[ExI] Homelessness (was Re: Social right to have a living)

Kelly Anderson kellycoinguy at gmail.com
Mon Jun 27 05:58:32 UTC 2011


On Sun, Jun 26, 2011 at 1:20 PM, Damien Sullivan
<phoenix at ugcs.caltech.edu> wrote:
> Homelessness
> might look different if every citizen had by right a place they could go
> to.

Giving homeless people a home sounds like a really good idea, until
you actually try it. They don't know how to take care of a home. They
don't care about the home because they haven't invested in it. It
often becomes a place for them and their friends to take drugs, which
makes the home a toxic dump unable to be used by anyone afterwards.
Many homeless in the US are mentally ill, turned out on the streets by
well meaning liberals at the ACLU.

Programs that are successful require daily visits to the home,
education and a number of other programs in addition to just giving
them a home.

Not all homeless people are created equal, and some would do well if
you just gave them a house. I would submit that the percentage that
would do well in this situation is lower than you might think.

In Singapore, they give everyone a home. The homes became
uninhabitable for many people in short order. So they changed the
program so people had to pay for the home, and it worked much better.
This isn't a simple problem.

-Kelly



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