this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
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I don't think "progressives" have any issue with housing the homeless. The issue is where.
Go to a conservative (or indeed any) neighbourhood and tell them you'll be building 200 apartments nearby to house rough sleepers, see how that goes down.
Most homeless are invisible to us anyway. They hold down jobs, they have gym memberships, they just sleep in their car, or on a mate's sofa every so often. Nobody would have a problem with them moving in nearby.
It's the aggressive beggars, addicts, and shitting in shop doorways (and these three are the same person) that nobody wants anywhere near them. These are who most people think of when they hear the word "homeless". Most of them need more treatment than just a roof. We don't have enough of that either.
I've no issue with my taxes helping all these people. I'm happy to pay tax to reduce the chances of me personally being robbed by somebody in desperate poverty.
I think fears about the homeless robbing you are massively overblown. I've been panhandled hundreds of times, and the worst response I've ever gotten is a dirty look.
I also think that the people shitting on public, etc. are more likely to be mentally ill than addicted (although they could be both). The reason is that Drugs Are Really Expensive. Also, I'm not aware of any addiction that causes you to shit in public, but it's easy to find mental illnesses that would.
What causes the homeless to shit in public is that we barely have any public toilets. And the ones we do have are locked overnight, because we're terrified that gays will have sex in them.
They also don't want junkies to shoot up in them and nod off/OD and die on the premises.
*Edit to say I don't agree with limited public toilets. Just posting another reason why they don't exist in some places.
I have a house and a job and I've almost shit in public. I can totally see how it could happen if you didn't have access to one or either of those two (because they have bathrooms).