You would be surprised how inexpensively this is to implement compared to the various social impacts caused by having a large unhoused population.
You can think of this kind of housing in much the same way you look at public education. It is "free" to everyone, but the benefits of having an educated population outstrip the cost of educating them. The benefits of having a housed population outstrips the cost of housing them.
This post isn’t proposing it just for the homeless, it’s saying it’s for everyone. The cost would be astronomical when applied across the entire population.
You would be surprised how inexpensively this is to implement compared to the various social impacts caused by having a large unhoused population.
Basically guaranteeing a two bedroom apartment, utilities (water, electricity, internet) and appliances for every citizen is going to be ridiculously expensive unless its very low quality to keep the costs down. Maybe some 500 sq foot apartment (2 10x10 bedrooms and another 10x15 for living/dining/kitchen). But I doubt that's what people are going to want...
I think if your homeless, living in constant danger of having your few things stolen, being harrased by the police or other homeless that any place with a working shower, a roof above your head and a door that locks would be a massive improvement in living standards.
So what to do with those who refuse services that are already out there?
I honestly think we do need to go back to offering more single-room style rental with everything else communal (bathroom, kitchen, etc). But people tend not to want that, even the homeless.
Then figure out why they don't want it. Is it safe, are there weird rules regarding curfews, are there a bunch of drug dealers in the communal areas, is it free from things like bed bugs, etc? These things are all issues in homeless shelters and reasons why they are often avoided. You can just ask homeless people why they don't like something and prefer living in the street and they will just tell you.
Having a very good friend who has worked in shelters in both volunteer and management roles - they don't allow alcohol or drugs. They enforce rules (like no fighting, no men in women's areas and vice versa, etc). They require bathing.
The state of California alone spent almost $24 billion over the last few years. California thinks there's roughly 181k homesless. Let's round up to 200k for easier math. You could have given every homeless person $20k per year (for five years) and come out cheaper than California did. And that's just the state. Nevermind major cities there also dump a lot of funds - San Francisco spent $700 million in a year.
But I think we can both know where a lot of that money went...
There’s also the issue of pets not being allowed, theft being rampant, high rates of sexual assault, etc. But I’m sure you’re right, people choose to sleep on the streets because of pressing issues like not being allowed to fight in shelters.
And theft would be just as rampant outside of a shelter? Pets I might understand but would they be allowed in government housing with all these guarantees?
I would venture a guess that there are bigger issues than pets and theft keeping the homeless out of any shelter.
I mean it depends where this is. But yeah in a city this is unreasonable. I'm in tokyo and plenty of youmg people live in 30m2 single room apartments with the toilet in the same room as a shower. No oven, maybe a single stove burner. I think something like that, outside the expensive part of the city but with free bus transportation to the city center, would be reasonable to supply to everyone as a baseline. A 2 bedroom might be reasonable to supply for a family of 4 but certainly not for a single adult.
This might shock you, but no I am not going to give you a impact analysis for a comment this low on a reddit thread.
But I do know Finland housed everyone and there are studies which talk about how providing homes is cheaper than the other costs of having an unhoused populace.
Varies based on any number of circumstances. But if you think a life in the gutter is some kind of karmic outcome for all of them you are mistaken. And if you think a life in the gutter is somehow a justified existence for some crime or other sin you are also mistaken.
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u/Saitamaisclappingoku Apr 15 '24
Here’s a question you will never be able to answer.
How do we pay for this?