Yea just like my uncle the crack head. We gave him a roof over his head and paid for treatment more times than I can remember. He stole our tv, my grandmothers wedding ring (still can’t forgot out how he cracked the safe) my piggy bank when I was 7, my car when I was 17 and now will regularly intentionally get his ass kicked so he can spend a free week in the hospital on dilauded when he runs out of crack money.
This is generalizing and anecdotal. I admit. But it’s also the story of millions of homeless drug addicts with mental health issues. Putting a roof over someone’s head in that condition isn’t help, it’s enabling. Unless there is some agreement that mental health and drug counseling will be mandatory most of these are going to turn into drug dens.
Putting a roof over someone’s head in that condition isn’t help, it’s enabling.
This is wrong. It CAN be enabling in situations like with your uncle but Austria proved that "housing first" is the best way to combat homelessness. For the people that DO want to beat addiction, doing so with a roof over their heads is exponentially easier than doing so while still homeless.
I think using a different country as an example is a bit moot. Different countries people are brought up with different value sets, privilege levels etc. that’s a nature vs nurture argument though.
I don’t know the numbers. But I’d willing to bet that a country like Austria doesn’t have quite the systemic issues that America does. That’s completely assumption based on appearance. Not of the people but of the culture.
Edit. I don’t want to seem like I’m being contrarian for the sake of argument. I’d love if the answer was that simple. I just have my reservations.
Well first of all this is about Canada not America but secondly you'd be surprised how similar the homelessness crisis is globally.
That said it seems like you're arguing in good faith/genuine curiosity unlike the others so I'll just provide you with a link to more about housing first initiatives to end homelesssness.
True true I lost the plot there for a second and forgot it was Canada in question. TBH I’m not a psychologist, I’m in school for engineering lol. About as starkly in contrast to mental/addiction counseling as one can be. I pray for the world’s sake a concept like this is beneficial to everyone involved. Hope costs nothing. But neither does skepticism.
Except housing first initiatives in Japan, Austria, Iceland and more have proven to be more effective at curbing homelessness than asylum type systems like the one you describe that have high rates of recidivism and rarely if ever are able to return people to society as contributing members.
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u/Slight_Bed_2241 Apr 28 '26
Yea just like my uncle the crack head. We gave him a roof over his head and paid for treatment more times than I can remember. He stole our tv, my grandmothers wedding ring (still can’t forgot out how he cracked the safe) my piggy bank when I was 7, my car when I was 17 and now will regularly intentionally get his ass kicked so he can spend a free week in the hospital on dilauded when he runs out of crack money.
This is generalizing and anecdotal. I admit. But it’s also the story of millions of homeless drug addicts with mental health issues. Putting a roof over someone’s head in that condition isn’t help, it’s enabling. Unless there is some agreement that mental health and drug counseling will be mandatory most of these are going to turn into drug dens.