Homelessness is primarily a housing problem
noahpinion.substack.com
Homelessness is primarily a housing problem
1–10 of 56 posts
Re: Homelessness is primarily a housing problem
#2While I don't doubt the statistics brought up in this article, I am skeptical about how the underlying data was sampled. The majority of "homeless" people are not necessarily who everyone is talking about when they think "homeless" (e.g. people dressed in rags sleeping on the streets/doing drugs in public.) I personally suspect that there's quite a difference in that sub-population.
Re: Homelessness is primarily a housing problem
#3While I don't doubt the statistics brought up in this article, I am skeptical about how the underlying data was sampled. The majority of "homeless" people are not necessarily who everyone is talking about when they think "homeless" (e.g. people dressed in rags sleeping on the streets/doing drugs in public.) I personally suspect that there's quite a difference in that sub-population.
There’s a big crosstalk that happens because almost everyone is referring to the chronically homeless (or whatever the technical term is) whereas the vast majority are homeless for 6 months or less.
Re: Homelessness is primarily a housing problem
#4I have been studying the homeless problem. In Lansing the problem has exploded 4-5X in the past twenty years. I am looking for a way locally that my tech skills can help, even in a small way.
It was suggested that I learn about the efforts of Celebrity Rehab Dr. Drew who is outspoken on the homeless problem. He wants permission to treat the homeless who are mentally ill. He believes not only can they be helped but returned to productive members of society. But he is opposed by L.A. politicians who have blocked him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MRrlIpQ-Hk (9 minutes)
Re: Homelessness is primarily a housing problem
#5Homelessness is primarily a problem created by the requirement to continuously upkeep your shelter financially or risk losing it.
The ability to perform this upkeep can be wrecked by any number of things, which there is not enough space to list here.
The overwhelming majority of people who fail at this upkeep are saved by their support network, so the actual problem is several orders of magnitude larger than any official statistics.
Most people who lose their shelter fall back on family and friends and may spend years living on couches, in closets, spare garages, cars, etc., without ever being picked up by the "homeless" statistics.
How or why this system came about is beyond the scope of this comment, but it is an iceberg most people only see the tip of. And it is not a necessity, nor is it a reality in many other places around the world.
Re: Homelessness is primarily a housing problem
#6"Homeless" refers to many things.
It can refer to a person living in a car, a person living in a shelter, a person living a tent, a person living in a homeless camp, a person living under a piece of cardboard, etc.
Some people become homeless at a point and manage their way out, others stay homeless.
If you are an alcoholic, or a drug addict, and want to get drunk or high or both in a regular basis, you don't like the rules at the shelter... what place is best for you? a shelter with strict rules where you can't drink or get high, or a homeless camp? The homeless camp.
The problem with people like the article author is that they try to monopolize common sense.
A person working at Walmart, earning minimum wage while living in their car, has a very different reality to a drug junkie living in a homeless camp. The term "homeless" refers to both. I would not try to begin a serious analysis by mixing such different things.
Re: Homelessness is primarily a housing problem
#7This dude looks like another “content creator” mission on putting out click optimized links with no substance, no data and no real research. These amature opinion distributors are cancer to information society.
Re: Homelessness is primarily a housing problem
#8I wonder how much mental illness and drug abuse contribute to staying in a place you can't afford a roof?
Re: Homelessness is primarily a housing problem
#9The regressions presented on the graphs are misleading at best. The effect of outliers on the fitting looks fairly obvious as are the high density linear areas.
Re: Homelessness is primarily a housing problem
#10> And, at long last, we have arrived at the actual root cause of homelessness: housing costs.
To prove this point the author shows 4 graphs with R^2 values of 0.55, 0.27, 0.24, and 0.28. That's a tough sell, especially when the non-underlined portion of the abstract he showed reads:
> most people with substance-abuse issues remain homeless for 12 months or longer.