rubyvroom:

all-hail-gale:

merak-zoran:

seconddoubt:

left-reminders:

calliope-lalonde:

someone: so what do you think is the solution to homelessness?

me, socialist:

Let homeless people occupy peopleless homes, build houses for use rather than exchange, 3D print comfortable houses in a day, convert corporate skyscrapers into housing and commercial malls into publicly-accessible community centers with living commons and entertainment

When you say it to people and they break

“But the money? … we can’t just? But, Money? We can’t just… help… people? Can we? The Money. We can’t just help people? Like that? We can’t just? Money?”

There’s more to it than free real estate.

A massive portion of homeless people are mentally ill, and many of those illnesses aren’t being treated. Homeless people who have been on the streets and had their illnesses untreated for most of their lives aren’t going to adjust super well to suddenly having a place to live.

We need to build safety nets. We need social workers and mental health care professionals to help the homeless.

Every person deserves a roof and health care. Those two things need to go hand in hand.

The Housing First model of dealing with homelessness does exactly this. But actually when homeless people with mental illness or drug dependencies get into housing they start to do a lot better. Yes there are safety nets and things to work on after but it starts with housing. Homeless shelters right now aren’t doing enough because they either limit stays or make it so that drug addicts aren’t allowed to stay there at all. Obviously they’re still helping people but the Housing First model would actually help a lot more people long term and even be cheaper for the government in the long run. Unfortunately I don’t have sources but if someone can add them that’d be great.

Here’s one small study where they directly compared Housing First and Treatment First populations and found that Housing First did better. 

Here’s another study doing the same with mental illness. 

General health has also been found to improve with housing assistance.

Some models of Housing First appear to be more successful than others. This is an interesting study comparing various formats with different features including emphasis on harm reduction, case worker interactions, and scattered-site versus project-based housing. They conclude that which model will work best depends on a person’s profile, health status, substance history, etc.