this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (4 children)

It's also forgetting that a significant portion of homeless people are homeless by choice, or are homeless for reasons that just providing housing won't resolve.

People have this idea that all homeless people are just regular people who experienced hard times, but that's just a minority. Most homeless are mentally ill people who won't take their meds or drug addicts who aren't willing to quit.

It sucks, and they shouldn't have to live on the streets, but you can't force people to change.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don’t think people have that idea at all, if anything they are more likely to assume a homeless person is mentally ill and drug addicted than they are to think they are experiencing hard times or employed but unable to pay for housing.

However housing first has been pretty successful, but goes against many people’s values for some reason. The big fear of someone getting something undeserved is strong.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Some might say the big fear of someone getting something undeserved is strong enough to prop up an entire political party.

But it is not exclusive to them, of course. Some are just very bad about it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is just conservative propaganda

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm a liberal, buddy. Homelessness is a very complex issue that won't be solved by building more housing.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah, liberals and conservatives only differ on whether gay people should be put to death, so you're not really saying much. And being liberal does not, whatsoever, make you immune to conservative propaganda. We live in a capitalist society, founded on liberal values: whether conservatives know it or not, it is liberal values they are conserving.

Also, as I've said about 5 times now, no one is saying that building houses alone will solve the issue. So stop beating that strawman.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For many it literally is a choice, and framing homelessness as something that no one has control over is problematic.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I believe you are arguing in good faith, so I'm hoping you can provide a source for your claim that the majority suffer from mental illness or drug addiction.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah that can't be right... The problem with these discussions I think is there's a very big difference between the technical definition of homeless, and the one people use colloquially.

It's the most visible minority of homeless people that tend to be the entrenched ones people think of when they think of homelessness, and those people essentially have nothing in common with the other "homeless" people other than having no permanent home. It makes the discussion harder as people are using the same word but talking about different things.