<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(11,83,148)">I don't know either but I do know this: alcoholics and drug addicts and the mentally retarded and psychotic should not be homeless unless they simply will not stay put in some kind of housing. I have worked in mental institutions from the lowest level aide to professional psychologist (including Bryce Hospital in Tuscaloosa that filed the law suit that changed a lot of things in 1973) and think that after minorities such as blacks, women, animals, and children have all had many advocates and organization devoted to them, maybe we can have a civil rights movement for the above fathers, mothers, children, brothers and sisters of our citizens.<br>
<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(11,83,148)">I think we should be judged in part by how we treat the lowest and most helpless of us.<br><br></div>
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bill wallace<br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Apr 3, 2014 at 9:38 AM, Kelly Anderson <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kellycoinguy@gmail.com" target="_blank">kellycoinguy@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="">On Thu, Apr 3, 2014 at 12:08 AM, Stathis Papaioannou <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:stathisp@gmail.com" target="_blank">stathisp@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote">
<div>One way to avoid creating ghettoes is for the public housing agency to make spot purchases in established areas. This has been tried to an extent in Australia and seems to work well, although there are still large public housing projects from the 50's and 60's.</div>
</div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div></div><div>Singapore has a fairly successful program because they created a path to apartment ownership. Prior to establishing potential ownership, the apartments were rented and trashed. After creating a path to ownership, things went a little better down there.</div>
<div><br></div><div>One problem related to homelessness in the USA is mental health care. Many of the chronically homeless are mentally ill, and would not willingly choose to move into an apartment, no matter how nice. Though some will accept services, if offered by an attractive young woman in a large pink bunny suit. Once there, they would be incapable of taking care of the place. So you would also have to pay for daily maid service to keep it nice. Might not be such a huge problem with robot maids... but there are jobs Americans won't do, as you might recall.</div>
<div><br></div><div>According to the gubment...</div><div><a href="http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/Mental_Illness.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/Mental_Illness.pdf</a><br></div>
<div><div>"20 to 25% of the homeless population in the United States suffers from some form of severe mental illness."</div>
</div><div><br></div><div>So in 2009, they spent a billion and a half dollars (that they borrowed from China) extra in TARP to address homelessness. I would argue that unemployment stayed artificially high because of those government run shenanigans, but the socialists would disagree. </div>
<div><br></div><div>The mentally ill used to be housed in large institutions, often in barbaric conditions, but our friends at the American Civil Liberties Union made sure that those got shut down in the early 70s. This has left a bit of a hole in our system that still has not been filled, except by homeless mentally ill people. There are a lot of group homes for the mentally incompetent. These are just more expensive versions of the large institutions. My mentally challenged daughter lives in one of these, and I grant that it is nicer than my house, but she lacks freedom so I would not trade places with her.</div>
<div><br></div><div>People who are not mentally ill or drug addicted tend to rotate in and out of homelessness as a temporary condition. Those who are mentally ill or drug addicted can be chronically homeless.</div><div>
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</div><div>Then there is the very small percentage of people who prefer homelessness as a life style. In a free nation, it would be hard to force them into housing. They enjoy the feeling of being free from NSA surveillance, and other things because homelessness equates to invisibility.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I admit to a huge amount of ignorance on the subject. But I do know there are no simple solutions to this complex problem despite what some exuberant journalist has to say on the issue. He's been watching too many TED talks, where all the world's problems are solved in 18 minutes.</div>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
<div><br></div><div>-Kelly</div><div><br></div></font></span></div></div></div>
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