r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Garey_Coleman • 10d 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/Bubblegummie- 9d ago

Exactly. Why are so many people talking about homelessness like it's a choice or a mental illness? They are people too. They are in a tough spot in their lives, and they need help.

In finland we have mostly solved homelessness. We have temporary shelters for homeless people, and social workers help them to find a cheap apartment as fast as possible, so homelessness doesn't become a lifestyle. All jobless people get some money from the government to cover the rent and living costs until they find work. Social services help to keep the apartment and assist finding help to solve the underlying problems, if the person is not capable of working. In 35 years, the amount of homeless people in finland has dropped by 75%.

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u/CA_catwhispurr 9d ago

Finland is way more emphatic and smarter about solving these issues than we are in the US. I wish we were more like Finland.

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u/SmileFIN 9d ago

https://www.bigissue.com/news/housing/homelessness-finland-rough-sleeping/

That's a lie. If you can't fulfill the demands set out to you, your minimum income for month will be cut by 40%.

The rapid increase in street homelessness is particularly worrying. This refers to the number of people living outside, in stairwells and emergency shelters, which rose by 50% in a year to 694.

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u/idle_isomorph 9d ago

That rapid increase brought up the numbers to roughly the same number of homeless in my small city (500k population). Seems like a win, if that is the whole country! Pretty sure Finland has more than half a million people in it.

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u/SmileFIN 9d ago

That is also just statistics, they don't necessarily count people with a place to sleep. And it was just one year and immediate effects of legislative changes. It's getting worse every day.