

A-plan-to-make-homelessness-history - raghav1331
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/20/a-plan-to-make-homelessness-history/

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qeorge
Housing first is a wonderful program. My stepmother has been running a similar
pilot program in Greensboro, NC [1]. The thesis, which is holding up, is that
the total cost to taxpayers is lower if the city pays the rent vs. emergency
room visits, court system, police, etc. that result from homelessness.

Its also hard to implement. Its hard to find willing landlords with safe
housing, and you want to spread folks out instead of ghettoizing them and
creating a larger problem. The whole thing only works because of the
ridiculously hard work the case managers and other social workers are putting
in.

[1] <http://greensborohousingcoalition.com/>

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tomjen3
I love how they preempt the economy issue by saying that it is cheaper to
house them than it is to treat them. Wouldn't it be even cheaper to put a
limit on how much you can owe the public before you are turned away at the er?
After all, this is the money that comes from the insurance premiums that have
exploded recently.

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arethuza
I believe that it was Mahatma Ghandi who said "A nation's greatness is
measured by how it treats its weakest members."

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tomjen3
He said a lot of things, including suggesting that jews went to the ovens
voluntary (as some sort of protest against the Nazies). He may have his hearth
in the right place, but I wouldn't take advice from him.

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zach
Another worthwhile blog post sullied by an over-sensationalized headline, from
the author of _How to Change the World_.

Let's be honest, this is triage to save the life of people dying on the
streets. And frankly, I find that to be a far more galvanizing rallying cry
than making homelessness history.

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InclinedPlane
I will boldly predict that this won't work.

There are two types of homeless. The temporary homeless who have been caught
out by circumstance and work mightily to avoid remaining homeless. These
people tend to be homeless only for very short periods of time (days).

Then there are the chronically homeless, who are generally unable to live
within societal norms. Many of these people are mentally ill. And for many of
these people giving them a home and money will not solve their problems.

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Alex3917
"Many of these people are mentally ill. And for many of these people giving
them a home and money will not solve their problems."

This thinking is based on the fallacy that mental illness is a purely
biological condition, which anthropology, epidemiology, and clinical data all
soundly disprove. Even for mental illnesses that are mostly biological, like
schizophrenia, the quality of outcomes varies enormously depending on the
person's social environment as well as the course of treatment.

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juiceandjuice
Do you know any LPCs or LPSWs?

First thing they'd tell you is that while mental illness isn't biological,
that doesn't mean there's a cure. Some people could go 20+ years in therapy
and still end up only a slightly less sick person than they were going in.

Also, many mental illnesses become biological in the sense that brain
chemistry actually changes.

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Alex3917
Excellent points. Are there any good books on the LPC/LPSW perspective?

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juiceandjuice
I'm not sure. My best friend is an almost an LPC, I can ask her. She's worked
with kids aged 4-18, and it's always the older kids she's most worried about.
She's working with 13-18 year olds right now, but really wants to go back to
6-12 year olds because she feels like there's a bit more hope for them.

