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Originally Posted by redforever
And that is exactly what the 3 mayors from New York and 2 other big cities from USA were saying during the talk show I caught around 2 months ago.
Yes, we do have an onus to help these people but if all you do is just build more shelters, create more programs to deal with their needs, then you will just end up perpetuating the problem and it will keep escalating.
Programs are needed to give these people job skills and to upgrade their education. And programs are needed to build affordable housing - many on the streets are the working poor. They toil all day long and just can not put enough together to come up with the huge down payments on most rental properties these days. In fact, programs are needed to deal with that issue on its own. And the social programs that exist today have to modified to enable those on social assistance to get off assistance.
Eg: If you are on social assistance and you go back to school, then the amounts you will be eligible for are either cut off or decreased. Surely if people are showing the initiative to get off the streets and turn their lives around, we at least owe them continuing assistance during the times they are upgrading their schooling and job skills.
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I posted an article earlier on what they are doing in NY and how sucessful it is. So yes, I do agree with much of what you are saying. Keeping them fed and a place to sleep for the night doesn't help them get out of that vicious cycle they seem trapped in.
On the eveniong news i was suprised to hear that there are the homeless who refuse to sleep in shelters - even in this cold weather. I have to wonder if they are the ones that have refused help and prefer the lifestyle they are living.