Are we doing enough as Americans to help end homelessness?

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Robert_Sock said:
“Elimination” in the sense of our society successfully dealing with homelessness to the point that nobody lives on the streets, except those who fully consent to it.
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I think society has to first learn how to see people as having dignity given to them by God. Society, as it stands, is very barbaric even as it pretends to be civilized.
 
The 500 lb. gorilla in the room for many of the discussions on the problems of our society deal with how the mentally ill are dealt with. We are attempting to take the means of self protection away from the law abiding to protect even evalluating the mentally ill who commit the atrocities.
Our Social Service programs have degenerated into money give aways to buy votes and continue or accelerate dependancy. All the good will in the world has not prevented those who care from being fleeced to care for those who (admit it) a growing number refuse to do so for themselves because “it is their right”.
The political class pander to this sentiment expanding their voting base while subjugating those who are dependant and those who are well meaning.
Yes, take care of those who can’t for themselves, but we need to direct our resources of money and sentiment to the needy.
A first step is to eliminate the entrenched bureaucracies and remove the Social Service function from all governmental entities and to the faith based.
 
Most of the homelessness I see is because of individual choices. Drugs, alcohol are the major factors. Mental problems are huge.

What can we do, lock people up against their will? No.

I see this close up in my job as an ER nurse. These folk refuse to change. People with mental problems don’t stick to their medication programs. Alcoholics still drink. Addicts don’t quit. I don’t see what else we can do. We offer them help, but many just won’t cooperate.

Many of them just burn their bridges. They get kicked out of shelters. Detox (the drunk tank) won’t take them because of past misbehavior. We have one fellow who, whenever it gets cold, will show up trying to get admitted to the hospital. He has real health problems, yes. I asked him once, why are you homeless? He said, when he got his check he just spent it on other stuff, so he got evicted. 🤷
 
Country_Gal said:
Most of the homelessness I see is because of individual choices. Drugs, alcohol are the major factors. Mental problems are huge.

What can we do, lock people up against their will? No.

I see this close up in my job as an ER nurse. These folk refuse to change. People with mental problems don’t stick to their medication programs. Alcoholics still drink. Addicts don’t quit. I don’t see what else we can do. We offer them help, but many just won’t cooperate.

Many of them just burn their bridges. They get kicked out of shelters. Detox (the drunk tank) won’t take them because of past misbehavior. We have one fellow who, whenever it gets cold, will show up trying to get admitted to the hospital. He has real health problems, yes. I asked him once, why are you homeless? He said, when he got his check he just spent it on other stuff, so he got evicted. 🤷
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You need to be careful not to blame the victim. Judging the entire homeless population based on the behavior of a sample of one or two is not prudent. Yes, there are some homeless people who refuse to take their medication, but there’s a hundred others who simply cannot afford the cost of their medication.
 
Robert_Sock said:
You need to be careful not to blame the victim. Judging the entire homeless population based on the behavior of a sample of one or two is not prudent. Yes, there are some homeless people who refuse to take their medication, but there’s a hundred others who simply cannot afford the cost of their medication.
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You must be careful not to be naive about the stark realities of life. Many are merely victims of their own folly. Proverbs speaks of these things frequently. There are foolish people in this world, this is nothing new.
 
Country_Gal said:
You must be careful not to be naive about the stark realities of life. Many are merely victims of their own folly. Proverbs speaks of these things frequently. There are foolish people in this world, this is nothing new.
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So most of the homeless are foolish and thus deserving of their plight?
 
Country_Gal said:
You must be careful not to be naive about the stark realities of life. Many are merely victims of their own folly. Proverbs speaks of these things frequently. There are foolish people in this world, this is nothing new.
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I think what’s often missing from our view of poverty is simply grace. We stand before our heavenly father and ask for grace for our own folly. Should we not extend it to others, even if they have done foolish things?
 
I agree, but how many times do you extend the gifts of grace to someone before they become dependant and the grace becomes wasted upon those who will not change due to availability of the repeated gifts. Yes, some only need temporary help and lift themselves up. Our system unfortunately rewards those who will not help themselves, but take advantage of the rest of us. Reality has to set in at some point. Our debt now exceeds $17 trillion with unfunded liabilities being passed on to our grand children and great grand-children and beyond to up to $80 trillion dollars. Folks, more of us need to take care of ourselves. We are spending ourselves into oblivion.
 
Maybe if we decided to help the homeless ourselves and not rely on the government to do everything.
 
adawgj said:
Maybe if we decided to help the homeless ourselves and not rely on the government to do everything.
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How would you do that?
There are an estimated 1000 homeless teenagers alone in my city. I house and feed the two I adopted, but am kind of at my limit.
there are many programs for homeless here, which tends to draw people from other cities to ours, so we have a big problem downtown with public intoxication, urinating and defecating in public, occasional violence. It drives tourists away and scares the residents.
St Vincent de Paul helps as many as they can, but they mostly help homeless families get back on their feet. A lot of people just choose to stand on street corners with a sign.
I’m thinking of standing on a corner myself,. on my days off, with a sign reading “$6000 in medical debt, please help.” Do you think I’d get any quarters?
 
Just wait 'till obamacare kicks in. Then you will see people holding signs that say, “Please Help. Dying. Need to raise $5000 for insurance deductible in order to start treatment.”
 
I voted ‘no’: When I was in Philadelphia, PA, I sometimes saw beggars claiming to be homeless on the street, and after looking up shelters on the internet and calling the associated telephone numbers, would find that those telephone numbers were no longer in service. I was a student there for two years, and was active in society and politics there – e.g. once I called city hall and was able to leave a message for animal control after watching baby ducks fall down a rain gutter. That I was not able to find telephone numbers for homeless shelters, that they were not more clearly advertised, I think is evidence that that city is not doing enough for its homeless, or its beggars claiming to be homeless.
 
Robert_Sock said:
So most of the homeless are foolish and thus deserving of their plight?
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I wouldn’t put it like that, at all. It is extremely difficult to institutionalize many/most, though and there aren’t enough facilities to do so. I have a cousin who is most… distressed. His parents don’t know what to do with him and are rightfully scared. Until he actually snaps though, they’re largely helpless. He’s had more than a few police incidents but nothing seriously enough to be incarcerated (which would only inculcate even worse inclinations anyways since rehabilitation is laughable and recidivism so high)… Truly a dreadful situation with no easy answers.

He alternates between living at home where he is fairly disruptive and disrespectful and being a vagrant where he is unencumbered by most normal restraints.
 
AdvocatusVerbum said:
I wouldn’t put it like that, at all. It is extremely difficult to institutionalize many/most, though and there aren’t enough facilities to do so. I have a cousin who is most… distressed. His parents don’t know what to do with him and are rightfully scared. Until he actually snaps though, they’re largely helpless. He’s had more than a few police incidents but nothing seriously enough to be incarcerated (which would only inculcate even worse inclinations anyways since rehabilitation is laughable and recidivism so high)… Truly a dreadful situation with no easy answers.

He alternates between living at home where he is fairly disruptive and disrespectful and being a vagrant where he is unencumbered by most normal restraints.
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Only 22% of the homeless population have a serious mental illness that would require institutionalization.
 
If they have a serious mental illness then they need to be institutionalized.

If they have no serious mental illness then they need to get a job.

If they won’t get a job and don’t have a serious mental illness then I don’t care a single bit about helping them continue an unhealthy lifestyle. I’ll save my money for people that actually want help.
 
StopDropandBowl said:
If they have no serious mental illness then they need to get a job.

If they won’t get a job and don’t have a serious mental illness then I don’t care a single bit about helping them continue an unhealthy lifestyle. I’ll save my money for people that actually want help.
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And where do they get these jobs? At what pay rate?
 
Robert_Sock said:
And where do they get these jobs? At what pay rate?
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This takes some consideration. Where do they live? What kind of resources do they currently have? What kind of charity from friends/family can they expect?

Up here in North Dakota, if you want a job, you will find one. And it will pay enough for you to live in an apartment and to feed yourself and even to have some comforts. You cannot go three feet in Bismarck without seeing multiple signs that say: Now Hiring. And a lot of them will take pretty much anyone, work experience or not. Now, getting up here can be a problem, and it’s very cold for most of the year so you’d need a place to stay while you’re looking for a job. As a rule of thumb, I’d say about 1,500 to 2,000 dollars will get you there, get you an apartment on a month-to-month renting basis and give you plenty of time to find a job.

If you don’t live in an area that has a good economy, then I suggest you look at other options. Take advantage of all the charity you can get your hands on in order to clean yourself up and find a place to stay. Save every penny that you can. Then move to somewhere that has a good economy. It won’t be easy, but it certainly won’t be harder than most of the world has it. If you’re a child living in a trash heap in some third-world hell-hole, then I have sympathy for your helplessness. If you’re an adult living in the US who screwed up and now wants to complain about it being hard and hopeless, I have much less sympathy. It’s not my responsibility to find a way for it to work out for you. It’s your responsibility to find a way to make it work.

If people are going to starve because they refuse to help themselves then I will feel sorry for them, but I won’t give them my hard-earned money. I’ll save my money and time for people who actually have a desire to help themselves.
 
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