's a political will.

We housed everyone fast enough when there was a decent chance they might cough and make a middle class person sick.

[easye]

In my local area, my wife's Non-profit is working with a person who was "kicked out" of their home by their family when they turned 18 and has no where to live now.

She managed to source housing through a local community college dorm for the summer, but it is a lot of work ongoing to find the funding to pay for Three months, and it is still much cheaper than any other housing option. I can not imagine how hard it would be to use charitable organizations and churches to pay for housing on a wider basis. Charities can not handle the burden.

Anyway, just a snapshot of one person's homelessness.

[easye]

In the news again.....

Why can't we stop homelessness? 4 reasons why there's no end in sight

www.npr.org/2023/07/12/1186856463/homelessness-rent-affordable-housing-encampments

1. More people than ever are being housed — but an even higher number are falling into homelessness
2. Rents are out of reach for many, and millions of affordable places have disappeared
3. Zoning laws and local opposition make it hard to build housing for low-income renters
4. Pandemic aid programs that helped keep many people housed are winding down

[easye]

Should Medicaid pay to help someone find a home? California is trying it

www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/11/15/1212913732/should-medicaid-pay-to-help-someone-find-a-home-california-is-trying-it

CalAIM pays for someone's security deposit, medically-tailored meals and safe places to sober up. In total, California's Medicaid program now covers 14 social services all backed by evidence that they strengthen people's health. State officials also created a new benefit, known as enhanced care management, to help people navigate all of the complex medical and social service bureaucracies.

[herzlos]

Given how high medical bills appear to be in the US (I'm not sure how much actually gets transferred between insurance companies and hospitals, but I know you can get a huge cash discount), it's probably cheaper to pay someones annual rent than treat them for a lung disease caused by sleeping rough. With a finger in air estimate of $15k for rent and $100k for the hospital stay, you could home them for 8 years and still break even.

[Haighus]

Yeah, seems like a great idea all round.

Basic social interventions are always gonna go further than reactive medicine. Hierarchy of needs- food, water, shelter, basic hygeine. Deficient in any of these, and no amount of drugs or therapy is going to fix the problem in a lasting way.

[skyth]

Only problem is that people are only homeless because they are lazy and thus they deserve to suffer. [/sarcasm]

[Haighus]

Nov 15, 2023 17:53:27 GMT -5 skyth said:

Only problem is that people are only homeless because they are lazy and thus they deserve to suffer. [/sarcasm]

I didn't know you were secretly Suella Braverman!

Yes, she explicitly said homelessness is a lifestyle choice. I'm glad that ghoul is gone.