We can reduce homelessness if we follow the science on what works
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Re: We can reduce homelessness if we follow the science on what works
#2I tried to help a homeless friend who was an alcoholic, but landlords really don't tolerate urinating on the floor, breaking keys off in locks, and not paying bills.
Re: We can reduce homelessness if we follow the science on what works
#3This article is a good overview of the research about treatment-first vs housing-first approaches.
The last paragraph is pretty clear on the real difficulty:
>The major obstacles to resolving homelessness remain ideological. It is politically hard to sell the idea that people who take drugs or are disruptive should get free housing – even when the evidence shows that is actually what works.
Re: We can reduce homelessness if we follow the science on what works
#4I tried to help a homeless friend who was an alcoholic, but landlords really don't tolerate urinating on the floor, breaking keys off in locks, and not paying bills.
One of the linked studies shows that it's ultimately cost-effective, though:
"participants had... median costs of $4066 per person per month... Median monthly costs decreased to $1492 and $958 after 6 and 12 months in housing, respectively" [1]
This was looking at 1811 Eastlake in Seattle- which exists specifically to help alcoholic homeless. NPR has a good article about it. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2012/01/19/1454774...
[1] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/183666
Re: We can reduce homelessness if we follow the science on what works
#5This article is a good overview of the research about treatment-first vs housing-first approaches. The last paragraph is pretty clear on the real difficulty: >The major obstacles to resolving homelessness remain ideological. It is politically hard to sell the idea that people who take drugs or are disruptive should get free housing – even when the evidence shows that is actually what works.
I guarantee I could produce a program that would be acceptable to conservatives and provide free housing.
Note also that Utah, a very conservative state, solves homelessness in exactly this way.
It just might be that the housing would not be provided by funneling huge amounts of tax dollars to the rentier class, and might involve constructing more houses, and therefore would be opposed by the left.
Re: We can reduce homelessness if we follow the science on what works
#6I tried to help a homeless friend who was an alcoholic, but landlords really don't tolerate urinating on the floor, breaking keys off in locks, and not paying bills.
I tried to help a sick cat, but it died. I don't take that as evidence that all sick cats will die, regardless of what we do.
Re: We can reduce homelessness if we follow the science on what works
#7This article is a good overview of the research about treatment-first vs housing-first approaches. The last paragraph is pretty clear on the real difficulty: >The major obstacles to resolving homelessness remain ideological. It is politically hard to sell the idea that people who take drugs or are disruptive should get free housing – even when the evidence shows that is actually what works.
I guarantee I could produce a program that would be acceptable to conservatives and provide free housing. Note also that Utah, a very conservative state, solves homelessness in exactly this way. It just might be that the housing would not be provided by funneling huge amounts of tax dollars to the rentier class, and might involve constructing more houses, and therefore would be opposed by the left.
Utah has done wonders for its homeless population with the housing first initiative and I think it's a model for the rest of the country.
Re: We can reduce homelessness if we follow the science on what works
#8By all means, use data to make your case for effective solutions.
Do not for a second forget that it’ll happen person by messy person and that this is not only inevitable, but good.
Convincing NIMBYs of this is, well, a shitton of work.
So three men from the recovery house next door help him to his feet, walk him to the halfway house and put him in the shower. They wash his clothes and shoes and give him their things to wear while he waits. They give him coffee and dinner, and they give him respect. I talked to these other men later, and even though they had very little sobriety, they did not cast this other guy off for not being well enough to be there. Somehow this broken guy was treated like one of them, because they could see that he was one of them. No one was pretending he wasn't covered with shit, but there was a real sense of kinship.
[…]
I was just totally amazed by what I had seen. And I had a little shred of hope. I couldn't have put it into words, but until that meeting, I had thought that I would recover with men and women like myself; which is to say, overeducated, fun to be with and housebroken. And that this would happen quickly and efficiently. But I was wrong.
Re: We can reduce homelessness if we follow the science on what works
#9This article is a good overview of the research about treatment-first vs housing-first approaches. The last paragraph is pretty clear on the real difficulty: >The major obstacles to resolving homelessness remain ideological. It is politically hard to sell the idea that people who take drugs or are disruptive should get free housing – even when the evidence shows that is actually what works.
I guarantee I could produce a program that would be acceptable to conservatives and provide free housing. Note also that Utah, a very conservative state, solves homelessness in exactly this way. It just might be that the housing would not be provided by funneling huge amounts of tax dollars to the rentier class, and might involve constructing more houses, and therefore would be opposed by the left.
Socialism becomes a lot more palatable to majority populations as long as minority populations are kept to a minimum. With a reasonable expectation that the recipients of help look like you, helping starts to seem more like an obligation than an imposition.
Re: We can reduce homelessness if we follow the science on what works
#10This article is a good overview of the research about treatment-first vs housing-first approaches. The last paragraph is pretty clear on the real difficulty: >The major obstacles to resolving homelessness remain ideological. It is politically hard to sell the idea that people who take drugs or are disruptive should get free housing – even when the evidence shows that is actually what works.
I guarantee I could produce a program that would be acceptable to conservatives and provide free housing. Note also that Utah, a very conservative state, solves homelessness in exactly this way. It just might be that the housing would not be provided by funneling huge amounts of tax dollars to the rentier class, and might involve constructing more houses, and therefore would be opposed by the left.
Homelessness doesn't exactly sound "solved" in Utah... https://www.sltrib.com/news/2022/12/22/this-year-least-159-h...