There used to be. But y’all closed the crazy houses.

The problem is, the majority of the chronically homeless are homeless by their own doing. They’re not just down on their luck (which does happen). They’re fucked in the head and can’t function in normal society. A lot of them used to be housed in asylums.

Now, a lot of asylums were very badly run, and that’s putting it mildly. But many were fine, and people freaked out over the bad ones and chucked the baby out with the bath-water.

Basically, a lot of homeless people are not, functionally, adults. When they were wards of the State, the State could force them into the asylums against their will, where they’d be fed, housed, provided with medical care, and sometimes something resembling employment. But they didn’t want to be there.

So when the asylums closed…how do you propose to get people who can’t take care of themselves, don’t want a job, and think that the police are run by little green men, to voluntarily use these programs of yours? And how do you propose to execute these programs for a reasonable cost to the taxpayer?

The thing is, it’s mostly not that people don’t want to help. It’s that a lot of the plans you people come up with to help are really dumb and wasteful.

I’m not too sure about that! I hate government telling people that something is for their own good. Usually, that’s a blatant lie. I recall a few years back, I was living in NYC. The police tried that crap, and it was nothing more than a lie in order to locate people on the run from law enforcement. It had nothing to do with “helping” anybody!

Many people died in the minor riots it caused. That doesn’t sound like it’s for anybody’s well-being!

I also know some Vietnam vets where homeless by choice, and the police constantly harass them, which I totally disagree with!

It’s ethical to ask them if they need anything. It’s unethical to try to force them into “help” that they don’t need nor want!

There is no such thing as homeless people. There are only homeless persons. AND, (this is very fundamental) being homeless is just a circumstance! WHO each person is was not decided based on that persons being homeless. Each person that is homeless was EXACTLY the same person before they moved to the circumstance of being homeless.

With all of those fundamental details in mind…since there are way many persons who are homeless, you can be certain that there are just as many unique problems and unique reasons for being homeless.

If you posted your question with honest representation of what you believe then you apparently think that mental illness is the cause of persons becoming homeless. Either 1) you have had a relationship with very few homeless persons, or 2) you have never bothered to truly know any homeless persons, but rather have made a judgement about persons who you only watch as a stranger without getting to truly understand them. Or 3) you have a very narrow and uninformed idea of what constitutes “mental illness.”

Which one is it? Be honest, if you are capable of so much….

FYI,

Shelters, food, clothes, etc, are NOT “psychiatric services.”

The emergency shelters that exist are very abusive and usually much less safe than being outside. I consider it a sign of very good mental health to choose to stay away from these shelters.

The “trauma” of being homeless is entirely due to the incidents that happen to a person while being homeless, which is evidence of the tendency of most persons in society to take advantage of their fellow human being when they know they can get away with it. But let us be honest, a person doesn’t have to be homeless to be abused. I have a long list of abuses that I have endured in the workplace, in the neighborhoods I resided in, at bus stops, on busses, and even inside apartments that I worked very hard to pay for.

The “root cause” that your question refers to has not been proven. The claim you have made is not supported by any logic nor any evidence. The only real statement that you have made here is that you are wanting to write off homeless persons as mentally incompetent. Why? And whatever reasons you claim or don’t claim…they are completely irrelevent. Most persons who are homeless do not have any mental illness. Yes, some do, but even then, there is no reason to believe that a person with mental illness will necessarily become homeless. There are a wide array of factors that lead to many persons becoming homeless…pretending that the cause is mental illness is a lousy attempt at pretending that there are not systematic changes that need to be made in society that have nothing to do with mental illness. But I understand, if you can believe that the cause is mental illness than you won’t feel like you as a citizen have any responsibility for the deficiencies of your society.

I know that you are wrong. Homelessness is not caused by mental illness. Furthermore, I predict that in the following few years homelessness will increase drastically. For a poor person to keep a roof over their head requires more than one job, it requires wearing oneself out for something that doesn’t provide much in return. Especially since the quality of housing in working class neighborhoods has become so violent, hostile and unsanitary. The police usually won’t show up, and even when they do they rarely do anything productive, they certainely don’t attempt to make our lifes safe. So, I predict that ever larger numbers of persons will decide that working hard, putting up with abuse in order to keep a roof over ones head, which provides no real social inclusion, no real saftey and not any quality of life, is an option that does not necessarily need to be pursued.

Being homeless is a type of going on a social strike, maybe call it a protest. The USA is a social system that is not worth being a part of. We can’t change the system but we can stop doing things the way that society says we should. Housing is just a structure, it provides nothing by way of social support or inclusion. It is not worth much.

Don't give them food that isn't factory sealed. We are wary of unsealed food, look up the the Tylenol killings in the 80s and you will understand why.

Give cash. A few dollars in my pocket bought me a few cans of beefaroni which is easy to open, and has the distinction of being tasty even when cold. Give me seven or eight bucks and I'll use half on food and the other half on a 40 oz beer. Just that small amount means I'll eat and be able to relax a little before going to bed.

Alot of homeless have severe mental issues. You may not want to deal with that. But if you meet a homeless person who more or less has a good head on their shoulders try just being a friend at first. We appreciate a kind heart and an open ear. And if we prove to you that we aren't gonna flip out offer us a shower or offer to wash our clothes. Clean clothes and a shower go a long way in making us feel human and will vastly improve our overall outlook for the week.

Give us baby wipes lol. In the absence of a shower they really help.

If we prove to you that we are legit then bring us job applications in addition to letting us shower and wash clothes. Clean clothes and basic hygiene will dramatically increase our chances of getting and maintaining employment.

NEVER house us. You may think it's a good idea to help us (and it does make you a good person for wanting to) like that but it will put us into a false sense of security and we will not help ourselves. When I was homeless my friends expected me to work and to pay rent if I stayed with them. The exception was when my friends had a couch outside. They didn't charge me to sleep on a dusty smokers couch and it gave me a place I knew I could lay my head without fear.

Have yardwork or other chores you don't want to do? If you're willing to pay for their completion offer us the work. We will both benefit.

Give us SEALED bottled water. We can reuse the bottle.

Do you have an old smartphone just collecting dust? Give it to us with a charger. It will help keep us from succumbing to boredom and can call 911 if we have an accident and noone is around to help.

Have any old Walmart gift cards with small balances you won't use? Give em to us. We will appreciate even a 52 cent balance because my can of food is around a buck.

Above all though…treat us as people, not parasites

I was on the streets, sleeping at the shelter at night. Eventually, I got a bed upstairs. There were rooms, the room I stayed in had ten beds. We could stay there all day, but we had to pay for those beds. I kept getting sick because the Minneapolis winter was kicking my ass. My mental state was at the point where I was playing chicken when I crossed the light-rail tracks. I was talking to the caseworker at the shelter. She wrote a letter to the shelter team asking them to get me a bed. I somehow slipped through the cracks, I got a bed upstairs without paying. They found out a month later. I had to pay back- rent. I applied for GA and food stamps. I had a bed for two months, then they found me a room and a place run by Catholic Charities. I had a caseworker there. I found out after he quit that all the places he gave me applications for permanent housing never heard of me. He gave me the applications, I filled them out, and then he threw them away. What I’m saying is, what they’re supposed to do, and what they actually do are two different things. The homeless person should take his life in his hands and take care of himself because people can’t always be trusted.

You shouldn't force anything on anyone. It won't end well. The best intentions sometimes have really bad outcomes. They should assist those people who want assistance. You don't understand that not all homeless people are like you see in the movies or on TV. That's a stereotype and a myth. Some people are exactly like regular people except without the ability to afford a permanent place to live. Demand for available assistance is more than the amount of available assistance. You know that not everyone needs the same kind of help either. It should be a homeless person's choice on if they accept help. They should get to choose what kind of help they take as well. The ones that work and have incomes may need different types of help than a stereotypical homeless person. Not everyone is an addict so they shouldn't have to go to a program for addiction. Some homeless people have mates and won't seperate from them. Everyone is different and it should not be in a 1 size fits all solution for homeless people. It has to be what the person wants and needs ,not a forced process

Most can be helped. The majority of crimes by the homeless are petty theft kinds of things. Though there are occasional serial killers and the like hiding among them.

Most of the mentally ill are either just severely depressed or facing serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and are off their meds. With schizophrenics we need a very different way of handling them. Previously we just warehoused them in mental institutions. Right now we do a rotating warehousing situation as they are released without proper out care and almost all of them periodically get off their meds and their lives come crashing down. Many just rotate in and out of institutions. Depression is usually treatable and often situational. Bad romantic breakups, PTSD, hitting some really hard times, the death of someone close to them are the most common causes.

Some examples of people I’ve known. Buddy of mine got really bent over by his wife of 15 years. For 15 years he went work, raised his family, lived a very everyday and normal life. Then one day he finds out he’s been replaced, his bank account cleaned out, everything he owns sealed off into his soon to be ex-wife’s name in ways he couldn’t get at it. And divorce papers waiting for him. She obviously planned this for months and took him for EVERY penny she could and hit him with child support on top of that. He left with an old beat up Pinto and a bag of clothes and that was it. Slept in his car but he soon lost his job. Got behind on child support since he was just too messed up to work and it’s hard finding a job when you sleep in your car. So he fled the state and joined the ranks of the homeless. He’d basically given up on life and just sort of existed as best he could. Some counseling and vocational training and he’d been good to go in a few months most likely. Last I saw him he was still on the streets and still pretty messed up over things.

A gal I know, her husband was shot and killed by the cops right in front of her eyes. She understandably went into a very deep funk. Wound up on the streets. I helped her work through a few issues and she got right back up and started living again. In a few months she had a job, place to stay, car. All by her own hand. All she needed was a little help getting through some of the depression and grief. Help not giving up.

I know of dozens of such people that a little help would go a long ways. Unfortunately so much of the “help” for the homeless are people with agendas. I volunteered once with a group and they were hardcore Marxists interested only in indoctrinating people politically and reserved their help only for people they felt they could turn into good commies. My tenure with them was very short lived. While I was on the streets I had a church promise me a free meal. I just had to sit through a service, how bad can that be right? Well when they started talking about reading this passage to cure a toothace, that passage to cure acne I got up and left lol. They were a cult. That cult up in Oregon tried to recruit me while I was on the streets. Something about them seemed off so I passed. The gal trying to recruit me gave me a joint I suspect was laced with Heroin. It had something in it and it wasn’t PCP, I’ve smoked joints like that before. Definitely not opium, I smoked opium more than a few times. The high was the kind of high folks get from H. That was my last straw with the efforts. Trying to hook me on H was way too much.

All sorts of cults, both political and religious stalk the homeless who are often paranoid as it is. Cops harass them and they are often victims of crime rather than perpetrators.

Shouldn't there be laws to protect the homeless in every American state by providing shelter, food, mental health, rehab, and employment? Also, shouldn't special funding be provided for their care?

If you want to vote for that in your state you are welcome to do so. But I see no reason to impose that policy on every state.

If you do vote for it in your own state, you're probably going to run into the same problem that other people have encountered with similar programs. Namely, that a lot of homeless people will be uncooperative.

People have tried just giving homeless people food, shelter, and medical/mental health care. Sometimes it works, and sometimes the homeless person trashes the shelter, wastes the food, and tells the healthcare providers to fuck off. If you offer them psychiatric drugs they won't take them. They will sell them for something they can get high on. Or they just won't show up to get their medicine.

For all too many homeless people, mere kindness and generosity will never be enough. They need a firmer hand than that. You're going to have to confine the more dysfunctional homeless in a place where they will be forced to learn to function without drugs or alcohol, where they will be required to take whatever medications they need, and where will be required to learn life skills so they can (hopefully) become productive members of society and no longer need to be under the care of the state. And if they can't or won't accept sobriety and learn to function, then they can never leave. They will remain under compulsory state care until they die.

If your plan is to wipe out chronic homelessness, then that is what you will have to do. Something tells me you're probably not willing to do that.

I have adhd, anxiety, depression, yada yada. I spent time homeless from a combination of economics, the great hiring freeze companies had, and a jaded outlook on the uselessness of spending life working for…? Usually nothing but someone else's benefit.

I was ignorant to my conditions being undiagnosed. Mental health frowned upon on the black community as a whole for reasons that seem too odd to adhere to now. The only reason I didn't suffer a full collapse into living in the street which would have exacerbated these disorders was few family members offered their couch on occasion. A close friend let me stay with them for a period. By then, depression had a full hold on my psyche. Not only was living not an active thought but mental paralysis dictated most of my existence.

Believe it or not, smoking weed helped me because the high warped my mind, albeit temporarily. It got me outta my head for s few moments to consider. So I want to die? If so, why haven't I killed myself? What happens if my family has to bury me? Friends and family present in life kept me from homelessness extending more years than it was.

This is all a long winded way of pointing out, that mental health issues whether undiagnosed and untreated or diagnosed and untreated can and does destroy people. The correlation is the people who get up and go to work have found the internal and/or external motivating factors to keep taking steps. Some people have more varying and severe mental challenges than myself so the actions they take are different. Everyone's circumstances are different. No blanket solution exist beyond unconditional examination, treatment, and assistance for anyone homeless that wishes to break their cycle.

And remember, most jobs take a lot of time in life with little to no payoff for workers. So someone focused on the reality of futility that has mental/neurological disorders rational thought can lead to there being no point in the rat race. Which there isn't.

I have kids to take care as a single parent and go to therapy with a drug treatment as part of the plan. At times, I'm still a slave to the broken pieces of my mind though. I don't do well with jobs once the novelty of a new job wears off. Then it reaches the level of pointlessness and the cycle continues. Imagine that stuck on the streets.

The basic concept of shelters is helpful: Give somebody a resource (a roof for a period of time) and see if they can turn things around for themselves. This really works when the homelessness is caused by economic factors alone. Heck, those people usually just sleep in their cars until they can save enough to rent again.

However, what purpose does it serve to temporarily shelter people with long term difficulties like mental health issues, addiction, etc? The shelter I worked at used to shelter people for a week, and then kick them out for the rest of the month. Shelters by definition need to be temporary, but inconsistent help is probably the worst thing you can do for somebody with mental health issues.

Shelters are like bandages, and while you need them to stop the bleeding, you also need to get to the source of the bleeding at some point.

The “Housing First” method beats all others in terms of success-- nevermind the shelter, take those funds and get people housed immediately with support. It is so much cheaper, more dignified, and simply more effective.

I know we prefer to herd homeless people like cattle and have them line up at cafeteria-type places for 3 meals each day. We are comfortable with these institutions. Yet, people sink miserably under these conditions, and millions are stuck in this endless cycle.

Forget shelters, put your money into housing and support networks.

Edited to add: The situation described below has gotten incrementally worse. The US Supreme Court, an unconscionably over-politicized and amoral body, has determined that municipalities may impose criminal penalties for sleeping/resting in public, regardless of whether the accused individual has an indoor place to sleep. It is ever-increasingly illegal to be poor in the United States. Also, I no longer volunteer on a regular basis. I am too under-resourced and my health is too unstable.

—

In Portland, Oregon, one branch of a county agency hands out tents and other supplies to community organizations for distribution to unhoused people.

Another branch of the county agency (possibly a different agency, the structures are weirdly complex), “sweeps” a dozen+ camps per week, destroying the camps, confiscating and trashing the supplies, and displacing the people. After a sweep, people often don’t have an ID or a cellphone or vital medications or even a blanket or jacket. Often in the middle of winter or in a driving rain.

Earlier this winter, I know personally of several camps that were “swept” while the city was under a winter storm warning and overnight temps were dipping to the low 20s (Fahrenheit, so well below freezing). I know the people who had to figure out where to sleep that night, in 22 degrees. I spent one night driving around in a snowstorm until close to midnight, trying to get anything warm—drinks, jackets, blankets, hand warmers—to people left with no shelter whatsoever. While another “swept” person was back home sleeping on my couch, or trying to get warm enough to sleep.

Where shelters exist, they not only ban possession of substances to which may unhoused people may be addicted, but they often provide nothing more than a mat on the floor in an overcrowded room. No sense of security, which is vital for people experiencing the trauma of homelessness, no privacy. Theft is rampant, as is assault, physical and sexual. Gender minorities are often barred from shelters. Shelters also often have rules and schedules that make it impossible to maintain employment.

The better shelters tend to be specialized services like domestic violence shelters, which often only serve cis women; youth shelters, in some cases limited to LGBTQIA youth; a few substance abuse treatment programs which are really only suitable for people who are both addicted to a substance (many homeless people aren’t) and ready to make a change wrt to addiction (many addicted people aren’t).

There is rarely (or never) shelter space available devoted to serving the needs of people with serious/persistent mental illness or PTSD. While statistically, many but not most unhoused people in the US are mentally ill, a LOT of people don’t have pre-existing mental illness but the trauma of being unhoused causes trauma reactions not unlike PTSD-but y’know. Often not even a disorder per se because it’s normal to have severe ongoing limbic system activation in an unsafe environment. Often an undiagnosed disorder because in the US we effectively do not have a mental health care system.

What is “the government” doing? Well. In the US, we have the federal government and we have state governments, a giant umbrella that includes county and municipal governments and in many cases agencies for collaboration between county/municipal authorities across a metro area that may include multiple counties/cities/other incorporated entities (villages, etc.).

What these governments do runs a gamut. There’s Portland, OR style of “handout with one hand, smash to hell with the other”—all while consuming vast energy from homeless people and community volunteers. (I speak here as one of the community volunteers.)

There are places that devote most of the “homelessness” resources to drafting laws designed to skirt the edges of constitutionality, finding ever more creative ways to criminalize existing in public while poor, resting in public, sleeping in public, etc.

There are a few places that have done their homework, and are saving a lot of money by providing housing to unhoused people, and then follow up with services either towards self-sufficiency or towards putting in place sufficient supports to enable a disabled person to remain housed.

These places are few and far between and I don’t have personal experience operating within these systems, so while they sound good, as a disability rights advocate, I tend to reserve judgment unless/until I know that disabled people’s agency is being respected, even when communication, addiction, and similar types of issues are present.

Mostly what US governments are doing about homelessness is ignoring it, while continuing to serve oligarchs’ wishes. And we drift towards ever greater inequity, possibly the greatest in recorded history.

This leaves more people vulnerable to homelessness, and more people susceptible to disabilities caused or worsened by lack of access to resources, like uncontrolled mental illness and PTSD. It leaves more neighbors, friends, and family members without the resources to help people to whom they would otherwise be “natural supports.”

It leaves community members with less time and fewer resources to do the kind of volunteer outreach I am always struggling to do, and am always butting up against the limits of my resources, my friends’/“donors’” resources, my time, and my own health and mental health challenges.

Heck in much of the US, we don’t even have semi-decent public transit, so that many students, elders, and others who may otherwise wish to volunteer in their communities often can get to the people who need support.

And so we slide further and further into misery and desperation caused by ever-growing inequity, as our friends and neighbors sicken and die in the streets through ever-worsening weather and climate catastrophes like devastatingly bad air quality from endless wildfires, unseasonable storms, records low and high temps, floods, and plagues.

The problem isn’t homelessness, or even just housing costs, or even a combination of those and broader housing and health care and disability policy. it’s inequity, and climate catastrophe. And it’s getting worse, due to policies of US governments at all levels.

But it’s ok. All the people who really matter are working on plans to escape the planet.

Yes, it is ethical to force homeless people to obey the laws. It is ethical to do what is best for all of society. Homeless people who refuse help are not just hurting themselves; they are a scourge on the well-being, health and safety of all people. As such, they should not be given the option of staying on the street.

I also believe that putting them into shelters where they are warm and fed is for their best. Hopefully, while in the shelters they will be able to heed common sense. But, of course, many (not all) homeless people are homeless because they have made a series of foolish choices.

We should not allow folly to reside on our streets.

My answer is based on information gained directly from someone who spent 3 years living on the street, and has no problem with doing it again if need be.

There are essentially three kinds of homeless people. Those who are there due to circumstances (lost job, big medical bills, etc). They are the ones who will do whatever it takes to NOT be homeless. They’ll go into the programs, work multiple jobs, etc to get back on their feet. Those are the ones who are being “given” things, such as job training, beds in shelters, placement assistance, etc.

Then there are the “voluntarily” homeless. I put “voluntarily” into quotation marks because they made lifestyle choices that have put them onto the streets and they’re unwilling - or unable - to make the necessary changes to NOT be homeless. These are the addicts and outcasts. They could, in theory, not be homeless - could live in shelters - but they aren’t willing to take the steps to overcome their addictions and live by the general rules of such places/programs.

And finally, there are the “involuntarily” homeless. These are the mentally ill and physically disabled.

In the US, there are numerous programs available for the victims of circumstances, IF they happen to have children, are pregnant, or are seniors/veterans. Families get priority in ALL programs, shelters, etc.

That means, if you’re a healthy 35-year old male who is homeless because you lost your job or got into an accident, you’re screwed. You can’t get into a shelter in the winter because the few beds available are taken by families, pregnant women, and seniors. You can’t get into a program because you’re not disabled, not pregnant, not a senior. You are what Alfred Doolittle (“My Fair Lady”) called “the undeserving poor” - you’re deemed not deserving of assistance because you’re a (in theory) healthy young male and should be able to help yourself. But if that was true, you wouldn’t be homeless, would you? So, you fall between the cracks and become stuck in the homeless cycle. You became homeless because you lost your job. But you can’t GET a job because you’re homeless - you have no contact address. No place to shower or do your laundry. No way to get to and from work if you DID get a job. No way to renew your ID when it expires because the DMV no longer issues ID on the spot - everything is mailed. It’s a vicious cycle and one that sends many otherwise “salvageable” people into drug and alcohol use out of frustration and despair, thus putting them into the “voluntarily homeless” category.

The “voluntarily homeless” - the drug and alcohol addicts - are the ones who cannot - or will not - overcome their addictions. Many CHOOSE to be homeless because the little income they have can then be spent on drugs/alcohol rather than “wasted” on an apartment. While my brother was on the streets, he knew many such people. One is a veteran who receives $1300/month in VA disability. That’s plenty to get him a studio or even one bedroom apartment here. He chose to be homeless so he could spend his money on alcohol. Sadly, he’s now spending it on meth, instead. As a veteran, he is eligible for some programs, but they all require that he NOT use drugs/alcohol and he’s not willing to do that.

There’s a popular (albeit stupid) idea that not providing services to the homeless means they’ll just have to get jobs. How are they supposed to do that? Are you going to hire someone who lives behind a dumpster, with no access to showers or bathrooms? No way to do laundry? Trust me when I say those people get ripe - as in “can’t get within 20 feet without gagging” ripe. How, exactly, are they supposed to get jobs? Do you want someone like that in the cubicle next to yours? Or fixing your hamburgers and fries? And that’s even assuming they have ID, which many don’t because it expired while they were homeless and they can’t renew it because they don’t have an address for the new ID to be sent to. And then there’s the problem of transportation. Bus passes are not free.

Agencies that help the homeless are backed up by months, or more. My brother, who was attacked while he was homeless and blinded in one eye, signed up for job training from the State Unemployment Department. In order to qualify, they had to obtain his medical records from various doctors, then vet his application. He applied in February. He did the paperwork, went to the screening interview, etc. He was told they’d let him know as soon as his case was reviewed. Seven months later, he received notice that he’s been deemed eligible for the rehabilitation training. In the meantime, he was referred to a private organization that does training and placement. He applied with them 5 months ago. They said it would take 6–8 weeks for a determination. He’s still waiting. When he calls, he’s told they’re backlogged. If I hadn’t taken him in, he’d still be on the streets and NONE of this would even be happening because all the services are on the far side of town and he had no way to get there, no way to be “hygenically acceptable”, and no reason to even hope for anything in the way of help because he’s a single male with no children.

We don’t need LESS help for the homeless, we need MORE. We need to get those people who aren’t eligible for help simply because they’re single adults OUT of the cycle before they succumb to the drugs and alcohol out of hopelessness. We need more shelters, more places where the homeless CAN shower and do laundry, more places for them to have a mailing address. More hope that they CAN get out of the cycle before they give up.

Basically it'll give them a criminal record, and oweing more money thus then it's harder to get a place, people are going to be upset when they disperse into the burbs, right now at least in DENVER they want to clean up downtown, which is where most of the homeless services like showers, food, case workers, so actually it's not people's fault where they congregate, but basically not seen people don't want to have to see us and our humanity, so something positive can happen, appreciate housing, notice I said appreciate, not all of the homeless can properly live alone in an apartment, but there's ways to help them without locking them up, many of those people I fear will be involuntarily admitted to a psych hospital, kinda like pre 1970s, and actually the problem isn't that hard to solve it just takes something that society is lacking right now empathy and the government funds and if our politicians got together with those who are or formerly homeless many of us have great ideas but no one wants to listen to us, even politicians, so they criminalize us. And the even if people are in shelters, there are your day shelters, showers food help, and night shelters where many times you're bused to the night shelter, sleepy 😴 time and you basically have to get up at 4:30 some of us devised ways so we could sleep later like a half hour, now the men's night shelters I've heard how bad they treat and talk to them, my son would rather do jail than a shelter, the ladies night shelter, let's just say put more than 100 women together, in varying states of intoxication and I'll tell you what it can be interesting to say the least, to down right dangerous and violent, women are so caty and petty with each other, it's crazy, now this is nothing against the LGBT+ community, but after that and some ladies I knew before is I don't understand 2 women and not scratching each other's out, kinda a joke with truth behind it. Now I really worry about those in conservative states, they be crazy on power, Denver and Colorado are basically liberal, the other problem is especially the western states have more unsheltered because of the weather it wasn't considered a problem until the homeless population grew as rents rose and people started congregating downtown, I think there should have been a compromise, because I didn't like having to walk around/through the camps and I was part of it and camping around schools and businesses isn't cool either, so there was/is ways everyone wants their way or the highway

No, legalized drug use is the biggest cause of mental illness.

Being unemployed is a cause of mental illness.

Homeless isn’t a trauma. Most of the people who are homeless, are there by choice.

They choose to be there. They don’t want to ‘get help’.

“Well then what do you want? To just sit there on the street?”

“Yeah.”

You people need to stop living in your fantasy world where homeless people are total innocent victims of society.

They are not. If they wanted off the street, they would be off the street.

The reason they can continue this life, is because of people like you trying to help them. The more you ‘help them’, all you are doing is helping them stay on the street.

Have you ever carried a backpack that weighs about, let's say 75 pounds, all day long,every where you go? Just for one day? In the summer? It really sucks! Now do this every single day and then add on to this with all the other stuff that you might come across in the course of the day. It will break you down and make you reconsider the things that you hold as important. On a good day, my backpack weighed in at 90lbs, and it was stuff that I couldn't afford to lose. It held my laptop,a complete change of clothes, travel size hygiene products, important paperwork, some tools,a bottle of water and some non-perishable food and numerous other items depending on the weather/season. It was my constant companion, wherever I went, so did it. On average, I walked around 15 miles a day, every single day,in the city of Austin Texas, which is just one hill after another. I can not count all the times that I resisted the urge to just leave my backpack and not look back,or the many times I stopped and made a decision to part with something simply because I was tired of dragging it around.

When I became homeless,it wasn't something I didn't see coming. But it was something that I could prepare myself for, and prolong the inevitable. I had some truly nice belongings, stuff that I worked my ass off for. But this where a home comes in handy, it's a relatively safe and secure place for you to store all the crap you cherish and hope to have in the future. Storage units do not come for free and sometimes you can't rely on family and friends to help with your life's collection of tangible goods. Trust me, I would have loved to have saved my 50 inch flat screen and my old-school 900 Watt Kenwood component system w\the 1000 Watt C/V speakers,as well as my Grizzly table saw and the other $30K in tools that I sold off for peanuts, hoping the entire time that things were going to get better, but knowing that all I was doing was lightening my load and trying to get the best deal possible for my stuff.

Cause in the end, there's just only so much room in a backpack and so much that even the healthiest and strongest person can carry before they say fuck it, and leave another piece of themselves behind. And I consider myself to be lucky, I knew what I was fixing to go through, and even though I still lost my home and possessions, I at least was able to get something in exchange. Some people are not that lucky, and they do suddenly find themselves with nothing but the clothes on their backs and little in their wallet.

Most people of sound minds, don't just decide to become homeless and leave everything they've worked for behind, and the simple truth is that once you've lost your home it's pretty much a sure bet that you're going to lose the stuff you kept in it.

Man, I really do miss that Kenwood System!

Having experienced this firsthand for a decade, I must point out the obvious: it is impossible to get mentally or physically healthy without food and shelter. Those two things must come first. Then there’s a significant length of time to process the transition from homeless and hungry to housed and fed. Only after that transition is it possible to become mentally and physically healthy. Many times it seems that the physical and mental traumas of homelessness leave permanent damage to the physical and mental health, but only food and shelter can prevent the damage from continuing to worsen. Homelessness causes mental illness. You can’t get mentally healthy when your mental health is under attack constantly. It requires stability. Stable housing, stable food supply, stable privacy.

Where does one put them when one has no closet?

when I could no longer afford to pay rent I packed my stuff in 3 duffle bags. A friend offered to let me stay with him until I got a job and got back on my feet. But then he got fired and had to quit his apartment and moved in with his boyfriend. So I was suddenly on the streets sleeping in alleyways between houses. I asked some other friends of mine if they would keep my stuff for me in their closet. (They had no room for me to stay, but we're kind enough to want to help out). They agreed, so I wasn't worried about it as I slept on the streets, and dropped by every few days to get a shower and change my clothes.

Then things went from bad to worse. I was still unable to find work, and it was harder to look presentable for job interviews while sleeping on the streets. My friends decided to move back to the state from where they came, and gave me warning to pick up my things on a certain date. I arranged to have my things stored elsewhere, and came by on the appointed day only to find the apartment locked and vacated. I saw someone sweeping the halls so I asked him about it. He said they moved out the night before. No, he knew nothing about any 3 duffle bags.

so that's how I lost all my belongings.

Most adult homeless have jobs, full-time jobs even. Many live pretty invisibly in cars, vans, and SUVs. 65% of homeless are “sheltered”.

Here’s the thing: poverty is a trap. You can never buy in quantity, or higher quality, so you pay and pay and pay. You have nowhere to store much of anything. You cannot do well at work because you don’t get enough quality sleep. They eat poor quality food, in general, or have to wait in long lines for slightly better food.

During this pandemic, the homeless do not really have access to toilets or showers, so car dwellers use a sealing bucket with a plastic bag and a pool noodle for a seat.

Many and possibly most chronic addicts and alcoholics become addicted while homeless. Many of the people with mental illness became mentally ill because of the homelessness. (The homeless are subjected to a great deal of abuse.)

There are very successful programs who house the homeless first, then deal with their problems. Simply put, you can’t treat addiction or mental illness when a person is on the street. We’ve tried that all over the United States, and that is inhumane and it just doesn’t work.

What can we do? After all, aren’t we just one human?

First of all, we can drop the NIMBY nonsense. We are already totally surrounded by Invisible People.

Apartments work, and work well. One bedroom apartments are perfectly viable, easy to maintain, and make it possible to work. Two bedroom apartments can work for most families.

We need social workers, both professional and volunteer. Volunteers need lots of training, and strict rules, but we need lots of volunteers.

People need cheap phones and cheap WiFi. It is well-established that people do better when they are part of a community.

Vote for community leaders who are voting for housing first programs. These are proven to reduce crime, reduce costs, reduce homelessness, and clean up the neighborhoods.

After all, the alternative is failing.

Here’s the first thing I would say - When we discuss “the homeless” that’s a very broad group of people. Some people have been homeless for many years (“chronic homeless”). Some people for a short time (maybe they lost their job, had a medical emergency, etc). Some homeless are highly educated and some are struggling with mental health issues. So, one thing we need to be careful of is treating the entire bucket of “homeless” all the same and approaching the issue with one-size-fits-all approach.

But to your question, yes, there are homeless shelters that do a pretty good job of meeting the immediate need of homelessness. Here in Dallas, we have about 3–4,000 homeless on a given night. The reality is that a large percentage of homeless on the streets are struggling with mental illness or drug addiction and do not take advantage of the shelters that are available. Some do not like the structure or accountability that shelters provide, and choose the dangerous option of staying on the streets.

The best shelters are those that take the time to get to know the people they are serving and address the root causes of that particular person’s homelessness and provide holistic support - mental health, recovery, financial/job readiness - and because I personally believe that heart transformation must accompany every intervention, faith-based systems provide the most helpful response. Here in Dallas, Union Gospel Mission, OurCalling (which has an amazing free app that you can download with all the resources across the city), and Dallas Life Foundation are a few.

45% of homes in Dallas are asset poor, meaning that they are one job loss, one medical emergency, or financial emergency away from dipping below the poverty line. Others that I have met, are released from prison, but don’t have safety net of friends and family - and also have a criminal record that makes it very difficult to find employment. That means, many people are homeless temporarily as they seek housing and work. I love working with this group - they understand the value of work, the impact of their choices, and are ready to make the changes necessary to better their lives. For these folks, they tell me time and again, that they do not want “free food” and “free clothes” (which while well intentioned can be de-valuing and degrading). Rather, they are simply looking for someone to build a relationship with and help them find work.

Our church works with homeless by building relationships, discipleship, financial literacy training, medical care, and job creation/matching. We believe that all people are created in God’s image and have inherent dignity, value, and worth, and work to empower people to be all that God intended.

If you’d like to read some excellent books on this, I would highly recommend “When Helping Hurts” by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett and “Toxic Charity” by Bob Lupton. I have also done some speaking and blog posts on how to handle the “man on the corner” - do we give money to panhandlers and what is the best way to approach that situation - if you’re interested. Thanks for the terrific question!

Safety, supervision, immediate effective protection.

The problem isn’t the need for a clean bed, food, a shower, clothes, human contact, support for holding documents securely, an address without which all things are impossible, help filling in documents which people are not aware of, a network of kind people who will help homeless people transition into independent living, counselling for trauma. That’s all the easy stuff.

The problem is other homeless people. On a frequent basis it needs physical intervention, more often assertive behaviour and pretty much all the time people willing to control behaviours which precede violent acts. That’s why homeless people don’t feel safe in shelters and go back to the street.

Start with the building design.

In our town, all those sat on the street, are targeted by drug gangs. We have seen them all supplying and later when they have accommodation and Universal Benefits, the gangs know them and our town sacrifices our children as we turn a blind eye.

To deal with that, you could deal with the ever replaceable drug gangs, or see the big picture. Those who see and allow this to continue.

The naive who give to the homeless, the good hearted who volunteer to help them, the police, the A&E, and council, all have insights. We ignore them. We need to speak truth unto not just power, but an unbelieving liberal society.

Congratulations, you guys have joined the US in criminalizing poverty!

Here in the US it has played out so that some areas, like Salt Lake City, Utah have discovered it is actually cheaper to HOUSE them than to jail them. It has worked fabulously. Once housed, the people who used to be homeless beggars can take a shower and get a JOB, or get mental health care they need and go get a JOB, or apply for disability and get it, or get medical care for persistent conditions that keep them from holding a… JOB! Why, they can even apply for retraining or help to finding that JOB. Amazing, isn’t it?

May your nation’s road to this stunning discovery be faster, more uniform, and require less death and suffering than ours.

In Britain, it is legal to force somebody who is mentally ill off the street into hospital in order to treat their mental illness. Attempts at treatment might go on for a few months or so until the patient seemed to be as well as they were going to get. Thereafter, if they wished to return to living on the street they would probably be allowed to do so although technically there are legal powers to prevent this. The law is more aimed at ensuring they receive treatment and imposing any restrictions on where they live would be subsidiary to this aim.

My understanding is that in at least parts of the US it is considered acceptable to leave mentally ill people living on the streets with their illness untreated.

Above is what is legal rather than what is ethical. There are different ethical views on this. My own view is that it is unethical to leave somebody with mental illness untreated until there has at least been an attempt to see how well they respond to treatment. This applies even if the patient themself, while mentally ill, refuses treatment. British law supports this position.

Yes of course. EVERYONE who is either a drug addict or has severe mental health issues and is deemed to be a threat to themselves or or others should be institutionalized or get the treatment they need.

And those homeless who do not have such issues—who are the majority—should get a lot more help than we are giving them in obtaining housing.

All that would involve spending a lot more on human services, which is a great idea.

We could fund it by refraining from building the particular items of military hardware that the military itself doesn’t need or want.

But hey, this is America. We won’t do it. Or, well, not without as massive a propaganda campaign as those who are getting rich from the present situation has put on for the last forty five years to get us where we are now.

The real issue isn’t that shelters don’t help people with addiction or mental illness—it’s that they act like those are the only reasons anyone could be homeless. The truth is, way more people are on the streets because they can’t afford housing, lost their job, or got caught up in a system that’s stacked against them.

Let’s talk numbers: the National Low Income Housing Coalition says there’s a shortage of over 7 million affordable homes for low-income renters. Minimum wage doesn’t cut it when rent costs more than a full-time paycheck in most places. Job loss, not addiction, is often the real reason people end up without a roof over their heads.

And let’s not ignore the systemic failures. Veterans, people with disabilities, folks leaving foster care—many end up on the streets because there just aren’t enough resources to help them transition into stable housing. Sure, some people have mental health or substance use issues, but according to HUD, half of them developed those problems after becoming homeless, not before.

Shelters have all these rules—no pets, no partners, no “baggage,” and sometimes even no staying if you’re not sober. That’s a lot of hoops for someone who’s already down on their luck. Plus, shelters aren’t always safe or trauma-informed, so it’s no wonder people would rather take their chances in a tent where they have some control over their space.

Oh, but here’s a revolutionary idea: why don’t we try housing people first and then deal with everything else? Shocking, right? Imagine giving someone a roof over their head before handing them a to-do list of all the ways they need to “fix” themselves. It’s almost like people can’t focus on getting sober or managing their mental health when they’re worried about where they’re going to sleep tonight or if their stuff’s gonna get stolen. Crazy concept, I know.

But studies have shown (you know, for those who like facts) that when people have stable housing first, they’re actually more likely to stick with mental health care or addiction treatment. But no, let’s keep insisting they jump through all these hoops while living in a tent or in shelters with curfews and zero privacy. It’s working so well, right? Seriously, house them first—give people the basic dignity of a home—and then watch as dealing with addiction, mental health, or even just holding down a job becomes a whole lot easier. It’s almost like stability breeds success or something. Who knew?

Bottom line: We need to stop treating homelessness like it’s only about addiction or mental illness. The real fix is addressing the lack of affordable housing, livable wages, and the systemic barriers that keep people stuck. Only then will shelters be a true part of the solution, not just a temporary Band-Aid.

Nope. We don’t have funding for most of the treatment options we have, much less playing babysitter for a bunch of doped-up retirees.

Most of the people who like the idea of “out of mind, out of sight” solutions to homelessness seem to forget one problem: warehousing people is expensive. While low- or no-cost housing costs money, the expense doesn’t magically disappear once you’ve added food, furniture, cleaning, supervision, medical staff, clothing, and other necessities for a humane facility for human beings. Not every job can be done by patients, especially if you plan on medical-model treatments — the drugs that calm patients also zombify them, in a literal, West-Indian fashion. Having people simply sitting around doing nothing is also not a good idea, medically, either. And when do you plan on releasing these people?

Having “been there”, I’d say that at least 80% you’d point to as being homeless are getting meds and going to meetings already. The problem isn’t individuals, it’s systemic — we keep “upscaling” urban housing in search of affluent tenants, while demolishing places where lower- and even middle-class people can live. A good deal of the homeless also work on minimum-wage and off-the-books jobs — it’s not just the janitor in the office building who may be homeless, but that modestly-dressed receptionist, who is keeping a discreet carry-on bag under her desk. On the other hand, street people can simply be “crusty” — they have treatment, minimal housing and so forth, they’re just disabled.

What we need is some good, cheap housing. Unfortunately, I don’t see anything in the offing.