Homelessness: The Reality and the Solution | Full Documentary | Short Documentaries
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- Опубликовано: 17 мар 2022
- Why are so many Americans homeless and what can we do to help them?
America has a homelessness crisis-and it’s getting worse by the day. Politicians promise to stop it. Cities like San Francisco spend millions trying to end it. Nothing seems to help. PragerU’s new short documentary reveals the root causes of homelessness and offers compassionate, effective solutions that we can all get behind.
This short documentary was made in partnership with the Cicero Institute. Learn more: ciceroinstitute.org/issues/ho...
Take our survey: Do you think urban camping should be adopted across the United States as it is in San Francisco? l.prageru.com/3MUpThq
In 2013, I was homeless, got into drugs went to prison, and then I got to know Jesus and he changed my life...Heaven came through for me in my finances too, getting $50,000 in 2months. I can support God's work and give back to my community. God is more than enough! Now I have a new identity and am a child of God
Hello how do you make such monthly ?? I'm a born Christian and sometimes I feel so down of myself because of low finance but I still believe in God.
I'm 28 and have been looking for ways to be successful, please how??
Every one of my prayer requests is about to manifest in the Name of Jesus I receive and connect with this message in Jesus' Mighty Name Amen 🔥🙏
I have been searching for ways to achieve success. Can you please guide me on how to do so?
Sure, the investment-advisor that guides me is...
Had a homeless guy looking after one of my homes due to various factors that prevented my being there myself for 12 months. Bit of a risk but sister recommended I help him help me out with this. Finally got back to this home and lived there again for four months with him as I made repairs to the place before having to leave again. I was so busy that he asked if he could help and he tagged along as I had a thousand things to do. As we did so we talked about some of his mental health pro lems. He suffers from depression mainly. But at the end of a couple days running around, he thanked me and I was somewhat surprised as I should have been thanking him for his help. But then I realised he needed someone to respect his skills and to take him out of himself and be with him as he made an effort to do the things he needed to do. Perhaps many just need mentors or big brothers to walk them through the things the rest of us find so easy.
How does this explain that as more and better free stuff has been given to vagrants the number of vagrants has grown? Wouldn't there be people with these same issues 100 years ago so why not equal vagrant numbers then? Was this person emaciated or likely like the vagrants I encounter daily, physically able and mentally lucid and able to take care of themselves by themselves and even successfully take care of pets by themselves.
@@melainewhite6409 There used to be a lot of "hobos"
@@melainewhite6409 It's not about giving people free stuff. It's about mentoring people, passing on skills, being with people while you build stuff, make stuff, produce stuff. Taking responsibility for yourself. Being valuable and a part of a community.
Thank you for taking the chance and getting to really see him for the human being his is, and always ways. May god Always Bless You.
@@KC-dr3cg I searched for raw data for trend homelessness since the Great Depression. While you may be right I don’t think you have data to support your statement. In fact, I was appalled with many analysis on the subject that were so lacking in real data as opposed as observational assertions. Yes they often cite other studies, they also lack empirical data. And yes again, this is true for much of the public policy in our country.
I was homeless for over 5 years... I am not a druggie... And I do have a serious mental illness... And I put it into complete remission 1 years after I got housed... I had a jod interview on Friday and I aced it... But if it wasn't for a nonprofit I would still be on the streets... And If I lose this program I will be homeless for the rest of my life... Which will be very short because I'm now physically disabled... And Me getting a job puts my income at a huge risk... I don't have a solution to the problem... But I do have a game changing tool... Peer support is the future of so many social services...
As a former homeless addict that lived in psychosis thinking people who were following me and wondering the streets aimlessly I'm living proof that for those who want recovery can find recovery but relapse is part of my story but I came out of it by the grace of God
We need safe consumption sites!!! Let people use in safe areas so they dont die !
I've been homeless...really homeless, because I made some very poor life decisions, screwed up, and found myself penniless. 100% my own fault. Ending up in a shelter was eye-opening, to say the least. What they say here about the problems of addiction and mental illness is spot on. What got me out of the shelter was getting a job and getting my sh*t together. But I saw so many people in there who needed real, serious help with the aforementioned problems of addiction and mental illness, and that help was pretty much non-existent in the shelter paradigm. For them, getting a job (which they couldn't keep) or getting an apartment (ditto) wouldn't have done them any good. They needed more. The shelter where I was (CISS in Des Moines, Iowa) would let people come in drunk, stoned, you name it. At the beginning of the month, people would get their disability checks and the shelter would clear out for days as they went out and rented motel rooms and got drunk/stoned/high until the money ran out, then they would come right back to the shelter. They've tried putting people into housing here and it doesn't work, because they don't get the deeper help they desperately need. Just last week, I saw a woman who was at the shelter when I was there - six years ago - and she's still homeless.
It’s a revolving door. I do believe we need stronger action when handing money out. Permanent housing and drug treatment programs should be mandatory. Where I live they did a pilot program for food stamps. You had to be in treatment or have part time work to recover them. It radically changed the MAT program I was in. In a month the people who where there to use MAT as a stop gap were gone. People started attending IOP and getting work. Then they stopped it. It immediately went back to how it was.
Ya know we have way more potent drugs and toxic than we used to. I belive in safe consumption and if you dont you need to have a close friends die safe consumption is saving fken lives
@@crazlen - After you save their life, then what happens?
Congratulations for getting your life in order and thank you for sharing this experience. Best of luck with everything and keep spreading conscience🌿
Sometimes all people need is a place to stay
Having been homeless and an alcoholic the bridge approach seems to be the best I've heard. VA saved my life by offering a 5 day detox followed by a 30 day to 6 month rehab with mental health experts that slowly gave me a purpose in life. Cities should not allow homeless tents anywhere, designate a tent city or shelter areas first then send in the experts ,it will go on for ever.
I help an animal sanctuary in Central America and the animal sanctuary model could be applied to the homeless issue, IMHO. It is so tragic and sad. This video gives me hope.
This was so heartbreaking to watch. However so essential to educate one's self about it. As a native San Franciscan, this is one of the few reasons I moved out of San Francisco in 2021 because the homeless and crime rate has become uncontrallable. Truly breaks my heart.
I saw it coming in the 90s and moved to the Central Valley only to watch it deteriorate. In the end, its the addicts choice. They wont get clean unless they work for it.
Why are there so many homeless in San Francisco? What changed? Drug addiction can’t be the only answer.
Why is it heartbreaking? The voters are getting exactly what they voted for. That isn't heartbreaking, it's pathetic.
Rand corp did a study showing 50 trillion has been syphoned from middle America over the last few decades
Must people are only a month or two away from the street
What kind of system causes this?
@@courageunitycompassi "Drug addiction can’t be the only answer." NIMBY and zoning regulations that prohibit dense development and thus the cost of shelter is astronomical. Anyone that is middle class and lower are at risk of homelessness. Additionally PragerU whom have an active part in spreading misinformation. Such as this video where they attempt to spin the homeless crisis as a problem of character/mental illness/drug abuse.
As a conservative who is an addict, whose father died of heroin in 1993, and is a single father dealing with raising an 8 year old by myself in Texas, I just want to say this guy who lost his job to Heroin is telling the nasty truth.
Addiction is causing homelessness, that’s far more solvable than mental illeness.
Don’t just make public housing that’s full of drug use
As a fellow southerner who’s father nearly died from an overdose multiple times within the past few years, some points to add.
Addiction *IS a mental illness,* and it’s not a sole cause of the homelessness epidemic. If anything, it serves more of a statistically correlated link, not a causal one.
A Housing first approach to homelessness seems to show some promising results in trials so far. What we need to do on the front of addiction is implement more harm-reduction policies immediately as well as connect addicts to research-based treatments, resources, and most importantly, support nets.
Based on your video uploads you're like 6 years old. Why are you even commenting lmao. Literal children commenting on Prageru videos lmao.
@@MsScarletwings scarlet, have you ever actually lived in these facilities? I have lived in 5!!!!! In differing states.
I have so much anecdotal evidence it’s sickening.
Why does someone with issues and who hasnt done the work like rehab and therapy deserve a home? Shelters suffice as long as they couple it with rehab and job finding assistance. Then they can stabilize and get their own place as a milestone goal. Giving a mentally unstable drug addicted individual a home worth 600k of taxpayer dollars with no support will fail 99.99999%
@@MsScarletwings as someone studying to be a social worker who is also in recovery from addiction (began as an opioid painkiller user & was shooting fentanyl every single day by the time I finally got clean), California is a perfect example of how the housing first approach to homelessness isn’t working…and it isn’t even a compassionate way to deal with the issue either. People need inpatient detox, mental health, and substance abuse treatment BEFORE being placed in housing. The fact of the matter is that a vast majority of the homeless ARE suffering from mental illness, addiction, or a combination of both. Throwing them into a house to get rid of the “eyesore” without addressing these issues is not giving them the tools they need to reach their full potential and find recovery…it’s nothing but a band aid for the issue. I am all for harm reduction though, because unlike most staunch conservatives I believe we can do the most good by meeting people where they’re at. It has proven to be a great way to do just that while simultaneously lowering bloodborne infection transmission rates and creating a massive reduction in overdose deaths. Harm Reduction foundations almost always have treatment centers that they can refer people to as well. I believe that big pharma should be forced to pay for these harm reduction programs rather than the government, due to them being the true root cause of all of this (but that’s a topic for another conversation.)
Seattle is almost as bad as San Francisco. And they have similar policies. There are tent camps all over the place. Nearly every wooded area in the City has tent encampments of homeless people. If you subsidize something, you tend to get more of it. Private charitable programs have much better success.
I don’t even like to travel through Seattle. It’s so depressing. Seattle leadership points fingers at EVERYTHING except the drug addiction. Now companies are moving out. Sad.
New Jersey became number 1 in reducing chronic homelessness 2 years after ending life time alimony
@@osmosisjones4912 I’m all for it. Same for sunsetting non violent drug crime rap sheets. If you could give people a way out, along with drug treatment, they might see a reason to take a shower and go do something with their life.
Democrats… what do you expect?
How is Seattle in decline when it is one of the most highly desired cities in the country? People are moving in there much faster than the national average. People moving out often do so because they can't afford a house (due to high demand driving up prices).
@@scuter8700 “Highly desired” city by meth addicts looking to get their free crack pipes, yes we agree with you there.
The gift of sobriety can only be given to oneself. You can’t compel people to get sober any more than you can compel a politician to give up power. Teach our youth and community the value of their lives.
And for the love of God quit mitigating the consequences of people's actions so MAYBE one day their pain will get great enough to change.
Only Christ can bring sobriety. He is the ONLY one that can teach the youth his values of life. Secular ideology has no values, and you borrow from the Christian worldview to sound virtuous. Repent and trust only in Christ.
Luke 12:6-7 ESV
Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.
@@WilliamEllison Christ doesn't exist only in your head. So stop being a pretensious little religious nut. You have no clue what you are talking about. Amen
@@Yourmom-tc4rn it only gets worse, not better, not because of the people, because of the system and greed
@@WilliamEllison wrong
I work in EMS (Paramedic) and I'm sorry to say, this problem will never be solved. Yes, it is a mental health and addiction issue, but addiction far out weighs the mental health problem. You can't force someone to go to rehab. You can't make someone quit using narcotics.
You're right. This problem will never go away, but at the very least it can be reduced. Hell it might even be possible to reduce it significantly. That is worth aiming for.
@@GilbertCarrizales Absolutely. I'm not saying we should give up, but rehab should be given to those that WANT it. I guessing the burning question is what would work to reduce it significantly?
@@ronnie_5150 Mental health and addiction is a by-product of the underlying issue that PragerU has an active investment in not bringing to light. Those that succumb to the vicious cycle have a separate issue to those that undergo initial homelessness to begin with.
Housing. Increase density to reduce housing prices. Actively shut down Nimby's who seek to protect their wealth by artificially keeping housing prices high and thus causing the problem to begin with. Housing is not an investment game for the wealthy to play anymore. Drive housing prices so far down that minimum wage can cover 30% of rent.
@@agg42 You're a clown. Mental illness and addiction are not a result of housing cost issues and those who are homeless due to financial issues are the extreme minority of the homeless. Your claim that PragerU is somehow hiding something is ridiculous.
May I respectfully disagree with you. There is a solution but no one has the stomach to implement it. in 1960 the us population was 1/2 of what it is now. In 1960 500,000 people were institutionalized. Today the population is doubled but only 50,000 people are institutionalized. If we had the same Paradigm today 1,000,000 people would be institutionalized. From my experience of living in Chicago for 15 years the majority of homeless are schizophrenic and the majority of the drug addicted are also schizophrenic. We should institutionalize these people and release those who respond to treatment.
As someone who is homelss on disabilty let me be blunt. The rent for a 1 bedroom apt in the crime filled bronx is $1600 dollars. I have never done drugs or broke the law. Where am I supposed to go when disabilty only pays $841 dollars. With a degenerative bone disease in my spine. Where am I supposed to go! Any one got an answer.
I assume most of them would just say you’re not trying hard enough.
What a lot of people don't seem to understand is that not all homeless people are drunks, drug addicts, or just choosing to be homeless.
I know a family in Colorado that can't get into a place because landlords are demanding residents have an income three times that of what they're demanding for the price of rent.
Even With a paying job that's difficult to keep up with.
Then you pack up and move to a more affordable area.
@@emmaleebuzzard1023 *gets priced out of everywhere*
*Just move bro*
not a solution
Thank you - this whole video seems to be a giant distraction from what you just said. They seem to be rationalizing what to me is a market failure in housing by placing the blame onto drug addicts, when the reality is actually the heavy majority of people that fall into homelessness are not addicts or people with severe mental issues. They are simply the most visible. Most people fall into homelessness because they get evicted due to a missed paycheck. This can be an injury or illness, a car breaking down, a child emergency, any number of things. They are avoiding the following question: why is housing so expensive that half of low income people are paying 50% of their income for rent alone?
@@jeffarnold3800 welcome to mass immigration, and a global market
@@jeffarnold3800 also F ben shapiro
If the homeless “problem” is actually “solved”, the politicians will have nothing to campaign on. That’s why the have never really made an effort to correct this.
As this documentary shows, human beings need and want freedom AND structure. One cannot exist without the other.
Thanks Prager for taking the time to show not only realistic solutions but also backing it up with cold hard statistics 📊 & facts.
One thing that does serious damage to the attitude non-homeless people have towards the homeless is when people have their property and possessions vandalized and stolen by homeless people. Being homeless does not give them the right to damage things and steal from other people. It only makes their situation worse. There are good homeless people and bad homeless people. I definitely don't want to help the bad kind
I’m more worried about failing to help the good kind.
This video completely ignores the housing shortage problem in California. The latest homeless count indicates about 30% of the homeless in California have a drug or alcohol problem. Many start using drugs or alcohol after becoming homeless, so saying it's the root of homelessness becomes an issue. The example of Austin reinforces the idea that there's a housing shortage as Austin is probably the most expensive and restrictive place in Texas. Also, the community that is just outside Austin City limits was not permitted to be built inside Austin because of its restrictive zoning laws. I've seen another video about this community and learned they actually permit drug use inside the units. Yes, there's an element of drug and alcohol addiction, but it's only part of the problem. There are many people, including seniors and families living in dilapidated RVs, living in cars, etc, who do not use drugs or alcohol nor have any mental health issues, many who are employed but cannot afford a place to live. The drug and alcohol problem may be more of a symptom of the housing shortage in California, not the root cause.
This is 100% right. I actually work at a homeless shelter as a part of a major housing program that has the housing first philosophy and housing first DOES NOT WORK. We've housed people who turned their apartments into sex trafficking locations, drug dealing locations. It's insane how flawed that system of thought is. Someone can just show up to a shelter, say they're homeless and have no family, and boom they automatically get housed with no responsibility. Some completely destroy the apartments. Some aren't even homeless, they just leave home and say they are so they can get a free place. It's an absolute mess. Some say it's the most loving/compassionate model, BUT IT'S NOT. The way to show love and compassion to someone is to give them what they need, now necessarily what they want.
Weird, housing first works in every other country. Maybe the USA is doing something wrong. Like, if it is possible for people who own a house to get a free place from housing first, you might have a regulatory issue.
Endrank...4 loko - Maybe lay off the 4 LOKO !
You're not making much sense.
I'm homeless (& not represented by what ppl say about the issue)
So... we both know that's not how things work.
Just cuz someone does 'intake' for housing at a shelter has nothing to do with how/why/when they'd qualify for housing.
Get your info straight.
And quit hyping the 1% bad type of people we all struggle to deal with/be around.
Housing 1st is deeply flawed in the US, not helped by the corruption & lies that destroy any chances of improving anything via programs.
Be supportive of those who can fix things ourselves if just some simple barriers were removed.
Like let me get a PO BOX!
It's crazy all the policy stuff directly in the way of normal progress.
@@Blaze6108 Weirder still how so many people from your nirvana countries risk life and limb to come to your failure USA. So, fund relocation of vagrants from the USA to these supposed nirvana countries that will treat them right?
@@genossinwaabooz4373 A vagrant with RUclips access and free time to post comments.
This video is portraying "housing first" as "housing only" and that's ridiculous. The problem is NOT that housing first doesn't work - it's that we aren't actually funding the true meaning - housing first is SUPPOSED to come with all the mental health and addictions support services needed. This is such an unfair represention of the problem.
This is probably one of the better homeless videos I've seen on RUclips! Nice job and very moving.
Housing cost do play a role. Not all homeless are on drugs or suffer from mental illness. Some are working poor that have jobs but can’t afford housing. So after rehab and treatment, what jobs wait for these people on the other end? How many people relapse? How many people end up back on the streets? Obviously this issue is much more complex. Drugs and mental illness are one part of the story.
Yep. 18% statistic drug issues is = to my prior guess/estimate of 20% what we've seen first hand among other homeless ppl.
It's a corrrupt system. That's the worst problem.
well said
Finally, someone who gets it. I'm a conservative, but I'm not simplistic in my analysis. These guys just want someone to blame who can't contradict them. Rent has increased by over 100% in every city in America, in the past 3 years, how can they not mention that at all?
@@digitalartist371 conservative minded people never wanna state the obvious they just wanna throw off on people who don't have it as good as they do.
@@shanehester5317 I used to consider myself progressive and grew up on the left. Its was neo liberals like Obama, Gavin Newsome and Jerry Brown's policies that got us here. You'll probably say they're not true progressives. And I'll say this film does not reflect true conservative/traditional values. At this point, I do believe the conflict is way deeper than left vs right. It's globalist vs localist. It's progressive vs traditional. It's transhumanist vs humanity. It's censorship vs open dialogue. The left I grew up with is not the left of today, what I realize now is that this is always where it was headed. America is a special thing that is standing in the way of their fascist totalitarian take over, and what we are seeing is a planned demolition. I had someone sit with me day after day and break the mind control years ago and I'm forever grateful. Platforms like this one are pushing psyops to confuse us so that we don't get to the root of the problem, and fight each other. Don't fall for it. Meanwhile their taking everything we built, destroying our families, isolating us and then killing us one by one.
Wow!!! that was powerful....well worth watching!!!
Giving homeless people homes is like giving illiterate people books... It's a nice gesture... But there still remains an unsolved problem that really needs to be addressed.
Totally agree with you! Homelessness Poverty same thing, it’s a systematic problem from generations to generations and the main root of all that is SIN! So I guess to blame for all of this is Adam and Eve our first parents
this just shows were on thin ice.. imagine introducing the planned social credit system.. the country is going to die, can't do anything for themselves.. as short as 50 years ago in most of the world these people wouldn't have survived two decades left to their own devices... " I'll die if you don't give me....." sound like a brat at the toy store
Lol that's a terrible comparison. For one, giving illiterate people books is how you teach them to read. How do you think you solve illiteracy?
@@noname-bu1ux you TEACH THEM TO READ!! Reading is a skill. Owning a home requires skill and discipline. You don't give kids books and walk away saying, "good luck!" lol thanks for proving my point.
@@kaufmanat1 yeah, but you gotta sit them in front of a book first. What are you gonna teach them to read with, a magazine? You can't help a homeless person if they have no home. There's nothing they need more. You think homeless people just lack skills and that's why they're homeless? Socialists don't want to just leave people alone after housing them. Barebones social programs are for liberals, not socialists. I know you probably don't think of the conservative crowd as liberals, but that's what conservatives are. That can get a bit confusing. It's always funny when conservative people call me a lib, but their hero is Ronald Reagan, the father of modern neoliberalism.
Not trying to be hostile either, just opening up dialogue.
Kudos to any addict who bears addiction and stays sober
I completely agree with this and that getting people clean and sober and proper mental health treatment is the number one key but I've always had trouble with the clean and sober ideal because I also have always been a firm believer that no government should be able to criminalize drug use and too often the threat of criminal conviction is used as a means to force people into treatment people who might not be ready for that yet we would be better off saving the money for people who are ready to get clean then to spend it on people who are only trying to get clean to avoid a criminal conviction or something similar cuz at the end of the day somebody has to make the choice to get clean if you're not ready for that you're never going to be successful in your sobriety
But it's never been about what actually helps or actually works.
We're homeless, have no 'issues' like that, & boy do we see what the real trouble is.
Problem is - not many want to hear the answers.
Some simple too.
But the system begets more of the same.
21:20 Self sufficiency is the goal is correct.
Three steps:
(1) Feed the hungry (Serve. Deal with the immediate pressing need)
(2) Teach them to feed themselves (Self Reliance)
(3) Let them help you feed the hungry (Service that is perpetual)
Maybe treat medical, mental, addiction issues along the way.
I’m homeless in transitional housing, I was in a tent for three years, in a bad dv situation, but outreach found me and helped me. I now drive for a company after not having a job for 6 years. They are beneficial they help illuminate unsightly camps, I think treatment should be mandatory for housing or some kind of accountability but affordable housing with people with mental disabilities sometimes finding a job for them is hard. Teaching skills, training programs, apprenticeship programs, those things help. Definitely treating the drug problem, and addiction issues instead letting homeless people essentially play Russian roulette so you can keep your hands clean while promoting population control. Homeless should not mean hopeless.
For any hater who has never walked a day in in the shoes of someone who has been homeless, your opinion has no merit. It does not come from and educated or lived experience. Quit whining like we are the problem when your sit behind your screen instead of being part of the solution. 🎤 drop
I agree with you, well said! Good luck, and God bless you❤
Shelter for the homeless. Accommodation, meals. This is how we help the homeless.
In the 70s and 80s the police used to take them to a mental health facility where they could get food meds and authentic help.
This is an important issue and this video does a great job of examining it
Great work. Giving people back their sense that they have value, getting them grafted into a community, and helping them realize that they can do something to be a productive part of their community have been the cornerstone goals of Rehabilitation Psychology for decades. Giving someone a key to their own apartment as the first step doesn’t provide these other needs. It has always blown my mind how much the Social Work field acts as though all the data from the Rehabilitation Psychology doesn’t exist or doesn’t apply to the people they want to help. We can’t just try to provide the basics, we have to repair the psychological basics that have been neglected, abused, or broken to rebuild these people back up so they can embrace and utilize and enjoys the basics again *and feel driven and able to fight for more than the basics for themselves*.
And we’re going to give people a renewed sense of community by forcing people into congregate settings at gun point? Give me a break
@@jeffarnold3800 I never said that. There isn’t one solution for homelessness because there isn’t one type of people who become homeless. Services and specific communities that you help people reconnect with will have to have some individualization (such as those primarily with lifelong mental illness vs veterans of war vs victims of trafficking). This also means there’s going to be different avenues for getting referred into homelessness prevention/restabilization programs such as referrals from domestic violence shelters, drug rehab facilities, jail diversion programs, state hospital reintegration programs, etc.
@@selahr. you’re right - the principle of housing first simply means that we carry those individualized needs out alongside housing, because without housing as a basic foundation it’s very difficult to address those individual needs. Some people just honestly need 6 months of rental assistance and some job placement support and they’ll get out of homelessness fine. Some need serious substance abuse treatment. But they all need housing.
@@jeffarnold3800 I don’t mean to imply that people shouldn’t be given housing. But the housing first model that seeks to give them individual housing units like single apartments is very inefficient, very slow to expand, and based on average cost per unit seems rife with fraudulent spending (ie a lot of money seems to be going to other people’s pockets or being siphoned off by other city projects compared to the costs independent businesses are able to build similar housing units). For some homeless people this is the right response because they are still functional and working, or qualify for Social Security benefits that would themselves be enough to solve the problem, but these people can often be assisted in getting other benefit programs to get them out of trouble like enrolling them in local housing voucher programs or county HUD projects. Even some of the people with mild to moderate mental illness as their primary barrier fall into this group where they have no been able to navigate these other programs. When I worked as a community-based rehabilitation counselor and case manager with a special program here that focused on indigent, homeless, jail diversion, and “revolving door” hospital patients, many of them just needed transitional housing in shelters or group homes for 6-12 months with a stable mailing address and access to a voicemail account to get through the enrollment process for these other programs. Resource shelters like the Bridge made a very big impact when they opened up here, and it seemed like they faced a long uphill battle to get approved and built because the politics and permits and neighborhood pressures were against them.
Years later the city adopted the housing first stance. They put up huge grants to entice people to build or convert single dwelling apartments into homeless housing. These grants were so inflated that apartments and senior independent living facilities mass evicted their existing tenets (most who were on Section 8 vouchers and/or on low level Social Security fixed incomes and already one small crisis away from full homelessness) which left many actually homeless because there weren’t any additional low income units available to fill the need. We lost our housing in one of these profit-driven mass evictions and our rent doubled to find a replacement. We were one of lucky ones who could afford the cost of moving and new deposits and who could find an open slot somewhere else.
The local programs also make decisions that aren’t economically sound that make matters worse. For example the housing voucher programs no longer allow roommates or family members who also qualify for the same program to live together and share a lease. If they allowed this there would be more units available and the cost per person that the government spends would be much less. Many of the voucher based and “tax credit”/low income restricted apartments were given huge grants by HUD to perform facelifts for the properties before the pandemic happened. These usually involved updated kitchen appliances, new flooring, and a new coat of paint inside and outside, and adding a few more ADA compliant units. This happened to us in 2019. For most residents these updates were not desired, and even actively opposed, and were extremely disruptive. We were told we would be given a weeks notice of when we would have to move from our existing unit to an updated unit, and three days to move or we would be evicted. We had to pay the cost to move our belongings and new increased security deposits. Many residents didn’t have the extra income or help from family and friends to accomplish the move. Those of who stayed were then given new leases that raised our rent 40% higher because the new “market value” of the units were based off the total amount spent on the rehab rather than value added/amenities added to the residential units. Housing vouchers therefore also increased significantly so the free HUD money to improve things cost the Section 8 and HUD housing programs to pay more for the same apartments, this reducing the number of families they could service with their budget.
We need a variety of solutions and we need creative solutions so we can serve a larger number of people faster. Building apartments in these already built-out packed cities can not fit the need. It also keeps these people packed into the same city and county programs that can’t afford to service them to the level they need instead of giving people skills and jobs that would allow them to relocate to places where the cost of sustaining independent living may not be so bloated. We need cooperation between counties to help expand the opportunities and space and possible solutions. I know here we don’t have enough shelter and emergency beds, and we don’t have many group homes/shared dwelling community options… and the ones we do have are packed into one county in job-poor parts of town because the suburbs don’t want to allow solutions to be built in their backyards even though they are facing a shortage of entry level employees.
I was in a shelter where productivity is a part of the agreement. I guess they are not all like that- I'm not going to travel around to find out. I say, a part of the community, not a part of the problem.
Excellent piece PragerU! One thing I want my city to acknowledge is the illegal drug trade. WHO Is bringing drugs to these addicts and profiting from all this misery? WHERE is the task force and focus on erasing drug dealing in all of our communities?
How is a ban on street camping not criminalizing the existence of homelessness if shelters are at full capacity?
Terrific video. The commenters that disagree with something in the show forget all the different things people are doing to help. It's totally obvious AF that ONE WAY isn't the only way. There are many ways to fix the problems, and equally obvious that we need to do as many as work.
Once you "solve" a problem, you cease to receive more funding for said problem. That's what this is all about.
@carefulcarpenter Wow how did you miss that…
@@carefulcarpenter So your written English isn’t the clearest, but it seems like you’re saying that when you thought you were buying a house in 2018, you were actually just buying the land under the garage and “three other parcels,” which the house was not on?
@@coleg5578 just give each homeless person a large room unit made out of concrete which is cheap
that addresses their need for a place to sleep , gives them an address they can use to apply for jobs and gov't services and makes them less of an irritation for the rest of the citizens
then we can offer them other services like drug treatment and mental help
@@carefulcarpenter a cement bunker is more than they have now
@@carefulcarpenter don't move to New York
Working in homelessness I find that I'm moving 80% of the same people from one homeless unit to the next and addictions and mental health does follow them and they know it too, and rarely want another life, building a home and combating addictions is the tough part and when we move someone into a supported unit their addictions causes crime, arrest, imprisonment, release, emergency accommodation in a 1st stop then back supported accommodation or worse, an unfurnished apartment perfect for depression and addictions and when it comes to addressing the habits the habits have caused issue's again and the person vacates the premises and vanishes, is then uncontactable, reappears sooner rather than later and the cycle continues and it's so disheartening
I feel the problem is not so much homelessness as it is lack of affordable housing and lack of support for victims of mental health issues…
Unbelievably well-written and produced. Gives me hope that someone out there knows what they are doing. Loved the compassion shown as well.
Yup
This program started talking about the mental illness problems on the streets, but then shifted over to addition problems which is very important as well. The mental illness problems started when most of the mental hospitals were closed down in the 1980's with the help of then President Reagan. The idea was, if the patient just remembers to take their medicine each day they will be fine on the streets. The problem is, mental patients living on their own often don't remember to take their med's. Then once their off their med's they are lost forever; often onto drugs and boozes as well.
The courts have also ruled that locking people up for mental heath issues was a violations of human rights and thus we were given no choice but to let these people live on the street.
I have a family member who has severe dementia. The care facility used to have an area that was difficult to get out of to prevent these dementia patients from wondering off. The state ruled this as an illegal violation of their rights and thus they had to close that wing. My family member always asks to go home but we don't let her. Is the court going to rule she has to be brought home? She can remember anything. She can't survive on her own.
@@crissd8283 Professional mental clinics need to be set up again where patients can be taken care of in a safe and clean environment. President Reagan did everything in his power in the 1980's to get all asylums closed, stating that most mental patients would be fine if they just stayed on their medicine once released. The problem was, they didn't.
As usual,
PragerU has no clue about Stuff but that wont stop it from covering something.
Meanwhile, actual Experts or even just more educated People have covered this:
Like Illuminaughtii and Some More News, who covered Homelessness.
@@BohemianBeatster I don't disagree with you that insane assilums or as the PC crowd likes to call them professional mental health clinics need to be set up again.
I'm not sure about Regan being to blame. He may or may not have been the driver. I though these assilums were more run by the states and courts had deemed locking people up for mental health issues as a violation of the consitution. However, I may be incorrect.
Either way the rest home that my family member resides is located in a very blue state and the regulators will no longer allow the facility to have doors that are difficult for dementia patient with flight risks to open because it violates their rights. I guess, according to the left, it is better that dementia patients be free to walk out the facility and get lost than be "imprisoned" in a facility where everything is supplied too them and they get the support they need.
@@crissd8283 Then Gov Reagan wanted to end Insane Asylums, because it was found that most of them treated the patients like shit. More like a torture chamber than a hospital at the time. In 1980 Pres. Carter enacted the Mental Health System to assist people with mental illnesses who were out on the streets. This act was a total failure in the end. Both Reagan & Carter were just trying to help the mentally ill.
When people are priced out they end up homeless, then they leave human beings on the street, thrown away like garbage that doesn't matter. So then people not only go to drugs for escape but completely lose there minds. And you might as well do drugs even if you die it's better than the constant indignity and straight suffering every day feels like. When you show people they matter and they deserve to be in a safe,clean environment ,they will eventually see that and want a better life. But you need to then encourage more positive activities in life and redirect that negative behavior and teach them what healthy is and that includes connections to nature. It's time for America to save America and then we can all be stronger and help others. I was what felt like left for dead and thrown away but I did what I had to,got affordable housing after almost 8 years and I value what I have worked hard for and I can't stand seeing this because every single day homeless felt like absolute he'll to me.
This reminds me of that test that scientists did on rats with cocaine. They found that when rats had a community with the opportunity to take drugs, they took the community over drugs. I've heard people compare the high of heroine to having a warm hug. I really like what Texas is doing to combat this.
I live in Abbotsford, which is close to Vancouver, CA. East Hastings is replete with drug addicts and people struggling with addiction. They have made safe injection sites that help, but it is merely symptom management, in my opinion. The problem stems from a lack of community. Think about the first time that people drink or smoke pot, it is always centered around community and friend groups, but as the addiction progresses, or the user starts using harder drugs, the addict moves from the center of the community/friend groups and isolates themselves as they are now finding community/companionship through their drug.
Drugs are a substitute for community.
Very good video, thank you
Homelessness in North America is a choice. I was homeless for 12 years. When I chose to stop destroying my life, it was easy to fix.
People don’t choose to not have homes ever. Some decide that drug addiction is more important than homes, some lose their homes through no fault of their own but no one wants unstable housing or homelessness. That is against human nature and psychology.
@@jeffarnold3800
Still, you have to choose to go to rehab.
Personally, I think we should make it mandatory by the law.
@@jeffarnold3800 When I chose drugs over rent, I made that choice. So did every other addict who made the same choice I made. EDIT: Even if you give an addict a home for free, they will just trade it for drugs.
@@0xredrumx078 You cant help people until they choose to help themselves. I think making it hard to be homeless is the better plan. Rehab is useless if they wont choose to quit, better off putting them in regular jail, its cheaper.
@@LucVNO well right but if you’d had the money you would have chosen both I’m sure. There are many thousands of Americans that fall into homelessness not because of drugs vs rent, but often it’s food vs rent. Often the rent money isn’t there because their car breaks down on the way to work and they miss a couple of paychecks, or some other crisis. This is the sad reality of having a large underclass that is always one missed paycheck away from eviction.
Whenever people say that the government should have absolutely no role in helping the homeless find housing, you've got to ask yourself one question, what is the fundamental purpose of having a government?
This is so sad... But I'm so glad there are still people like them who are truly willing to help. Faith in humanity restored..
A lack of Family, God, and Country... Creates... Everything that Hell is there to offer, suffering.
Tell that to Japan.
Japan does uphold Family, Faith, and Country! Look it up 🙏
Homeless is a problem in New York City, Seattle Washington, Portland Oregon, Salt lake City Utah, Las Vegas Nevada, Phoenix Arizona, San Diego California, Austin Texas, Omaha Nebraska, Keys West Florida, fix the problem First
Add Kissimmee, St. Cloud, and Orlando to that list. The problem continually grows worse.
Today while waiting in the Chick Fil A drive they line (which is right next to a Walmart) I saw 6 homeless people
Speaking for all those who are barely scraping by, what are we supposed to do? How about the government making better use of the money they already take from us? If you ask us to do more, we'll end up homeless, too.
I live in a small middle west city that is seeing more homeless. The council will not fund any programs but sends police to round them up daily and offer them a shelter or consequences. I challenge anyone to sleep a night in a shelter and then be kicked out at 6am.
My husband and I have been homeless twice. Neither of us smoke, drink, do drugs of any kind (other than non addictive prescriptions) or have debilitating mental illness. We have also housed the homeless while helping run a homeless shelter. Yes most homeless people have a mental health or addiction problem.....no, that is NOT the only kind of homelessness problem in the USA.
In OUR case, both times my husband lost his job. The first time he couldn't find another job quickly enough to keep from loosing our apartment. The second time he lost it because of his health, and wasn't able to work anymore. And no, I was unable to look for a job. The first time I was 7½ months pregnant, and the second time (decades later) I was (and still am) physically disabled.
There is ALSO a LARGE problem with kids timing out of the foster care system when they turn 18. Kids that find themselves on the street without a job, or proper life skills, and carrying around all their belongings in a trash bag. These kids are the DARLINGS of the drug and sex trades. There are people who's whole job is to wander the streets looking for kids like these, to recruit them as drug mules and sex workers.
There are a lot more people around that are homeless for other reasons than addiction or mental health than most people realize. They're just not as visible as those with issues like that, so no one realizes they're homeless even if they DO see them. People who have never been homeless or dealt with homelessness THINK they have it all figured out. They think that ANYONE that is homeless is just lazy, addicted, mentally ill, or any combination thereof. And while that is GENERALLY true, it's NOT true often enough that a "one size fits all" approach to the complex problem of homelessness is unworkable.
And if the policies of the current administration are allowed to continue, there will be a LOT more people on the street that are there because they simply can't make rent, or find a job that pays enough to actually LIVE on with the rampant inflation.
Let's go Brandon!
It should be required that Anyone on a homeless committee needs to have been homeless a minimum of 2 years or more.
lmao sometimes it seems that way
That's a fair standard.
Last year a phd student did study what input we homeless have into anything, including committee/groups...found it to be RARE!
No suprise.
We're trying to reach her to get a copy of her work. So far not avail....
We've tried to get a word in, for the simplest things that would help...
The local non-profit (only game in town) is not at all pleased or letting something positive change.
They like their jobs & perks!
Why does PragerU not do citations for a university should they not cite whatever stuff that person said?
good point
Somehomelessness is also lack of job hiring and paychecks that pay the rent, food, clothing, gas and tax bills. So sad.
We have a number of serious problems in this country. I believe there are two reaons we can't seem to make progress on complex problems.
First, it seems to me that we have lost our ability to identify the underlying root causes of problems. We often confuse the symptoms/effects with the causes which leads to failures.
I believe the second 'cause' of our inability to solve problems is that we don't elect people with histories of solving problems.
If you want to write laws elect lawyers. If you want to solve problems elect people who have a history of solving problems ... not lawyers. We don't need more silver tongue people with pleasing personalities. We need tough minded problem solvers.
As usual,
PragerU has no clue about Stuff but that wont stop it from covering something.
Meanwhile, actual Experts or even just more educated People have covered this:
Like Illuminaughtii and Some More News, who covered Homelessness.
True!
I can sum it up in one word... ADDICTION. And if anyone has seen the movie Body Brokers on HBO how accurate it depicts that keeping them addicted, keeping the drugs flowing, it's all about one thing... $$$
The Finnish model of housing first (which has been very successful) provides all of the necessary services, drug treatment, mental health, job training, health care along with housing. You can't just put a person in a home without providing services to damaged people.
HOSING FIRST is a whole lot of BS .Firstly all the stuff you mentioned like them getting drug counselling job training, mental health is ONLY if they want to.They are not forded to do anything. If they want a place l don't want my taxes paying for it.
That was enlightening. Glad someone did this
So the 'treatment' program in SF is helping people get high, and telling them to enjoy themselves?? That's Kwazy!!!
Safe injection sites slow the spread of HIV and HepatitisC. It also gives access to MAT and a way to make sure people don’t OD and die.
I hope you believe me when I say I understand how encompassing addiction can be. I do have to point out however, that you did get that addiction by your own means. You abused your prescription medication, drank too much for a long time, or you made friends with a bad crowd and chose to stay. I have a hard time with the compassion part. Some people enjoy that life. I've watched people that "struggle" with addiction ruin their jobs and their friendships over and over and over, and they do it on purpose. Because they. Don't. Care. Yes. The trick is getting them to care. I hope you've found all the answers.
Can you get them to care by force? This is what the video seems to suggest. Threaten them with prison or shape up. I don’t think that’s a particularly effective motivation, though I might be wrong. The Housing First model seems to have impressive outcomes, because it is a theory that suggests placing supports around people will lead them to want to change, and a caring approach will create a desire to want to give back to the society that cared for them. An approach based on threats and force tends to create feelings of disillusionment and resentment and an “F the system” attitude. Does that system have the potential to enable people? In some cases probably. But I think most humans in their heart want to care about something and be productive in some way. It seems to be our nature. That’s what we need to encourage in society.
Tylenol-3 is a version of acetaminophen combined combined with codeine for intense pain relief and caffeine to combat the depressive effects of the codeine. Tylenol-1 is another version of the same compound, but the codeine level is too low to adequately combat pain. So doctors who prescribed Tylenol-1 were giving patients an addictive drug that was insufficient to adequately combat intense pain.
Many people suffer severe injuries that cause them chronic pain, and get caught in a cycle of reliance on prescription pain medication. When those prescriptions run out, they buy the best available substitutes, and when legal drugs become too expensive, they will switch to street drugs.
Addiction is a DISEASE. When someone has obesity and develops heart disease, do you tell them to go jog and eat a carrot, or do you get them proper medical care and work on a lifestyle plan to improve their health and their situation? Unfortunately, most addicts aren't in a position to get the letter without financial assistance. Assistance that many on the right refuse to give.
@@jeffarnold3800 How to make them care? You don't. You can't help someone who won't help themselves.
Not all addicts are the same. It can happen to good people too. Your generalizations are untrue. While it is very common for addicts to become that way through bad decisions, one can become addicted by following all the rules as well. Uncommon, but it certainly happens. Plus, have you never made a poor decision? Have you ever over eaten or called out from work when u arent really sick?
And if an addict is really that heartless and uncaring... guess what.. they will be that way sober too. You cannot teach or force a person to care. If you sober up a horse thief what do you have?....
A sober horse thief.
@@superbarnie exactly, which is why forcing them into prisons or shelters isn’t going to work.
The storage lockers is such an amazing idea, why isn’t any other cities doing that?
I have experience with addiction personally and within my family and watched how that eventually turns into homelessness. This video is spot on.
RUclips is hiding my comments because I support this organization
I see both of them.
The best way to help the homeless is choose a state, perhaps california, put them all there & let them roam free, oh wait that's what going on now except for shipping them all there.
You sound like a Nazi so we should send them to a concentration camp. What a nice guy you are
@@monsterhunter445 It's really all wrong, we should think about how sick people are and help Las, it's sad that their life is like this.
@@lucianonascimento7338 yes it is sad but I have to ask how do people fall down so far without recognizing that they are in trouble and need to seek help. Where are their grown kids and or siblings? Where is the common sense of the homeless that start taking drugs? Why would ANYONE choose drugs over homelessness? Why did they lose their jobs? Why would they WASTE their money on drugs or alcohol? Eating, safety and hygiene are far more important to drugs and alcohol.
@@elseach6005 My friend wasn't able to have children..has no siblings. Lost her ability to see very well...Her social security & pension doesn't stretch far enough in this economy. She has always worked until age 73. She isnt homeless.but I'm just saying.
@@KC-dr3cg thanks for sharing. I’m not picking on homeless people but I have to guess that the majority of them, maybe all prepandemic were gradually sliding down hill into trouble. There had to be a warning or some sign of drowning.
Maybe now that’s no longer true because of the pandemic but I believe that for the most part, that we should be able to help prevent many of them if they can admit that they need help and seek it before hitting ROCK bottom.
Obviously we can’t be everywhere but I still don’t understand why they would want to waste even a DIME on drugs and or alcohol instead of saving it to buy some bread, or bottle of water, etc. I’m perplexed.
I was always making minimum wage and was so cheap, so frugal, so tight that I could barely get by for many years.
I’m 78. I graduated from high school but I have no college degrees. Other than the skills more high school graduates have, the only marketable skill I have is that my dad taught me how to tune pianos and some people have paid me to do that. There were a few years in the 1970s when my annual income was below the poverty line so I “qualified” for a variety of welfare programs but I never applied.
Why?
Because I was aware that there were people my age who had been “caught” in the welfare system and didn’t seem to be able to escape.
One of the people who attended that same school I did in ‘58-’59 was “unemployed” about 1980. I knew he had considered himself a photographer when he was in school so I asked, “Surely you must be able to get work photographing weddings and other events.”
His wife answered the implied question, “Yes, he does that sometimes but he doesn’t charge anything for fear he will lose his welfare benefits.”
About a year ago, I did some work through a temp agency. One one of the jobs where I was working alongside a homeless man, we took our lunch break at the same time. He unabashedly explained what he was doing during the lunch break - calculating how many shifts he could work without it impinging on his welfare benefits.
In the early 1980s, I came up with an idea for “helping” people on welfare while a) minimizing the disincentives of the welfare system(s) and b) NOT increasing the burden on taxpayers. I’m opposed to a flat (income) tax but combining a standard allowance for each adult citizen with a flat tax rate would be a progressive tax plan and counting the allowance as income for purposes of determining eligibility for all welfare programs would reduce the cost of administering the existing welfare programs.
My personal preference would be for the allowance to be between $13,000 and $14,000 per year. A personal allowance of between $18,000 and $19,000 per year would probably cost the taxpayers even less because so many more people would be removed from the welfare roles. It may even be that a personal allowance of between $27,000 and $28,000 per adult citizen would further reduce the number of people on welfare and thus even farther reduce the burden on taxpayers. (I’ve submitted requests to members of our congregational delegation to ask the Office of Management and Budget to calculate which level of personal allowance would provide the greatest savings but all I get in reply are form letters.)
The most common objection to my plan is that many people would spend most or all of the allowance on drugs.
I readily admit that possibility but I also think that many people would quickly realize that freedom from the disincentives of the existing system would allow them to increase their income, even if they were to do only odd jobs. HOPE is a powerful incentive and I think the present welfare system has robbed millions of what little hope they otherwise would have had.
I could wish that most or all of the people whose comments I’ve read so far would reply as to whether my plan would have have been helpful to them when they were in their poorest financial condition.
As someone who administers some HUD housing programs that emphasize housing first approach and harm reduction, this really highlights the issues with both of those approaches. This is truly a great video.
Homelessness is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. The definition of homelessness differs from country to country, with some countries yet to have any definition in place.
Economic Status is also not among any protections at all from discrimination.
We have no human rights.
I mean is it really ironic that the cost per unit was $666,000. Many may not believe in the Scriptures but it doesn’t stop evil people for using them.
The Satanic Apts?
@@kw266988 what do you mean by apts
@@Witcherworks An abbreviation for “apartments”?
It didn’t really make any sense, You’re saying that they’re just being given houseless, and yet you’re showing almost exclusively imagery of people sleeping and dying on the streets. It’s called housing first, not housing and then we leave you the hell alone. The reason they start With housing is that you can’t recover from drugs and alcohol if you’re on the streets.
WOW, I believe EVERYONE needs to have the FACTUAL INFORMATION contained in this video‼️We need to spread the word❗️
Until the system is updated, this won't end. Laws govern the universe, and according to Bastiat (author of _The Law_ ), until those laws are followed, you'd be wasting time, money, and breath. I wish you well.
New Jersey became number 1 in reducing chronic homelessness 2 years after ending life time alimony.
So blame feminism not capitalism.
just give each homeless person a large room unit made out of concrete which is cheap
that addresses their need for a place to sleep , gives them an address they can use to apply for jobs and gov't services and makes them less of an irritation for the rest of the citizens
then we can offer them other services like drug treatment and mental help
Thomas - The Laws that need changed are:
- Can't get ID/DL without an address.
- Can't get PO BOX without an address.
- Can't pick up mail at PO without formal ID via "general delivery" option.
- Can't sleep outside anywhere at all without paying $$$$$. (Any jurisdiction I'm aware of in my area)
- Can't arrange any alternative to fines for simple things like parking/low speeding tix.
- Can't receive court mail at any address given the above mentioned.
....shall I continue?...
@@genossinwaabooz4373 change all those laws or easier just give each homeless person a room unit with their own address on it
@@genossinwaabooz4373 As drugs mask the symptoms of a root cause of poor health so do laws mask the symptoms of a failed system. You needn't continue. Bastiat has the root causes enumerated in his work I mentioned.
At this point we cannot keep blaming mental illness and drugs. Yes, its very common, but correlation does NOT equal causation. People who already struggle are being pushed into homelessness because of inflation. When everything is insanely expensive and you are all alone (no 2-person income), you eventually lose all hope of having a good life. Healthcare, shelter, food... all costs so much. These suffering people turn to drugs before they hit the streets because it is not a single event that makes someone homeless. They suffer long before the homelessness begins.
I have been homeless, and i was NOT on drugs. I was homeless because an abused, disabled woman with 3 children has NO chance of sheltering and providing for her kids without help.
Providing mental health and addiction treatment is a given, but will not solve everything or prevent homelessness. It is going to take a multifaceted approach including making being alive affordable!
The creators and finders of this video don’t want you to think about that. The whole production was a big distraction from exactly what you said about cost of living, and an attempt to place the blame for all homelessness onto you.
Exactly right.
We've been homeless 5 years now & weren't at fault nor have any of the issues others want to point to.
We see ALL the other fellow homeless & what their stories are like. Heartbreaking.
Disability, medical events, illness, disaster, wage theft, crime victims, criminal landlords etc...so many reasons not getting the attn.
Of course not.
Corrupt systems.
Correlation is not causation and I wish ppl would remember that.
@@jeffarnold3800 It's so easy too.
What are we gonna say to all the hype after all their efforts to get even homeless folks blaming themselves for things they had no choices about?
Mutual Aid!
Let's help each other.
Leave the corrupt system out of it.
@@genossinwaabooz4373 amen. I wish things were better for you
Yes many, dare I say most homeless, do have drug or mental health issues. However, a lot of those issues are caused by despair. That despair is often caused by homelessness due to a lack of affordable housing/high enough pay for lower intelligence jobs. I myself despite having a high IQ, working from the age of 13, and being a specialist in a high-demand field would not have been able to buy my first home had I not been voluntarily homeless for 1.5 years. Likely I could have saved the downpayment over an additional 20yrs BUT that would have meant still owing on my home at 70.
In our society today the biggest problem many face is no path to anything more than mere survival and this tends to increase self-destructive behaviors.
Housing first can be terrific IF it is paired with other supports AND those living there need to be held accountable for at least some type of improvement/responsibility There is no shortage of other homeless that will take their place if they really truly are so far gone that they won't even try to help themselves.
Thank you Prager U for addressing this issue.
STOP CALLING IT HOMELESSNESS !!!!!!!
It is a drug addiction problem. Call it for what it is. That's the first step. Anything less is denial.
Give them a drug test@@zacharyschrag538 and you'll find nearly all will fail. And the mentally ill? Most did it to themselves with their drug use. As for the remainder, they accept the help when offered. And note, exceptions are just that, not the vast majority of the so called "homeless".
Communities through religious based orgs, mainly, used to do this work in the majority. Then the government intervened and demanded taxes for their new pet project; which, ultimately made more work for more government employees, but never came close to solving the problems. Plus, they enacted new laws that prohibited how community orgs could assist in the problem, tying their hands, to keep them from contributing to the solving of this problem. It's like they (the government) viewed them as competition. This solution is a reinvention of the old ways, perhaps with some improvements; certainly better than the government "wasted" attempt.
There are tons of religious based organizations in cities helping the homeless. The problem is that they enact strict rules that many homeless don’t want to follow or can’t follow. Sobriety, curfews, mandatory splitting up of men and women, no pets, etc. At this point we can force them to accept services at gunpoint, or we can actually put them into apartments and offer them services. Most will take apartments if offered. It would be cheaper as we spend a fortune on jails/prisons and emergency rooms anyway.
@@jeffarnold3800 You work for Salvation Army or something?! Sounds like.
How about how Salvation Army in Burnsville, MN replaced the 1 person peddling meth (client) with a couple (officially selected by SA) who were 100% allowed to be openly posted up dealing meth blocking passage to the only bathrooms the entire duration of shelter being open, including ALL NIGHT, and freely left to harrass shelter clients anytime pushing the drug.
No amount of complaints were paid attn to.
This is such a tiny example what "service orgs" coop w gov services are up to.
SA is the worst too. They're in it for the $$$$$$$ exploits no matter what immoral extremes can give them even more to exploit vulnerable people.
THAT'S how this works.
Excellent video. And - loved your live stream with Judge, too. Bravo. Well done
4:42 you compared the price per unit built to the national median not the SF median. thats apples to oranges.
just give each homeless person a large room unit made out of concrete which is cheap
that addresses their need for a place to sleep , gives them an address they can use to apply for jobs and gov't services and makes them less of an irritation for the rest of the citizens
then we can offer them other services like drug treatment and mental help
No we cant do that. In the United States we run a system of private property; in which most Americans people's wealth as a whole is held in the form of there house.
This system fundamentally makes affordable housing impossible and because we have to keep the current housing values high; we artificially have to limit the SUPPLY of housing to increase the DEMAND of housing.(Most apartments for 1000 rent are 40 years old being an example of this.)
In addition the system of Captialism is fueled by cheap labor; done by public schooled educated mind numb workers.
The Captialist needs these mind numb slaves desperate; so thats where Private Property comes into play and keeps you on the hamster wheel because homelessness is held over your head.
This system sucks. Lol. If you dont think so; you are lost and need to go out into society and observe how the average citzen opperates. I live in Las Vegas and have experienced prolly all different types of folks. America is not what it seems.
@@dblazeist all of the homeless in the US are only 3 million people
giving them room units would not upset anything
@@robinsss Yes it would. All the folks making 2kish a month paying 1k plus in rent barely scraping would love not to pay rent. Why would I pay 1000 dollars a month in rent when I could sleep in a room with a bed and just get a gym membership to shower?
You see in our system your landlord is your lord. And our system requires you to kneel to your lord every month and offer him a basket of bread.
If we had it your way there wouldnt be bread for the lord.
With your way why wouldnt all the working class do that instead of paying the lord every month??
@@dblazeist because the first rooms would go to people who are visibly homeless and sleeping on the streets
then if people apply for one there would be a means test to determine who can not afford an apartment or housing
@@robinsss Why would you discriminate against the lower working middle class and subject them to a vicious for profit landlord??
What you're saying is that if you are responsible and work; you have to be subjected to a vicious for profit landlord.
If youre not responsible and work the govt will take care of you.
Thats B.S.
"How do we solve the homeless problem"
You cant solve a problem when the people involved dont want to change anything
I'm homeless- so AMA, friend. Even your statement is an oversimplification. So someone wants to change, but the tools (the emotional intelligence to make good decisions) was never there in the first place and never developed.
except the problem isn't homelessness, that's just the symptoms of the real problem.
but corporate greed has shoved that form of thinking over Americans, where most symptoms are the problems, thus getting rich off your ignorance.
placebo fixes 75% osteoarthritis yet go to the pharmacy and you have tons of less effective products to fix the "problem"
the science is clear but money holder make it hard for the truth to reach the public
while you all bitch at eachother, they laugh in their mansions
Building more so housing prices go down would certainly help.
@@jonatand2045 not importing almost a million people every single year for 20 years would help too
@@ootmaster1
Allowing the supply of housing to expand would mean the extra demand would be met. It seems you see it as a zero sum game.
I have an uncle struggling for years.. this video is spot on. We need more help because no matter if you give them housing or help find them a job. They'll end up back to where they were if the issue doesnt get addressed.. I'm looking forward to the day he quits for good! 😔
Finland solved its homeless problem with Housing First. Why didn’t it work here?
I love the what works approach rather than what doesn't. Humanity is not lost as I've thought it to be.
Prager U was covered and/or explained by Illuminaughtii and many others.
Ask homeless people who aren't yet crumbling from the savage mistreatment yet - we have a clear pragmatic understanding what works & what we need.
Amazingly, no one wants to know.
@@genossinwaabooz4373 hey Patrick, I understand that shutting down mental health hospitals in the 80's wasn't a great idea but I also understand the major complaint's is what shut them down. The jails now became the institution's & also more horrific for those that suffer mental illness. I've been around those drug user's who flopped on other's couches and viewed going to jail was a three square's, a cot and new clothes. Many who get off the streets by one means or another is simply a beautiful thing, other's will always be those on other people's couches looking for three squares, a cot & new clothes. Stop supplying the drugs & space to clean use would go along way to cleaning up what doesn't work. Homelessness is a problem that many at least try to resolve and many find it not worth the time but I'll take the positive even if it's just one making a difference. That's humanity at its best if you ever need it for yourself that somebody just might be there when needed.
"Addiction is a choice, not a disease."
Love that. Tough truth. We are still at the helm of our ship.
addiction is a disease tho. its a choice to start it tho. like i know i have an addictive personality due to my high level of self awareness and that is why i never started drugs in the first place. but i do get addicted to certain foods or netflix or any other "socially acceptable" pleasures.
@Maximus Trolleus then it's a disease of choice.
@@tjedwards4254 not necessarily, by definition an addiction is something you cant choose. If you can choose it then you werent addicted to it in the first place. Thats the paradox.
#42Rules4Life ruclips.net/video/oH0Xs3Y8US8/видео.html
@Brown Fried Rice that's not true for even the majority of cases. And when you blame an injury, I am sympathetic, but you're taking away their agency and therefore their human dignity to have a capacity to choose.
Everybody needs and deserves grace at some stage of there lives. Building houses is an exterior solution when this issue is all about the inside.
Lock them into the working houses and force them to do the labor for food. We have this thing in Russia and it works well, there is almost no homelessness in Moscow.
Young people can't afford to buy a 400k house, especially when they already have 60-200k in student loans. You expect them to pay the loans, buy a house and somehow start a family at the same time? So immediately out of college they need to take on about a million dollars worth of debts and obligations? Yeah, perfectly reasonable.
What does this have to do with the video at all?
@@yomejjuan it has everything to do with the video, the main reason there are so many homeless people is the high rent.
1. You don't have to have 60-200k in debt to get a degree. WGU offers self paced programs for less than $8000 in a 12 mo year.
2. Most cities in America it doesn't cost $400k to buy a house.
@@hannahsharma5108 we arent talking about budget college for teen mothers and recovering addicts. Sure you can probably get some job with one of those degrees but people coming out of real universities with real professions often start at 80-120k per year. And sure, plenty of places you can buy a house cheap, problem is it is usually a place without many prospects or well paying jobs and hence why property is cheap.
The only way to solve this problem is to build sanitoriums to put these people in because you're dealing with mental issues. Instead of spending all of the money that we do on other countries, use that money to put them away with health professionals. You cannot teach people with mental health issues, that's impossible. If they have drug problems then the sanitoriums will also address that issue.
Thank you Tom Wolf, for overcoming, but returning to bring light to the darkness.
Prager U was covered and/or explained by Illuminaughtii and many others.
18% of homeless have addiction issues.
This vid is garbage.
To my understanding, housing first was a program that was actually working in Utah. It was featured on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart years ago. However, I'm sure they weren't spending hundreds of thousands of dollars per unit to house those people. Housing first the way California is doing it is obviously stealing tax payer money.
Something else I feel is very important to mention is the fact that recently all of the media seems to want to portray every single homeless person as a drug addict/junkie and that's simply not true. Several years ago when I volunteered for the homeless on skid row in Los Angeles, I learned that 20% of the homeless people in LA (overall) we're actually employed. This (a sizable percentage of employed homeless individuals) is actually the case in multiple cities in the US and also Canada. I'm not sure what the statistic is today but when you consider how much rent cost, it would be no surprise to me that a large percentage of homeless people are still indeed employed. I'm sure those people are smart enough to find somewhere better to sleep and some may even have vehicles. You certainly aren't going to see those homeless people being filmed.
I just get so tired of people demonizing ALL homeless people as druggies. The ones being filmed clearly have drug issues and mental health issues. I am not blind and I can clearly see that. But that's not always the case. During the 2008 economic collapse there were a lot of homeless people too. They weren't druggies. They had a good jobs/careers, they played by the rules and sadly they invested their money as advised.
I just graduated from school. I am an allied health medical professional. But all my hard work feels like it's practically for nothing. My rent just got doubled. Repeat - DOUBLED. So I am now trying to quickly rearrange some plans to see if I can go back to school yet again for a higher degree. Due to recent inflation, I now no longer qualify to rent an apartment on my own because I simply don't make enough. My point about all this is if you think the homeless problem is just due to drugs and mental health you better think again. When it comes to homelessness, I don't think we've seen anything yet....
Let's stop investing in CROOKED housing first schemes and start working to address each homeless person as an INDIVIDUAL so we can find out what their issues are. I can say for sure that if you don't have housing first it's going to be damn hard to progress. If you can't shower, how can you be presentable enough to go to work? If you don't have a safe place to store your belongings how can you focus on work or anything else? These are real issues to consider for a homeless person. Think Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. All in all I strongly believe that if those people are housed they need to be held ACCOUNTABLE, they need to have deadlines and they need to be actively working to change their lives for the better. The way things are going with the economy, one day we may be on the other side of things so we need to practice compassion, understanding and community.
Going back to school to add more debt to your life for a little to no income increase is foolish. Learn a trade that is actually something you can make a real living with. That's the issue with the job market right now it's oversaturated with highly educated or under skilled workers. Just ask your local barista what their degree is in.
Also, if you're in an area where your rent doubled move. I personally moved from a place that I grew up that had a $7k a month rent to an area where I can get the equivalent apartment for $450 a month.
You just made the case for housing first
Chipper - BEST COMMENT EVER.
Unless people have direct meaningful experience & look into how/why all the things...they do not understand what's going on.
We're homeless & working on getting Mutual Aid going in this town but our friend (in health care, btw) sees more than we do how "liberal" folks behave in such NIMBY attitudes too, content to "fundraise" by drinking $40 drinks at some event like that makes a dent. To go home like they made any real effort.
Mutual Aid is the way to go. At lesst to start. Ppl understand more when they can get to know real people.
I was never homeless as an addiction, but it was a problem. I was homeless when I refused to do illegal things and then was very sick. I couldn't get access to any help where I was. It took finding a helpful community. We can make a difference, accountability is key 🔑
It is fare more common for a man on the street Paying child support to endanger the health and life of the men then for child birth or pregnancy to endanger the life or even health of the women. No Troli argument for deadbeat dads .I understand why we care more about women.
But doesn't terminating a pregnancy kinda defeat the purpose of male disposablity
Mika - Thst's right!
We refuse to do anything illegal & it's as if we made the cops 10 Most Wanted list because of it. Harrassed to try to corner us into having to do some little mistaken thing, especially while driving.
We have no record, no issues...
@@osmosisjones4912 I honestly do not understand what you are trying to say.
The housing first model does not mean no case management and no treatment. It means, getting people suffering from homeless ness a home and then addressing the major issues the individual needs and wants to address. This video is VERY misleading.
Part of the problem is having an open border where drugs flow through easily. It's saddening to see the streets so full of homelessness. My ex is homeless with addiction issues. He has had many opportunities over the years to pull himself off of the streets but always messes up and ends up back on the streets. He has stolen from all of us, including his children. After many many years, we all have washed our hands of him and accepted his addiction is stronger than family. Close the borders. It does make it harder for them to get the drugs.
First, put the drug abusers in prison, then if they take a recovery program, commute the rest of their sentence to supervised probation. If they maintain a drug free life then they can earn a pardon, if not return them to prison for the remainder of their sentence.
Put the mentally ill non-drug users in a care facility and treat them.
The number of homeless left can then be helped to find work through training and assistance.
If your goals aren't to end the drug addiction, treat the mentally infirm, and help others become productive members, then you are exacerbating the problem.
Unfortunately, housing is so expensive that having a job does not mean one isn't homeless I have a room I "rent"(just enough to cover my increased water and electricity) to people in that situation and it is only empty if I just need a break from strangers I try to help them find a van or mini travel trailer so they can move on. They literally often have no way out of homelessness(despite being hard workers) but at least they can live in their own vehicle.
This video completely ignores the homeless who aren't addicts. Shows the worst of California, an easy target. It ignores the massive cost of rent and the effect on people who are disabled. C'mon Dennis, this was not responsible reporting. You can do better.
This is heart breaking. Many arent druggies in my country that are homeless although we do have a serious drug problem as well. I intend to do something about it!
It's both a poverty and addiction problem. Obviously if you're too poor you become homeless and then drugs seem like the only solution. Let's not put the cart before the horse here. This is semantic truth at best. Sure, addiction can still be a thing if you're not homeless, but being homeless doesn't help in the other direction.
I blame women as a group . New Jersey became number 1 in reducing chronic homelessness 2 years after ending life time alimony
It's ALWAYS someone else's fault right?!
Correlations DON'T = Causations.
But - The Purpose Of a System Is What It Does.
POSIWID.
Great documentary👏🌟🙌🏻
I believe that cities could set up tent cities with army surplus equipment, on fenced-in city lots with portable sanitary facility's then start relocating the homeless to these areas. Once concentrated send in the services ,church's, food banks,addiction counseling,job opportunities ect that we already have set up to help.finally they will have to have a city dept to continually move the homeless to these areas and not allow them to set up camp anywhere they want. It won't save them all but It might be a start in the right direction.
Restore traditional (Christian) values and the traditional family and extended family structure. Everyone benefits from a family support system and accountability. Plus, this lowers taxes for government programs.
Right. No one ever has abusive families, the Church doesn't pocket 98% of charitable donations as overhead and counties with higher taxes and higher social spending sure don't have less homelessness and addiction issues.
@@nickandres7829 More often then two parent families that are abusive it is broken families and single moms who have no place for someone who is struggling which leads into a bad spiral which leads to addiction and homelessness
@@johnsmith-gx2ys I don't care about "most often" when my zealot christian adoptive parents who abused me nearly to death threw me on the street for refusing to keep attending their cult church, at age 16.
"Most" parents aren't so abusive even after all that to neccesitate the child now adult having to go No Contact with the whole family just to live in peace and heal from the PTSD.
10 years.
I'll never speak a word to them again.
It sucks. But others don't step up to help either.
The ideal fantasy from christian values is NOT TRUE in practice.
Jesus was homeless and "poor" & gave his take on how to live, how to be treating others....
Sadly, people don't even want to follow him, but talk a very strange bunch of things instead.
Homelessness is not our fault.
Ask us how we need help, we have good answers.
@@nickandres7829 So true!!!!
@@johnsmith-gx2ys
It's about abuse everyone can be abusive if they choose.
It is about development, children develop through imitation. Girls should imitate women and boys to imitate men, that's the best way to develop. That's why having a father and mother is essential.
Imitation is a huge part of human development physically, physiologically, etc.
It is a fallacy to say that people have a right to shelter. You have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness only because your founding fathers recognized that these three things should be a right due to all because the Almighty wants us to be free agents. God gave us those rights. Nobody has a right to housing, or health care, or a car, or a phone, or clothes UNLESS they either earn that right by working for those things OR they receive those things as a gift. It is NOT the function of government to baby you from cradle to grave. Grow up people. Make good decisions. Be responsible. It'll take you a long way. That's truth; and true compassion is telling people the truth, not giving them handouts.
When people DO fail at life, true compassion doesn't offer them only a helping hand, it teaches them to train their hands (and heads) to help themselves.
Great video.
Get over it.
We have no rights & you're just mistaken about a great many things.
People die without things like shelter and healthcare.