<story><title>The Homeless Crisis Is Getting Worse in America’s Richest Cities</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-11-20/the-homeless-crisis-is-getting-worse-in-america-s-richest-cities</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>spookthesunset</author><text>&amp;gt; endless money pits&lt;p&gt;The reason they are money pits is because they aren&amp;#x27;t something that will be solved by a city or even a state. Any attempt to solve the problem locally in a &amp;quot;humane&amp;quot; way has a high risk of just attracting more folks in the same circumstance to the area.&lt;p&gt;The most effective way for a city or state to &amp;quot;solve&amp;quot; the local homeless problem is to simply pay for one-way bus tickets to somewhere else.  But that doesn&amp;#x27;t solve the actual problem.&lt;p&gt;Homelessness is a systemic problem that can only be meaningly addressed in a humane way by the federal government.</text></item><item><author>crooked-v</author><text>&amp;gt; suddenly we get very &amp;quot;every person for themselves&amp;quot; the second homelessness has a price tag.&lt;p&gt;A confounding factor involved here is that many government strategies for dealing with the homeless are endless money pits without noticeable results. I think a lot of people would be more comfortable with their tax dollars going to that purpose if they didn&amp;#x27;t feel like nothing was actually happening from it.</text></item><item><author>sharkweek</author><text>Long-time Seattle resident here who volunteered for several years in the homeless community. Homelessness has always been a &lt;i&gt;thing&lt;/i&gt; in Seattle, but has definitely become a much larger issue in the past five years.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ll spare my thoughts on any number of reasons as to why we got here as a city, but will say I think we are doing a terrible disservice to actually finding a solution by lumping &amp;quot;anyone who doesn&amp;#x27;t have a home&amp;quot; into the &amp;quot;homeless crisis.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;There are so many nuanced issues across a variety of problems here. There are drug abuse issues, mental health issues, physical health issues, cost of living issues, etc., and not to mention the varying cocktail of comorbidity, that to bulk &amp;quot;people without permanent housing&amp;quot; all under the umbrella of &amp;quot;homeless crisis&amp;quot; is not going to get us anywhere. Trying to assist the single mother with children who lives in her car because she lost her job is a VASTLY different issue than trying to assist the drug addict sitting in an alley passed out in their own feces. But at the end of the day, they&amp;#x27;re both human beings, and it breaks my heart that either of them are in that situation.&lt;p&gt;Several separate issues, that need to be subdivided and approached in distinct ways if any progress is to be made on any of them. Smaller, subdivided problems should feel more solvable, too.&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, a lot of the solutions are expensive and frankly politically toxic. Despite Seattle&amp;#x27;s deep blue on most things, suddenly we get very &amp;quot;every person for themselves&amp;quot; the second homelessness has a price tag.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>flaque</author><text>&amp;gt; Any attempt to solve the problem locally in a &amp;quot;humane&amp;quot; way has a high risk of just attracting more folks in the same circumstance to the area.&lt;p&gt;This is just provably false. Utah solved it&amp;#x27;s homelessness problem by just giving people homes. And it was pretty effective.</text></comment>
<story><title>The Homeless Crisis Is Getting Worse in America’s Richest Cities</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-11-20/the-homeless-crisis-is-getting-worse-in-america-s-richest-cities</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>spookthesunset</author><text>&amp;gt; endless money pits&lt;p&gt;The reason they are money pits is because they aren&amp;#x27;t something that will be solved by a city or even a state. Any attempt to solve the problem locally in a &amp;quot;humane&amp;quot; way has a high risk of just attracting more folks in the same circumstance to the area.&lt;p&gt;The most effective way for a city or state to &amp;quot;solve&amp;quot; the local homeless problem is to simply pay for one-way bus tickets to somewhere else.  But that doesn&amp;#x27;t solve the actual problem.&lt;p&gt;Homelessness is a systemic problem that can only be meaningly addressed in a humane way by the federal government.</text></item><item><author>crooked-v</author><text>&amp;gt; suddenly we get very &amp;quot;every person for themselves&amp;quot; the second homelessness has a price tag.&lt;p&gt;A confounding factor involved here is that many government strategies for dealing with the homeless are endless money pits without noticeable results. I think a lot of people would be more comfortable with their tax dollars going to that purpose if they didn&amp;#x27;t feel like nothing was actually happening from it.</text></item><item><author>sharkweek</author><text>Long-time Seattle resident here who volunteered for several years in the homeless community. Homelessness has always been a &lt;i&gt;thing&lt;/i&gt; in Seattle, but has definitely become a much larger issue in the past five years.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ll spare my thoughts on any number of reasons as to why we got here as a city, but will say I think we are doing a terrible disservice to actually finding a solution by lumping &amp;quot;anyone who doesn&amp;#x27;t have a home&amp;quot; into the &amp;quot;homeless crisis.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;There are so many nuanced issues across a variety of problems here. There are drug abuse issues, mental health issues, physical health issues, cost of living issues, etc., and not to mention the varying cocktail of comorbidity, that to bulk &amp;quot;people without permanent housing&amp;quot; all under the umbrella of &amp;quot;homeless crisis&amp;quot; is not going to get us anywhere. Trying to assist the single mother with children who lives in her car because she lost her job is a VASTLY different issue than trying to assist the drug addict sitting in an alley passed out in their own feces. But at the end of the day, they&amp;#x27;re both human beings, and it breaks my heart that either of them are in that situation.&lt;p&gt;Several separate issues, that need to be subdivided and approached in distinct ways if any progress is to be made on any of them. Smaller, subdivided problems should feel more solvable, too.&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, a lot of the solutions are expensive and frankly politically toxic. Despite Seattle&amp;#x27;s deep blue on most things, suddenly we get very &amp;quot;every person for themselves&amp;quot; the second homelessness has a price tag.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Alex63</author><text>I&amp;#x27;d be interested to hear how homelessness can be meaningfully addressed in a humane way by the federal government (especially if it is constitutional).</text></comment>