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Not a conservative, but the correct answer is always private charity.
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Originally Posted by Pilot1
I am a Conservatarian, and that's what I think also. Salvation Army is one of the best as are religious based charities. United Way is a scam. Also get them into AA, and rehab programs.
How much are you two going to pony up in "private charity" to support services for homeless people? You do realize that "private charity" means YOU.
Quote:
Originally Posted by American Expat
Also a Conservatarian and I agree. Most of our homeless are alcohol/drug addicted or have mental health problems....these need to be addressed and job training can be part of the program or a follow up program.
Starts with marriage before kids, values being taught, correcting behaviors, treating disorders and addictions, skills being taught, and incentives to be productive.
I hate to burst your naive little bubble, but "marriage before kids, values being taught" isn't going to cure addiction or mental illness.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pilot1
A LOT of their funding comes from PRIVATE middle, upper middle income and yes the rich.
Not quite. In my most recent job raising money for homeless services, our bread and butter was the $50 donor. We had a lot of them, in addition to some funding from private foundations and a sliver of money from the United Way.
But the largest chunk of our budget for shelter operations came from government funding - local, state and federal, and most of that was from HUD funding that trickled down from the state to the county.
Liberal policy and liberal court decisions got us here. you want it fixed, don't ask me (a conservative) to fix a problem the left created.
Look at what the left did on the subject that got us here and go back and undo it.
Are you going to share what these policies and court decisions are?
We're probably in agreement to an extent, all said, but you want to turn it into a partisan political football, when it's not. That's lazy. That's hackery.
They live in liberal managed cities, because thats where the money is.
I would like to see a 130.000 homeless trying to make it in a small republican farming town or mining town..
Homeless people will try to make it to where there are people with money or the weather is better for living outdoors.
Instead of everybody giving donations to their favorite neighborhood church, everybody in the country could give 0.001% more in taxes, and you could help ALOT more then you do now.
Only problem with that is, they would increase taxes for that cause, but the money would be reallocated elsewhere. It happens all the time with other money collected as taxes. It would happen with this too.
The most effective way to handle this issue is by way of prevention. Local and state government hasn't done that though. What they have been spending time and money (resources) doing is trying to get people helped after the fact. That's not the way they should be doing it. Because after the fact, those people who are homeless are so effed up, they can't even tie their own shoestrings or crap in a pot correctly.
I'd compare it to a raging river. Instead of building something that keeps people from falling in, they spend their resources building a net 5 miles down the river right before the waterfall to catch the morons who fell in. It would have been more effective to build that barrier 5 miles up the river so the people couldn't fall in, instead.
[quote=Ohiogirl81;51496952]How much are you two going to pony up in "private charity" to support services for homeless people? You do realize that "private charity" means YOU.
[QUOTE/]
First off, I do put money where my mouth is as I donate time and money to two food banks/shelters that serve the homeless.
Secondly, charitable giving should never be forced as you are advocating here, so you can drop the "I'm better than you" attitude.
I'm honestly curious about this because half of the posts on this board are trashing liberals for homelessness that happens in cities.
So what's the conservative, small-government plan to get them off drugs and integrated into society?
Can we agree that the "homeless" are incompetent?
If you are willing to agree that a "homeless" person is incompetent and incapable of engaging or performing the tasks that allow one to maintain a home, then we can bring the "homeless" before a judge and have them declared incompetent and made wards of the State. Having done that, we can legally coerce those "homeless" who are mentally ill into group homes where their lives are highly structured and they are forced to take their medication, which would allow them to function on a day-to-day basis without living in the streets.
For those "homeless" who are substance abusers, you can have a judge declare them incompetent and made wards of the State, at which time they can be placed in group homes with an highly structured environment complemented by substance abuse counseling for 2 years until they can function on a day-to-day basis.
If you're not willing to do that, then there is nothing that can be done, since you can lead a horse to water, but can't make the horse drink.
Throwing money at the "homeless" in hopes that they take their medication, or with the hope that they will enter a substance abuse program on their own is nothing short of a waste of time, money and resources.
Aside from that, the most effective solution low-cost small government plan would be to give the "homeless" $10, a brown-bag lunch and a parachute, and then kick their selfish asses out of the back of a C-130 Hercules over Libya, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Myanmar or some other choice place and let them keep doing what they do best, which is panhandle and get in everyone's way. Granted, those "homeless" who are mentally ill probably won't have access to their medication, but it doesn't really matter, since they aren't interested in taking their medication anyway, which is why they are "homeless."
And while Muslim States generally don't have alcohol, they'll have plenty of hashish and opium for the substance abusers.
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