[reop2whiskey]

[flagged]

[donkey_brains]

Ah, brilliant plan. Before governments there were no homeless. Maybe now we can have a for-profit corporation take care of homeless services to really squeeze all the efficiency out of the system. Just like they did for the prisons.

[cogman10]

Imagine how much more efficient churches could be at taking care of the homeless if their tax burden was reduced! Oh, they don't pay taxes? Weird.

[toenail]

Right, before governments you could just build a hut anywhere you wanted.

[m4ck_]

IDK about ya'll but the ~25-30% (or whatever) I pay in taxes/SS/medicare isn't going to be a significant enough bump to enable me to eliminate homelessness...

Where we can actually take the government out of the equation and actually help people: Zoning. In places without governments like Haiti you can raise a family in a relatively simple structure. It's not ideal but it's how humans have been not-homeless for the entirety of our existence. Currently in the US, this is basically only legal in extremely rural areas where there are no jobs, schools, stores, etc.

I can find lots near a major metro area on the east coast for 10-20k, less than I pay rent in year; but I'd have to spend half a million on some shitty twig built monstrosity that meets minimum sq footage, parking, and other arbitrary regulations that only exist to drive housing prices up, in order to live there. I can't just buy a $10k shed from Home Depot, add insulation and all the other niceties we enjoy and live there. (even the most staunch anti-government, anti-regulation types would agree this should not be legal: they want big government to use violence to prevent anyone from building cheaper housing, because cheap housing hurts their net worth, on paper.)

[KaiserPro]

> In places without governments like Haiti you can raise a family in a relatively simple structure

have you actually tried living in Haiti? Bonus points for being born and living past 4 years old. Even more points for living on median wage.

Eliminating homeless isn't that expensive. The UK did it during covid, it cost like 700million. Thats not like a partial thing. _everyone_ had a room to stay in and 3 meals a day. https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-...

It could be made significantly cheaper if government had social housing to spare (you know like actually build them again)

[gramie]

Without government interference, someone who is stronger/more brutal than you can kill you and take your property, partner, and anything else they like. It is in the top 10 in the world for homicides.

Haiti is a horrifying place to live, for most people. The UN says that 85% of the capital is controlled by gangs, and they are spreading out into the rest of the country.

[lurk2]

> In places without governments like Haiti you can raise a family in a relatively simple structure.

The third world is not a model to emulate. Haiti is a failed state.

[KaiserPro]

If we take this at face value, and assume for the moment that you are talking about the US.

For homeless people there is no requirement by the US government to house them. There are some grants to provide shelter, but no statutory tool that says "you must fix this"

So right there, the "government" has got out of the way. One could observe that if it was the government's fault, then the US should have a lower homelessness problem.

If we look at the international standings, the USA has a higher rate of "unsheltered" per 100k than say france or the UK.

So if its not the government, perhaps is that US citizens are just stingy fuckers who don't want to help?

[Peanuts99]

Nordic countries have essentially eradicated homelessness by allowing the government to take an active interest in fixing the underlying issues that cause it. As a citizen, I don't want the burden of having to fix homelessness, that's what I pay taxes for.

[nephihaha]

The Nordic countries also tend to be brutally cold, dark or damp for a substantial chunk of the year. (With the exception of Denmark perhaps.) No one could survive sleeping outside in those conditions.

[tomrod]

How I wish such blithe, naive approaches could solve the major social quandries of our time. Unfortunately experience and time have proven lack of support is a death sentence to so many, to the detriment of all.

[tclancy]

Username checks out. How would this work? We pay taxes specifically for Tragedy of the Commons problems like this. Most people aren’t going to do what the folks in this story did (and lots of folks wouldn’t be suited to it, even the slight bit of struggle weaved into the story speaks volumes about what they worked through) and this was for someone they vaguely knew. A complete stranger showing up like that with no context is unlikely to be welcomed in to a house.