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How to solve homeless issue?

I deal with a lot of people from all walks of life and knowing some in the category we are speaking about here or on the verge of homelessness I would say the saying "pride comes before the fall (or some such)" is very important. I find in my anecdotal experience that people find themselves on the verge of homelessness out of pride and as much as any mental health issues. That is not to say having your pride isn't important, it may be all some people have left in this world and so holding on to it is not something to blame people for; however, that pride can become self-defeating and self-destructive.

Those low income people in my experience who plan and have enough sense to ask for help stay out of homelessness without trouble and there are no lack of agencies, resources, spaces etc. to meet their needs. However, our system is remarkably built around you taking care of yourself in all things. Take our health system: it is utterly fractured, complex to navigate, outcomes are random and based on your personal ability to navigate the self-serve. Take two low-income people I know as an example:

Personal A successfully self-navigates the system. While the care is somewhat lower standard even though our system is "universal" he successfully receives free medication, dental work, eye care, general medical care, prescription drugs etc. In other words, he takes what he is given but what he is given is actually more comprehensive in scope than what the average person has available to him.

Personal B can't navigate the system and ignores his problems and his ability to access the system. He got more seriously ill. He did not even have a health card and doesn't seem to be able or willing to get the documentation required to get this piece of ID. As such, his hospital and medical bills and the medication that I guess the doctor gave to him out of pity, are not free. At some point there will be a collection agency going after him for thousands of dollars. Yes, this is real and really happening to someone in our Universal Healthcare system! Why? Because actually we do not have a Public healthcare system, we have a publicly insured private healthcare system that is fractured and self-serve.

Homeless people and people on the edge of homelessness are the kind of people who are often temporarily or permanently unable to navigate something like a publically insured private healthcare system that is fractured and self-serve.
 
TrickyRicky said:
I deal with a lot of people from all walks of life and knowing some in the category we are speaking about here or on the verge of homelessness I would say the saying "pride comes before the fall (or some such)" is very important. I find in my anecdotal experience that people find themselves on the verge of homelessness out of pride and as much as any mental health issues. That is not to say having your pride isn't important, it may be all some people have left in this world and so holding on to it is not something to blame people for; however, that pride can become self-defeating and self-destructive.

Those low income people in my experience who plan and have enough sense to ask for help stay out of homelessness without trouble and there are no lack of agencies, resources, spaces etc. to meet their needs. However, our system is remarkably built around you taking care of yourself in all things. Take our health system: it is utterly fractured, complex to navigate, outcomes are random and based on your personal ability to navigate the self-serve. Take two low-income people I know as an example:

Personal A successfully self-navigates the system. While the care is somewhat lower standard even though our system is "universal" he successfully receives free medication, dental work, eye care, general medical care, prescription drugs etc. In other words, he takes what he is given but what he is given is actually more comprehensive in scope than what the average person has available to him.

Personal B can't navigate the system and ignores his problems and his ability to access the system. He got more seriously ill. He did not even have a health card and doesn't seem to be able or willing to get the documentation required to get this piece of ID. As such, his hospital and medical bills and the medication that I guess the doctor gave to him out of pity, are not free. At some point there will be a collection agency going after him for thousands of dollars. Yes, this is real and really happening to someone in our Universal Healthcare system! Why? Because actually we do not have a Public healthcare system, we have a publicly insured private healthcare system that is fractured and self-serve.

Homeless people and people on the edge of homelessness are the kind of people who are often temporarily or permanently unable to navigate something like a publically insured private healthcare system that is fractured and self-serve.
Click to expand...
interesting. I suppose the fix is to have some sort of ombudsman or single source for help, where a caseworker gets everything done. But is that serving the interests of those providing homeless services?

When you live downtown east like I do, you soon realize there's a huge industrial complex built around the homeless, with hundreds of workers dependent on homeless for careers, relevance and salaries. I sometimes wonder what came first, the homeless industry in downtown east, or the homeless people, since you go to where the services are (I work in Port Credit, and have yet to see a homeless or panhandling person there).

My point... if we consolidate, streamline and ease access to the services that keep people housed, what does that do to those who've built their careers and relevance around the industry?
 
This is the result of your mind assessing the homeless problem in Toronto? Seriously? Next time please post it where it belongs, on Infowars, next to the thread on the conspiracy of oncologists opposing a cure for cancer.
 
Having worked in the nonprofit sector for many years in small organizations whose clients on occasion include the homeless, I can tell you that while it can be a rewarding career, it certainly isn't lucrative nor is it something you build your relevance around. Perhaps try volunteering for one of these organizations and spend some time with both staff and clients in an attempt to better understand the situation.
 
I just returned from Seattle, and the homeless issue there seems as bad as what I saw in San Francisco last October. What is it about the west coast US cities that makes the issue so prevalent? Perhaps it’s a combination of liberal leaning political eschewing enforcement of loitering and vagrancy laws, with US focus on low taxation and small government meaning there’s no building of affordable and supportive housing, and lastly the warmer climate where you can sleep outside yearround.

The Homeless Industrial Complex Problem
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-homeless-industrial-c_b_9092426

But unlike Toronto, Seattle seems to give homelessness strong attention http://www.seattle.gov/homelessness and there’s the beginning of a plan. I can’t find anything on Toronto’s website on how the city will address the issue. Here’s something at least https://www.toronto.ca/home/media-r...act-sheet-why-people-are-homeless-in-toronto/ but it’s just a call for Ottawa and Queens Park to help pay, with no mention of how the city itself is dealing with the matter.
 
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I was in Los Angeles, parts of the downtown look like a refugee camp. Tents with homeless people run for miles.
 
gabe said:
I was in Los Angeles, parts of the downtown look like a refugee camp. Tents with homeless people run for miles.
Click to expand...
Only the climate protects Torontonians from a similar fate, each February shaking the city like a giant Etch A Sketch and clearing the streets.

It's an odd turn in our societal thinking. On one hand we've abandoned the hard nosed enforcement of loitering, drunkenness and vagrancy laws combined with police drunk tanks and mental institutions that maintained our public spaces free of homelessness, replacing it with a supposed compassionate and inclusive acceptance of everyone, abandoning the laws against public nuisance and closing the mental institutions, releasing everyone to the street. But we haven't combined that compassion and inclusive acceptance with any action to deal with the causes of homelessness. Instead we look at the beggars on our roadsides and outside our public spaces as a normal part of city living.
 
I don't think we need two threads on this, and from the same user no less:

I’m tired of the lack of civility downtown

I’ve lived in downtown east since 1998, and I’m finding that nowadays there’s are far more crazy and outright bad folks around me. Today I walked down Berkeley St. from Gerrard to Sumach and I passed five people muttering to themselves, two lashing out at nothing. I’m constantly approached by...
urbantoronto.ca urbantoronto.ca
 
I just wanted to update this thread by saying that person B in my previous post passed away this last week. He died living everyday as a new day free to do what he wanted how he wanted.
 
TrickyRicky said:
I just wanted to update this thread by saying that person B in my previous post passed away this last week. He died living everyday as a new day free to do what he wanted how he wanted.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry to hear of his passing; hopefully, he found life fulfilling while he had it.
 
Building 1,800 supportive housing units a year would end chronic homelessness in Toronto, report says. The city only has funding for half

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Admiral Beez said:
Building 1,800 supportive housing units a year would end chronic homelessness in Toronto, report says. The city only has funding for half

Outline - Read & annotate without distractions

Outline is a free service for reading and annotating news articles. We remove the clutter so you can analyze and comment on the content.
outline.com outline.com
Click to expand...

This is a good article. Its about an an even better report.

The underlying City Report to the next Planning and Housing Ctte Mtg makes very clear that there are real solutions, and its only a matter of political will.

A shelter bed costs $110 per day; a supportive housing unit, $63.

 
Northern Light said:
This is a good article. Its about an an even better report.

The underlying City Report to the next Planning and Housing Ctte Mtg makes very clear that there are real solutions, and its only a matter of political will.

A shelter bed costs $110 per day; a supportive housing unit, $63.

Click to expand...

Though that's operating cost - capital is another matter entirely - especially in an environment where the physical availability of housing isn't there.

AoD
 
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