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/mortalmonger]

This is hard to answer as homeless is not a good description. There are lots of types of homelessness and until we can talk about homelessness that way it’s not something we can solve. Here is a good example:

-a homeless veteran fighting mental health issues -a mother and toddler son fleeing domestic violence -an LGBTQIA teen kicked out by his family for being xxxxx -a drug addict -a man who lost his apartment and living in his car while working -a bipoler woman refusing to take her meds and hallucinating and paranoid -a sex offender that has done his time and can’t find housing due to being a sex offender

Literally there is no “one place” all these people should go…

Homeless is the state you are in because of some other problem or choice….until we speak of homelessness by discussing the causes of homelessness and how we can prevent or mitigate those causes we are not solving anything. It would be like a doctor giving the same cure to everyone in a hospital and then being perplexed why the insulin didnt heal all the asthma and cancer patients…..

[u/Bubblegummie- → u/mortalmonger]

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%.

[u/Sarahhelpme → u/Bubblegummie-]

As an American, I'm curious how this works in practice and I'd love to learn more. If they get a stipend for rent & basics when they are jobless, does anyone try to stay there forever and intentionally not get a job?

[u/stellardroid80 → u/Sarahhelpme]

Yes there’s always a trade off . In my European country of origin we have quite generous unemployment benefits too. It means people don’t become very poor or homeless if they lose their job (or are unable to work) but it does also create a problem of chronic unemployment because there’s not enough incentive to look for work. But that is a small minority. So the government has to find a balance between looking after people but still incentivising job seeking. Whatever system you design, a minority of people will abuse it. The question then is whether you punish everyone to prevent a small amount of abuse, or you look after the majority and try to prevent abuse as much as possible. Different countries make very different choices in that.