I’m confused over where the article for this homeless epidemic is. The article in op goes to a bbc article about evolution reversing or something.
Homelessness is a multifaceted issue. I wouldn’t say that I have noticed it increasing and an article I found says that statistically it hasn’t. However, the potential for homelessness has increased.
https://www.alternet.org/2016/04/10-reasons-why-homelessness-more-common-now-just-20-years-ago/
I would agree with most of the potential reasons that homelessness is an increased possibility. I just don’t usually agree with a lot of the proposed solutions to the problem. There is a big difference between creating a just economy and centralizing funds to be handed out.
And pictures of homelessness in larger cities isn’t always a good representation of the situation. In some cases people who are homeless migrate to places like Washington DC or la from other places, because there are more opportunities to pan handle in larger cities. So the suggestion that homelessness is created by rising housing costs in these cities doesn’t really highlight the reason for large populations of homeless people in larger cities.
In most cases, rising housing costs will cause people to move to cities nearby that have a lower cost of living and they will commute to larger cities where they work in lower paying jobs that don’t allow them to live closer to their place of employment.
Homelessness in la for example is created by homeless migration to that area because the weather is good and there have been rumors for some time that you can make good money pan handling in areas like this.
I watched this documentary a while back called skid row with pras from the fugees that was really interesting. Skid row in la has had the largest homeless population in the country for some time and in the documentary he goes to a couple of the more established shelters for food.
If I remember correctly, they were both implemented as part of a ministry. I thought it was beautiful at the time, but it is a very repetitive process and unique reasons for homelessness require unique solutions.
From my own experience, I would say the leading cause of homelessness is mental illness. I do support programs for mental illness, but at a state or local level. There are large numbers of the homeless population that will never be able to take care of themselves. They will always need someone to take care of them and this should be accepted and dealt with.
Although, I have met several people before who told me they were homeless because they wanted to be. There have been a couple hippie-like revivals in my lifetime where I have met people who were homeless because they were trying to live out some Woodstock-like experience.
Whatever. If that’s what they want to do fine, but things like this aren’t a true reflection of homelessness either and I would say our homelessness problem is basically the same demographic group it always has been, but our working class is still in a process of decline ever since outsourcing started probably. That is where I think we started really going downhill.
As a result, I think it would make a big differences if some of these other countries that major companies have outsourced started requiring a higher standard for their workers. That would help create a just economy that would improve conditions in the us because the cost to operate a company at a higher standard would be the same no matter where you went.
We could also not allow us based companies to outsource too. It is basically like a modern form of slavery, but I think this is the first thing we should do in response to the potential for increased homelessness. Although, I don’t ever hear it mentioned because obviously the corporations don’t want it, and it wouldn’t cost any money, so I don’t know if it has the same Good Samaritan vibe that most political discussions seem to be striving for either.
In most cases, creating a just economy costs zero dollars and doesn’t create dependency. I really think a lot of political discussions are distracting because this is the reality. They seem to want people to be pegged in one extreme or the other so that people spend a whole lot of time justifying the morality behind their position of being for or against giving to programs that help the poor as a collective group. When really they are not necessary to begin with from the perspective of the government. Maybe this is why so many programs have been created by either the community or the church in the past. Government doesn’t really need to involve itself in these matters. They are not really political.
Outsourcing and fair business practices would be because government should be able to mediate in situations of dispute or injustice. The government should not be necessary to solve the problem of homelessness wherever homelessness is not caused by injustice or disputes.
