The left loves to argue that "housing solves homelessness," which seems commonsense at first, but when you get into the nitty-gritty details, you start to realize that homelessness arises from a constellation of different factors and isn't amenable to pat solutions. Remember my horrific thought experiment from a while back? Let's do a less horrific one now: let's assume that we give all the homeless people new homes, with money being no object. Have we done it? Have we solved the homelessness problem? Not at all. Stick a homeless person in a new home, and what do you think will happen? Assuming the person stays in that home, you can expect that home's condition to become filthier and filthier as living conditions "return to the mean" for the homeless person. Or more likely, the homeless person will feel trapped in the home and will abandon it forthwith. Either way, the giving of a home has solved nothing because the essential problem resides inside the homeless person's head. Until you can figure out how to solve that problem, none of these external solutions will work. The left rejects this argument, of course, just as it rejects examining mental illness when it comes to gun violence.
I learned what you say is true with "Mama," the homeless umbrella lady I give 100 pesos to when I see her on the street several times a week. A couple of years ago, I rented a room on Baloy for her. Nothing fancy, but I thought a bed and a place to shower after a day on the streets would be nice. Nope. I gave her the key, and she went inside. She came out a few minutes later and said, "I don't want it." Turns out she prefers her street life and camping out on a cardboard mattress. She seems happy, so that's what matters.
ReplyDeleteYes, I recall warning you that that would happen.
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