[captainzidgel]

If housing isn't the solution to homelessness, what is? Telling drug addicts to get clean before they get a home? I'm sure it's really easy for people with drug addictions and mental illnesses to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and conquer those while sleeping out in the cold, especially in Skid Row where you're living around 6 drug dealers. Housing comes first, social work should follow. If the government doesn't absorb the costs of property damage when housing the homeless, they're going to absorb the costs of policing the homeless on the street. I will admit it was inconsiderate of the homeless to take bed bugs with them to the hotels. They should have just chosen to not get bed bugs when sleeping in blankets they pulled out of garbage bins.

[bsder]

> If housing isn't the solution to homelessness, what is?

Decent, long-term medical facilities.

The problem is that solution is expensive. It's way cheaper to simply move the problem somewhere else (jail, different neighborhood, etc.) than fix it.

In addition, it has odd failure modes. You want to create a cluster of people to amortize the healthcare costs. However, your treatment options generally want your homeless to be separated as much as possible. The standard treatment for drug addiction generally starts by separating the patient from those who also do drugs or who provide access to drugs, for example.

[primax]

Given the circumstances, it's viable for treatment to come before housing.

The reason we don't house the homeless is a percentage of them destroy whatever is given to them. So, use the treatment process to get them well first.

[captainzidgel]

I may have been too snarky in my original response but my point is this: treatment before housing implies treatment on the street, which I cannot believe is productive. I don't care what meds you take for your schizophrenia, sleeping on the streets is a form of mental assault in itself. If you're trying to beat a drug addiction, the people surrounding you are going to work to undo everything your support groups and methadone clinics are doing for you. America is obsessed with homeless people proving themselves "worthy" before getting public assistance and it isn't working. Finland has actually been solving homelessness by providing homes first, treatment second.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jun/03/its-a-miracle...

[gamblor956]

Forced hospitalization is the only proven way of dealing with severe mental illness and drug addiction.

Stable independent living only matters once a person is sober and sane enough to use it.

[Teever]

So how many people have you taken in lately?