Homelessness Isn't A Problem
“If you write, fix pipes, grade papers, lay bricks or drive a taxi - do it with a sense of pride. And do it the best you know how. Be cognizant and sympathetic to the guy alongside, because he wants a place in the sun, too. And always...always look past his color, his creed, his religion and the shape of his ears. Look for the whole person. Judge him as the whole person.”
― Rod Serling
Rod Serling should have been president or at the very least, mayor of San Francisco. San Francisco truly has become a city that can only be found in the Twilight Zone. Serling would never have allowed SF to be one of the worst cities in the US. We all know that homelessness is not unique to San Fran. We all know it (homelessness) is a problem in every major Progressive city in the US. Those areas are call inner cities (I miss the days of when it was called ghettos).
With no expertise in anything regarding social issues or behavioral knowledge and from only watching the Twilight Zone (both Rod Serling's and the greedy politicians of San Francisco) I will give anyone interested the solutions of forever ridding homelessness in your local Progressive city.
First Step: Recognize that there are 4 types of homeless people. Those types are generally
A. The mentally ill and developmentally disabled or both.
B. People who hit a rough patch and need money
C. Drug addicts
D. People who just think it is cool to be homeless
Second Step: Recognize you will need four different types of solutions for the different groups of homeless.
A. For the mentally ill, retarded etc., the local and State government needs to regain conservatorship of these people. These people need to be housed in state hospitals like California's Coalinga State Hospital or Napa State Hospital or developmental centers like California's Agnews Developmental Center (which closed in 2006 or 2008) or Fairview Developmental Center.
In these centers, MDs, nurses, and an army of other health care professionals will provide 24/7 care for these people. This will be all paid for by the tax payers. It isn't that expensive and the humane thing to do.
“for civilization to survive, the human race has to remain civilized”
― Rod Serling
B. Social services need to be cut off totally from all people except the mentally ill and/or retarded. Why? The government is not a charity. Charity is not a civil right. Charity and being humane are two different things. The people in group B need charity and not the government.
For people hitting a rough patch, they really do need to get help from their local church. Churches are places that get 10% of the revenue off the locals that support that church to do "God's" work.
If giving money to a dude, regardless of their faith, creed etc, who needs a little green to get a place to live, isn't God's work, then I have no idea what is God's work.
Churches have extremely little operational costs coupled with a lot of tax breaks, the least they can do is house the homeless on a temporary basis until they get on their feet. Money works too but some of these smaller churches might not have the cash to help.
C. The solution for drug addicts (and other addicts) is harder to do. It takes real time, (a year minimum) to ensure that these people stay off the streets.
This might sound harsh but they too must be taken off all government assistance. These people must go to their local churches or other charities that provide a 12-step philosophy therapy group. AA has the highest success rate over all therapies that fight addiction. (AA has a 30% success rate which should tell everyone how serious addiction can become).
Since AA style groups have the most success, churches need to step up their non judging game to help these seriously troubled people.
D. For the people that choose to be homeless, let them be homeless. We need to end laws that make being homeless a crime. (Before we stop making being homeless a crime, we have to stop all forms of social services to these people.) The military and government entities like the California Conservation Corps, should actively recruit these people to enlist in their programs in exchange for housing, food and skills at no cost.
If they refuse to enlist, let them be. Simply hold them accountable for making a mess. If they create a real problem for the community such as excessive littering, kick their butts until they learn or simply give them the boot. Either way, do not give any charity to the "group D" homeless. Simply treat them like any other neighbor.
The homeless crisis in Progressive cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles, are big money industries that make CEO's of groups like Goodwill and the local Progressive politicians very rich. They (especially the politicians) have the ability to allow churches to regain their status as a charity organization that is meant to help the local community. Instead we have those people (which includes the church leaders) telling us that it is the government's job to fix homelessness.
This country already has the infrastructure to end all homelessness. This country simply lacks the willpower and/or faith to get it done.
“It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every twelve minutes one is interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper.”
― Rod Serling