Please note that this is not a Great Debates thread.
Being a city dweller for a big chunk of my life and now living in Los Angeles, I’ve seen homelessness firsthand, but know very little about the causes and proposed solutions. I’ve given money in the past, but have also heard that giving money to panhandlers is not a good idea.
I’d like to move past the conjecture and make the effort to learn about the situation better so I can make informed decisions that balance charity with individual responsibility. I’ve done an Amazon booklist search, but before I buy anything, I was wondering if y’all have come across anything that you thought was particularly enlightening or informative.
I’m particularly interested in:
[ul]
[li]what are the chief causes of homelessness[/li][li]a rough breakdown of the types of homeless are out there (addicts, mentally unfit, people laid off, etc.)[/li][li]local-level solutions that are making a difference.[/li][/ul]
[ul][li]The chief causes of long-term, chronic homelessness are addiction to alcohol and other drugs, and schizophrenia.[/li][li]About two thirds of the chronically homeless suffer from one or the other.[/li][li]Not many, and not much. There is no consistently effective treatment for alcoholism, and schizophrenia can be treated but not cured, and many of the homeless schizophrenic do not take their medications.[/ul][/li]
I should add one more point [ul][li]Many advocates for the homeless are exaggerating.[/ul][/li]Regards,
Shodan
First off, some clarifications. Like Shodan tangentially mentioned, you’ve seen *chronic *homelessness firsthand. You have not seen the vast majority of homelessness, which is typically a single parent with children who are homeless for a week to a month, stay in a shelter or transitional program, and are never homeless again. Chronic homelessness is about 10-15% of the homeless population (much higher in the urban areas, especially LA).
You are correct in not giving money to panhandlers. If you are concerned about the issue, then find a worthy organization that deals with homelessness and donate to them. Your dollar will be much better spent.
Exaggerating the numbers, and especially the numbers of non-alcoholic, non-schizophrenic, long-term homeless.
Mitch Snyder, who was a homeless advocate back in the 80s (he committed suicide a few years ago) was asked to give a figure for the number of homeless in the US. He made up a figure of three million, more or less off the top of his head. It was repeated many times over, until you see it to this day.
Harvard University did a survey to try to get better figures at roughly the same time, and came up with 250-300,00 on any given night. Sure that’s a lot, but it isn’t even the same order of magnitude as the Snyder figure. The response of some homeless advocates was to advise the homeless not to cooperate with future surveys of the sort, so as to maintain plausible deniability.
As Munch mentions most homeless people are homeless for relatively brief periods. And “homeless” doesn’t necessarily even include people sleeping outdoors or in abandoned buildings - some definitions include anyone without a fixed address as “homeless”.
For instance, a year or so back a friend of my son’s had nowhere to stay while he waited to start college after his lease expired. So my son invited him (very properly) to crash on our couch for a week or so. Was he “homeless”? By some definitions, yes. Did he need some kind of intervention or social services or something? Not as far as I can tell.
Not all the homeless are like that, but not none of them are, IYSWIM.
I did a poor job at specifying in the OP, but I’m interested in authoritative books on the matter. Before I just pull from an Amazon booklist, I wanted to know if anyone has done serious reading on the subject and felt that a particular book is particularly educational.
Again: not a debate thread, I’m looking for a dispassionate study on the matter in book form.
I’m not sure books are going to be where the reading material is. Homelessness is incredibly fluid, and no one’s found the silver bullet. It’s all best practices and experimental programs. There are a decreasing number of philosophies these days, but it’s still too early to tell. Additionally, HUD (the Department of Housing and Urban Development - the main player on the federal stage for homelessness) is going through a dramatic reworking right now (via the HEARTH Act), and no one really knows how that’s going to truly pan out.
If it’s something you want to stay in touch with, I recommend subscribing to the National Alliance to End Homelessness’ website/newsfeed - there is a constant stream of information coming from them. For a quick read (and if you like Malcolm Gladwell), I recommend “Million Dollar Murray” as a quick rebuttal to those who advocate for either a) supporting panhandling or b) support abolishing ANY assistance to homeless causes.