• Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    There is already an order of magnitude more unused housing than unhoused people- the problem is that the market is involved and that requires winners and losers.

    That’s why you have people dying of exposure in the richest country in the history of the world. God damn america.

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
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      8 months ago

      G-give…away? N-n-no money for me?? But money me, now. Money now. Money! House = money! Empty house, no money is ok, full house no money NOT OK!

      CoMmUnIsM!!!

      -Landleeches

      • Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        It’s off the aggregate numbers. I’m sure that there’s a lot of useless suburban sprawl pumping the numbers up. The “most efficient system” is an abject failure when it comes to housing people unless the only metric you care about is revenue generation for shithead inheritors.

  • rockSlayer@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    “but who will pay for it?1!?1?!1?”

    The government

    “But then my taxes are going to do some good! That can’t be!!!”

    • gkd@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      Ah, another “He Gets Us” moment.

      “Jesus was homeless for a time (supposedly), so it’s fine for them to be homeless!” ☺️

  • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Housing first is a proven strategy in dealing with homelessness. The fact that every state has not adopted these policies to help eliminate the homeless population shows this is more a cultural issue than a lack of housing.

    According to the Census there are a lot more empty houses than homeless people. Let that sink in and you start to realize all is not what it seems.

    Until someone is safe and has their basic needs met it is impossible to work on issues such as mental health and addiction.

    The solution exists but it is going to take a lot of our time, money, and most importantly a cultural shift away from blaming people to accomplish it.

    If we could fix our homelessness then we would show that we truly care about our citizens rather than just paying a lip service to our most vulnerable people.

    • pingveno@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      According to the Census there are a lot more empty houses than homeless people. Let that sink in and you start to realize all is not what it seems.

      This particular statistic needs to be handled carefully. There are problems with both its definition and its nature. Empty housing has a fairly broad definition that includes housing that is unfinished, in the middle of repairs, or unfit for habitation.

      The nature of housing with relationship to homelessness depends a lot on where the homeless people are and where the housing is. Empty housing in towns and cities that are depopulating is unlikely to be all that useful. Simply taking people from cities with high levels of homelessness, ripping them out of their communities, and plopping them down into communities that other people are leaving is not a favor.

      Also, you shouldn’t just warehouse unhoused people in whatever housing is available. Many of them have mental illnesses that need good access to mental health services, transit, and jobs. Just because they’re under a roof doesn’t mean the job is done. The housing should be tailored to the various populations that it will be serving.

      • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I encourage you to lookup up Housing First if you have not already. While it may be misleading to say there are 16 million vacant home to half a million homeless people (32 homes for every homeless person), for the reasons you mentioned, it is entirely possible house these people.

        No one who knows about this issue is thinking about warehousing people. Like you said they need a stable place to live, access to services, transportation, and work when they are ready.

        • pingveno@lemmy.ml
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          8 months ago

          I’m familiar with Housing First. I mostly just didn’t want to see a misleading use of statistics left unchallenged. Statistics around housing are difficult to grasp, so I often see them used in a misleading way, usually unknowingly.

          Take one statistic, the rental vacancy rate in my city, Portland. It has lately been around 4%. Given the number of homeless people in the city, that feels like a travesty. But when you start to do calculations, that turns out to be an average of 2 weeks every four years. If you have tenants moving out after four years, that’s barely enough time to do a few repairs, let the paint dry, and finding new tenants. What seemed like a loose market turns out to be a very tight market.

  • BillMurray@lemmy.ca
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    8 months ago

    I understand this building in downtown Vancouver probably had issues with people sleeping here, but placing a bunch of concrete filled pylons is fucked up.

  • KᑌᔕᕼIᗩ@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    Homeless exist to remind the rest of the serfs that they better go back to the coal mine or they’ll end up just like them.

      • cricket98@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        not really, more like they exist to help prevent people from getting stabbed from a meth addicted homeless person who is convinced you are satan trying to steal their soul

        • RichCaffeineFlavor@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          80’s crime world movies are fascist propaganda by the way. This person is demonstrating how popular culture is also political.

          There is a such thing as a crazy madman killer in our society. They’re called school shooters, and they live in the suburbs. The cartoon that exists in this person’s head about what homelessness is and who it’s a danger to didn’t come out of thin air.

          • cricket98@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            80’s crime world movies are fascist propaganda by the way.

            We’ve really turned the word “fascist propaganda” to mean anything that goes against your worldview. There are definitely crazed homeless people who do not care one bit about committing needless violence. I’ve experienced it first hand. Back when I lived in NYC there were some of the absolutely most deranged people I’ve ever seen in my life, one guy stabbed a indian knick knack stall owner with a piece of glass for legitimately no reason. The guy almost died. It is what it is, but I think burying your head in the sand is not really a viable way forward.

            • RichCaffeineFlavor@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              Lol calling everything fascist propaganda

              Anyway as I was saying there’s inherently evil people out there and we need a police response to keep them suppressed for the safety of the good people of whom I and maybe(?) you are one.

  • PatFusty@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    Most homeless i have ever talked to dont want this. They want no strings attached crack homes not crack houses. If you even so talk about how shitty a lot of these people are you get pounded down with how awful of a person you are and blahblah. I have worked with and have been in clise contact with a lot of homeless and much of the time they are disgusting people inside and outside.

    Hit me with the downvote.

    • brambledog@lemmy.today
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      8 months ago

      Well I don’t think we should judge all homeless people based solely off your close proximity to them.

      Your position sort of assumes that anybody who disagrees with you only holds their beliefs because they themselves have never had your close proximity.

      I

    • Adori@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Downvote cuz youre over generalizing, maybe you get those type of people if youre working in a homeless camp with addicts, then youll encounter the people who have been down in their luck and when theyre addicted they dont see a way out.

      People outside of the homeless camp could be completely different cause they havent reached the point of being an addict and homeless where they need that service.

    • LordKitsuna@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I mean we can just look at historical precedent. Back when the drug crisis started and Nixon decided to start the War on Drugs Switzerland took a completely different approach and started what they called care centers. Somewhere you could go to get heroin of high quality administered by doctors for free, you would also then get somewhere to sleep somewhere to shower and keep your things. Access to social workers and mental Care Professionals to help you get your life back on track.

      They saw a 85% success rate within the first year. 85% of people that went into those facilities had a stable job on their own household of some variety within the first year and a follow-up study of how they were doing 5 years later showed that they had stayed employed and housed and not regressed.

      But that would require people in the US to be willing to look at them as people and not just criminals who did it to themselves. These people are literally broken, you can’t treat their actions as you would a normal person because they are not mentally stable.

    • Cowbee@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      Wow, you are an awful person, lmao. You require people to remain in destitution because you anecdotally dealt with rude people? Perhaps they were rude because you’re an awful person?

      • PatFusty@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        I dont require anyone to be in anything. I was simply giving my opinion. From my experience a lot of homeless prefer to stay homeless because they like that lifestyle. At the same time, we have people like you who want to shower them with things they dont want.

        • Cowbee@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          I want to decommidify housing, as there’s no need for that. You want people on the streets, and are making up lies to justify your hatred for poor people.

          Simple as.

          • PatFusty@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            I have heard of homeless people reject wanting to live in housing because they had rules like no meth or curfew. Ask yourself why do homeless shelters run under capacity when there are still people on the street. Why is it that homeless populations are increasing but the percentage of people in shelters is decreasing?link to info on homeless

            The honest truth is there are a lot of families and people who are down on their luck and my heart goes to these people. I also know there are a lot of addicts who dont give a flying fuck.

              • PatFusty@lemm.ee
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                8 months ago

                I dont think housing being a commodity has anything to do with this problem more than scarcity of homeless shelters. But if you made it easier to own a home for the unfortunate, we will likely see the same outcomes. Other countries like Britain or France have decommodified housing and they still have a sizable homeless population.

                If you give the individuals who reject rules a luxury of owning a home, the only thing being solved is the eye sore by having certain people moved out of public view. The rest frankly just like being in the environment.

            • TheScaryDoor@startrek.website
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              8 months ago

              Does your housing have curfews enforced upon you? Does it require you to get rid of all of your possessions? Are you kicked out of it due to preexisting conditions? I am assuming not and I would guess that you would reject such housing as well. They are rejecting being treated as lesser human beings.

              • cricket98@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                why do homeless people care about curfews they don’t have any pressing matters they need to deal with past 9pm other than scoring drugs and committing crimes. nothing good happens past 9pm

  • pancake@lemmygrad.ml
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    8 months ago

    Well, to be fair there are indeed enough houses… We kinda just assumed they would, by the grace of the market, end up distributed among virtually all people and at a fair price. The reason they never did and increasingly don’t is one of the largest unsolved problems in economics /s

    • unalivejoy@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      We know what the problem is, and how to solve it. The people in charge just don’t want it solved.

    • lugal@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      This is so weird, isn’t it? I reran the model thousand times, it can’t be wrong! I mean, what’s supposed to be wrong? The assumptions? That’s ridiculous! Let me readjust the factors once more…

    • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      The houses aren’t in the right place where people need them, however. Where are there millions of unoccupied homes in California, Oregon and Washington?

      Oregon alone is short something like 150,000 housing units. I can’t ever recall seeing an empty house that stayed vacant for very long.

  • Smokeydope@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Spend some taxpayer money on renovating abandoned shopping malls into housing for the homeless

    • Stumblinbear@pawb.social
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      8 months ago

      Not exactly doable since living spaces legally must have egress windows, and shopping malls… Don’t really have many outer walls for that compared to the amount of space internally they have

  • ComaScript@monyet.cc
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    8 months ago

    I mean houses cost money, and we know the government don’t like spending in the first place, they just worried about public image not the root of the problem