Turning this into a discussion about "affordable housing" is missing the point altogether.
Most of these people have debilitating mental illnesses and/or drug addictions.
To assume all they need is a shiny subsidized apartment over a Starbucks and they'll put on a suit and go to work tomorrow is preposterous. In the HN utopia, they'll work remotely.
These people are chronically unemployable for a reason. Until you fix the reason, you won't solve this problem.
Instead of focusing on getting them the help they need, cities focus on things like how many tents can we allow in the public tennis courts or how many sheds can we build in the car park before we declare success.
That used to be the case. However, the current government jacked the immigration numbers exponentially over the last few years. This seriously exacerbated an already growing problem with housing affordability. Also, the huge immigration (via temporary workers and student visas) has suppressed wages. These combined we now have a housing crisis that contends for worst in the developed world.
It isn't just mentally ill people who are homeless.
You're absolutely right. And the reason isn't because you have to be that bad to be homeless, but that if you're not that ill-equipped, you're usually in the category of the invisible homeless, couchsurfing or living in your car, etc.
> Most of these people have debilitating mental illnesses and/or drug addictions.
Do they, or don't they? If that's true, the article was misleading.
I mean that's the standard trope, sure, and it makes homelessness into an intractable problem about needing hordes of social workers and clinics, but there's a lot of implication here that these particular homeless are mostly people who can't afford the available rents.
> These people are chronically unemployable for a reason. Until you fix the reason, you won't solve this problem.
That might make you feel better about not caring or doing anything to fix the problem, but you have the causation flipped around. Once you are homeless, employers will no longer employ you.
This is a problem with our economy and is a societal problem. You can keep your head in the sand, but that means you are not helping to solve it and are helping to perpetuate it by remaining ignorant of the cause.
Completely disagree. You're right that a lot of homeless people have mental health or drug addictions, but that's often caused by not having housing.
People start out well-meaning and lose their homes for financial reasons, then get unwell from years on the streets. Block off the top of that pipeline by building more homes for people.
Most of these people have debilitating mental illnesses and/or drug addictions.
To assume all they need is a shiny subsidized apartment over a Starbucks and they'll put on a suit and go to work tomorrow is preposterous. In the HN utopia, they'll work remotely.
These people are chronically unemployable for a reason. Until you fix the reason, you won't solve this problem.
Instead of focusing on getting them the help they need, cities focus on things like how many tents can we allow in the public tennis courts or how many sheds can we build in the car park before we declare success.