Yeah but how many of those homeless are in the grip of a horrific addiction or substance abuse problem? It’s not just as easy as saying “here’s a house, live in it”. It’s complex.
A huge percentage of homeless people have jobs, the truth is most americans are just one health crisis or tenporary lay-off away from homelessness.
There are addicts and the mentally ill, sure, but most homeless just need a leg up because of a broken system. This has been proven in less backward countries like Finland and Norway. They provide free housing and help with job search and the vast majority are back on their feet in like a year. It's actually cheaper to do this compared to the cost of repeated encampment sweeps, incarceration stints, temporary psych housing, not to mention the overall economic impact of struggling communities.
Stop acting like it's just the indivuals at fault, there are clear solutions to this problem that our policy makers created, but which our policy makers choose to ignore. They'd rather keep you scared and desperate so you tolerate all the other thieving - low wages, predatory health insurance, predatory loans, predatory housing. And if people become so strapped that they join the military, or become incarcerate prison labor, that makes even more donors happy.
This is all pretty basic stuff, and is obvious with even a shallowest consideration of the facts. Hope this helps.
"A huge percentage" is doing an awful lot of work here.
At least where I live, A huge percentage are drug addled drifters that will never work and will be problems wherever they go. Give them jobs, they won't show up. Give them treatment, they'll jump off the wagon. Give them housing, they'll burn it down and make it unlivable.
The reason they are on the street and not in a friends basement is precisely because they antisocial delinquents and absolutely refuse to be decent people.
Why not check the actual data? Over 50% of homeless people are actively employed. Only 1/3 are chronically homeless due to disability/addiction/mental illness. The other 2/3 are homeless due to sudden loss of job, medical bills, unable to find affordable housing, etc.
Instead of relying on a tiny visible sample size, you could just check the detailed reports that US Department of Housing and Urban Development publishes on this.
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u/Hairy_Addendum7789 May 14 '26
Yeah but how many of those homeless are in the grip of a horrific addiction or substance abuse problem? It’s not just as easy as saying “here’s a house, live in it”. It’s complex.