If you were King, how would you address the homeless issue? (unemployed, wage)
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The amount of therapy some of the homeless would need to get them back to a state of being able to handle a job and show up everyday on time would be immense and take years. We need to bring back the state institutional hospitals. We need far more section 8 housing for the working poor, and yes, in everybody's backyard, no more NIMBY for republican areas.
We can't just take a person on the street, give them a swift kick in the pants and expect them to hike up their bootstraps and get their *stuff* together, it doesn't work that way.
As for areas where anything goes, there's already slab city.
I post this as a kind of thought experiment in order to avoid going down the political party rabbit holes.
If you had suddenly become in charge of this fictional U.S. with its very real homeless problem, what steps would you take to solve it? You have unilateral control, but similar budget constraints.
Finland solved their homeless problem, and the developing country we retired in, has no visible homeless.
What can be done in this most powerful, richest country in the world?
First thing I would do is make a clear distinction between those with mental issues and those who are on the streets because of substances abuse.
Those with mental issues would be taken off the streets and hospitalized
Those with substance abuse issues would be told you can't sleep, beg ect. If you do you will be arrested. So what you say? Is society going to toss them all in jail?
No.
Instead of jail I would send them park areas around the state to work off their fines. I would provide camps for them to live, decent food and give them a chance to clean up.
But will this solve the problem of homelessness? Not necessarily but it's a start in the right direction.
I've done hundred's of walking tours, on Youtube, over the last 6 months, and I've looked and looked for beggars and homeless on the streets, of most of those cites, even South America, and where are they? Hiding? Penned up somewhere?
Yes, for example, in Columbia the police hunt the homeless children into the sewers and shoot them.
Dear God. Quoted from the Wiki article: "One of these groups is street children, who are without homes due to abuse, forced displacement, or the death of their parents. Death rates for street children have been as high as six to eight children per day. Children are often shot in their sleep or stabbed to death on the streets or in the police station."
I had no idea this was going on in Colombia and, no doubt, other parts of the world where "clean streets" are presented to an unsuspecting public (including "walking tourists"). Thank you, Philip, for bringing this to people's attention.
I would put very stringent rules on Air B&B insofar as who could AB&B an apartment, like the legal renter only, not landlords making a mint off apartments people need. I'd institute quite severe penalties for greedy infractions.
Then I'd make a punitively high vacancy tax for people who owned homes and apartments in crowded areas with a homeless problem and didn't live in them, i.e., foreign investors using the US as a tax haven. If you can purchase a home in a major US city to not live in, you can pay for the privilege and the money can go toward affordable housing.
Then I would address the subject of wages, particularly the minimum wage, which doesn't pay a full time worker enough money to live indoors, never mind have a family. Part of this approach would also involve lifting punitive taxes on small business, which provide the majority of jobs.
Corporations claim to be people, so they can then pay their fair share of taxes, along with a living wage. All that tax money would easily cover a national health program so anyone who needs help or treatment in order to be a contributing member of society could get it.
And I would regulate the heck out of everything related to money: bank fees, credit card fees and interest rates and charges, caps on the cost of drugs, higher education, and utilities.
Anyone who doesn't like it can get the h*ck out of my country because I am the king. I want to live in a country where people are healthy and productive and we don't offshore production of everything we need.
I post this as a kind of thought experiment in order to avoid going down the political party rabbit holes.
If you had suddenly become in charge of this fictional U.S. with its very real homeless problem, what steps would you take to solve it? You have unilateral control, but similar budget constraints.
Finland solved their homeless problem, and the developing country we retired in, has no visible homeless.
What can be done in this most powerful, richest country in the world?
In the late '60s, when the Johnson admin was pushing it's Great Society and War on Poverty agenda, Pat Paulson, a commedian on the Smother's Brothers TV show had a running gag. He'd do a mock "editorial" delivered in the dead-pan monotone popular on the network news programs of the day...His plan for the War on Poverty was to kill 5000 poor people every day.
On a more serious note-- countries that have low rates of "homelessness" seem to avoid the problem by having a different emphasis on family structure and responsibility than has become our norm.
Charity begins at home.... But that's more of a preventive than therapeutic plan.
Japan has a homeless rate of nearly zero. Might be something to learn.
In Japan, begging is illegal. You will be arrested. My country would start there.
Just like good ol' USSR.
Begging was illegal. Period.
Not working was illegal. Period.
Job was guaranteed. Period.
Public areas were off limits for any "camping" and such. Jail time. And they WILL keep you busy in jails.
For those who choose to be homeless and not abide any rules, provide them a secluded place to put up their tents and let them be. Provide basic necessities. For those willing to live by rules give a step up to safe, secure housing. Drug rehab and counseling for those who want it, mental health counseling. For those who are able and willing to work, incentives, programs and safe secure housing.
I know from experience working with the underprivileged that some will just not be able to work and they do not need to be shamed or punished.
Begging and vagrancy would be illegal. It's important that any public housing is managed properly, and not allowed to turn into what it became in the past in US cities. Groups would have to be separated by their needs. None of this works if people are scared of their neighbors.
Even now, they put low income elderly housinig in the middle of crime zones. And they have also allowed non-elderly "disabled" to move in to those buildings. Which means 25 year old schizophrenics and addicts.. wth.
Build mental institutions, for those homeless who are incapable of taking care of themselves. Staff these places with highly paid professionals.
Build drug rehab hospitals for the addicted, and keep them there forever, if necessary.
Provide decent housing and support for those who are temporarily homeless, until they can get back on their feet.
This seems to be a good general consensus. Three very general categories: mentally ill (bring back the institutions), drug addicts (forced rehab). Affordable housing for the third category, with assistance until they can get back on their feet at which time appropriate rent is charged. This is what Finland did. The housing could be in industrial areas if needed. Can't expect the best neighborhood for this.
My thought was as a first step, put all the homeless in an "emergency" center like they do for disasters. Then have social workers (must hire many more) go to each one, to determine their category.
Feral dogs or other animals aren't usually tolerated in modern cities, but now the U.S. cities have "feral" people endangering the public and businesses.
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