I wish more countries could address this issue rather than trying to pretend it isn’t an issue by implementing hostile architecture.
I have a cousin from a wealthy family who chooses to be homeless. He can’t be committed against his will and he doesn’t want the responsibility of just having a room in his parents house or with relatives.
A lot of people have this idea that housing everyone will fix the people who just aren’t gonna do it without it being forced on them
A given % of the homeless are capable of finding housing and actively avoid it. That number is not 100%, but it is not 0% either.
One of the biggest issues when talking about homelessness is conflating the two different groups - people who are homeless through unfortunate circumstances, and people who are incapable of living in society. One side thinks all homeless are the former group, the other side thinks all homeless are the latter group. Truth is, both exist. You can’t take a schizophrenic drug addict, throw them in a house, and then declare victory. However, there ARE some homeless for whom that’s all they need.
Ending homelessness requires a granular, personal approach. And that shit is EXPENSIVE.
You’re just wrong. No granular approach is needed. It’s not complicated at all.
Offer people housing without conditions and people do take it. Finland did this and it eliminated homelessness there.
The cousin from a rich family “choosing” to be homeless over living with family is likely “choosing” that option because he doesn’t want to take harsh psychiatric medications, have a curfew of 9 PM in his 20s, and be criticized for going out to socialize. It’s likely the “choice” involves a rejection of extremely oppressive rules and he doesn’t have decent options.
You can actually take a schizophrenic drug addict, throw them in a house, and then declare victory. Often that type of person chooses voluntarily to deal with some issues once housed. What you can’t do is take a schizophrenic drug addict and offer housing contingent upon really harsh anti-psychotics and weekly drug testing plus loss of housing if they don’t comply, administered by extremely expensive social workers who end up feeling like police. That is also what makes traditional programs so expensive.
I often think people who think homelessness is a complex nuanced issue just want there to be homelessness or buy into upper class lies justifying homelessness which keep the lower classes fearful and obedient.
This is the most naive, ridiculous, privileged bullshit I’ve ever read. I award you no points, and may god have mercy on your soul.
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2018/02/how-finland-solved-homelessness/
Go back to making “if you have sex with a clone of yourself is it incest?” threads which are more suitable to your modest intellect.
https://lemmy.world/post/19329178
Am I the one needing to beg for mercy from some imaginary deity?
https://www.bigissue.com/news/housing/homelessness-finland-rough-sleeping/
New statistics from the Finnish government body ARA show 3,806 people are now experiencing homelessness in Finland. That’s an increase of 377 people in 2024 compared to the previous year, bringing an end to 11 consecutive years of declining numbers.
This article talks at length about the cause of this rise being increasing economic stress / government cuts and the affordable housing system not having been adjusted to meet the rising demand. Literally it points to a Housing First program under-powered relative to economic needs as the reason for the rise. I don’t know if I necessarily agree with the person you’re replying to but this article strongly supports their argument.
And that shit is EXPENSIVE.
Or takes all of society to get involved, rather than outsourcing it to government via taxes.
Anything that starts with “if everyone would just…” can pretty much be immediately dismissed.
“If everyone would just stop being racist”
“If everyone would just vote for honest politicians”
“If everyone would just be faithful to their partners”
“If everyone would just trust scientific medicine”
“If everyone would just put people first instead of profits”
“If everyone would just not abuse children”
No. Sure, you’ll never get everyone doing a good thing, but it’s useless to give up entirely on society/community as a whole doing things right. Imagine if 90% of families abused children on a regular basis, and you don’t even hope for those families to change, you just plan on government alternatives?
hope for those families to change
You are literally advocating for thoughts and prayers instead of fixing the problem.
What?! No, I’m advocating for change. You can go and do the change, since I’m not there. Go and do it, and I’ll do change where I am here.
Or is your strategy hopes and prayers for government instead? You should make tiktoks praising Bernie. And post on Lemmy your preferred government plan. That will definitely do practical help.
No, I’m advocating for change.
Then that’s not an “if everyone would just…” strategy.
Ending homelessness requires a granular, personal approach. And that shit is EXPENSIVE.
But generally less expensive than letting the problem fester. Police, medics, sanitation, and so on is expensive as hell.
Removed by mod
Yes, which is why I quoted this text instead of “just house everyone”
Ending homelessness requires a granular, personal approach. And that shit is EXPENSIVE.
People are notoriously bad at comparing a single large dollar amount with a large number of smaller dollar amounts.
Is the goal here to provide everyone with access to a home or to force everyone into a home?
Straight to the jail. /s
I’m not opposed to the message, but did it have to be an AI generated picture?
I’m torn on whether this is AI. The AI detectors I put it in say no, and the letters being consistent (all T’s looking like all other T’s, etc) says real person to me rather than machine generated. The wood grain is also consistent beneath the lettering, and it and the chain link fence don’t meander or disappear in any weird ways that I see.
That said the building in the background looks weird to me, as does the lighting. And the combination of the wood grain plus the texture on the lettering does give it that weird quality that AI text tends to have, it immediately made me question it as well. I just can’t decide if it’s a weird artifact of real textures clashing or not.
Its edited/manipulated in some way. The E’s are all the same, even the bump on the bottom part is there for all of them.
Might be photoshop moreso than ai
Yeah, them all being the same is what makes me think person; when you look at those AI images with legible text, the text wiggles and is inconsistent when you compare something like one A to another A. But if you’re a person using linocut stamps or duplicating things in photoshop, letters will look the same.
There’s other little things too, like the knot in the wood that the paper dips into, that make me lean more towards ‘real but strange looking photo.’
I’d lean more towards real photo but photoshopped and the original text was something else
You can see the line artifacts around each repeated characters are the same despite the letters themselves being different sizes, so I’m leaning towards they just cut and scaled letters from the original text or something similar. You can see for example each T has a line artifact on the bottom left and each E has one on the top. Plus, if it was an irl letter stamp, they wouldnt have different sizes for the letters, at least not to this degree
I don’t know why people seem to forget about photoshop. Late night hosts were using photoshopped pictures in bits 30 years ago.
Why not
It’s also funny to me when people say they are Christian but don’t want to help the poor. The good Samaritan is very clear. So is the bit about the sheep and the goats.
But you can use the Bible to justify anything, I guess.
I’m not Christian and I don’t want to see them. Also I didn’t consider housing them to be my job. That’s why we have government that we elect and pay taxes to in order to fund it. This is just bs sign that simply virtue signaling instead of asking hard questions.
How are those government people that you elected working out?
Not well. I don’t know if you mean to imply something, but I live in Portland and our government is very liberal. And yes I voted for them. And yes they have solved absolutely nothing.
The notion of government being not your job, something you pay someone else to do, is a fallacy. And the notion that it can be that is fantasy. But even if that were the case, you’d be a chump to not at least demand in writing an undelivered service that you already paid for. We do have local council reps now.
Wtf? Government is my job when I vote for it based on their declared policies. Demand services in writing? What are you talking about? What country are you from?
Government is my job when I vote for it based on their declared policies.
Nope, that’s the fallacy again. Literally not the way that it actually works. You have to hold your reps feet to the coals. Interests that are opposite your own already understand this fact. You have to get involved at least at some minimal level, or you’ll never get what you want out of politics and will forever stay frustrated.
Portlanders do struggle with this concept more than a lot of other urban Americans and I think it’s largely due to the fact that until a few months ago we were the only major city that didn’t have a city council. They look at me like I’m an alien, and ask things like what country am I from.
I already have a job. I don’t need the second one. If I did, I would run for office myself.
You don’t want to see them because you want them to be housed, or you want them to be forcibly moved so they’re unhoused out of sight?
The government should be doing more for the housing crisis, but a first step for that is getting people aware of the issue and on board with solutions.
I don’t want to see them because they are dangerous. Reasons don’t matter. I’ve been harassed and my wife was attacked by homeless people in Portland. She has pretty severe PTSD right now because of that.
Everyone is dangerous.
Kind of shitty to oppose systemic changes that would help them and reduce danger
No housed person has harassed or attacked me since middle school.
Housed persons are peaceful. Unhoused persons are dangerous.
Literally if public housing was dispersed equally and equitably across a given city or area, as time goes by, unhoused people would housed people nearby anyone. They become peaceful by your logic.
The government might be able to do this using eminent domain, but people like you would oppose it in your neighborhood.
Everyone has to be onboard with this so the load on everyone becomes proportional and not disproportional.
And this is where American individualism gets in the way. People don’t value community, and so politicians would be hard pressed to get this done while being shunned from office come time for the next election.
How do you break down American individualism? By removing barriers between housed and unhoused people, doing outreach, having conversations, and lending a helping hand in redevelopment.
Sounds like you’re allergic to all of those though
Christianity is about control for the powerful and bedtime stories to make you feel better about inexcusable shitty behavior for the masses.
Love thy neighbor as thy self, because let’s be real, they can just fend for themselves, and if they don’t, well, fuck the poor. I mean, why should I have to take care of all these lazy bums? They’re always begging for scraps anyway. It’s like, if you can’t handle a little poverty, then maybe you shouldn’t be living here. Fuck the poor.
Yep, it’s literally in the name unhoused/homeless. Will giving someone a home fix mental health and/or addiction issues? Probably not. But providing permanent, stable housing is a necessary first step.
Housing would clear a great deal of homeless off the street, but the recalcitrant people, no idea how to deal with them.
And no one ever proposes where to build this housing. Sorry, but NIMBY, not around my children and home. And anyone who says they would be fine housing the homeless in their hood is a liar or has no experience with homeless people. A great many of them are bugfuck at best, violent at worst.
Met a trans (?) dude in the woods the other day. He was madly packing his tent and throwing on a jacket and boots to hide his girl clothes (literally little girl clothes). I tried to calm him, chat a bit, let him know I’m peaceful. The shotgun and pistol probably didn’t help my case. :(
I regret not trying to help him more, wasn’t sure what to do. Gave him some trash bags and advised him to pick up the area so none of us get hassled for being back there. Wish I had sat him down and explained the area, directed him to more private places to camp.
Thought much about him. He seemed sane enough, but could he actually hold a job? Just show up on time, work, leave? He was so scared it was hard to get through to him, see how he was really doing. Anyway, that’s been eating on me, so I’m dropping this on y’all.
And no one ever proposes where to build this housing. Sorry, but NIMBY, not around my children and home.
Tell me you don’t live in a city without telling me you don’t live in a city
And anyone who says they would be fine housing the homeless in their hood is a liar or has no experience with homeless people.
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On my street is a halfway house for recently released prisoners
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Next street over is a bunch of housing for formerly homeless
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In a few years, my entire street will be demolished to build new mixed-use housing, including some units set aside for formerly homeless, veterans, and teachers (this was prominently noted on the rental lease agreement and we know it’s coming eventually).
I’m fine with it. It’s a peaceful street. There are kids and families and people walking their dogs and old men fishing at the ass-crack of dawn. The people who are allowed to live there are vetted and have case managers and are given job training and psychological and medical support. I’m sure it’s expensive as all fuck to the government/nonprofits involved to run it that way, and it only serves a relatively small number of people, but it works very well from everything I’ve seen.
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FUCK AI
Yeah, I agree if something made by ai it shouldn’t be posted in anyway
Weird place to make this stand
Weird place to start a debate over it
Weird place to question someone saying the meaning is more important than the medium
Weird to say that now when it would have been a way more effective opener!
Its slop, if you want to make a political point you shouldn’t need to steal (that post is AI generated)
Who cares? It’s a meme statement. It’s not using anyone’s likeness. Where is your proof that it’s AI and not graphic design?
It has a distinct AI blurriness, details are off, and the text is clearly edited (the original text from the AI image was probrally useless and unreadable)
Conclusion: I would say with 80% certainty that this image is AI generated
So a guess and no evidence
The evidence is right in front of your face, it has all the clear and distinct signs of ai
The US doesn’t want to addtess its spiraling homelessness problem because giving them homes means they now treat homeless people better than the people who work 40hrs a week to barely pay for a home.
Agreed, give people dignity and safety. We all need help sometimes
I have more respect for someone who goes “I hate homeless people, I think they’re scum” and pushes for actually housing them because they don’t ever want to see them again, over someone who goes “Oh those poor dears! We really should do something!” and then just likes a social media post about hostile architecture and leaves it at that.
