July 29, 2004
A Plan to Reduce Homelessness
Over at Centerfield, Jon Kay wrote an excellent, detailed post about reforms the U.S. could make to significantly reduce homelessness. I don't know enough about social planning, insurance, or the other topics touched on to know how feasible his plan is, but it passes the common sense test easily. Not only does it seem reasonable, but it's also a great example of the potential of blogging. He's written a serious, thoughtful proposal for ameliorating a serious social ill and people will actually read it. His post is precisely the sort of writing we want, but see little of on the web.
That was an excellent article. It seems like such a simple idea, makes me wonder what has kept it from being discussed more publicly. Living here in NY has given me a totally different view of homelessnes (possibly just vagrancy, as I don't know if these people go home) But the people I have interacted with are often very different than the types in Ft. Worth. Other than the sheer quantity I see, many aren't the people with a story, i.e. "I was on my way to work and my car broke down, can I get a buck to catch the bus". The people here are pretty downtrodden, often times asking for spare food rather than money, and somehow that raises more pity from me. When I do have the change to spare, I have never cared where it went, whether the guy wanted food or a forty. There is a regular guy I see often, and in talking to him once he said he didn't want a job. He said he wanted a place to live, but he can get by without one. Obviously he falls into the mentally deficient or irresponsible category. I guess what I am trying to say is that I have never cared much for the plight of the homeless, until I lived here. I still can't say that it is one of my great worries, but I would like to see something put in place and the ideas in the linked post seem pretty good to me.
And I think you highlight one of the big reasons this issue isn't discussed more. People just don't care about the homeless that much. Especially in smaller cities and towns where the majority of Americans live, the homeless problem is easily ignored because it's not as prevalent or, at least, more easily contained within specific parts of town. When was the last time you saw a homeless person at the mall or anywhere in the suburbs?
Of course, in Austin we have a special kind of homeless: the hip, I-choose-to-be-homeless young adults. I have zero pity or compassion for them.