There are typically quite some homeless programs running, but many get rejected for not abiding by the rules they (understandably) must have, i.e. don't be violent or do drugs. It's not enough to give these people a home, you must also address the reason they are homeless.
To understand the problem we should first define what is 'a home' is and then we should ask homeless about what they do understand as 'a home'. People who never actually interacted with homeless in any [bigger than some spare change] capacity would never understand that.
> They don't even want to be in the system
And this one is even harder, because most of them has a deep aversion and/or distrust for 'the system', for whatever reason.
> We were able to get some off the street
Kudos to you and your fellows, but, as you probably know already, many, many who get off the street gets back, often in a quite short time.
> part of a homeless non-profit for about a year
If you don't mind and the reason for quitting was related to it - what was the reason? Idle curiosity from my part.
> The problem is that a high percentage of the homeless don’t want the housing
That is not a problem, that is a consequence. And its something you'd have hard time fixing. And if so why not start with homeless that want the housing first?
People who what and are helped back into society are going to be net benefit financially, even people who hate others and love money cant argue. Helping those people back up is investment that always pays off.
So why is this an issue?
Also:
> high percentage of the homeless don’t want the housing
> Many prefer to live in the homeless encampments
A snarky Citation Needed. Where did you get that?
It not like those people were born homeless and this is their 'lifestyle' majority tripped and felt. Nobody helped them and they are stuck there.
Given enough time and they will become disillusioned and resentful of outsiders. Worse get used to living rough.
That said, there will be always a % of people who cannot be helped. And that's ok, we can't save everyone.
> giving them housing won't fix their behavioral problems.
What is that based on? My understanding from experts is that housing provides people with the stability to address their other problems. It's a valuable first step. Imagine trying to deal with whatever your problems are today if you also were homeless. Now imagine your problems are far worse, food is an issue, and emotionally debilitating.
Even well-housed people I know have a hard time dealing with their long-term problems. Add some more stress to their lives and they fall apart.
> ~50% of the homeless are severely mentally ill and/or on hard drugs
Where does that number come from? AFAIK, medical bills are a leading cause of homelessness.
>Homelessness does not beget homelessness. It is most important to note that
But is this really a fact? I agree with your later reasoning that homelessness is a symptom of deeper problems, but I'd argue that our societies should have one more failsafe in place: housing for the homeless.
I've never been sleeping rough, but I'd think it would be pretty traumatic. This would kick some into seeking help, but would make others fail even more.
>Have you worked with the homeless? Yes there is a lot of mental illness, but there is a large number of people who choose to live this way.
Having been homeless myself many years ago, I can tell you from experience that not having money to pay rent or anyone to take you in is the reason people "choose" to be homeless.
And once you are homeless, it's very difficult to work yourself out of it, for many reasons.
I assume you haven't considered that it's very hard to keep (or even get) a job if you have no place to bathe or store your stuff while you're working.
> As we all know, N_homeless = N_people - N_homes.
This is not even close to true. It’s regularly recognized that for many people, homelessness is rooted in disabilities, mental health issues, substance abuse issues, or other problems that hurt their ability to keep and maintain a home even if they had one.
It’s not at all a pure supply issue, although supply plays a big role in certain geographic areas. It’s a complex problem.
Keep in mind that even if you own a home, maintenance, utilities, and taxes are expensive.
> That sounds more like a mental health issue though
Yes, absolutely, the primary causes of homelessness are drug addiction and mental health issues. There are other causes, and I'd never advocate being callous or dismissive toward the homeless- but this is the reason people find large concentrations of them off-putting.
> My homeless friends would really love for you to tell them this to their faces.
Homeless make up ~0.17% of the US population. Of these, the majority live in some form of shelter transitional housing. Tell me again how a system that manages to provide shelter to 99.9% of the population isn't working.
> Everywhere that believes housing is an actual human need rather than an investment vehicle.
Do the have have actual names or are they simply a concept?
> The problem is figuring out what to do about the homeless people who refuse to accept shelter and other forms of government assistance.
Does San Francisco have shelter beds that are sitting empty? We just don't have that problem yet. The people refusing shelter are refusing to throw away all of their remaining possessions for the promise of a few nights inside and then getting kicked out.
I think you overestimate the number of homeless by choice vs homeless by circumstance. You also are sort of marginalizing the homeless who need help by painting them as happily homeless. Very naive take on the situation.
> Generally you don't solve homelessness with affordable housing.
I think in some part, you do. I think a significant portion of homeless became that way through the stress and despair of affording $2k+ rents on a meager income, dealing with the lack of hope by turning to alcohol and possible other drugs, leading to a downward spiral where they end up on the street, abusing drugs for years, and eventually turning into the destitution you see.
> Of course all urban centers are so starved of entry level housing that anything good enough to minimally get a homeless person off the street (bathroom, place to sleep, maybe kitchenette) would also be swamped by everyone from the poor and working, college students, immigrants, etc.
I doubt it; one of the reasons that homelessness is a difficult problem is that some homeless people are very unpleasant to live with, which means other homeless people prefer to remain on the street rather than share housing with them.
> Not having a home.
There are typically quite some homeless programs running, but many get rejected for not abiding by the rules they (understandably) must have, i.e. don't be violent or do drugs. It's not enough to give these people a home, you must also address the reason they are homeless.
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