Homelessness

[InChrist]

Homelessness seems to be increasing more than I have ever seen before, especially in certain areas. The following linked article is full of information on the issue, along with some positive sounding solutions.

Homelessness in America: What should we do? - CURE

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

The solution is to curb tax loopholes and tax breaks for the rich, and focus more on socialism.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

Gross. That website largely takes a anti-homeless instead of anti-homelessness take. Up to and including allowing exploitation wages (gee I wonder what the *real* drive to eliminate minimum wage laws are. Certainly not to help homeless.)

While I agree that there is no one size fits all solution to homelessness, criminalization and exploitation methods won't solve any of it.

 

[Valjean]

"Mental illness and substance abuse are leading causes of homelessness in America."

Mental illness has always existed, and modern treatment is more effective than ever. Substance abuse, too, has been around a long time, but is it a cause, or a symptom?

The underlying cause, as Kat-Kat pointed out, is political.
Fifty years ago there weren't homeless encampments everywhere, beggars at every intersection, and people living on food stamps and medicaid. What changed?

Could it have involved the abandonment of the New Deal and Great Society initiatives, and the adoption of Neoliberalism and a shift to the far right?

 

[ADigitalArtist]

"Mental illness and substance abuse are leading causes of homelessness in America."

Mental illness has always existed, and modern treatment is more effective than ever. Substance abuse, too, has been around a long time, but is it a cause, or a symptom?

The underlying cause, as Kat-Kat pointed out, is political.
Fifty years ago there weren't homeless encampments everywhere, beggars at every intersection, and people living on food stamps and medicaid. What changed?

Could it have involved the abandonment of the New Deal and Great Society initiatives, and the adoption of Neoliberalism and a shift to the far right?

Also mental illness and substance abuse exist world wide. But it causes markedly more homelessness in the US due to how we treat it. That is to say, not at all. As our healthcare services are abysmal, both in quality and in expense to patients.

People with substance abuse and mental illness are treated as untrusted pariah or, as in the case of that website, a vulnerable group easy to exploit by business and church (who don't like being told they can't dangle aid upon conformity to their worldview.)

 

[sun rise]

The referenced article is clearly a punitive, right-wing approach. The bottom part which is pro-Trump demand to allow housing segregation etc was enough in and of itself for me to dismiss the article.

The only part of the article itself I agree with is that there are many causes for homelessness. Some is mental illness. Some drug/alcohol abuse. But there is also a goodly amount due to lack of affordable housing (in spite of that article's biased claims).

A friend of mine, for example, was homeless for a time when going to college because he could not afford rent. The right would have tossed him under the bus and wanted him to take a menial job. Because someone cared enough to help him, he graduated and had a successful middle-class career.

Some report substance abuse not as a cause of homelessness but as a consequence to the despair that being homeless caused.

 

[Sirona]

What happened to the story of the Good Samaritan?

 

[RestlessSoul]

This is happening in the UK too. The increase, which has at times been exponential, began in 2010 when a very moderate, left of centre Labour government was replaced by a socially liberal but economically very dogmatic right of centre Conservative government.

It's not complicated, but it is complicated by other factors. I walk past these people every day on my way to work; I work on the railway, they sleep under the bridge. Most (not all) have mental health or addiction issues, which as other posters have suggested, are treatable. But there are no treatment centres, following a decade of government imposed "austerity measures".

Meanwhile, Richard Branson is racing Jeff Bezos to the moon.

 

[RestlessSoul]

What happened to the story of the Good Samaritan?

It's being re-enacted every day. A million little acts of kindness go unreported all around us.

The Samaritan was an outsider btw,thea target of xenophobic distrust. That's the real point of the story.

 

[Sirona]

Luke 10:33-37

33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Denarius - Wikipedia


Acts 4:32

All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had.