Why do we not fix the homelessness problem?

Bretrick

Bretrick

Well-known Member
Location
Perth Western Australia
It saddens me that successive Governments promise to address the problem of homelessness in Australia. As everyone keeps telling me, Australia is a rich country yet we treat so many of our citizens appallingly.
The solutions are out there but because there are no votes in addressing homelessness.
Philanthropy would be a good thing. Sure, there are Philanthropic people in Australia, just not enough of them.
There are an estimated 600,000 empty houses in Sydney and Melbourne alone.
Why?
There are so many countries doing the right thing by the homeless, or at least trying different approaches.
San Diego even provides Car Parks for those forced to live in their cars. Not a home, but they are showing empathy towards those forced onto the streets
If a person has food, shelter, and their health needs met, they can actually spend time contributing in some way to society. Making a meaningful contribution to society can help create a sense of community.
 

I agree with you, Bretrick.

Your question reminds me of a lecture I once went to. The presenter talked about two men who were walking around a lake. One of them was a researcher and the other was a medical doctor.

Up ahead, a person jumps in the lake and can't swim, and is yelling for help, so the medical doctor jumps in and saves that person's life. Then the two men continue their walk around the lake, and up ahead, that same person has jumped once more in the lake and is yelling for help, so the medical doctor again jumps in and saves their life. Now, this third time around the lake, this person again jumps in, and this time the researcher stops the doctor and says "Maybe instead of saving his life each time, we should be asking why is he jumping in the lake in the first place?"

So, the question I have for the homeless is "Why are they there in the first place?" It's one thing to help them AFTER they've become homeless (give them shelter, food), but I think it's the failure of our system when a person gets to that point in their life in the first place, where they cannot function normally, whether they have mental illness, or are a drug addict, etc. I know of a man that lives a few blocks from my mother's house in Florida, and has opened up his home to these people who are homeless. He has there - 4-5 people - sleeping there. A few months ago, the police were there because one of them had died. I don't know the reason, but it was sad to hear about it.
 

By going after the real indirect drivers of that and a list of other ills, Wall Street financial corps, REITs, real estate corps, their backdoor politicians, and their army of speculators doing their dirty work. They also back door monkey wrench anything to stop excessive immigration that squeezes the poor into middle class housing where we have no choice but to increasingly spend more. The current situation was dreamed up by Wall Street several years ago in a very public news article and then the feeding frenzy began by advertising worldwide to those willing to invest money. And their typical politician puppets just spout "we need more housing", but about the only thing built is expensive housing. Like predator porpoises, sharks, tuna, and jacks feeding on giant balls or frantic helpless sardines.
 
David777 said:
By going after the real indirect drivers of that and a list of other ills, Wall Street financial corps, REITs, real estate corps, their backdoor politicians, and their army of speculators doing their dirty work. They also back door monkey wrench anything to stop excessive immigration that squeezes the poor into middle class housing where we have no choice but to increasingly spend more. The current situation was dreamed up by Wall Street several years ago in a very public news article and then the feeding frenzy began by advertising worldwide to those willing to invest money. And their typical politician puppets just spout "we need more housing", but about the only thing built is expensive housing. Like predator porpoises, sharks, tuna, and jacks feeding on giant balls or frantic helpless sardines.
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"Affordable housing" here is Australia still has a price tag of AU$400,000 - US$300,000.
How can low income people "afford" such a price.
Mortgage payments would be about $1500 a month, with total interest paid over the life of the loan - $150,000
 
palides2021 said:
I agree with you, Bretrick.

Your question reminds me of a lecture I once went to. The presenter talked about two men who were walking around a lake. One of them was a researcher and the other was a medical doctor.

Up ahead, a person jumps in the lake and can't swim, and is yelling for help, so the medical doctor jumps in and saves that person's life. Then the two men continue their walk around the lake, and up ahead, that same person has jumped once more in the lake and is yelling for help, so the medical doctor again jumps in and saves their life. Now, this third time around the lake, this person again jumps in, and this time the researcher stops the doctor and says "Maybe instead of saving his life each time, we should be asking why is he jumping in the lake in the first place?"

So, the question I have for the homeless is "Why are they there in the first place?" It's one thing to help them AFTER they've become homeless (give them shelter, food), but I think it's the failure of our system when a person gets to that point in their life in the first place, where they cannot function normally, whether they have mental illness, or are a drug addict, etc. I know of a man that lives a few blocks from my mother's house in Florida, and has opened up his home to these people who are homeless. He has there - 4-5 people - sleeping there. A few months ago, the police were there because one of them had died. I don't know the reason, but it was sad to hear about it.
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Agreed, many people who become homeless have a lot of markers before homelessness becomes a reality.
More emphasis needs to be given to those markers to ensure all possible options are explored before the perceived inevitability of homelessness eventuates
 
If there were an easy solution, it would have been fixed by now. One problem with affordable housing is that most people don't want it in their neighborhood. Homeless people are a bit scary to most folks. One location in our town was nixed because it was too close to an elementary school.

It needs to be solved case by case, and that will require a significant effort. People with mental illness need to be taken care of. But, there are laws that can make that difficult. And, who's to decide if a person is mentally ill or not. And, what do you do with people who are on drugs?

I suspect there is minority who are perfectly sane, but simply prefer to be homeless. It's their chosen life style, like beach bums who surf all day and camp at night. Do we just ignore them?

And then there are honest hard working people who through no fault of their own are homeless. Some have jobs, but don't make enough to pay rent. They deserve subsidies. Some are disabled or can't work for some other reason and they should get help too.

But, if not done right, affordable housing can turn into slums. Somehow that needs to be avoided.
 
Homelessness goes back to biblical times. If no solution has been implemented since then does it seem realistic to think the problem will be solved now?

A low rent public housing experiment to help give homeless people a place to live. But for some reason it didn't work the way politicians envisioned. The political thinking was build public housing next to where wealthy people lived. Seeing how wealthy lived was supposed to inspire those unfortunate people to want to do better.
BIG surprise Crime in Luis Lloréns Torres, PR including murder, assault, and property crime rose.
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-2005-07-24-prhousing24-1-story.html

The wealthy home owners sold since their neighbor hoods became unlivable due to crime.
 
I agree is very complex issue with no easy answer. Especially for the severely addicted and mentally Ill. I have a friend that has an elderly brother that has an apartment and enough money to sustain himself. However, he choses to live as a homeless man, he too has mental illness. Each individual has a different story. I had a homeless man living behind my store for awhile and every agency possible tried to help this man, giving him housing a job etc. he kept choosing to go back to drinking and living homeless, not being able to keep a job. He hasn’t been around. Hopefully he’s gotten his life together.
 
When people talk of the homeless, a large percentage think of the alcoholics and the drug addicts they see on the street.
There is a lot more to homelessness than this cohort.
Single mothers who are renting become homeless when their landlord decides to raise their rent by upwards of $150 a week and the mother has no way to pay such an increase.
Renters become homeless when owners decide to sell their rental property and the new owner wants to live in the house.
People become homeless when the soul bread winner loses their job and are unable to pay the mortgage.
People become homeless due to domestic violence.
People become homeless when new apartment blocks are found to be defective because of unscrupulous builders who cut corners making the building either unsafe for habitation or non compliant with building codes - many times this is the fault of the Building Surveyor being slack in their duties.
People become homeless through natural disasters such as bush fires - floods - earthquakes - tornados et al.
These homeless people can be housed if instead of spending $50 - $80 billion dollars on military submarines or $2 billion Stadiums.
The will is not there for adequate housing.
It is estimated that there is a shortfall of 450,000 affordable and social housing presently in Australia and this number will only grow without a commitment from those in control of the purse strings.
 
Manatee said:
It has to start with the homeless doing something for their own-selves.
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Many people are homeless through no fault of their own. It could be a bad set of circumstances, a disaster that destroyed their homes and even their places of business. It could be that the landlords raised the rent so high that a working family barely making ends meet in the first place, now have an expense they just cannot pay. I mentioned in another post that new landlords of the house my son and DIL were living in raised the rent by $500 a month. Someone else here mentioned a similar thing happened with her daughter.

There are so many different scenarios that your flippant, simplistic remark doesn't fit all. I read about a town in N.J. that wanted to close down a "tent city" that wound up taking up part of a park, so they started destroying makeshift structures and kicking people out. A reporter interviewed some of the homeless there. One couple was actually wealthy at one time. The husband's catastrophic illness and hospitalizations took all their money. Another man was earning six figures when things fell apart for him and he said he'd have to wind up living with his father.
I've seen plenty of stories about people who worked two and three jobs trying to keep roofs over their family's heads and food on the table and somehow still wind up homeless. I also know someone who was in that position...a hard working woman who's life circumstances caused her to live in her car with her children for a short time.

I'll admit, however, that there are people who are homeless because of their own actions or inactions. I've even heard of some who refuse to go to shelters because they don't like the rules. But just like everything else, we can't generalize and lump all the homeless into that category.
 
In college I helped to build a homeless shelter affiliated with a church I attended. I also helped the homeless on my own and in my own time. The problems are so much more complicated than people unfamiliar with homelessness can imagine. I met homeless men who had been homeless since childhood. One was homeless at age six. One who had a similar upbringing died of TB at age 26. It's mind numbing and many have addictive disorders stemming from their homelessness.

Helping the homeless is neither glamorous nor profitable which is why so many don't bother. They'd rather make war which gives them a return on their investment. So homelessness never ends. :(
 
As pointed out by a few posters here there are many reasons why...some are homeless.
No one way to fix....helping one on one may work but to many are removed from it and frankly think you can throw money at a problem.

The folks who may just need a hand up are often held up by those who simply want hand outs....

Several tiny home places were suppose to be drug/ alcohol free.......... timed so you had help for up to a year etc to get your life on track .... Those few homeless who intended to do those things ...................were surrounded by drugs etc felt unsafe as their "neighbors" would steal anything they had if given a moment etc.... houses became a mess and crime ridden and the community torn it down...

Why do some choose this lifestyle ....i spoke to one man he said ... he did not see himself going to a Job for 40 years and tied to a mortgage etc
He liked just having the basic stuff and traveled all over the country....
Many cities will provide bus tickets if you say you had friends/ relatives in another area and so he saw Most of the United States using this ploy
He told me "how many places have you wanted to see in this country? why did you not make it there perhaps arranging time off saving for travel etc....?"
everywhere he went some kind heart would provide a meal or a night somewhere .... he loved it.
While he took money from various charities etc he was never going to be settled down anywhere....
 
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Why wasn't there a homeless problem in the 1950's? Because people managed to pay their rent, even on SROs. The Rent is Too Damn High. In 1952 our rent in The Bronx was $28 dollars a month and my father earned $28 a week. Yet, every summer we could afford a bungalow at a bungalow colony for the whole summer. We were not middle class, we were working class with one salary. We're being squeezed, and no one should take anything for granted.

The first time I heard of mass homelessness wasn't until 1980 and the location was Peking, where it was hidden by day, forced into subway tunnels at night. Gave me chills to learn this at the time from an American chosen by our government for a student diplomatic visit.
 
David777 said:
By going after the real indirect drivers of that and a list of other ills, Wall Street financial corps, REITs, real estate corps, their backdoor politicians, and their army of speculators doing their dirty work. They also back door monkey wrench anything to stop excessive immigration that squeezes the poor into middle class housing where we have no choice but to increasingly spend more. The current situation was dreamed up by Wall Street several years ago in a very public news article and then the feeding frenzy began by advertising worldwide to those willing to invest money. And their typical politician puppets just spout "we need more housing", but about the only thing built is expensive housing. Like predator porpoises, sharks, tuna, and jacks feeding on giant balls or frantic helpless sardines.
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California at one time had a fix for the homeless problem. Many of the homeless are either addicts or mentally ill, so California built "hospitals" to house them - involuntarily. (Possible the origin of the Eagle's Hotel California.) There were lawsuits, so they were moved into half way houses in the cities where they received treatment, food, and a roof over their head. They didn't like rules, so they left the half way houses for the alleys and parks. San Francisco provided vouchers to the now homeless so they could stay for free in cheap hotels. My son-in-law was a San Francisco cop. He patrolled the Market Street area (a main drag), always carried a supply of free housing vouchers, but literally could not give them away. Homeless don't like rules. The city erected nicely decorated enclosed sidewalk toilets in the downtown areas frequented by homeless and tourists. They became great places to camp out, sell drugs, and shoot up -- so they're gone, and visitors in many areas of the city get to step over turds on the sidewalk. But wait! Hallelujah! The San Francisco homeless have found an occupation -- breaking into parked cars -- as many as 3,000 a months, leaving piles of broken glass in the street. Oh, but the homeless problem is easily solved! Cheap housing, that's the ticket! Maybe halfway houses and free vouchers! Wow!
 
Alligatorob said:
Can anyone identify a country or government who has succeeded? Other than by just getting rid of them.
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Well, there was the Hoovervilles (shanty towns) in the depression of the '30s.....
OneEyedDiva said:
Many people are homeless through no fault of their own
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Many, many...and more becoming homeless

There will be a 'fix' of sorts
....when enough folks, as @OneEyedDiva has shown, become of the homeless
It won't be loaded with conveniences, but it'll be a place to hang yer hat, grab some zzzzzs, heat a pot, when yer not working or looking for work

The US immigrants had it pretty right when piling up in the NYC tenements.
Not 'home'.....but a place
 
Jace said:
Some of the them don't want to be helped⬆️...as they have been offered and refuse!
Their choice!
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Because they have brain diseases like schizophrenia and their thinking is disordered. They believe the food offered is poisoned or they fear that if they enter a shelter they wont ever get out. It is not their choice to have a brain disorder anymore than someone might choose to have heart disease. Someone with heart disease might fall down in the street rather than go to a hospital -- their choice!
 
A
Nathan said:
"People problems" are complex and solutions are not 'one size fits all'. Some other people problems that seem to have no great solution:
The poor
The incarcerated
The drug addicted
The Mentally ill
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And every one of those contributes to homeless people. Some of them, 3 out of 4, which caused the 4th.
 

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