The reason there are so many homeless is because they can't build slums for themselves like in developing countries such as India. Living in a slum would be better than being homeless. But in America, the police would tear them down.
How Utah Reduced Chronic Homelessness (2015)
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Re: How Utah Reduced Chronic Homelessness (2015)
#12I think this is an excellent solution, but it is one that won't be replicable by cities like NY, Seattle, or San Francisco until they fix their housing cost problems. If you think about it from a systems perspective, with inflows and outflows, you will begin to see the problem. 1) Inflows: higher housing costs increase the inflow into homelessness. Whether it is job loss, drug addiction, mental illness, or whatever..…
Worth noting, since you mention Seattle: Seattle actually ran a Housing First program, but it was limited in scope. It saw similar successes (again within its limited scope).
Re: How Utah Reduced Chronic Homelessness (2015)
#13Years ago I read about an excellent effort in Italy to reduce the homeless problems there. They examined what made folk homeless and what kept them there. A big focus was on re-employment and having a fixed postal address. Those who lost their jobs and then their homes with no fixed address were unable to obtain another job and hence fell into a spiral of chronic homelessness. One of the big takeaways from Italian po…
I always felt P.O. boxes should be free for those that are homeless. If said box goes unused it is put back into general use.
Verification could be supplied by the county.
Re: How Utah Reduced Chronic Homelessness (2015)
#14homelessness is tough. In our medium size city (Columbia, SC) we have roughly 1,400 homeless and no one (myself included) seems to know what to do. I feel like affordable/free housing has been tried before, and you end up with "projects" with a drug problem. I wonder how they expect this will be different. Am I off here? Does it not seem naive to say: "they're homeless, so let's just give them an apartment and say ou…
>What about the mental health and drug (etc) issues that created the environment for unsustainable work...
We have to find a way to house people who have mental health problems and drug addictions. If you look in any rich neighborhood you'll find lots of people who meet this description living in relative comfort.
Re: How Utah Reduced Chronic Homelessness (2015)
#15I think this is an excellent solution, but it is one that won't be replicable by cities like NY, Seattle, or San Francisco until they fix their housing cost problems. If you think about it from a systems perspective, with inflows and outflows, you will begin to see the problem. 1) Inflows: higher housing costs increase the inflow into homelessness. Whether it is job loss, drug addiction, mental illness, or whatever..…
Worth noting, since you mention Seattle: Seattle actually ran a Housing First program, but it was limited in scope. It saw similar successes (again within its limited scope).
I'm familiar with it, but I'm not saying an equivalent program can't achieve equivalent success rate, I'm saying that an equivalent program will have an extremely disproportionate cost of implementation if housing costs are higher.
Re: How Utah Reduced Chronic Homelessness (2015)
#16homelessness is tough. In our medium size city (Columbia, SC) we have roughly 1,400 homeless and no one (myself included) seems to know what to do. I feel like affordable/free housing has been tried before, and you end up with "projects" with a drug problem. I wonder how they expect this will be different. Am I off here? Does it not seem naive to say: "they're homeless, so let's just give them an apartment and say ou…
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Re: How Utah Reduced Chronic Homelessness (2015)
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Worth noting, since you mention Seattle: Seattle actually ran a Housing First program, but it was limited in scope. It saw similar successes (again within its limited scope).
I'm familiar with it, but I'm not saying an equivalent program can't achieve equivalent success rate, I'm saying that an equivalent program will have an extremely disproportionate cost of implementation if housing costs are higher.
Well, yes. FWIW, I wasn't disputing anything you said, just providing additional context.
Re: How Utah Reduced Chronic Homelessness (2015)
#18The article mentions that they tried this in NYC. Unfortunately, the same approach doesn't work as well in a city that's almost 100 times as large as SLC, and which has a much more competitive real estate market. The program has ended up being quite expensive to run, and it's not actually cost effective, to the point where homeless advocates actually criticize the program's in effectiveness. It's also caused negative…
Do you have a source for this? It was my understanding that the program was being undermined by landlords illegally refusing to accept the rental vouchers, banking on the city being lax in its enforcement. A pretty good calculation given how in bed with the real estate industry every mayoral administration has been, even an ostensibly liberal one like DeBlasio's (see the recent Rivington housing scandal).
Seems to me housing first doesn't work in New York because the politics around telling real estate are more corrupt.
http://abc7ny.com/news/the-investigators-homeless-struggling...
Re: How Utah Reduced Chronic Homelessness (2015)
#19The article mentions that they tried this in NYC. Unfortunately, the same approach doesn't work as well in a city that's almost 100 times as large as SLC, and which has a much more competitive real estate market. The program has ended up being quite expensive to run, and it's not actually cost effective, to the point where homeless advocates actually criticize the program's in effectiveness. It's also caused negative…
Do you have a source for this? It was my understanding that the program was being undermined by landlords illegally refusing to accept the rental vouchers, banking on the city being lax in its enforcement. A pretty good calculation given how in bed with the real estate industry every mayoral administration has been, even an ostensibly liberal one like DeBlasio's (see the recent Rivington housing scandal). Seems to me…
Yes, there are plenty. Here's the first hit on Google: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/09/nyregion/for-some-landlord...
> The city’s Department of Homeless Services pays many times the amount the rooms would usually rent for — spending over $3,000 a month for each threadbare room without a bathroom or kitchen — because of an acute shortage in shelters for homeless men and women. Indeed, the amount the city pays.. has encouraged Mr. Lapes to switch business models and become a major private operator of homeless shelters. He is by most measures the city’s largest and owns or leases about 20 of the 231 shelters citywide. Most of the other shelters and residences are run by the city or by nonprofit agencies, but his operation is profit-making, prompting criticism from advocates for the homeless and elected officials.
Re: How Utah Reduced Chronic Homelessness (2015)
#20I'll weigh in from a basic income perspective...
I've held for a while that a homeless person getting into housing solves one of the biggest time sinks they have. Once the time is freed up, they are more comfortable, safer and can therefore sleep better, and they can think and make a plan to get re-integrated into mainstream society.
Commenters note that 'housing first' does not work in larger cities like San Francisco and New York because of the cost of housing. Were a basic income in place, homeless persons would be more mobile and could afford basic accommodations in many more places. Therefore, they'd not be so attracted to more hospitable climates or cities with more homeless services. That would increase the options they'd have to move to less expensive housing.