A B.C. study gave 50 homeless people $7,500 each. Here's what they spent it on.
A B.C. study gave 50 homeless people $7,500 each. Here's what they spent it on.
A new B.C.-based study undercuts the persistent stereotype that homeless people can't be trusted with cash, according to the lead researcher who says it also highlights a different way to respond to the crisis.
No reason not to do this across the board
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Homeless people need housing, not money
Canada please learn from Finland they figured this shit out years ago
Switzerland has this policy since the beginning of the 90's with drug users. The quality of life improved to a level that retirement homes prescribe opioid to some resident.
It's an amazing win-win-win situation. The overdose rate plunged with people being in a good health condition and finding jobs despite their addiction. The life expectancy of this group is sky rocketing. It costs a fraction to the society as people are contributing to the society itself.
Switzerland is concervative in some part of the country. It's not like the US but the country has a division based on countryside and cities, cities being more liberal.
What made a change in the policy is that Switzerland had at the end of the 80's the first and the second most important open scene in Europe. People came from all the country and even further to use drugs mostly opioid. People were using next to the Federal palace, home of the Parlament.
They had to do something and decided to have a liberal, progressive policy to help people instead of criminalizing.
But, we have multiple parameters to take in account. The first, it was at the end of the 80's and the beginning of the 90's. The population composition was different at this time. If you were not swiss, the chance to be deported was high.
Another factor is cultural. In the swiss culture, powerty doesn't exist. People are wealthy. The really is different so Switzerland literally hides the poor and powerty. It's similar to put everything under the carpet so everything is nice from the outside. The fact to see in parks and the nearby streets drug users day and night wasn't a good think. The liberal policy match's the fact that powerty has to be hidden.
It's not only to be good or to do something good. Switzerland did horrible thing for the same reason like deporting children of poor families or single parent.
If people have an interest on the topic, I share two albums on imgur to see how it looked like. Both are NSFW!
Open scene in Bern, it was the second most important in Europe.
The open scene in Zürich was the most important across Europe.
Thank you for this, it's very interesting to hear more details about how this was handled over there. In the US we tend to either have a very idealistic view (liberals) or very negative view (conservative) of Euro and Nordic countries' social policies. No country is perfect, but I guess if the outcome has worked well then we can't fault it even if the reason was to maintain their image by hiding poverty.
No problems! People like to view the swiss policy with drugs as an example. Sure the implementation works, Bern was the first city with a protected space for drug use. It was a game changer and progressive for the time.
But, the reality is more mixed. The intentions were not so nice. People matter but the image of the country and the streets was another part. After the adoption of this policy, the city of Bern became a left city. Zürich has a similar path. It was not a leftist thing.
It workwd for the last 30 years. But, Switzerland has to be careful and work on it to keep the leadership it acquired.
Regardless, it is an important study to disspell stigmas that have existed since the beginning of private property.
But it is still important when it comes to housing. This argument of homeless people being untrustworthy with money has undoubtedly already worked it's way into that debate. If people won't trust them with money, why would they trust them with an apartment? Canada and the US don't see them as "worthy" or responsible enough to be given anything, not even food. Look at what an insane process it is just to apply for food stamps in the US, and that applies to low income folks as well as homeless people. Everyone is considered a criminal until they can prove otherwise, and they're rarely given that chance
Not that I think academic research will make much of an impact. Research from the social sciences consistently debunks all kinds of common, harmful beliefs, and yet is still often ignored by policy makers and average people. It's depressing as fuck that there are academic researchers spending years on studies like this, convincing people to fund them, getting paid dick by their universities, and still a bunch of assholes who have never set foot on a college campus get to just cut it down by saying "oh, well, that's what I heard." And then move on with their lives while homeless people continue to suffer for no reason. This is an example of the far reaching impacts of devaluing education I guess.
think of the landlords. if you give people free housing what will landlords do? you can't expect them to contribute something!
That's exactly why it won't happen. Anything to keep housing prices high
Die maybe? Get fucked? I'm okay with those options.
There have been studies which tried that too, there was one in the city I'm in where they gave free housing to homeless people but it didn't go super well. IIRC the issue was that a fair few of them also had underlying addiction/mental health issues which kind of derailed things (one person set up a tent and started a camp fire in the living room, as an example.)
Not that I'm against giving money or homes to the homeless of course, but I think it also needs to go along with an investment in infrastructure and support for addiction, mental health and that sort of thing as well.
Also just to head off any pedantic replies: I'm also not saying that all homeless people are mentally ill or drug addicts, just that money and houses won't solve everything, and we'd get a lot further with proper infrastructure underlying it in my opinion.