undefined | Better HN

0 pointsSpooky2310y ago0 comments

"Homeless first" undermines the normal eligibility cycle for public housing. It also destroys the communities in these developments. If you find a man screaming obscenities while taking a dump on the sidewalk distasteful, I'll assure you that the people who get stuck living next to him share your reaction -- except they can't walk away.

So you pack housing developments with addicts, crazy people and criminals. Next step is they start attracting their friends, and all of the sudden the development turns into a crime-ridden shithole. The families living in these development get screwed.

It also causes other disruption. NYC is adopting this type of policy, so people on waiting lists or in housing they don't like are flocking there from all across the region, and are receiving enhanced benefits. (It's pretty difficult to prove that someone is bona-fide homeless.) Meanwhile, the chronic homeless people who can't hold it together are still addicted, still in need of mental healthcare and are still living under an overpass.

0 comments

VonGuard10y ago

Also, I would be REALLY pissed if I lived in a town where I had to struggle to make rent on a place I don't own every month, and the city is giving away free permanent houses to folks who don't have jobs or pay rent... I mean, I want homeless people to have homes, but if they're getting one for free and the economy continues to have housing prices way out of the reach of someone like me, I would be fucking pissed.

k33n10y ago

This viewpoint pretty well summarizes why homeless people aren't helped. Homeless people are viewed as "what happens when you don't have a job or stop paying your bills". Trust me, the fact that you work hard and pay your bills isn't what's keeping you off the street. It's your (relative) mental health and your network.

Domenic_S10y ago

It already happens. My first apartment was a studio in a new downtown building that, with parking, I paid about 1/2 my monthly income for. Then I met my neighbor, who claimed to have been hurt by a city bus ("they closed the door on my arm"). She had a 2-br place with a terrace, and paid less than half of what I was paying.