@doschicos, I totally agree. Our property taxes went up by $300 since last year. I have never experienced such a radical increase in our taxes nor have my parents (I have handled their bills for 7 yrs now). It’s unbelievable. My husband’s small company also drastically reduced his salary last year. He’s looking for a new job but it’s hard being middle-aged looking for a new position.
As I said earlier, I feel for those barely hanging on by a thread bc we’ve felt the pinch here in our neck of the woods and we have modest stability with our other assets at this time. But, a major medical problem like cancer, could easily hurt us big time. I’m sure this is another homeless segment; those who were doing ok and then had a drastic change in income and/or a devastating medical diagnosis.
Here’s an example of how the city spends money on a homeless shelter. The ‘temporary’ shelter near Olvera Street downtown houses 45 people. The city spent about $2.3 million dollars on it! It’s just trailers with room dividers and a deck with tables and chairs.
2.3 million dollars divided by 45 people equals $53,000 per person.
The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music by Steve Lopez is an interesting book about a reporter’s relationship with a homeless man. It demonstrates how complicated and difficult solving this problem is. (I know they made a movie out of it also, but I haven’t seen it).
Since legalizing marijuana was mentioned, early marijuana use correlates to schizophrenia onset; I would not be surprised if we eee a concomitant rise in homelessness with that.
The Olvera Street shelter in Los Angeles is expensive, but still cheaper than prison or a locked mental health facility. Homelessness costs money.
The shelter not only houses its residents, but feeds them and offers them supportive services. Its aim is to transition its residents to permanent housing. Yes, it’s expensive. But leaving those homeless people on the street is also expensive.
And why money should be spent looking for ways to prevent people from getting to that stage in the first place - more income equality, educational quality, job training, mental health services and health care services for all regardless of income, etc. etc. Think how far that $50K per year (or less) could go for services and intervention programs that proactively seek to address issues before it gets to the stage of homelessness, addiction, etc.
It’s much cheaper to provide a helping hand or leg up than to wait until someone becomes a burden when they are not only not contributing to society but costing mega $$.
@scubadive I work for a company that has been struggling a bit because our prices have been undercut, but not by immigrants but by other competitors and individuals who have undercut prices in order to win business. Your friend lost business because he did not offer better service for his price. I have hired people to do work on my house that are more expensive because they offer better service or are insured or otherwise offer a better package. Your anecdote does not really support the argument that immigrants are to blame.
It sounds like the Washington experiment suffered from a lack of vetting of those accepted into the apartments and a lack of oversight. Reading about the homefirst program (housing as the immediate answer), it sounds good in theory and there are lots of protections for the tenant, but seems like the responsiblities of the tenant and irghts of the landlord and other tenants were not clearly stated. Like most good ideas, there are unintended consequences. It all sounds like a few bad folks turned this into a bad situation.
And this is an assessment of some programs done by Columbia. I didn’t have time to read it all, but it does make some key points about the differences among programs.
Various articles say that the operating costs are around $1.3-1.4 million per year, or about $30k per person per year.
Those who are advocating having the police haul them to jail may want to consider that a new jail costs something like $250k per bed to build, and over $50k per inmate per year in operating costs. Anyone who (due to conviction for a felony) ends up in prison in California costs the taxpayers $81k per year: https://lao.ca.gov/policyareas/cj/6_cj_inmatecost .
I found that WA Post article frustrating. My impression from reading it was that many of the people using the vouchers were fine but there were some who caused problems. An instance of feces in the stairwell is disgusting, but hardly reason to maligne a whole program. They could have focused on the success stories and the story would have come across very differently.
I recall that WaPo article saying that half of the non-voucher renters had moved out. It’s easier to move than to try and deal with the bureaucracy of these programs.
Like the business owner in the Seattle Dying program, the owner of the boutique, and the business owner in this area who was going to have to share a parking lot with a homeless shelter, they both sold and moved out.
Honestly, how many of us would want a homeless shelter placed next to us. In Los Angeles, the city threatens to put one in every council district. From Koreatown to Sherman Oaks to Venice to Playa del Rey, all the neighborhood residents are protesting against them.
What’s wrong with profiling homeless people into two groups? One who just need a shelter, the other a whole lot more support. Solutions would be vastly different for the two groups. We can’t lump them together and apply one solution to everyone.
A well-known very old book says “The poor you shall have with you always.” Poverty and homelessness have always been around and most likely have always been due to things like a bad draw in the birth lottery, bad choices individuals made, and pure bad luck with health, etc.
Even back then folks were told to treat everyone with respect. Those who did not were not talked about very favorably to say the least.
Back then and since then many have been trying to figure out what to do/how to help, but there really is no easy answer. Everyone (who cares) has to pick something to contribute to (or do). We personally opt to contribute to food banks/shelters, educational causes, and health care causes. I can only pray that what we contribute helps someone in need.
Of course, I also try to do my own part in educating the next generation via my job - both academic and “life” education. Sometimes it helps - other times…(sigh) “The poor you shall have with you always.” No system/idea/theory is going to get rid of it. If it were easy, it’d have been done.
The DC housing experiment mentioned by @Iglooo and @Emsmom1 highlights the intractability of this problem. Many people don’t have the life skills to live on their own. They need support, just as some kids need IEPs to make the most of their schooling.
It’s easy to say that any of us could be in their situation, but the fact is, it’s just not true. Anyone might be a job loss or serious illness away from losing housing, but I imagine most people on this site, through good luck or sheer privilege, have the executive functioning skills to formulate a plan to make the most of whatever housing we might end up in, whether it’s a shelter or a voucher situation like that described in the article. It’s not just addiction or mental illness that cause people to tank in these situations, it’s a lack of life skills and just plain bad luck beginning in childhood.
I know a woman who once had her own home, mortgage-free. But she was never taught good financial sense, and because of the hideous abuse she endured as a child, didn’t know how to pick a reliable partner, either. So she had a string of bad boyfriends and two husbands who cheated her out of her money. Now she’s in her early 60s, very obese with health problems, can’t work and is so mistrustful of anything to do with authority that she won’t seek the help to which she is legally entitled. She is a squatter in a shack in rural Maine with no electricity or running water. Yet she is not an addict or mentally ill. And this is just one of many homeless/near homeless people with her own unique story.
We aren’t going to be able to solve homelessness as a big abstract problem. The plan has to be for homeless individuals, not “homelessness.”
Again, Providence, Rhode Island has a successful program for those dealing with drug addiction. It is detailed in the final portion of the 60 minute YouTube video “Seattle is Dying”–a 2019 release.
P.S. I think that citing costs of incarceration versus free housing & food is not a fair comparison as there are many unrevealed costs caused by those not placed in custody of a mental health care or other facility. Plus, we do not know the costs until a successful, comprehensive program is established & operating similar to that in Providence, Rhode Island.
P.P.S. Also, all incarcerated individuals should receive life skills & job training while confined in addition to mental health treatment. While this will raise the cost of incarceration, that is a short term perspective. When released many can become productive taxpayers.