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.