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The types of homeless people who are best helped by "housing first" type aid are not the same ones getting arrested/going to prison. Homeless people aren't some big monolithic group you can throw one solution at and have it work...
Even if you're going to overly simplify things you'd at the very least have two groups; the "entrenched" group (more visible and what people think of when talking about homelessness), and "invisible" group (the ones where the factors causing their homelessness are mostly financial).
Yes, actually, they are. Most of the people getting arrested or causing problems are the ones who need housing the most. There is a near 0 chance to get any of that under control without safe and secure housing. First step is a home, and then they can start rebuilding. Ideally, we'll implement some other social structures, like transportation, medical, counseling, and job aid off the top of my head, but that's all downstream from housing.
Most problems with the homeless come from those who have something going on, either a mental or emotional episode, or a need they have that they cannot meet realistically, legally. Just having a safe space to have your episode, without judgement from every asshole coming down the street will drastically decrease the odds of a negative event occurring.
This also all applies to your invisible homeless group, why wouldn't it? They're homeless too, come get a home and get back on your feet.
This also all applies to your invisible homeless group, why wouldn't it? They're homeless too, come get a home and get back on your feet.
Absolutely it does! That's why those are the people you specifically target with things like a housing-first approach or just straight up money because that's all they need and can take it from there. I'm pretty sure they make up the majority of homeless as well so it can do a lot of good so the sooner we get on it the better. Check out this trial that was done in Vancouver for example that deliberately excludes the more entrenched people for that reason.
I think we're agreeing, but aggressively at each other lol. For the record I'm all for including the more well-off homeless (that sounds weird to say) in any initiatives. I don't think I agree with explicitly excluding the more entrenched, but both groups probably do need different resources, and so it's not entirely as simple as just give em all cash or a house, but I think in both cases it's the FIRST step to take.