r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Garey_Coleman • 8d ago

Where are the homeless supposed to go?

Cities have been cracking down on homeless people so they can’t have encampments or stay on sidewalks. At the same time usually the shelters are full. So those who are unable to get into a shelter, where are they supposed to go?

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u/JohnHazardWandering 8d ago

So pay for 24 hour care?? or just pay half that in social services and housing for them to be on their own. 

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u/KittensInc 8d ago

Assuming a US context: you forgot about the Thirteenth Amendment:

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Why pay for their care if you can force them to work?

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u/JohnHazardWandering 8d ago

Still a net loss 

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u/fazelenin02 8d ago

For us, not for the private prisons who pay our congress to write draconian laws that put people in prison.

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u/YinuS_WinneR 8d ago

He is saying it as in private prisons require subsidies as slaves arent productive enough to be profitable.

But you are right. Prisons get subsidies to become profitable, they use a part of their profits to bribe politicians into subsidizing them more while these subsidies are paid by the taxpayer.

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u/HughHimbo33 8d ago

there are basically no federal prisons that are privately run. its a state by state issue, and the public prisons push for more incarceration because they cannot reduce staffing because of union contracts.

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u/HungryIndependence13 8d ago

Or give them land where they can sleep, have it guarded by police and provide showers. 

So many people - if they’re just given a place to sleep and shower- will work and get small apartments and no longer be homeless. 

It isn’t that hard to solve. I don’t know why we don’t do it. 

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u/Senior-Midnight-8015 8d ago

I've volunteered in multiple shelters or assistance centers for homeless people. I think of homeless folks in two groups, though it's obviously possible for people to swap between the groups, particularly the downward way. 

The first group is people who will bounce back if given the tiniest help at all. 1-3mo of shelter, food, and medical care, and boom, they will be back on their feet. Helping them isn't just kind and moral, but of so little cost versus such great benefit that it's financially stupid not to help them. They are motivated to be normal, contributing members of society. Numerically, this is the majority of homeless folks.

If you go to a major city or a large shelter, however, the second group of homeless folks will be much, much more visible. These are people with severe biological or behavioral needs that will require intensive or specialized management for years, or who are categorically unwilling to play by society's rules. Most citizens do not want to have to interact with these people. They are often challenging or distressing to deal with. They may scream epithets, threaten violence, offer obscenities, urinate or defecate on public transport, hit people, etc. Society in general doesn't care what happens to these folks, as long as it stops them from interfering with society. Send them to live in the middle of nowhere, plug them in an institution (mental hospital or prison), let them OD -- just get rid of them. I don't have a good answer for how to react to this group. I'd like to say we should help everyone, but my city+county has a program that spends $50k/yr PER PERSON trying to help this group, and some require more help than can be given. It's hard to see them have such resources directed at them, and they still yell slurs and threaten to kill you while peeing on the seats of the commuter train, and not become resentful or dismissive of them.

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u/HungryIndependence13 8d ago

I get that these people are out there. For sure. 

And there are crazy people who don’t do any of those things but who are also hard to help. 

It’s a tough job and isn’t for everyone. 

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u/Rusty-Shackleford 8d ago

Absolutely agree on the two groups. Statistically I know the vast majority of unhoused fall into group 1, but working in public service (libraries) it's hard not to be angry all the time at group 2---all the resources given to them and they just trash it and scream at you. Screaming, stealing, threatening female coworkers (constantly) and just generally making life hell for everyone around them. Soul crushing.

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u/Senior-Midnight-8015 7d ago

I feel you. I've lived out of my car while looking for a job when I was younger, and I don't think the random people I interacted with at the time even knew I was homeless. Libraries were such an amazing resource during that time - water fountains and toilets, and computers I could use to look for a job, but also just a comfortable place to sit with a book or some writing paper, and pretend things were normal for a little bit. So thank you for being a library worker!

I've also had to walk two miles in the pitch black during winter, after a long day at work, because someone who needs more help than I think the county can provide, had been punching and grabbing many bus drivers. So when he got on our bus, the driver got away from the transit center, stopped, and locked the doors so that the cops could come get the guy. In the meantime, all the rest of us (who'd boarded the bus before the obviously disturbed guy jumped on at the last second) had the option to sit and wait for the hour+ before the cops would come, or get off and walk. That was a major moment in turning me from, "Just help people" into, "Some of these folks are constantly making life worse for the people not rich enough to totally avoid them, and that's not okay, either." Seeing two dozen people who were already tired, with sore feet from standing jobs that don't pay enough for them to afford having a car in a place where parking is more expensive than gas, have to trudge off into the night because one guy was violent to workers were just trying to provide a service... That's when it hit me that tolerance has limitations.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

They had those spaces and they trashed them and ran out all the businesses. You can’t just let homeless people gather up in tent cities

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u/HungryIndependence13 8d ago

Where was a place guarded by police and trashed, as well as driving people out of business for some reason? 

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

Skid row? What does “guarded by the police” mean? Like a prison camp? Why do they need guards?

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u/HungryIndependence13 8d ago

You’re the genius. 

Name the place that was guarded by police but was still trashed and drove businesses away. 

You’re the one who said these places existed and were trashed. Name some. 

Name one. 

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

Bro wtf, youre the one that brought up “guarded by police”

So if you want me to interpret then sure, Skid Row. Cops still respond to calls on skid row so it’s not like they don’t have access to the police.

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u/HungryIndependence13 8d ago

Just admit that you were wrong. I know it. I knew it as soon as I read it. 

Or don’t. Refusing to admit it…it’s ridiculous, but it doesn’t matter. Whatever. 

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u/LoCarB3 8d ago

You clearly never interact with homeless people if you think that'll solve anything. Give them a place to sleep and shower and it'll be a trashed drug den in a matter of days

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u/HungryIndependence13 8d ago

Commit to a time to be online and answer a question in less than a minute. We will see how much time you spend with homeless people. 

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u/LoCarB3 8d ago

I have no idea what this means

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u/HungryIndependence13 7d ago

Let’s work out a time that we can both be online and I can ask you a couple questions that you answer immediately. 

Everyone who sees the answers will know how much time you spend with homeless people. 

Want to do it?

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u/Dudewhocares3 8d ago

This just sounds like what Elon musk said months ago as a way to dehumanize them

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u/WVildandWVonderful 8d ago

Need lockers and toilets and a way to get mail too

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u/HungryIndependence13 8d ago

Homeless people can get mail. I’m not going to post it here because if people who aren’t homeless start taking advantage of it, it’ll become a problem, but an honesty homeless person can get mail. There is a process for that. 

It isn’t easy. Nothing is easy for homeless people. But it can be done. 

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u/WVildandWVonderful 8d ago

Toilets can be portapotties; don’t let lack of permanent infrastructure prevent progress

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u/HungryIndependence13 8d ago

Toilets are nice but there are stores and gas station and things like that. 

It would be nice to add toilets but I’ll go with that dream after I accomplish a place to sleep and shower. 

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u/Direct_Village_5134 7d ago

Said by someone who clearly doesn't live downtown in a west coast city

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u/CrankyCrabbyCrunchy 8d ago

With popularity of for profit prisons, the answer is clear. For profit mental institutions which are actually prisons so people can feel good about locking up people.