[b112]

I've always wondered why such people don't live in a rural area. You could literally set aside parks for people wanting to live in this fashion, used to living in this fashion, but also provide facilities (bedding, small cabins, water supplies, washing machines, etc, etc).

You'd need, I think, to have security guards on hand. Not to stop drug use, but instead to stop violence against other homeless, to intervene if medical attention is required, and so on.

While the costs would be higher than some other solutions, it would be lower (I think) than paying for private housing.

Of course, you'd have to force move people, and that's not going to happen. That is, unless you make squatting in a park a crime, and the result is "you're going to be incarcerated in this very nice outdoor place" the "jail".

Maybe a medical order.

My point is, I don't see an issue with some of your logic. Some people won't transition to inside living, or being close to others.

But if you take people used to living in parks, move them to a park with cabins(tiny homes), and state run water/facilities, the cost might be the same, but they'd have a warm bed, etc.

[bombcar]

The people who are capable of this do this on their own.

The California high desert is full of variations of this in shacks and trailers across the nearly uninhabited expanse.

The biggest problem is support, but if they can navigate enough to get government assistance they can survive for quite a long time.

[ninalanyon]

What everyone wants, and these people want more than most perhaps, is autonomy. Your idea might work so long as there are few rules that would cause people to be kicked out and so long as money is also provided. It probably won't work if people are forced into it because being forced into things is one of the reason they are in their situation already.

More carrot and less stick, more compassion and less puritanism might have a chance of working.

[lupusreal]

A few people might be cut out to be rural hermits, but most need other people to fuel their lifestyle with food, booze and drugs, etc. Hard to buy fent by stealing bicycles if you're in a remote park.

[pkaeding]

Your last idea reminds me of https://mlf.org/community-first/

From what I hear, it is quite successful, giving their residents the dignity and autonomy they need to stand on their own.

[b112]

Neat. I was thinking more rural, but if this works, it works!