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If you're shooting up heroin aren't you a danger to yourself?
It doesn't meet the "immediate and present danger" standard. In other words, you have to be violent or suicidal.
Keep in mind that countries with low standards for institutionalizing people have used the excuse that political enemies are mentally ill, or addicted in order to remove them from sight for long periods of time. It's almost impossible to do that in the US.
Because homelessness is a lifestyle choice of a large number of the homeless, there really isn't much that can be done for them, unless you want to become an enabler.
For the percentage of homeless that are mentally ill, they really should be moved back into asylums where they could be housed in dormitories and maybe paroled out into the city under supervision if they can stay on their medication. However, if the Supreme Court has ruled that illegal, then help for that percentage of the homeless has been cut off. Society has failed those people. They are the ones who should be receiving help and there is no help available that can address their basic problem.
A large number of homeless are homeless because of drug addiction or alcoholism. That is a lifestyle choice and they can not be forced into shelters.
If there is a percentage of homeless who are workers who don't make enough to pay for rent, there might be something possible to help. However, I seriously have doubts about how many there are. That seems to be a lifestyle choice, too. Spend the salary on something else rather than on shelter.
My personal opinion is that the state of Hawaii has made it too expensive to hire workers. Thus you have too many part time jobs that are not sufficient. I'm sure that the labor laws were passed thinking that it would help the lower level workers, but the effect is just the opposite. Force the employers to give the workers more and what it really does is to price their labor out of the market so instead of afull time job with no health care, they end up with no job at all.
There is also a percentage of the homeless who simply have decided that they can get by without working. They can live on the streets and eat from the food banks and soup kitchens and they don't have to be productive. I don't feel that that type of person has any help owed to them, nor is there much to be done to help them. You can't force them to participate in society.
Housing for the low income tends to be pretty awful. The tenants tear it up. If you had low income housing with very strict rules about how the place was treated, then only a small number of those needing help could stay qualified. Of course, that does help a few of them.
In Oregon, we had tent cities set up for the occupy movement and they were a nightmare. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage and clean-up cost. Drugs and crime all concentrated in a small area. If a tent city situation were set up, it would be expensive to run and require a lot of supervision.
However, OP, if you personally want to do something, you could buy 10-20 acres of AG land and get permits for housing for agricultural workers. Let the homeless move in with their tents in exchange for a couple of hours of weed pulling every week so that they qualified as AG workers. That would make a small dent in the homeless population, but you could help a dozen or so families.
Myself, i volunteer at a local food bank and have discovered I am a lot less sympathetic to the plight of the homeless now than I was before I got started volunteering and met and spoke to so many of them.
Last edited by oregonwoodsmoke; 07-08-2014 at 06:36 PM..
Because homelessness is a lifestyle choice of a large number of the homeless
Especially on Oahu in 2014.
If you aren't mentally ill - on drugs - addicted to alcohol - don't have several felonies - then getting work if motivated to do so isn't difficult. If we were talking 2008 then it could be a different discussion.
There are no lack of rooms for rent for $500 or so on Oahu. It might not be anywhere I'd want to live - or anyone else on this forum - but someone working 60 hours/week even at minimum wage could swing that once you factor all the food stamps and other government assistance.
Wonder if we took a poll and questioned homeless people and asked when did you really start drinking and using? I bet most will say after i lost all hope and became homeless.
I wonder what someones first experience of homelessness felt like? Bet it was scary, with no personal security, depressing and maybe hopeless? Wonder if that changes if you get used to it? Much like the abused wife who keeps going back to her abuser? Does it become not abusive if someone gets used to it?
Everything is a choice in life, we choose to buy into stereotypes to ignore real problems.
Real drug addiction takes serious money folks. Not what you normally see from a homeless person. Maybe some beggars who sale sympathy for a living that alot eat up. Fact majority of drug users are 9-5ers and professionals. They are the functioning addicts.
I bet most will say after i lost all hope and became homeless.
Not a good bet.
"Although obtaining an accurate, recent count is difficult, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2003) estimates, 38% of homeless people were dependent on alcohol and 26% abused other drugs.
Substance abuse is often a cause of homelessness.Addictive disorders disrupt relationships with family and friends and often cause people to lose their jobs. For people who are already struggling to pay their bills, the onset or exacerbation of an addiction may cause them to lose their housing.
According to Didenko and Pankratz (2007),two-thirds of homeless people report that drugs and/or alcohol were a major reason for their becoming homeless."
"Although obtaining an accurate, recent count is difficult, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2003) estimates, 38% of homeless people were dependent on alcohol and 26% abused other drugs.
Substance abuse is often a cause of homelessness.Addictive disorders disrupt relationships with family and friends and often cause people to lose their jobs. For people who are already struggling to pay their bills, the onset or exacerbation of an addiction may cause them to lose their housing.
According to Didenko and Pankratz (2007),two-thirds of homeless people report that drugs and/or alcohol were a major reason for their becoming homeless."
Let me ask you a question whtviper1? How are social services funded? Another words what determines different amounts of funding for different homeless programs?
"Although obtaining an accurate, recent count is difficult, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2003) estimates, 38% of homeless people were dependent on alcohol and 26% abused other drugs....
I think it's important, for balance, to pay due respect to the opening paragraph on that site...
Quote:
A common stereotype of the homeless population is that they are all alcoholics or drug abusers. The truth is that a high percentage of homeless people do struggle with substance abuse, but addictions should be viewed as illnesses and require a great deal of treatment, counseling, and support to overcome. Substance abuse is both a cause and a result of homelessness, often arising after people lose their housing
Last edited by OpenD; 07-09-2014 at 09:24 PM..
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