Homelessness is not an just an economic problem, building low cost housing for people with drug addiction and mental health issues creates a whole set of other problems. These people have no hope, their families have abandoned them. Start with figuring out how to have sustainable community, that will give them hope - build housing around…
Homelessness is not an just an economic problem, building low cost housing for people with drug addiction and mental health issues creates a whole set of other problems. These people have no hope, their families have abandoned them. Start with figuring out how to have sustainable community, that will give them hope - build housing around that. A solution involving NGO with passionate volunteers (with some govt subsidy) has worked (eg. Union Gospel Mission). Throwing govt jobs and money at this will be a waste and fail.
Here is an example of an anti-homelessness public/private partnership with extensive services, many provided by NGOs like you envision. It is only targeted to homeless veterans, so hasn't addressed the needs of many people, but has made a huge difference in one community. Perhaps it's a model that could be expanded widely. Note that the starting point was the rehabbing of a defunct motel. This suggests to me that it could be adapted to all kinds of empty buildings, as we are seeing changes in cities in the wake of the pandemic. https://www.columbiaha.com/housing/patriot-place-apartments
Great idea with community built around veterans. How about for people without any military experiences? In my country only 1% have a military background. Religous community is a declining minority.
Last I checked, the overwhelming majority of homeless are vets, if they haven’t already offed themselves(22 a day, that’s everyday). I don’t think anyone can say that Veterans are sucking up too much of the oxygen in this matter. Not to discount your points about repurposing existing buildings to suit the many homeless that are not veterans.
I hope my comment didn't come off as dismissive of the needs of veterans. My point was that in this particular community (Columbia, MO), there are good reasons this could happen--there's a VA, so people can get health care, including mental health care; there's a company based in Columbia, Veterans United Home Loans, that does a lot of really great philanthropy, much of it targeted at veterans; and there were a number of local NGOs already there who jumped in to make it really a high-quality effort. Maybe there are other similar communities, or other communities might be better poised to target a different group.
Doing no research here at all, I suspect that the percentage of homelessness that is veterans depends partly on definitions. If you mean people living rough in encampments, it may be a higher percentage than if you consider people couch-surfing, or staying in motels or cars, or doubling up with relatives and friends, moving around a lot.
Re-reading your first post I think I misread the tone! To the point of definitions, I think you’re right, there are all different kinds of homeless, and it is important to remember that not all homeless present a certain way but could be suffering just as much. I’ve been homeless before, in my twenties, living in my pickup. Trying to figure out where you will relieve yourself in the morning, and where you can take your next shower gets old, FAST. I was never destitute and never suffered. But it’s not hard to see how falling off the merry go round, even for a minute, can be very hard to climb back on when everything is moving except for you.
Homelessness is not an just an economic problem, building low cost housing for people with drug addiction and mental health issues creates a whole set of other problems. These people have no hope, their families have abandoned them. Start with figuring out how to have sustainable community, that will give them hope - build housing around that. A solution involving NGO with passionate volunteers (with some govt subsidy) has worked (eg. Union Gospel Mission). Throwing govt jobs and money at this will be a waste and fail.
Here is an example of an anti-homelessness public/private partnership with extensive services, many provided by NGOs like you envision. It is only targeted to homeless veterans, so hasn't addressed the needs of many people, but has made a huge difference in one community. Perhaps it's a model that could be expanded widely. Note that the starting point was the rehabbing of a defunct motel. This suggests to me that it could be adapted to all kinds of empty buildings, as we are seeing changes in cities in the wake of the pandemic. https://www.columbiaha.com/housing/patriot-place-apartments
Great idea with community built around veterans. How about for people without any military experiences? In my country only 1% have a military background. Religous community is a declining minority.
Last I checked, the overwhelming majority of homeless are vets, if they haven’t already offed themselves(22 a day, that’s everyday). I don’t think anyone can say that Veterans are sucking up too much of the oxygen in this matter. Not to discount your points about repurposing existing buildings to suit the many homeless that are not veterans.
I hope my comment didn't come off as dismissive of the needs of veterans. My point was that in this particular community (Columbia, MO), there are good reasons this could happen--there's a VA, so people can get health care, including mental health care; there's a company based in Columbia, Veterans United Home Loans, that does a lot of really great philanthropy, much of it targeted at veterans; and there were a number of local NGOs already there who jumped in to make it really a high-quality effort. Maybe there are other similar communities, or other communities might be better poised to target a different group.
Doing no research here at all, I suspect that the percentage of homelessness that is veterans depends partly on definitions. If you mean people living rough in encampments, it may be a higher percentage than if you consider people couch-surfing, or staying in motels or cars, or doubling up with relatives and friends, moving around a lot.
Re-reading your first post I think I misread the tone! To the point of definitions, I think you’re right, there are all different kinds of homeless, and it is important to remember that not all homeless present a certain way but could be suffering just as much. I’ve been homeless before, in my twenties, living in my pickup. Trying to figure out where you will relieve yourself in the morning, and where you can take your next shower gets old, FAST. I was never destitute and never suffered. But it’s not hard to see how falling off the merry go round, even for a minute, can be very hard to climb back on when everything is moving except for you.