Ending Chronic Homelessness

[ijmorlan]

Homeless people are people, they should suffer the same consequences for their behaviour that you and I do.

That’s a nice theory, but you can’t have people setting fires in an apartment building. It’s not about punishment or whatever; it’s about how much you can reasonably ask their immediate neighbors (other formerly homeless people) to put up with.

And part of the issue is that there is no point in punishing these people. Somebody who sets a fire in a building is not thinking clearly and simply punishing them the same way one would (could, should) a careless driver won’t accomplish anything other than to make their problems even worse. Instead, they need support (not sure what exactly) that addresses their specific needs. But if the budget only allows providing accommodation then there may be people who need to be kicked out, otherwise it is impossible to provide accommodation to the other people who need it.

Besides, losing ones home is a natural consequence not unique to the less well-off: if I started a fire in my house I wouldn’t be able to live in it for some time (until it was repaired, with my money); the difference is I wouldn’t cause other families to lose their homes as well.