Title pretty much says it all, I spent 13 years homeless. Did a lot of hitchhiking. I did get a nice 9-month break through a veteran’s group which ends on September 30th, when I’ll return to tent life in the sticks. Ask me anything!
Title pretty much says it all, I spent 13 years homeless. Did a lot of hitchhiking. I did get a nice 9-month break through a veteran’s group which ends on September 30th, when I’ll return to tent life in the sticks. Ask me anything!
Q1: Some cities are designating enclosed areas with running water, toilets, and other city resources where people can pitch their own tents. Other cities are creating ‘mini-homes.’ What are your thoughts?
Q2: If you were appointed the homeless ‘czar,’ what would you do?
The tiny home idea is good, but both solutions completely ignore the same problem that ultimately makes shelters fail: Concentration.
Basically, there’s 3 kinds of homeless. One third have psychological issues, one third has physical disabilities, and one third are homeless because of addiction issues.
When you put all of that together in one place, bad habits begin to multiply. As well, the people who run the places begin to dehumanize the people that live there. Shelters always fail. You’ll never read about a successful one. Concentration is the main issue. Disease, theft and drugs move in with many of the clients (and is also the reason I’ll never stay in one).
To really make a dent in the homeless problem, you have to eliminate the drugs first. If you can eliminate that, 1/3 of the problem goes away by itself. Granted, current addicts may never recover but at least we won’t be making any new ones.
Affordable housing needs to happen. If my SSI case is approved sometime this decade, my income will be limited to $900 per month. You’d be amazed at how many homeless that are actually receiving disability but can’t afford to live anywhere. Sure, you could rent an apartment. But then how do you eat and pay for other necessities?
If it were me, I’d make it law that any multi-family apartment complex has to have X amount of efficiency-type apartments (like we had in the 70s and 80s) that could be rented for $500 per month. No more first + last + deposit up front. And require that landlords accept deposits prorated. A $600 move-in price is achievable on minimum wage. A $3,000 move-in price isn’t.
This would enable a majority of homeless to get themselves off the streets without having to spend any public funds.
But homelessness is a business. And a racket at that. The State of Colorado (and many others) spend greater than $40,000 per year for services for every homeless person you see. And they’re still homeless.
The big issue I see now is AI automation, and soon robotics. The “low hire” job market is here to stay, and I see the homeless numbers increasing a lot before any significant change might be installed.
Thank you for your question!