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Thought this was an interesting idea. Utah has done the math that the cost of jail and ER exceeds the cost of providing a home and a social worker.
This is their solution to the problem of homelessness.
Housing Works
Does this lead to an increased likelyhood of people abusing the system?
Is this a path to ending homelessness in a definitive way?
Is it sustainable?
Does it actually save the state money?
Personally, I am interested to see how this experiment plays out.
The large majority of homeless have mental issues, are the social workers going to help them with their meds?
Who will maintain the properties?
Who pays for this to happen? The banks? The taxpayers?
The guidelines say very little about job training or educational courses. You cannot house people like its a pet boarding facility but I see an alternative in skill requirements and possibly a streamline to the homeless into a workforce of sometime. Just as the people who have a routine of the 9-5 grind, a learned practiced behavior, homelessness is a routine also. It's a drastic reversal in day to day living to be handed a new surrounding. People condition themselves accordingly and need to be willing to change as with anything. Or simple existing in the case of homeless. Homelessness is no longer a stereotype of nutty unshaven man trying to squeegee your windows. It's families, generational and in the hardest circumstance a family member who refuses to get help and course correct. It's hard man.
I don't know the answers. Except for it's paid for by the taxpayers of Utah, as mentioned in the article, their model shows the state spends more on incarcerating and doing ER treatment than they would spend on Board and a social worker.Quote:
Originally Posted by El Kabong
As I said, I am interested to see how this works out. One thing that is interesting is that they are leaving it up to the individual cities on how to administer their programs.
I applaud Utah for trying this, regardless if it works or not we will learn something from it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Spicoli
There is indeed an issue with generational homelessness and if the means aren't there, the cycle will never be broken.
Hopefully this works and other states actually follow suit. Unfortunately a lot of states seem to be going in the other direction :
It works like this: say you get a $200 speeding ticket, and you don't have the money to pay it. You are placed on probation, and for a monthly supervisory fee you can pay the fine off in instalments over the course of your probation term. The devil, as ever, is in the details, as a great Sunday story from the Atlanta Journal Constitution makes clear. Those supervisory fees vary markedly: in Cobb County, for instance, just north of Atlanta, the government charges a $22 monthly fee. Private companies charge $39, and often add extra costs on top of that to cover drug testing, electronic monitoring and even classes they decide offenders need. Fees often rise and even multiply when probationers cannot pay—and remember, these are people, for the most part, who could not come up with a hundred bucks and change to pay the initial fee; you have to expect they'll have some trouble paying.
Even worse, people who fail to pay the fines imposed by these private companies can find warrants for their arrests sworn out and the period of their probation extended. I spoke with an attorney for a couple in Alabama who say they were threatened with Tasers and the removal of their children if they did not pay the company what they owed. In 2012 a court found that the fees levied by private-probation companies in Harpersville, Alabama, could turn a $200 fine and a year's probation into $2,100 in fees and fines stretched over 41 months.
Private probation: A judicially sanctioned extortion racket | The Economist
Here's Washington DC :
On the day Bennie Coleman lost his house, the day armed U.S. marshals came to his door and ordered him off the property, he slumped in a folding chair across the street and watched the vestiges of his 76 years hauled to the curb.
Movers carted out his easy chair, his clothes, his television. Next came the things that were closest to his heart: his Marine Corps medals and photographs of his dead wife, Martha. The duplex in Northeast Washington that Coleman bought with cash two decades earlier was emptied and shuttered. By sundown, he had nowhere to go.
All because he didn’t pay a $134 property tax bill
The retired Marine sergeant lost his house on that summer day two years ago through a tax lien sale — an obscure program run by D.C. government that enlists private investors to help the city recover unpaid taxes.................
Left with nothing | The Washington Post
The Tom Brower approachQuote:
Originally Posted by Kirkland Laing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf31XDSSx74
I am not sure if you saw this but I posted it in the Romanian Immigrant thread about a week ago @killersheep
European Citizens' Initiative for an Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) | #basicincome
The link below explains the reasoning. WHY WE SHOULD GIVE FREE MONEY TO EVERYONE
https://decorrespondent.nl/541/why-w...98745-cb9fbb39
Bad idea.. it wont be long before these bums turn those homes into crackhouses..
Stop selling it then :-X ;DQuote:
Originally Posted by FinitoElDinamita
Maybe this idea has a base in the Mormon concept of tithing? Curious thing...Utah is the leader is respecting gun rights and the concept of liberty. They are also consistently in the top 3 business friendly states in the union, are among the leaders in job growth, among the leaders in the healthiest states...Provo and Salt Lake City are always in the Top 10 places to live. While Provo is very conservative, SLC has an annual gay pride march that has been going on for 25 years and draws thousands of people.
I think that Utah can make this work; it is obviously a well run state.
Be a good move to make the houses solid concrete walls or solid brick with solid plaster rendered on all on top of a concrete slab floor with tiled floors throughout, the damage is minimum that you can do to one of those.
:D Oh well this jerk wouldnt agree with the plans thats for sure. .. :o
I dont who he is, but he is now in the running for the leader of the unpopularity party.:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pege6GUNaHM
Oh my at first look around ,I find this on him, he is an embarrassment isnt he! :D
I'd love to play poker against this fool, he is all in every time!
I dont think he knows what he comes over like to normal thinking people, as he is so politically bent and one eyed that he cant see that some issues are beyond political side taking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAhHPIuTQ5k
I work in probation and we deal with homeless offenders and it is true many have issues of mental health and substance misuse. They cannot sustain a tenancy because they do not have the experience of budget management and skills for life. They get support to maintain their tenancy which is more often shared or single bedrooms. Most do not make it to a sustained independent living but some do.
So...like a prison;DQuote:
Originally Posted by Andre
In this day and age, there is no reason why everyone cannot realistically own a home and at an affordable cost. I've looked at the property markets in various US states and on the whole property costs seem much more reasonable there than in the UK or here. It's an interesting experiment, but having a home and not having to worry about rent every month can only be a massive help. After that, you have been helped more than enough, so get a job. Even a low paying one as you aren't blowing half your money on rent. Property, at least in the UK and here, is such a money drain, and it is money made off of bubbles. Nothing is being generated or made.
I look at the UK and think most of the problem is self created and the elite like the property bubbles and the banks love mortgage based indentured servitude. It doesn't need to be like that. Many houses are very old and are in poor condition. Most homes out here are tower blocks in the sky. I don't think they look very nice aesthetically; they are too expensive, but they are homes and there is nothing wrong with them. Sure, you don't have a garden, but you can't have everything. A government could easily push for these to be built and to build them cheaply and use them to replace the social housing that has all been sold off. In the space of 20 houses, you can house 200 families.
Close down Goldman Sach's and just give everyone in the country a house. You might as well just give people something rather than bailing out these corporations that only make money from money.
I suppose once you have a house, then that's something people spend their life working for automatically settled. It's half the job of life over and you aren't giving massive amounts of money to the banks. They should be taken out of the equation. People need money in their own pockets to determine their own futures. Relying on banks and governments is not good and so a house as a one time deal, is a way of saying to people, this is your support. It takes out the rent and the mortgage lenders, and then you can say to people, 'You are so lucky, now at least do some work. Everything else is about your own adult choices'.
Aww, I forgot the bars. ;DQuote:
Originally Posted by VictorCharlieSo...like a prison;DQuote:
Originally Posted by Andre
Are there any homeless people in Utah to begin with:D? Lets see California follow suite, see how that works out....
Got tried out here in one section,the beneficiaries burnt the floors and all the timber in the houses to keep them warm in the winter, so they could could have enough money left to keep smoking and drinking. :(.
You'd have to really be fussy over who gets in and who doesnt if you didnt build them fire and damage proof.