My last post reminds me that I haven’t yet written about how I view “homelessness” and how I believe it should be attacked.
Fixing Homelessness is impossible. It’s a many-faceted problem that has to be tackled in sections, fixing each section or splitting it into even smaller sections.
I believe in general there are three “groups” of under-housed people in the US. Group 1 consists of individuals with long-term drug addiction, mental issues, and chronic homelessness. Group 2 is made up of people experiencing short-term needs, while Group 3 is what I refer to as homeless by choice.
I believe it’s the federal government’s responsibility to handle Group 1. Reagan’s omnibus budget reconciliation act was the single biggest cause of the explosion in Group 1. Personally I feel that it should be rolled back and funding doubled from previous levels, in order to tackle the crisis we have now.
Group 2 is the responsibility of more local, granular solutions. Friends helping friends, neighbours helping neighbours. Houses of worship coming together to assist members of their faithful and their networks. Communities helping themselves help form stronger foundations moving forward.
Which brings us to Group 3, the homeless by choice. One proposal that could reduce this group is by large-scale public awareness regarding how panhandling allows many members of Group 3 to survive. And once considerable progress has been made in Groups 1 & 2 this will improve the conditions, and increase the inventories, of local shelters. Once there are enough public facilities to “warehouse” these elective homeless then anti-vagrancy and loitering guidelines could again be enforced.
It also needs to be mentioned that southern California needs more federal help than any other states or areas, and the reason for this is very straightforward. Our weather here means that this is the only place in the country where a person can live outdoors year round without having to worry about the elements. When a home-challenged individual migrates to southern CA, they almost never move along. “You can check out anytime you like but you can never leave.”