This morning, Insty highlights a problem that we have talked about before. Homelessness.
Homelessness is a problem that is as old as the United States. Those of us who grew up in the last century are familiar with a demographic that we described as "hobos". Those traveling folks without an address who went from place to place, looking fr handouts or work. The problem was the same. Folks on the low end of the income scale, who from one reason or another had no place to call home. Some were adventurers, some were down on their luck, others had addiction or mental health problems. During those simpler times, the agencies responsible for dealing with hobos were the police. Keep them moving, arrest those who could not take a subtle hint.
Come this century, and our nobler and more empathetic society wants to "solve" the problem. throw money at it. Hire social workers to manage it. Then the homeless people case to be the problem, per se, as much as the money spent and the careers launched to manage a problem. Social workers wan continued employment and if the problem is solved, there is no reason to keep paying the social workers to manage a problem that has been solved.
Therein lies the problem.
With the plethora of social services available, homelessness should be much decreased. But it isn't.
ReplyDeleteAn estimated two-thirds of the U.S. homeless population struggle with mental illness, substance abuse, or both.
We used to institutionalize our mentally ill, and to a lesser degree our addicts. Sadly that is not the case to often these days.
That and the ACLU suing to 'release' the inmates of the asylums... putting them on the streets...
ReplyDeleteDon't forget whether or not locals tolerate or encourage it.
ReplyDeleteIn my sparsely populated rural county, we don't have homeless and we don't have oan handling. The neighboring counties with higher populations have it in droves.
I don't know exactly what happens (and I'm not sure I want to know), but we don't have it here.
Jonathan