Where are the homeless supposed to go?

[u/Garey_Coleman]

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?

[u/proudbutnotarrogant]

"It's not my problem that you have no money for food. You should have thought of that before becoming peasants."

[u/JPBillingsgate → u/proudbutnotarrogant]

The chronically homeless, which is the homeless population that are problematic for cities, are not homeless because they have no money for food. It is mental illness, substance abuse, or a combination of both.

The second, larger, homeless population is much, much less of a problem and these are people who are much more able to seek and receive help. We should never stop being generous with these people as governments or as individuals.

For the first group, not only would it be hugely expensive to try and treat these people en masse, we would also have to be able to involuntarily commit many of them, which is something that is not legal in most cases now.

[u/proudbutnotarrogant → u/JPBillingsgate]

This was a quote from a kid's movie. It's not meant to be taken seriously. However, I do agree with you. Unfortunately, the obvious fix is, in fact, to involuntarily commit certain people, which is a rabbit hole no one wants the credit for having us go down.

[u/JPBillingsgate → u/proudbutnotarrogant]

It's more than political will, which I think the GOP might have. But there are two major roadblocks that would keep them from trying anyway. One, you have to have someplace to commit them to, and we have closed so much of our former infrastructure for this very thing and I doubt the GOP has the desire to fund it.

But the second is the courts. There is a reason why involuntary committals are tough to do, even sometimes even for those that pose a pretty obvious danger to themselves and others (a bar that few homeless people meet).

All that really leaves us is for one party to placate these people (to their political detriment as it happens) and for the other party to make their lives so challenging that, it is to be hoped, that they will just go away somewhere where few people have to look at them. This is not very compassionate, obviously, but probably not very effective either.

I used to date the director of homeless services for a major east coast city. She used to tell me stories about how many of their homeless were basically given one-way bus tickets there from other smaller cities in the region.