Betting on a new project to combat homelessness (Austin, Tyler: cul-de-sac, crime)

[Cida]

Sounds good. Can only hope it works!



Has a big village of tiny homes eased homelessness in Austin?
One of the nation’s largest experiments to address chronic homelessness is taking shape outside the city limits.
Tyler, 41, lives in Community First! Village, which aims to be a model of permanent affordable housing for people who are chronically homeless. In the fall of 2022, he joined nearly 400 residents of the village, moving into one of its typical digs: a 200-square-foot, one-room tiny house furnished with a kitchenette, a bed and a recliner.
The village is a self-contained, 51-acre community in a sparsely populated area just outside Austin. Stepping onto its grounds feels like entering another realm. Eclectic tiny homes are clustered around shared outdoor kitchens, and neat rows of recreational vehicles and manufactured homes line looping cul-de-sacs. There are chicken coops, two vegetable gardens, a convenience store, art and jewelry studios, a medical clinic and a chapel. Roads run throughout, but residents mainly get around on foot or on an eight-passenger golf cart that makes regular stops around the property.
https://www.texasstandard.org/storie...eless-village/

[karpo1]

Hope is not a strategy. Starting premise that homelessness is caused by lack of homes is incorrect. 98% of homeless are addicts or mental patients or both.

Better solution would be investment for new forced rehab facilities and mental institutions.

[Don in Austin]

Originally Posted by karpo1

Hope is not a strategy. Starting premise that homelessness is caused by lack of homes is incorrect. 98% of homeless are addicts or mental patients or both.

Better solution would be investment for new forced rehab facilities and mental institutions.

I don't think the number is remotely close to 98%. There are many different stories.
first has been around for a while and is doing great work. They have a waiting list.

[DMChicago]

63.7% of statistics are made up on the spot.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by karpo1

Hope is not a strategy. Starting premise that homelessness is caused by lack of homes is incorrect. 98% of homeless are addicts or mental patients or both.

Better solution would be investment for new forced rehab facilities and mental institutions.

SCOTUS says you cannot force people into mental institutions unless they are a danger to themselves or others.

[ScoPro]

They are a danger to themselves…. and many are to others.

Put a homeless camp in every neighborhood where the Court justices live, and they will change their tune faster than a NYC “sanctuary” advocate.

[Need4Camaro]

Ditto. City council members would never allow them to setup camp right infront of their property or throw alcohol bottles at their windows, likewise leave drug needles and heroine in their lawn.

I have seen first hand how these folks can harrass and become violent and often there is no repurcussion for it.

I will agree that there is a fair mix of people that end up in homeless situations. Some due to misfortune, some due to additictions, and some radically due to choice. I think there needs to be more separation between these categories. I also believe if someone stays chronically homeless for too long then more likely they will adapt to becoming less sane members of society over time.

As for hope, I think this is a better idea than most ideas that have been thrown around. My only cautionary to their plan is their definition of permanent housing. It needs to be transitional to encourage those experiencing homelessness the necessary care and treatment to bring as many of them as possible back into functional members of society while transitioning more homeless into housing.

[ScoPro]

Agreed, but the violent & dangerous characters with repeated infractions need to be institutionalized one way or another.
My son in South Austin, a very liberal “hippie” homeowner, is fed up with those types after three dangerous trespassing incidents with them on his property. One involving my young grandsons.

The powers that be could care less what the law-abiding taxpayers are enduring. Those leaders seem to have been more interested in the graft they can rake off via the hundreds of millions they are throwing around.

[AirwaveDynamics]

Originally Posted by Cida

Sounds good. Can only hope it works!



Has a big village of tiny homes eased homelessness in Austin?
One of the nation’s largest experiments to address chronic homelessness is taking shape outside the city limits.
Tyler, 41, lives in Community First! Village, which aims to be a model of permanent affordable housing for people who are chronically homeless. In the fall of 2022, he joined nearly 400 residents of the village, moving into one of its typical digs: a 200-square-foot, one-room tiny house furnished with a kitchenette, a bed and a recliner.
The village is a self-contained, 51-acre community in a sparsely populated area just outside Austin. Stepping onto its grounds feels like entering another realm. Eclectic tiny homes are clustered around shared outdoor kitchens, and neat rows of recreational vehicles and manufactured homes line looping cul-de-sacs. There are chicken coops, two vegetable gardens, a convenience store, art and jewelry studios, a medical clinic and a chapel. Roads run throughout, but residents mainly get around on foot or on an eight-passenger golf cart that makes regular stops around the property.
https://www.texasstandard.org/storie...eless-village/

Community First Village is impressive VS. other initiatives the Austin city council has undertaken. Such as buying up hotels, usually for way more than they're worth. I know of one that is still sitting empty after a couple of years. I wouldn't be surprised if there are more in limbo.

The beauty (I see the beauty in it;-)) is that it's a communal environment VS. being isolated in a hotel, on the streets, in the woods... Therefore, others are nearby to help one another. Reducing the loneliness and isolation is a major part of working towards rehabilitation. I'm sure this doesn't always work as planned and there are challenges like anything else. But at least they (Mobile Loaves & Fishes) are trying and it's been moderately effective.

A massive expansion is in the works which appears like it will double in size -- RE: construction across the street as depicted towards the end of the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEWlBSVAqnY

[whereiend]

Originally Posted by karpo1

Hope is not a strategy. Starting premise that homelessness is caused by lack of homes is incorrect. 98% of homeless are addicts or mental patients or both.

Better solution would be investment for new forced rehab facilities and mental institutions.

Agree with you. These housing programs may help individuals, but the scope of the overall problem is too large to feasibly solve that way.

The actual problem we experience (e.g. public safety and cleanliness) is actually much easier to solve: enforce laws including the camping ban, public drug use, and prosecute petty crime while aggressively picking up garbage. And the way the "progressive" left has made this out to be a supposedly immoral position (that is prioritizing the lives of the 99% of us that are law abiding hard working citizens) is ridiculous.