See, being made homeless, that's traumatizing. You take already traumatized people, and you destroy what little they have left, whatever keepsakes, official documents, proof of ID, etc, you're not only making it harder for them to find homes and/or find employment, you're traumatizing them further.
it is so hard for homeless people to create lasting connections with others that could help them build a support network. I had a friend who was homeless and each time her phone got stolen she lost my number and had to come to my workplace to get in contact with me. I lost contact again a year ago
If you're "sweeping" homeless encampments? That's just going to make things for the people who lived there, and everyone else, worse. If all you have is punishment as a response to homelessness, more policing, more brutality, it's just making the problem worse and punishing the victims for it.
If you're punishing homeless people knowing it won't make things better for them, and you're doing it anyway, it's not a solution, it's merely a show of force. A pointless show of force. And you know what that is, right? If the state cannot help, only punish. That's fascism right there.
But if you actually wanted to do something to address the issue of homelessness, you HOME THEM! It's that easy. The moment you home someone, they stop being homeless. And it turns out, it's cheaper in the long run than the constant fascistic shows of force. Just give them a home.
i shit you not canada has government housing and our conservative leaning government is always finding excuses to sell that shit to the private sector. it's fucking exhausting watching them bitch about how unsolvable the housing crisis is from a con who sold off 800k units to the private sector
You can go even further than that though, you can look at what is making people homeless in the first place, and see if you can address that. Is all the housing being eaten up by Airbnb? Ban the airbnbs from your city! Imagine if people weren't being made homeless in the first place? What a concept!
Leading cause I’m finding speaking with homeless folks around Southern California is the rent and medical costs. Rent is being controlled by a few huge companies. They lobby just like the insurance companies and we are their marks. To fix the problem we need politicians who refuse to scam.
its odd how a lot of the societal problems in the country always come back to Debt Forgiveness, Education and Healthcare... Which are also the things the right will never allow to be fixed.
This has been your one politic for the day. Back to my usual bullshit.
No this is all very very good and very very true! What’s that quote by Nelson Mandela? “A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.”
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Reading this in the tune of Weird Al's Your Horoscope for Today
But also...support. The home is the obvious best start. But people will need a hand getting back in their feet, re-learning, or learning, how to look after a home and themselves. Get a job...all that good stuff.
Hell, some businesses won't hire you if you don't have a home address. Giving them a home allows them to get hired.
Exactly. Not sure how it works in the US, but in the UK you can use your local Job Centre address when applying for a job. There are a lot of people with jobs but no home, which just makes the stereotypes even stupider. They're trying, dammit, they just need help.
Shelter and money, even just a little bit, is enough to help them get started. It's been proven to work in several countries, it can be done.
Not just work, but pay for itself!
Yeah this, it just benefits everyone when we provide for the homeless.
Yeah, I don't care; spending money to help people is a-okay with me but it's just a positive in every way! So why does every pilot program that shows the same result but result in a sustained policy 🤔
But we HAVE to punish them for daring to be in public. If we let the homeless exist in public we might start seeing them as PEOPLE. And then that might make poor landlords look bad for raising rent. (This is bitter sarcasm btw. The reason I'm not still homeless is bc a friend let me into her home)
Hi I was the "Easy" version of homeless. The entire time I was in the system I had a place to go. Either a shelter or transitional housing. That shit was still traumatic.
Mostly just saying this to point out how hard it must be for those actually on the street in tents
Also, uh... Reminder that replacing this important things costs money, y'know, the stuff people deny homeless people because "They're just gonna use it on drugs"