Ending Chronic Homelessness

[ijmorlan]

Here's the key though...you can't kick them out for this. If they want to sit in their homes and get high or whatever, then that's what they do. We can provide supports, but making housing conditional means it isn't being treated as a right.

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There is literally no downside to giving homes to these people, not a single one will be worse off in that situation.

If they want to get high, that’s OK. But if they start fires or leave needles around the common areas (for example) then they have to go. This isn’t a matter of management being uptight or whatever, it’s just not possible to accommodate certain behaviours.

Whether those behaviours would actually be a problem once they’re in proper accommodation, I don’t really know; but I don’t think you know either.

And there is a downside: providing housing is obviously going to be expensive, and will be paid for by taking resources from everybody else. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it, but pretending there is no downside is no way to proceed.