[Gabriel54]

There is homelessness, and then there is drug and/or alcohol addiction.

> Those who are convicted of sleeping outdoors could be given the option to avoid jail time by instead entering into a mandatory treatment program for at least 12 months.

What happens if someone is homeless and not addicted to drugs or alcohol? Why assume everyone who is homeless is also an addict? It seems entirely reasonable that someone homeless AND addicted to drugs/alcohol should be required to enter into a treatment program.

[FireBeyond]

Yeah, this is punishing people for being homeless, just like Boise (though their city rules were eventually overturned)...

They had a law that it was illegal to sleep outdoors as long as a designated shelter said they had a bed available. One of the more heavily Christian shelters said their policy was to always say they had a bed available, i.e. turn nobody away.

But to stay at their shelter meant mandatory church attendance, mandatory prayer and other religious observances.

So it became de facto enforced that the homeless could face religious indoctrination or jail as their options. Was eventually turned over by threats of or actual moves to challenge constitutionality.

[sapphicsnail]

Because this isn't about helping people. This is about punishing the homeless.

[Gabriel54]

Or to be more generous, they are tired of seeing drug addicted people sleeping in the street.

[adampunk]

My heart bleeds for the person who sees someone sleeping in the street and assumes the sight of it is the tiresome thing.

[Gabriel54]

Your heart doesn't have to bleed for such a person but I think most people would agree it is tiresome to see homeless people in the street. It is also a public health issue. Doing heroin in the middle of the sidewalk and throwing the needle on the ground is obviously extremely un-hygienic and dangerous to everyone.

[adampunk]

You write more but there is still not a hint of sympathy in your words for humans living in the street.

[Gabriel54]

I'm not sure what sympathy has to do with anything we are discussing? People experiencing homelessness do not need sympathy, they need homes and community and support. It is a luxury to be sympathetic because the most sympathetic people are not the people dealing with issues associated with homelessness.

In my opinion the way the US deals with homelessness is a disaster because we have a disorganized, disconnected and dysfunctional social net. E.g., how is someone with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia able to treat their condition if they cannot get their medicine because they don't have health insurance? How can they get a home without a job or family support? The list of such issues goes on and on.

Telling people that they just need to have more sympathy and to accept seeing homeless people on the street is a losing strategy and not a solution. In my opinion the solutions include universal healthcare, robust social support systems and drug/alcohol treatment programs. These programs benefit everyone. At the same time it is not crazy to say, "I do not want to see drug addicted people on my doorstep every day."

Perhaps you also agree that these are part of an ideal solution but framing it as sympathy for the homeless is a losing strategy. Everyone would benefit from a social welfare system set up in a sane way, but somehow every discussion in the US turns into an "us-versus-them" mentality. It is like a reality distortion field and a victory of the media-propaganda complex.

Edit: to summarize, homelessness presents two problems, one for the individual experiencing it, and one for society. Solutions need to target both problems. But to deny the reality of one or the other is a critical error.

[Ar-Curunir]

Yes, so instead of helping them, they want them to be imprisoned. Out of sight, out of mind, right?

[archagon]

The American mindset: “if they’re homeless, they clearly did something wrong and/or deserve it.”

[xrd]

Right, despite the biggest cause of homelessness: medical debt.

[nslsm]

Citation needed.

[HWR_14]

Medical debt is the biggest cause of bankruptcies. I assume bankruptcy and homelessness are correlated, but I haven't seen stats on homelessness.

[Gabriel54]

I certainly do not agree with that. My point is that this article itself conflates homelessness and addiction, which I think is a serious error.

[archagon]

I know. I mean this is the mindset that causes this conflation in the first place.

[Schiendelman]

What specific information makes you think that?