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In reply to the discussion: The double-standard of making the poor prove they’re worthy of government benefits [View all]Bernardo de La Paz
(48,789 posts)36. Wherever homeless are giving FREE HOUSING, overall costs go down a lot.
This has been proven multiple times.
What is the biggest barrier to getting a job: having an address and having a place to live, to shower, to rest. Give people a place to live and a large number (half?) end up getting jobs and paying for their own place to live.
You save tax dollars for fewer emergency room visits, fewer police interactions, less crime against and by homeless people, less court costs, less mental health care, better nutrition, longer lives, more productivity, less wasted education dollars, ....
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/08/13/housing-first-federal-election_n_7949510.html . . . Excerpt:
The principles of Housing First are not new. It began in New York City in the '90s with Greek-Canadian psychologist Sam Tsemberis. He kept seeing the same patients over and over while doing mental health outreach, and asked them what they needed most. The answer was blindingly obvious a place to live. So he founded Pathways to Housing based on a theory that would later become known as Housing First.
"He said, 'Why don't we try getting these people into apartments, regular apartments, provide them the psychiatric medical and mental health support that they need and see if it works?' And it did," explains Richter. "It's taken off from there."
It's also become a bipartisan success story because you can help people and save money doing it. The political right has taken the lead on growing the program. George W. Bush's administration picked it up first, bringing it into the mainstream. The man Bush appointed to head up his efforts to combat homelessness Philip Mangano put Tsemberiss housing first theory into nationwide practice and the result was that the "chronically homeless" fell 30 per cent between 2005 and 2007.
The Great Recession hit in 2008, but chronic homelessness fell an additional 21 per cent because Obama picked up the Housing First baton, first with the $1.5 billion stimulus-based Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program and then as the centerpiece of his "Opening Doors" plan. A 2015 update reconfirmed that Housing First "is the solution" and declared chronic homelessness would be eliminated in the U.S. by 2017 and that youth and family homelessness was on track to be ended by 2020.
Homelessness in Utah has fallen 91 per cent since launching its Housing First program in 2005. State housing director Gordon Walker told the Desert News in April that "the remaining balance is 178 people. We know them by name, who they are and what their needs are." To further assist the no-longer-homeless, Utah recently started a pilot program to expunge minor crimes from their records to facilitate finding employment.
"He said, 'Why don't we try getting these people into apartments, regular apartments, provide them the psychiatric medical and mental health support that they need and see if it works?' And it did," explains Richter. "It's taken off from there."
It's also become a bipartisan success story because you can help people and save money doing it. The political right has taken the lead on growing the program. George W. Bush's administration picked it up first, bringing it into the mainstream. The man Bush appointed to head up his efforts to combat homelessness Philip Mangano put Tsemberiss housing first theory into nationwide practice and the result was that the "chronically homeless" fell 30 per cent between 2005 and 2007.
The Great Recession hit in 2008, but chronic homelessness fell an additional 21 per cent because Obama picked up the Housing First baton, first with the $1.5 billion stimulus-based Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program and then as the centerpiece of his "Opening Doors" plan. A 2015 update reconfirmed that Housing First "is the solution" and declared chronic homelessness would be eliminated in the U.S. by 2017 and that youth and family homelessness was on track to be ended by 2020.
Homelessness in Utah has fallen 91 per cent since launching its Housing First program in 2005. State housing director Gordon Walker told the Desert News in April that "the remaining balance is 178 people. We know them by name, who they are and what their needs are." To further assist the no-longer-homeless, Utah recently started a pilot program to expunge minor crimes from their records to facilitate finding employment.
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The double-standard of making the poor prove they’re worthy of government benefits [View all]
gollygee
Apr 2016
OP
Getting the middle class to attack the poor instead of the rich is a winning strategy
Major Nikon
Apr 2016
#7
The small number that abuse the system get the press and encourage more restrictions.
FLPanhandle
Apr 2016
#8
I "love" the hot coffee lawsuit logic of tort reformers. "but she spilled coffee" - "yes but it was
MillennialDem
Apr 2016
#50
It's not as if right wing hatred of the poor is rooted in any sort of common sense...
MrScorpio
Apr 2016
#11
A divisive tactic used to take even more away from the poor...feeds into stereotypes as well.
Jefferson23
Apr 2016
#12
"Good Day?" It's between 8:30 and 12:30. The continental US is covered in darkness.
Algernon Moncrieff
Apr 2016
#33
If it helps I've seen Suburbanites of color that are just as bad, I've lived poor
Dragonfli
Apr 2016
#55
And the point was that these legends play direcly to what the OP is saying
Algernon Moncrieff
Apr 2016
#62
"Every" seemed simpler than the more accurate "disturbingly pervasive"
Algernon Moncrieff
Apr 2016
#70
HELL, every congressman who serves at the state or fed level should be drug tested
FlatBaroque
Apr 2016
#53
So if a poor person gets a gift and pays rent with that gift and then uses his food card
JDPriestly
Apr 2016
#37
Tax breaks need to be replaced with subsidies and grants. It would be more honest and simpler
Bernardo de La Paz
Apr 2016
#34
Wherever homeless are giving FREE HOUSING, overall costs go down a lot.
Bernardo de La Paz
Apr 2016
#36
Thank you. There are no hard and fast rules, but simply giving housing to the homeless
JDPriestly
Apr 2016
#38
I would say it's a scam at work and should be illegal as well. I don't use drugs, so the only
MillennialDem
Apr 2016
#49
Because if you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes true. The poor are spending their
MillennialDem
Apr 2016
#48
Teachings of Christianity. If someone is a victim, they are somehow at fault for their own
Amimnoch
Apr 2016
#72
The rich get more welfare dollarwise, they need daily drug testing.
Dont call me Shirley
Apr 2016
#73