41–50 of 206 posts
"About 2% of the total went to alcohol, cigarettes and drug expenses — the largest portion of which was cigarettes" I'm pretty sure that the average American spends more than 2% of their income on drugs.
Do you think the average American would self-report more?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Read the article, or read the recent UCSF study on homelessness[0]. The data suggest that mental illness and drug addiction are both symptoms of, or exacerbated by, homelessness, not causes of it. Please don’t argue with me about this here without citing the available data. 0. https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/our-impact/our-studies/califor...
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The headline as written should surprise no-one. Anyone receiving free money would probably have their life improved along some dimension, even if it just means they're not doing as many dangerous things to get money to buy more drugs. The implicit assumption seems to be that giving homeless people money to improve their lives is inherently a moral good. Unlike many homeless advocates, I don't think it is a given that…
Unless - do you believe we shouldn’t aid ill people at all?
Did it reduce their agency like it did all the covid unemployed?
According to the article: "Those who got the stipend were less likely to be unsheltered after six months and able to meet more of their basic needs than a control group that got no money, and half as likely as the control group to have an episode of being unsheltered." So, it seems like it helped get most people back on their feet and into a place where they can live independently without financial support.
Almost anyones life would be improved by a free $750/month, wether or not it makes any lasting change versus simply making them dependent on another government program is the real question.
The question is more if your fellow humans appreciates you enough to help you. On the other side even the egoistic view would give homeless people money just to have them of streets.
As someone who is nearing 2,000 days of two stints of homelessness since 2017, I can offer feedback that such an amount would help to alleviate basic survival pressures. But, money will not solve any root cause issues. I've been unhoused and out of work for so long that any recovery back to a normal life has become exceedingly unlikely. I don't drink alcohol, I don't smoke, nor do I do illicit drugs nor prescriptions…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Weird, I do. I live within a minute's walk of three separate encampments of homeless people, most of whom seem reasonably sane when I talk to them, and if they have drug problems they certainly aren't more apparent than those of my coworkers on average
Is there a feature that lets you disable replies to your comment? I find it hilarious that the person arguing that their egregiously dehumanizing stereotypes of the homeless are simply objective reality rather than biased and that I must be lying has done so if so
No, but Hacker News will not show the reply button to a comment made extremely recently, to discourage quick back-and-forths.
Looking at the timestamps I suspect that's what you're seeing.
"About 2% of the total went to alcohol, cigarettes and drug expenses — the largest portion of which was cigarettes" I'm pretty sure that the average American spends more than 2% of their income on drugs.
if you have $50 and it wont make a difference in getting what you actually need, then fast food and fast thrills are what it will be spent on
if you have $750 or some other threshold, you can try to make a difference to get out of it
its like “give a man a fish” versus “sign up for fishing classes, get books, equipment and train so you’ll never have to be in the situation ever again”
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think a lot of productive hardworking people's money has been spent on propaganda whose sole intention is to ensure that people equate homeless people to "mentally ill drug addicts" rather than, say, "private equity real estate buyup refugees"
How many homeless people do you interact with daily? Because I'm forced to interact with many of them on a daily basis to simply go about my life in the Bay Area. And almost all of them, with very very few exceptions are both mentally ill and drug addicts. I used to think like you, but being forced to deal with them in real life on a daily basis has a way of killing preconceived convenient notions.
People without a stable living condition experience severe stress and mental illness as a result. People without necessities to live turn to drugs to alleviate the pain and suffering they experience.
This study is one example of how giving money to people to alleviate their conditions can improve their lives and enable them to further engage in self improvement.