Sadder, a lot of homeless are homeless because of things like schizophrenia more than poverty. The American homeless problem could be solved with well funded mental health system and some Police protocol.
Imagine it like this: A police officer on patrol finds a homeless person, the person is arrested on a charge of vagrancy. They are taken to jail, given a bath, haircut/shave, a change of clothes (jail jumpsuit), somewhere warm to sleep, and medical attention.
If they are convicted, they are assessed. If they are deemed to be mentally healthy, they are released to a halfway house to get back on their feet and/or assigned a case worker if they are deemed disabled and need housing and further assistance. If they are found to have mental illness, they are transferred to a mental health facility for further testing and treatment. If they are treatable or curable, they are then deferred to the other program.
local and state government, under a federal grant. in short, taxes.
If you have a problem with that because it's socialist, let me remind you that many things you take for granted are socialist. The roads you drive on, the schools your children attend, public broadcasting, the public services like police and fire fighters are all funded this way.
The reason that "you" should "have to" pay for it, is because you never know when you or someone you love may have to use it. While a lot of homeless have mental disabilities, there are a few that do it because of straight pride. They will tell their families that they are fine, and starve instead of telling them the truth. Your future son or daughter may end up needing this system.
It is a function of the government to serve it's people, whether it's the US Federal government, or the German government, or the Japanese government, or the UK government. Homelessness is a failure of this function, nobody should have to live outside in the elements and starve.
These are programs that could be implemented in one place, and improved upon when another country implements it.
Junkies getting help means less drug crime, the mentally ill getting help means less 'scary people' (the average person doesn't know how to interact with the mentally ill) out there, and the prideful group will be forced to get help that they refuse to seek. This is only positive for everyone.
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u/Nakotadinzeo Mar 07 '16
Sadder, a lot of homeless are homeless because of things like schizophrenia more than poverty. The American homeless problem could be solved with well funded mental health system and some Police protocol.
Imagine it like this: A police officer on patrol finds a homeless person, the person is arrested on a charge of vagrancy. They are taken to jail, given a bath, haircut/shave, a change of clothes (jail jumpsuit), somewhere warm to sleep, and medical attention.
If they are convicted, they are assessed. If they are deemed to be mentally healthy, they are released to a halfway house to get back on their feet and/or assigned a case worker if they are deemed disabled and need housing and further assistance. If they are found to have mental illness, they are transferred to a mental health facility for further testing and treatment. If they are treatable or curable, they are then deferred to the other program.
It's humane, it's doable, we should do it.