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/HungryIndependence13]

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. 

[u/Senior-Midnight-8015 → u/HungryIndependence13]

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.

[u/Rusty-Shackleford → u/Senior-Midnight-8015]

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.

[u/Senior-Midnight-8015 → u/Rusty-Shackleford]

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.