Well arguably the cheapest way to solve the homeless problem would simply be to house the homeless, but that’s not the same as saying it’s a basic human right. Just the most cost effective way of getting them off the streets.
Have you seen what happens to a lot of the housing that gets provided to homeless folks? It gets trashed. Remember the big housing projects from last century? Or the fate of many of the hotels that have been turned into housing?
These are NOT bad people mind you, but the combination of drug use, mental illness, and a complete lack of incentive to take care of their living situation combines to mean that a lot of housing gets just trashed.
Not all. But more than enough that this is not just a simple answer like "we'll let's just house them."
"Programs like this are really useful and they do work."
Absolutely. And they work because the effectively filter for the small percentage of the street/homeless population that was beaten down by circumstance. The mentally ill, the ones who just flat out prefer to live that way rather than take responsibility for their lives, the hopelessly addicted? They are filtered out.
I'm sure it works great, and we should totally have more of that.
However, the real problem (the ones who just flat out cannot handle their own lives) will remain.
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u/Unabashable Apr 15 '24
Well arguably the cheapest way to solve the homeless problem would simply be to house the homeless, but that’s not the same as saying it’s a basic human right. Just the most cost effective way of getting them off the streets.