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What do we know about Colorado's war on the homeless?
(lemmygrad.ml)
The holiday debates have begone.
"Only two people signed up for this tiny home program. The rest said they like being homeless."
I have the logic, but not living in Colorado, I don't have the facts. I do know they're playing a game of shuffle board with their homeless population after some quick investigation, but nothing specific to the claim. I'll get the article in reference if I can.
But man, how hard is it to accept that no one "wants" to be homeless.
This doesn't make it sound like Denver isn't doing its best.
There is a good article about one in Boulder
https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/homeless-boulder-rare-summer-count/
It is the same story all over. People are experiencing mental health and substance abuse issue, the rent is too damn high and become unhoused. Temporary unhoused shelters are never a good solution, because they are not safe. A lot of unhoused people feel safer sitting in open public space than cramped up in shelters with other unhoused people, especially in places where the weather is usually manageable like Colorado.
The solution is to build permanent apartment for the unhoused, so they can live with dignity without rent burden. And then most people can work on other aspects of their lives, like finding a job, getting an education, etc. But why would the private sector build permanent housing for people who don't have money? They would rather buy 3-4 houses in a row, bulldoze them and build a luxury apartment complex for the techbros in the city.
This is good info. It sure doesn't sound like they're doing any kind of end-to-end care here.
So "They say they like being homeless" is really "They would rather be on the street." and that seems to be because....
Ah. "Means testing" strikes again. (that's how I refer to "arbitrary and draconian requirements to be allowed to access" if that's wrong please correct me) It's always the part that people leave out of the "homeless people would rather be homeless" thing that fascists say. That they WOULD take shelter... if it was offered with no strings attached (and it never is).
Having to beg for shelter and then still having to share private space in an unsafe living conditions sucks. If we give unhoused people some dignity, just give them a studio apartment and the key to it, free of use, no judgement, I'm sure a lot of them can pull themselves up. It takes considerable mental toll on unhoused people to never have a peace of mind in your own safe space. People understandably become more and more unhinged, lose their social skills and trust in society the longer they stay out being unhoused.