Solutions to ending homelessness in the US.

First off let me preface this by saying I don't want to read any garbage about vets and being homeless. I'm a vet and I know what it means to be a vet. There is services and the Obama admin have put countless, no nearly endless amounts of money into funding programs for vets. In two weeks you'll be housed with food and a fully furnished apartment with new clothes and a job. No freaking joke. So don't start that crap.

Now that that's out of the way. The real key to ending homeless is in changin our mental healthcare industry and prevention. We can prevent homelessness by ending this idiotic paradigm of profiting off of out of control rent cost and housing prices. Secondly by creating funding for small businesses and investing in ourselves we can create a situation where the possibility for enabling entrepreneurship.

Lastly we need to simply make it easier to live in this country for citizens. Less taxes on business and income. Sounds expensive right? Wrong the long term affect of more self sufficiency is more money available locally so people can choose what to invest their capital into through crowd funding initiatives with public oversight.

Have fun.

Oh and your welcome! I know you missed me!

We also need to fix the way we view the homeless and the correct method of dealing with the problem. As far as I know, it's actually cheaper to just give them a place to stay for free than let them live on the streets, but not many people want that to happen because they'll feel cheated.

"I work for my rent, and this homeless drug addict bozo gets a free pass? Nah uh, not on my watch."

a reply to: onequestion

Oh our mental health industry is over regulated and big pharma controlled.

Psych docs have their hands tied and can't do anything effectively.

There's also no bridge between stabilizing someone's mind while they are in a stable home environment making either of them impossible unless you have a positive support structure at home. Which most mentally ill people don't.

a reply to: Eilasvaleleyn

By addressing the underlying issues in the mental health care programs in the US we can end homelessness.

Along with making it easier to live.

a reply to: onequestion

Affordable housing would help some, for certain, and lower taxes would be great for all. The mental health issue is a big one, but you didn't state what you thought needed to be done there. Yo have to understand, though, that there are some homeless people who are there through no fault but their own.

I know one of those. Lazy, beyond any reasoning, with the attitude that money earned shouldn't have to be spent on things like rent, food, light bulbs, or whatever. Someone who quite literally expects others to provide everything for him, so he can waste time, smple, drink, do drugs, whatever, and not have to work. I have lost count of how many people have tried to help (family and now former friends), by providing lodging, clothing, and even rises for jobs, or in one case, an actual job. All thrown aside. He quit the job, stole from everyone that tried to help, broke things, behaved worse than I can describe here, and now complains that no one "cares", because no one is helping anymore.

That kind of person, you just can't fix.

I know that all homeless people aren't like that. Some are, though. Any solution has to address all of the issues.

As for vets, I KNOW someone who is the wife of a vet, and they are homeless, and no, they aren't getting any help. Whole family in that case. So, it isn't as easy as you might think.

The surprisingly simple way Utah solved chronic homelessness and saved millions

So that day, as officials spit-balled ideas, a social researcher named Sam Tsemberis stood to deliver what he framed as a surprisingly simple, cost-effective method of ending chronic homelessness.

Give homes to the homeless.

The article goes on to explain how Utah has very nearly ended homelessness in their state. Walker claimed that the state saves $8,000 per year for each homeless person they gave a home to. Utah is an example to this country on how ending homelessness can be done.

a reply to: EternalSolace

I agree with what they did but that doesn't address underlying causes such as mental illness and addiction, and unaffordable cost of living and lack of high paying jobs.

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: EternalSolace

I agree with what they did but that doesn't address underlying causes such as mental illness and addiction, and unaffordable cost of living and lack of high paying jobs.

Those issues are also addressed in the article.

From the same source I used:

So, to in part cut those costs — but also to “save lives,” Walker said — the state started setting up each chronically homeless person with his or her own house. Then it got them counseling to help with their demons. Such services, the thinking went, would afford them with safety and security that experts say is necessary to re-acclimate to modern life. Homelessness is stressful. It’s nearly impossible, most experts agree, to get off drugs or battle mental illness while undergoing such travails.


So in 2004, as part of trial run, the state housed 17 people throughout Salt Lake City. Then they checked back a year later. Fourteen were still in their homes. Three were dead. The success rate had topped 80 percent, which to Walker “sounded pretty good.”

It appears that Utah is doing something right in their handling of issues such as mental illness, disabilities, and even their cost of living. From other sources, these people are getting extensive help and assistance in getting their lives back together, including job training and adult education.

Edit: I get what you're saying now. It doesn't address why it happened in the first place. That's true. However they are dealing with the issues directly and not side stepping anything anymore. Perhaps in the cure they'll find the cause.

a reply to: onequestion

Alternatives to cardboard boxes and concrete shelters on the street is a good start.

I'm working with a non-profit in Denver trying to get a Tiny Home Community funded to help provide small in-town areas for shelter space for folks in transition. Small shelters and a private park space within city limits. No hard drugs and no alcohol allowed....the police will make sure no one goes to harass these folks and no troublesome types try to stir up problems.

It's taking time, but it's getting started...the city just agreed to allow portajohns installed temporarily to help provide bathrooms for the homeless community so they don't have to resort to less savory alternative due to private businesses not allowing transients in their establishments.

I'll be brutally honest with you here, because I have worked with the homeless for over twenty years...some simply don't do well in what most people consider proper living environments...they get claustrophobic in enclosed spaces and don't fare well in apartments.

The idea we're working with is trying to install Tiny Homes for in city transients, and provide counseling and educational opportunities that take into consideration each persons abilities and aptitudes. Higher functioning participants my one day be eligible for re-homing in a more rural and self-sustainable farm where they can get away from the excessive harshness of the urban environments yet still retain personal autonomy.

The hard part is getting people clean from the ravages of substance abuse and making sure those with mental health considerations aren't thrown into environments where their sensitivities are triggered in a negative way.

Some homeless don't want help, and some are unable to communicate they need it.

It's up to folks like us to provide options for forward moving opportunities for these folks during their transitional period.

a reply to: EternalSolace

It's a step in the right direction. Maybe even a few steps.

What about providing housing for students to cut education cost or even make getting an education possible for people like me.

I'd be a software engineer or DBA if I could afford housing while enrolled in a full time program.

a reply to: onequestion

I don't know how much longer it will last seeing how many refugees Germany took in, but I believe we could also learn a lesson from Germany.



How US students get a university degree for free in Germany

Germany eliminated all college tuition fees for German citizens and all foreigners. I'm not quite sure how the financials of that worked, but it was a brilliant move to bolster the educated workforce.

a reply to: GENERAL EYES

How safe is a tiny home environment vs the streets?

a reply to: onequestion

Depends on the amount of community support and cooperation with the police to protectively monitor such areas. I've been monitoring both Seattle, San Diego and Austin for several years - both firsthand and via internet more recently.

Austin is doing well, as the community there has always been kind and conscientious....San Diego allows folks to camp in front of certain buildings at night (no tents, sleeping bags only, up before dawn, no loitering) while Seattle is experiencing a huge influx and rising homeless populations in the past decade and having harder time of it all, due to the sheer ineptitude of people willing to become proactively involved because of a large swath of elitist snobbery and concerns about property values and the like, but they're trying.

Hopefully they'll eventually come around to a reasonable solution soon.

If you go to The Stranger website (Seattle's de-facto alternative 'zine) and type in "homeless" in the search bar, you'll get wealth of insight into the troubles these types of communities face - what works and what to avoid.

I'm still analyzing the respective dynamics of the transient populations in these cities as well as Denver, trying to get a more comprehensive look at the current paradigm in the traveling clans. Some handle urban environs well, while others can fall victim to gang activity and the wayward types who think it's funny to douse them while they sleep with beer or gasoline and set them on fire for fun (happened in Seattle many years ago...bratty kids stirring up trouble. Horrible stuff. Those kids got their asses beat when certain folks found out. Long story, won't get into it.)

The long and short of it is, these people need land....and many don't wish to give up that resource because of economic considerations, titles and laws, and the fact that there are regulations insisting that certain facilities and utilities are mandated (water, sewage, etc...). And that costs money. Something most affluent types refuse to part with at any cost.

Some transitional refuse to live "on grid" for various reasons and that's another layer of consideration.

It's a complicated process and things move slowly in the beginning until everyone can find a workable compromise.

Not everyone has drug or alcohol problems, not everyone is mentally ill - but sadly, that is the face on the street that most people see and associate with transient and homeless populations - and that face needs to change before we can restore humanity to these populations in the minds of the masses.

originally posted by: Eilasvaleleyn
We also need to fix the way we view the homeless and the correct method of dealing with the problem. As far as I know, it's actually cheaper to just give them a place to stay for free than let them live on the streets, but not many people want that to happen because they'll feel cheated.

"I work for my rent, and this homeless drug addict bozo gets a free pass? Nah uh, not on my watch."

I am a former homeless person, and no offence intended but the vast majority of the people I met didn't need a hand, they needed a kick in the pants. I lost my home and spent a few nights wandering, and it sucked...so instead of crying in my beer/drugs etc. I saved my money and kept taking any work I could find until I got a place to stay sleeping in a roach motel and the floor of a church until I got stable work. I climbed out of the hole I was dropped in. I agree it's good to help people , but they have to contribute to their own support... Otherwise your doing them no good at all.

a reply to: elsafam357

Right that's what I'm saying about mental illness.

What I dont understand is, every time minnimum wage goes up RENT goes up right with it. there goes your xtra dollar an hour.

i lived in 750 dollar a month appt. within two years it went up to 950. how is that possible ???

maybe we just need to build more apt complexes so there can be competition again.

a reply to: IntastellaBurst

Rent goes up way faster than wages.

Rent went up because of quantative easing and a predatory living environment.

I agree with the premise of your thread it is just a shame that your view is so short sighted... Some 8 million people due of hunger related illnesses every year ....Homelessness and hunger are a world problem not just an American one....

a reply to: onequestion

I did miss you. We dont always agree, but at least you aren't boring.

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
I agree with the premise of your thread it is just a shame that your view is so short sighted... Some 8 million people due of hunger related illnesses every year ....Homelessness and hunger are a world problem not just an American one....

I'm not familiar with the rest of the world as I hadn't left the continent yet.

It's not short sighted to think that we need to solve our problems before we solve the worlds problems it's common sense.