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Well yes, not having your tent home confiscated by the cops constitutes being treated better. Having access to a hot meal is much better than starving to death on the streets.
Someone handing out free hot dogs might not sound like much to you, but that's life-altering when you have nothing and can't afford to feed yourself.
I can't ever recall reading a story where a homeless person starved to death on the streets. Most of the homeless in my area are overweight.
Perhaps this can help people understand what the homeless on the streets die from.
Information from the National Health Care for the Homeless Council
I am not a native speaker, but I find the use of the word enabling odd in this context. Enabling is positive, for instance education. What people seem to mean is pampering, spoiling or something like that.
I am not a native speaker, but I find the use of the word enabling odd in this context. Enabling is positive, for instance education. What people seem to mean is pampering, spoiling or something like that.
A term used in psychology. Enabling vs empowering. Keeping people dependent vs giving them tools to become independent.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Enabling vs empowering.
I am not a native speaker, but I find the use of the word enabling odd in this context. Enabling is positive, for instance education. What people seem to mean is pampering, spoiling or something like that.
Enabling means giving and helping someone to the point that they never develop the skills or coping mechanisms to help themselves and thus become dependent on the enabler.
Still, an unfortunate choice of term in my view. Other words might be more fitting, for instance sustaining vs empowering someone. (In German there is an nice term for that, durchfüttern.)
Still, an unfortunate choice of term in my view. Other words might be more fitting, for instance sustaining vs empowering someone.
Sustaining and empowering is the exact opposite of enabling.
Empowering someone is teaching them the skills they need to be successful.
I'm sure the homeless situation in your country is very different then the situation we have here in CA.
The homeless in my area have been enabled to live as they are living. Have been enabled to think that the laws don't apply to them. Have been enabled to know they can set up bike chop shops and hang the stolen bike parts all over their camp and toss what they don't want into the wetlands reserve. Enabled to think it's ok to pile trash and filth all over the place. They have been enabled to know that they can set up tent cities on public land, defecate all over pubic land on top of trashing it with mountains of garbage and human filth. They have been enabled to know that they will pay no consequences for this behavior.
Sustaining and empowering is the exact opposite of enabling.
Empowering someone is teaching them the skills they need to be successful.
I'm sure the homeless situation in your country is very different then the situation we have here in CA.
The homeless in my area have been enabled to live as they are living. Have been enabled to think that the laws don't apply to them. Have been enabled to know they can set up bike chop shops and hang the stolen bike parts all over their camp and toss what they don't want into the wetlands reserve. Enabled to think it's ok to pile trash and filth all over the place.
That would mean that sustain and empower are similar, but I think they are the opposite of each other. Sustain implies dependence, nurture might have a similar meaning. Or unwean, if there is such a word.
The term empowering makes sense, but to me it is just a stronger form of enabling.
It is a linguistic issue, doesn't have anything to do with the nationality of the homeless. And it would apply to other areas as well, like the government paying unemployment benefits instead of helping the person find a job, for instance by giving them access to a useful course or internship. I would not say that unemployment benefits enable the recipient, they sustain him or her.
the cold, hard facts about the COSTS of homeless people is that yes- most - do not die - but the sicker they are, they flood our emergency rooms, our nursing homes, etc...
the costs to care for the same person over and over again in an ER, or in a 30 day step down unit (this last winter here in my town saw many with frostbite and some amputations) is astronomical-
it would actually be a lot cheaper to maintain decent housing (there is a ghastly shortage of safe, clean shelter space), and a comprehensive network of public health workers to maintain folks on their medications (there is not, actually in case this is going to denigrate into another - "too many social services already argument")...
also the laws around committing someone to the (few) long term mental health facilities are very strict- most of those on the streets won't qualify even if they are clearly hallucinating or confused.
Deinstitutionalizing the chronic, long term mentally ill which started in the 80s by our favorite Republican Ronald Reagan and spread nationwide - was a really bad idea, as there was no network of community services or institutions prepared to receive them:
the cold, hard facts about the COSTS of homeless people is that yes- most - do not die - but the sicker they are, they flood our emergency rooms, our nursing homes, etc...
the costs to care for the same person over and over again in an ER, or in a 30 day step down unit (this last winter here in my town saw many with frostbite and some amputations) is astronomical-
it would actually be a lot cheaper to maintain decent housing (there is a ghastly shortage of safe, clean shelter space), and a comprehensive network of public health workers to maintain folks on their medications (there is not, actually in case this is going to denigrate into another - "too many social services already argument")...
I think the elderly people in this country who can't take care of themselves deserve more to have these services.
The homeless I see are very able bodied and it's really not our responsibility to take care of full grown adults who have the ability to take care of themselves...but instead would rather stay dazed and confused on drugs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CAjerseychick
also the laws around committing someone to the (few) long term mental health facilities are very strict- most of those on the streets won't qualify even if they are clearly hallucinating or confused.
Then these laws need to be changed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CAjerseychick
Deinstitutionalizing the chronic, long term mentally ill which started in the 80s by our favorite Republican Ronald Reagan and spread nationwide - was a really bad idea, as there was no network of community services or institutions prepared to receive them:
Yes I am well aware of this horrible move by Regan. But that was a LONG time ago...why hasn't this been reversed by now?
I always hear people point out how this was done but I never hear anyone discussing how to undo it. I guess it's easier to just point the finger but offer no solutions.
There is no conservative or liberal solution...there is only so much you can do for people. It's up to each and every one of us to be responsible for our lives and how we choose to live it.
If you make the homeless abide by the same laws as everyone else that would be a start.
If they are mentally unstable then they need to go to a mental institute.
If they are addicted to drugs then that's their desire and there is nothing anyone is going to do to get them off of drugs...they will get off of drugs when and if they are ready and willing.
??? ??? ??? Did you actually comprehend what I said? I was not asking about people addicted to drugs; I was asking about the working homeless who don't need "services" targeted to druggies and the mentally ill.
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