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/mortalmonger 9d ago

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…..

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u/Prestigious-Swan6161 9d ago

Yes exactly. The only thing that makes someone homeless is an inability or unwillingness to rent or own a home. 99% of cases of homelessness it's inability. I don't remember the statistic but something like over 50% of people who are homeless were disabled before they became homeless. If you have a housing system where people don't have to work for money to have shelter it's simply not an issue. Ideally you work with the root causes and the housing issue, but starting with just getting people into housing would do a lot.

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u/BornElk2792 8d ago

Bullshit. Drug addiction is 99% of the problem here.

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u/Stunning_Scheme_6418 8d ago

I got clean eight years ago it took me a further three years to get housed. There were no treatment centers available I had to kick on my own. Then I had to move away from my crowd. Then I stayed with family for a bit after a month I was in a shelter after a few months a roach and bed bug infested apartment. Then back to my home state and with different family for a month. Then into a studio with no bugs. Now i.am in a mobile home and stable ish. Trust me just get help and get clean is not as easy as it sounds. Furthermore I am highly intelligent mostly without mental issues and it took me years to get off the streets. How is someone not as smart or with mental illness or God forbid a couple kids supposed to navigate this shit without access to actual help?

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u/Low-Individual2815 7d ago

Just gotta keep on trucking brother, good luck and god bless

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u/BornElk2792 7d ago

If you have been clean for 8 years and still can’t manage to house yourself, would you really consider yourself intelligent? Lmao geezus christ

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u/Stunning_Scheme_6418 7d ago

I am housed now and have been for a few years. It was really really hard to do tho. And make fun all you want. I guarantee you couldn't achieve what I did starting where I did.

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u/BornElk2792 7d ago

I’m a 9th grade dropout who served a 7 year prison sentence in California DOC. All because I had a drug addiction. I sobered up and decided to live life right. I now own a home in SoCal. I’m not making fun of you, you sound like you’re doing good and you should be proud of that. But let’s not pretend most of our problems wouldn’t even have existed if it weren’t for addiction, in one form or another. Stay strong.