How to get the homeless off the streets

[iris lilies]

to answer catherin'e question from the other thread, I would like to see far less of a concentration of homeless on the block were I work. Spread 'em around. Send some up to St. Chuck for dmc to take care of

[ToomuchStuff]

OK, what are your plans on solving the homeless problem. I remember driving through a part of town when I was a kid in the early 70's that had government housing. They were basically shacks, they dosed them down and built apt. buildings, in 5 years it was back to being a slum. People take better care of things when they have to earn it.

We have some fairly famous section 8 places like that, around here. Once they start going downhill, even those in need, are afraid to move into them, and they were set up to give a hand up. When crime takes over, all suffer.

Ok, let's go:

1. Your husband beat the shit out of you & your home is now unsafe for you & your kids? Here's your ticket to Detroit Happened locally (across the street), woman walked the block and a half, to the battered woman's shelter, and then came back to the guy, living in HER house (section 8 fraud, he wasn't to be living there), while the 3 and 5 year old were trying to start fires with people's mail, and breaking into houses for food. The kids were finally taken away, by a friend of the mothers who worked in social services and when she violated several laws, she was busted as well.
2. Your mental illness means you cannot hold a job, which means you have no access to care that might help you manage that illness? Blammo! Ticket to Detroit No access? Obamacare I thought is the law now?
3. Your parents hate Gay people, and you're a Gay 16 year old who just got beat up by her Dad? Off to DetroitTake the kid to a state where it is legal to leave someone at a hospital or firestation (fostercare is at least a chance).
4. Apartment building burned down? 20 tickets to Detroit. Friend (almost stepkid) had this happen a couple years back. He was at the girlfriends when the building burned, and they thought he had died in the fire. One of the few with renters insurance.
5. You're an Iraq Vet, and untreated PTSD has you seeing shooters in every doorway, so you can't stay inside? Detroit, my man! Let's move to a area that has a lot of arson for more trauma, etc.
6. You're under the age of 12, and your parent just lost her job? Better likes foraging in Detroit.

Next idea.

There are the many mentally ill, who need some sort of permanent housing solution.

Have to be careful removing peoples liberty. It has been done before and lead to things like euthanasia. A metal home is just a prison housing the prison that is holding the mind.

And here's what McD's counter workers look like in higher-wage/benefits parts of the world:

What part, and do they have cash area's (these look no different really then most cashierless checkouts except for the literacy part, but McDonalds instituted that some time ago, due to literacy and non English speaking workforces).

Minimum wages have been established for over a half century, and have changed multiple times since then, with each iteration generating doomsday warnings that don't bear fruit. We will likely see some of both, and over what stretch of time do you consider the data? The first week? Month? Quarter? Year? 3-5 years?

How also do we calculate the multiplier effect of higher wages going into the local economy? Will there be a balance of higher wages/diminution of jobs in the short run, then as the market adapts, more jobs? Will this drive area prices up?

Most important to me is establishing wages by law which reflect the values of people being able to pay for their basic livelihoods, and meet their basic needs. It will lessen the impact in the public sector over time, to be sure.

It will drive prices up (things like a dollar menu going away), and will hurt small businesses the worst. (cash reserves are normally used for price fluxing items, these will be the first thing tapped for the increases). But maybe what a basic livelihood is, should legally be established first (already an issue/right to pursue happiness). (this also will outline things like no smart phones and big screen tv's, etc) After that is established, then we can start to establish a legal minimum living wage (legalese, living wage, is not the same thing as a minimum wage. It is thought that people are supposed to be smart enough to establish what they need, and search accordingly).

I also wonder how anyone who has a diagnosed, untreated mental illness can be said to be "choosing" homelessness?

Since Obamacare, they are choosing not to be treated, or is Obamacare not a law?

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/..._scarcity.html

Since I have two Trekkies in my family, I can tell you how wrong that is, since they miss a VERY BASIC PREMISE. You have to JOIN Starfleet (and Sisko's dad, and Picard's brother didn't). It would be more like if the WORLD had an army and needed other occupations besides a soldier.

From the horse's mouth: I'm going to re-post what I posted in the Review forum of a book I read which was authored by someone who panhandled for several months in the 1990s:

"Will Work for Food or $" by Bruce Moody. A memoir of his few months as a begger on the freeway ramp. He was just shy of 60 years old, a college grad, and had been laid off. He went through his savings, and was trying to get temp jobs, but it wasn't working. He was eventually greatly helped by a generous woman who paid him $15/hr to do some work at her home, which enabled him to save $90 to post an ad in the paper as a handyman, gaving him steady jobs thereafter.

Was fascinating to read what was going through his mind as he stood there for hours every day, and the difference a few dollars can make to people who are destitute. "

Reminds me of a story from a sleigh ride. Someone came up and shook a friend of mines hand and thanked them for saving their life. They were going back to their room at the shelter and planning on killing themselves when they found the (amount) left for them. The one that they shook their hand, wasn't the one that placed it there, one of the other elves did.

How to not be a gentrifying influence in a neighborhood of color...

http://www.alternet.org/culture/20-w...-be-gentrifier

"Many people think they can move into someone else’s neighborhood and start making it over as their own"
Right there it starts off wrong. For example: There is no national language, and we find it acceptable to let those who move into this country to speak their native tongue.
So the person above, is now a resident (it ISN'T someone else's neighborhood then) and you reverse bigotry and bias against them? Then in the next part it talks about ILLEGAL and expects them to just let it slide? Thought this was a "melting pot", which means both parts should blend and choose the BEST of both not the illegal or worst parts.

[catherine]

Is there some golden era in human history when it *was* pretty?

How about this place, where there is no "bottom."
http://xposethereal.com/motivational...e-is-good.html

Officially a New Zealand protectorate, Palmerston receives many of the modern amenities that we take for granted. Housing, power (for a couple of hours a day), the internet (for a couple of hours a day), even – for a lucky few – a mobile phone signal.

Yet the people of Palmerston have no shop, just two toilets, and rainwater is collected for drinking water. Money is only used to buy supplies from the outside world – not from each other.

“That’s one thing I’m so proud of with the families living on Palmerston – we work together, we love each other and we share,” says Bob.

“For instance, when I’m out of rice or flour I can just go next door and if they have – they give. I’m really happy people don’t sell things here. The supply ship hasn’t been for six months but we don’t cry over rice or steak, we just manage with our coconuts and our fish. But the day the freighter arrives it’s like Christmas Day,” he laughs.

(Actually, sounds a little like where you live, bae!)

ETA: Actually Denmark is not doing badly, in terms of overall happiness of its population and how it has worked systematically to reduce the homeless population there, which is about 1/10 of ours.

[ctg492]

Detroit, I wear my Made In Detroit sticker proudly on my car. I ride my Detroit bike. Detroit is in my heart that it can climb out of the pit. I seldom drive the 94 route to the northern areas, but when I do the wasted beautiful old buildings is overwhelming. I used to say the same thing, all the homeless or those that could fix and have a home and there are those homes. Sorry but agree with others, that would not be the place to revitalize for homeless.
I hit the WDIV, WXYZ sites each morning and leave with them same feelings. There is good, but it is far over powered by the bad in The D.

[razz]

Neat article, Redfox.

[catherine]

Neat article, Redfox.

I agree!

Here is some information/suggestions from SHARE International

European Union countries are considered to have among the most socially advanced housing policies in the world. Among developing nations, countries such as Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Indonesia, Senegal, Singapore, and Tunisia are praised for their efforts.....

Much of the progress comes at the local level. "The places where you see success stories are the places where there are very strong community organizations present, a very high degree of participation in the community, and where the government has acted as a facilitating rather than a repressive force," says Scott Leckie. "Most of the success stories are small-scale, community by community, neighborhood by neighborhood, but they get replicated in other places once people find out about them."

Biau agrees: "The ideal situation would be to have a strong municipality defining the city-wide policies, and for each squatter settlement or slum to have a few CBOs (community-based organizations) and NGOs [Non-Governmental Organizations] co-ordinating the implementation of these policies. I believe that the key partnerships in the future will be between local authorities and CBOs and NGOs, at the city level."

[dmc]

How to not be a gentrifying influence in a neighborhood of color...

http://www.alternet.org/culture/20-w...-be-gentrifier

Racist.

[catherine]

Since I have two Trekkies in my family, I can tell you how wrong that is, since they miss a VERY BASIC PREMISE. You have to JOIN Starfleet (and Sisko's dad, and Picard's brother didn't). It would be more like if the WORLD had an army and needed other occupations besides a soldier.

Who said we can't copy the ideas of our enlightened Starship Enterprise leaders? Some of those ideas remind me of B.F. Skinner's Walden II. I say, let's just erase the boundaries between nations, rename the world Starship Enterprise and all become members!

But I do think you bring up a great point about helping. I just finished a book based on Buddhist ideas, and one of the things the author talked about was the difference between "helping" and "serving." He says that helping can be a forgery of serving.

Service and its emanating quality, compassion, are innate responses when our heart is exposed to the needs of others. Helping, on the other hand, is what the mind feels it should do when it sees people who are deprived. The difference between serving and helping is that the former is not a deliberation; it is a response. Helping is based on sacrifice, not strength, and is associated with motive and labor. Its intention is to allow the person who is helping to feel better about the disparity between herself and the person helped. The helper's reward is the pity she feels for the disadvantaged and teh social outrage she feels for the injustices of life....

Service comes from the perception that we are not isolated beings, and the interactions we have through service come from the truth of our inseparability. The joy we feel as we serve is the joy of sharing within that truth and is the joy of our commonly shared aliveness."

I do think we need to discern between the helping that is a projection of our own egos, and an attitude of service, which is an egalitarian sharing and mutual appreciation. If our public servants are truly public "servants" they need to be humble, to listen, and to set an example of the kind of joyful community we can all participate in.

[Alan]

Racist.

I don't think racism is the only explanation, although it's certainly a part of it. I think it's really a "lowest common denominator" sort of thing. People who view others as perpetual victims seem to think it's cruel to expose those "victims" to alternative worlds since their 'soft bigotry of low expectations' mentality would rather see their inferiors remain on the plantation they know rather than allow them to aspire to something more, and possibly not succeed.

[dmc]

Yep, it OK to have a guy dealing drugs outside your door, he's just someone who has a felony on his record and trying to support a few kids. I'm sure he can get them in the business soon enough. And folks drinking and arguing at the park are just celebrating life.

How dare someone try and clean up the place. We should buss Iris lilies homeless to San Francisco and New York to help keep those neighborhoods in decline.