What Should Be Done about the Homeless?

I came across this web site discussion the reasons why people are homeless on-line:

McKinney-Vento Homeless
Why Are People Homeless?

This is a study that comes out of Indiana, but rather informative about homelessness in a particular area. However, I began to look up this issue in Wikipedia:

Wikipedia: Homelessness in the United States

Observers of modern homelessness often cite some of the following potential causes of homelessness:

* The movement in the 1960s in state mental health systems to shift towards community-based treatment as opposed to long-term commitment in institutions. Unfortunately, absent local community programs, many patients ended up in the streets.
* The failure of urban housing projects to provide safe, secure, and affordable housing to the poor.
* The economic crises and "stagflation" of the 1970s, which caused high unemployment. Unlike European countries, US unemployment insurance does not allow unemployed insurance recipients to obtain job training/education while receiving benefits except under very limited situations.
* The failure of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to provide effective mental health care and no "Living Wage Job Training" for many veterans, particularly those of the Vietnam War. Many VA critics think veterans are cycled through ineffective 12-step religious indoctrination and dead-end job training programs that actually keeps them on the streets homeless and in poverty.
* There are tens of millions of people in the United States that are substance abusers and have mental issues that have homes and jobs and have never been homeless. The real reason for people becoming homeless is poverty.

My main question after both of these sources is, what are some possible solutions to end homelessness?

My other question is what are your attitudes about the homeless? In the big city, some people see the homeless as a bother because of their behavior on buses or the streets. But on the other hand, shouldn't the homeless be treated with dignity and help?

Or, is the homeless problem in the U.S. to big to be solved at all?

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[edit on 22-3-2006 by Benevolent Heretic]

My main question after both of these sources is, what are some possible solutions to end homelessness?

Well we could make work camps, where the homeless people work, and in turn get food and shelter, and get money so that they can one day make a good life for themselves.

It would solve the problem, and provide us a good size work force.

My other question is what are your attitudes about the homeless?

My attitude? Well I don't much have one, I see maybe one homeless person every 4 months, so I don't much think about them, as if I saw them all the time.

In the big city, some people see the homeless as a bother because of their behavior on buses or the streets. But on the other hand, shouldn't the homeless be treated with dignity and help?

The homeless should be treated like people, we are all people and we should all treat each other equally.

Or, is the homeless problem in the U.S. to big to be solved at all?
I think that if we initiate the program that I mentioned earlier over a span of a decade, and made sure no new homeless people could be created, than no the homeless problem would'nt be so big as to not be able to be solved.

lori_komei,

I also believe that the homeless should be treated with dignity and help. The reason why I asked this question is that my mother and father cooks dinner and serves the homeless with a charity group in my hometown. While they are both in the serving line, they talk with the homeless about their lives and their problems. Some are there because of outsourcing. Others are there because they could not pay the rent. And still, there are others who are there by choice because they don't want to fully integrate back into life.

After hearing my parents' stories, we always talk about what can be done to help and then, we always express frustration because government money is always cut for programs to help people who are down on their luck.

Well, thats a noble thing your parents are doing, atleast that's what alot of people will/would say.
Oh, and I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just really apathetic about things.


It does suck that the government would rather send people into the desert to die with million dollar pop guns, when they could be spending that money on more useful things.

I'd like to add to, that we spend billions of dollars funding other countries, helping some peasant farmer in Afghanistan, when we should be spending that money on our own people.

Which is my point exactly. And what is worse, is that I wonder what will happen with all those veterans of the second Iraq war return to the states to find that the government will not help them to adjust to civilian life? I am definitely sure that there will be more homeless veterans who rely on the VA for help but can't because the money isn't there to subsidize programs for aid.

BTW, thanks for saying that what my parents are doing is noble. Their work tends to dampen the cynicism I have about the state of things.

[edit on 20-3-2006 by ceci2006]

Hopefully, they'll encite some kind of mass riot and topple the current administration (whichever it is at the time) and military organisational complex.

However, what will likely happen is the people will demand the veterans get rightful compensation, and the gov. will pretend to do so, and eventually people will believe it and stop paying attention to it.

My short answer...

ARM THEM

DaFunk13,

Do you truly think arming them would be a solution? What about the other solutions that are more peaceful? Why not provide counseling and help to the homeless?

Originally posted by DaFunk13
My short answer...

ARM THEM

I just spit up on my computer. You get a WATS my man...

I don't think there is any one simple answer which will take care of the entire problem.

My small city has a "soup" kitchen, a pantry, sleeping facilities, counseling and help for job placement. I was a volunteer in the kitchen.

Some take advantage of what is offered. I became friends with one veteran, he does have some physical problems but he can work. While taking advantage of the facilities he also became a volunteer, cooking breakfast in the mornings. From there he was hired as a part time cook in two other establishments, and from there to full time employment out on his own. A wonderful success story!

I saw many young people suffering from substance abuse using the soup kitchen. BTW the dinner meal was a full nutritional and good tasting meal. Prepared by volunteers. Served by volunteers. Anyone could come in and eat, no questions asked. However anyone obviously under the influence was turned away. Here I observed many who seemed in good spirits and thought this seemed owed to them, even though they did not work.

Then there were many very sad cases. Some from substance abuse, but probably no longer able to help themselves. Others with obvious mental problems. I don't know what else can be done other than to see that they get something to eat and a safe place to sleep.

I was walking home from work one very stormy cold winter evening. As I came by the park a saw one man standing there in the snow. The snow had built up on his head and shoulders and I could barely see him. When I got home I called the authorities. They said that someone had already been out to try and bring him in. He refused to come. I know that this was not a single case. During very cold or stormy weather volunteers are out on the streets trying to bring these people to a warm place. Doesn't usually work. So, what do you do in those cases?

One size does not fit all.

I still say ARM THEM...

Thats your dose of realistic communism for the day folks...

Just plantin seeds...

I like the work idea that lori mentioned. Thats a start.
Easier access to drug and alchohol TX, its not as easy as one would think to get in to an inpatient TX center.
More mental health beds with halfway houses on upon release.

My guess is that about 2/3rds of folks are homeless because of substance abuse, 1/2 of these folks are mentally ill. Just a guess.
The rest are there for many other reasons, bad luck, traveling from shelter to shelter, teenagers who are running away from home, lost jobs
This is what I saw in my short time of being in a homeless shelter many yrs ago.
















[edit on 23-3-2006 by tommyb98201]

Do you guys think that there should be more free clinics for the homeless to help with counseling and detoxing from drugs?

I see good ideas and points in both of the above posts. I think the most difficult number of people to help would be the individuals with mental problems, whether cause by substance abuse or other sources.

These are the people who do not want to take advantage of all that is offered and would seem to want to travel with their shopping carts and live on a porch or in a cardboard carton.

Could this be because they do not want to be "locked up" in an institution? I believe so.

While living in a small city I saw all of this. I do remember one homeless man who seemed to be cleaned up every once in awhile. I am told that his family would force him to come in and bathe including health check up and clean clothes. Sometimes I would see him outside of a "mom & pop" type grocery store. He would park his shopping cart and open his wallet to get out money before he went inside. I was sitting on a porch above where I could see this.

Another time, while sitting in the park, I witnessed a "good Samaritan" trying to give money to a homeless man who was pushing his shopping cart along the walkway near me. I could see that this homeless man had pride and dignity because he was trying to exchange anything he had in his cart for the money. The well meaning citizen didn't want anything in exchange and the two almost got into an arguement before the citizen walked away shaking his head.

So what do we do to help this type of person? They do not want to be locked up and I don't think they should be. They have not done anything wrong and most are not criminals except for maybe grabbing small items that are not protected.

Where I live, Almada, Portugal, I have seen some homeless people, but I have seen more some years ago than now.

The last ones I have seen were 2 East Europe immigrants that did not had anywhere to live and were living with the money they got from "helping" people to park the car, a common way in Portugal to get money when there are no other possibilities.

They had one mattress in the back of the building where I live, and after maybe 2 months someone found a place for them to live and a job.

Since then, maybe 2 years ago, I have never seen an homeless.

From what I have seen in TV reports about the homeless, the situation in Portugal is different, maybe the biggest part of the homeless simply do not want to have a home or have mental problems and do not want to be in the hospital with the dangerous mental patients.

I think lots of times people are in a catch-22. No jobs without an address--and no address without a job.

Why can't people just be paid in cash? Take the taxes out first and pay the rest in cash!

What did we do before income taxes and social security numbers?

Originally posted by ArMaP

Since then, maybe 2 years ago, I have never seen an homeless.

What size is your city? I think that may have something to do with the number of homeless people.

Is it that Portugal does not have homeless anywhere within the country? If this is true I would be very interested in the reasons why there are no homeless in Portugal.

If Portugal does'nt have any homeles, or atleast only a teeny tiny amount, I would'nt be surprised, it's a small country, and it does'nt go to war every other decade.