I created a new model for shelters based off Hilton Garden Inn where every client that’s homeless gets their own room and there is staff downstairs with degrees in psychology and social work that are available to do case management with them and a dining eating area and a room where they can have AA and NA meetings for clients and a room where they can use the phone and computer privately. Ideally there would also be an office in there where clients could see a therapist available during the day. And a shelter shuttle van that could take them to another program where they could get day treatment where classes and groups were available that would help them. Case manager would make sure that clients had money for transportation and could refer them to appropriate help like an employment specialist and get them on waiting lists for public housing and Section 8 housing vouchers. I suggested to Joe Biden that he talk to governors and get the homeless off the street and into motels with staff like this until they can build more public housing and lobbied for them to allocate more money to Section 8 so people didn’t have to wait years to get approved for a voucher to get housing. I believe that it pays a potion of your rent. I wanted them to pay for an unemployed person to get free rent covered at 100% because some of the homeless are disabled and not able bodied and shouldn’t be expected to work and should concentrate on treatment. Case manger would help them apply for Disability those that have qualifying conditions. And talked to people about universal basic living income to help those that are unemployed so they have money to do laundry and money for transportation and clothes for work for those that are able bodied.
I’m not a hooker. I’m a victim of trafficking that’s being forced to perform sex acts when unconscious by magic people. Been pretty depressed. The help that I proposed would come at very little cost to taxpayer only $1 federal tax. Many of the homeless have suffered for years and I’m a very caring compassionate person.
sumotoby
1 year ago
My own home state is a dem stronghold with the highest rate of union membership per
capita in the US. Add to that politicians who are more focused on their careers vs the future generations, liberal and generous welfare, and politicians who have taken kicking the can down the road to an art form.
States With The Largest Homeless Population Per Capita In The US
California
Vermont
Oregon
Hawaii * we were #1 and #2 with CA but now we are less worst.
New York
Washington
Maine
Alaska
Nevada
Delaware
States With The Smallest Homeless Population Per Capita In The US
Mississippi
South Carolina
Illinois
Alabama
Virginia
Iowa
West Virginia
North Dakota
Indiana
Connecticut
LM2022
1 year ago
What you fail to mention is that homeless people arrive in CA from around the country expecting food, shelter and stipends. There was an article in the LA times today telling the plight of a woman from Indiana that just had her belongings confiscated by the city. I say we send these people back to the red states they came from and let them provide housing there.
As for the homeless population declining in Florida, they probably all got washed away by a hurricane.
Seems like you ignored what LM2022 said in the first sentence. If people are coming to CA expecting to be fully supported financially, then that’s not fair to CA. Other states need to do their fair share in helping solve this problem.
Other states should compete to see which states can provide the nicest environment for the homeless. Taxes should be raised until everyone is satiated. Congress can borrow whatever is needed and send it to the states. Two chickens in every pot and a car in every garage.
I knew I was going to be homeless after I left my abusive family that trafficked me and tried murdering me in the family home and I wanted to get as far away from them as possible so I moved from East coast Maine to west coast SF didn’t think that they would follow me there but they did. I was scared of being indoors because my family put carbon dioxide in the house so I told myself that I’d live outside and I knew it was warm in California. I didn’t think that I would freeze to death there. They ended up trafficking me there so I left that city in search of a city where they didn’t traffick the homeless and I surveyed the conditions how they treat the poor and homeless. I left cities after they abused me and went back to Maine where the people knew me hoping they wouldn’t abuse me like others across the country that didn’t and an abuser Anderson Cooper brought 14 million people from away filling my city with outsiders that didn’t know me and they abused me in my own city. It’s very sad. Those assholes on Peaks Island have known me since I was a little girl and they know I’m not a child molester or prostitute and I got abused in my own city. People are trying to abuse me to death. I’ve been waiting for 3 years to get public housing in my own city and abusers took over who don’t know me abusing me in shelters ruining my kidneys and giving me brain damage. So depressed. My work plagarized because no one let me use the library. Being trafficked by my own offspring that I never raised that don’t believe in charity like me. When a small federal tax is taken from a large group of people it can make a big difference. I proposed a $1 federal tax. It used to only be 10 cents. Not enough and no money was thrown at ending or treating homelessness.
Dean2020
1 year ago
Every bill that targets homelessness is designed to extract more taxpayer money and fill the pockets of those associated to associated politicians. Improving the economy and lowering taxes may help homelessness, not throwing more money down the drain.
KidHorn
1 year ago
Heavily liberal areas have a lot of mentally ill people. What a surprise.
How about let’s check in on all the worthless promises made by scumbags like Donald Trump? Has he delivered on anything? Or how about the power hungry white supremacists of the Republican Party? Have they managed to restore the white man to his rightful place as ruler of American society? How is that working out?
So, the power hungry white republicans put a white man in place as the ruler of American society. You do realize Biden is a democrat. I guess not. That explains a lot.
Bam_Man
1 year ago
Anyone who doesn’t by now realize that EVERYTHING the government touches turns to shiite is beyond hopeless.
GruesomeHarvest
1 year ago
I’d recommend the book “Life at the bottom”, by Theodore Dairymple. He’s a British psychologist who deals with the underclass in Britain. Very illuminating. Admittedly, many need institutionalized, some need some tough love (a military style bootcamp training), but alas, bums and vagrants will always be with us.
I’m a billionaire being exploited but got called a bum.
Christoball
1 year ago
Capital Gains Tax Laws that favor Housing being an investment rather than a Home or place to live has strained humanity with homelessness. Throw in artificial demand with illegals and open borders and the problem gets still worse. Throw in building departments that are not advocates for housing but actually revenuers and the noose on humanity gets tighter.
coolkevs
1 year ago
“The poor will always be among you” Jesus
abombthecoder
1 year ago
I’ve read various articles about housing first helping more then other things. Obviously Mish nor I have posted studies about it; but I’ve read that Amsterdam and some other european states are having a lot more success with this. They are housing homeless people to treat social problems and as follow up to when they break up open air drug markets(homeless encampments where everyone is on drugs).
Certainly homelessness contributes to mental illness and addiction. So it’s logical that housing the homeless is a critical first step. YOu need health care and social welfare as well. Emotional counseling, job counseling, etc..
But it certainly seems logical that housing first will be a part of the prescription that cures most homelessness. As for the 10% who are untreatable and we’ll waste resources on them, let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water, and let’s help give a chance to the 90% who aren’t gone.
Addiction is primarily a problem related to emotional and social trauma. It’s not mental illness. Countless people have got sober with help, social support and a place to live.
I find your empathy refreshing and kind, however, by your own words the root of the problem is primarily addiction [and mental illness to a significant degree]. Free housing only crops the weed, when a better solution might instead address the root. Devoting resources to recovery from addiction (at the scene) and care for mental health disorder, may well lay an essential foundation for many homeless by giving them an opportunity to find freedom and hope and new way of life. Rather than enable continued suffering, and a never ending cycle of on/off the street, all the while enriching certain politically connected entities in law enforcement and housing construction. A foundation of sobriety and good mental health is perhaps the greatest life-changing gift we might offer to our less fortunate fellow citizens, and allow many homeless to weather most economic cycles – perhaps even growth toward a more productive and rewarding life.
Addiction is also primarily a problem related to people that prefer to be high as often as possible.
vanderlyn
1 year ago
shall we be honest. aemrikans are vile. we prefer to let folks live on streets. if we cared we would not allow it. we prefer endless warfare and sending 100billion to ukraine sewer of corruption via raytheaon…………………amerikans are vile. top to bottom. bottom to top. democracy works. always has, for the past 2500 years since greek/romans invented this form or rule.
Yes, mob rule eventually ends with the same results.
ColoradoAccountant
1 year ago
Ah yes, Working for the State in the 80s I remember the Federal courts closing all the states’ mental health hospitals where we housed the crazy people against their will. They are now free to poop where they sleep.
I wasn’t allowed to use the bathroom. I’m a victim of smut. I was refused shelter so I had to live outside and defecated near where I slept to keep rapists away. It worked. When there is a bathroom available I use it.
They the abusers wanted to embarrass and humiliate me.
PreCambrian
1 year ago
It worked just a little better than Trump’s promises to have Mexico pay for the wall or for the Tax Cut and Jobs Act to pay for itself.
JeffD
1 year ago
“Country’s highest homelessness rate, with 44 people out of every 10,000 experiencing homelessness.”
Why are we even wasting money on this? At a homeless rate of less than 0.5%, you are down in a regime of “personal choice leading to ensuing consequence”, rather than an endemic problem.
It wasn’t a personal choice. I was refused shelter and was being exploited. No lawyers offered help.
amigator
1 year ago
Interesting write. The people creating the solution didn’t understand the problem. My take is they really did not want to understand the problem just looking for a feel good mantra so they could check the box. It’s same old BS from Washington DC.
I grew up in red states, and regularly visit family there. If you heard me speak, you’d identify me as a red state goombah. There’s what I describe, plus meth and cults. It was not this way 20 years ago, and it appears to be accelerating. Anti intellectualism has supplanted common sense, and idol worship has replaced human connection. Jesus is nothing more than a t-shirt slogan.
Cocoa
1 year ago
In the 80s we abandoned public housing(highly subsidized,high density housing that is a public asset.) It wasn’t anywhere near great but it still was a roof over your head. NOW, HUD has migrated all housing funding mostly to private investors via Affordable Housing. It was really a way to give public property to private hands. In 40 years time, all this affordable crap turns to market rate. So, with all the talk about homelessness, we designed HUD to make people homeless by dumping the problem on entities that want to make money or the states. Section 8, Affordable Hosing, opportunity zones-all designed to increase value of property and gentrify. So like many Obama things, just a progressive face on a corporate solution
Greenmountain
1 year ago
So what do Florida and Texas do that the rest of the country does not? Obviously there are solutions beyond the $837K per unit. I would consider selling for that…
The 837k was the normal good old boy welfare. And what does florida do? Criminalize homelessness. The prison system is the government idea of a good business model. Not very profitable financially, but it does wonders for scratching the itch they get out of stepping on people. As usual, government is ate up.
Tony Bennett
1 year ago
“That is why I’m proud to present the Biden-Harris Administration’s Federal Strategic Plan to reduce homelessness by 25 percent by January 2025″
…
25%, eh? That will be easy peasy for them … tweak the methodology a few times (to move toward desired number) … then get some economists from the Commerce Department to apply a healthy dose of seasonal adjustments. Voila.
My own home state is a dem stronghold with the highest rate of union membership per
capita in the US. Add to that politicians who are more focused on their careers vs the future generations, liberal and generous welfare, and politicians who have taken kicking the can down the road to an art form.
States With The Largest Homeless Population Per Capita In The US
California
Vermont
Oregon
Hawaii * we were #1 and #2 with CA but now we are less worst.
New York
Washington
Maine
Alaska
Nevada
Delaware
States With The Smallest Homeless Population Per Capita In The US
Mississippi
South Carolina
Illinois
Alabama
Virginia
Iowa
West Virginia
North Dakota
Indiana
Connecticut
I find your empathy refreshing and kind, however, by your own words the root of the problem is primarily addiction [and mental illness to a significant degree]. Free housing only crops the weed, when a better solution might instead address the root. Devoting resources to recovery from addiction (at the scene) and care for mental health disorder, may well lay an essential foundation for many homeless by giving them an opportunity to find freedom and hope and new way of life. Rather than enable continued suffering, and a never ending cycle of on/off the street, all the while enriching certain politically connected entities in law enforcement and housing construction. A foundation of sobriety and good mental health is perhaps the greatest life-changing gift we might offer to our less fortunate fellow citizens, and allow many homeless to weather most economic cycles – perhaps even growth toward a more productive and rewarding life.
In the 80s we abandoned public housing(highly subsidized,high density housing that is a public asset.) It wasn’t anywhere near great but it still was a roof over your head. NOW, HUD has migrated all housing funding mostly to private investors via Affordable Housing. It was really a way to give public property to private hands. In 40 years time, all this affordable crap turns to market rate. So, with all the talk about homelessness, we designed HUD to make people homeless by dumping the problem on entities that want to make money or the states. Section 8, Affordable Hosing, opportunity zones-all designed to increase value of property and gentrify. So like many Obama things, just a progressive face on a corporate solution