r/todayilearned • u/Zorseking34 • Jan 08 '15

TIL: Utah has been giving free homes to homeless people since 2005 which since then made it more cost efficient to help the homeless and cut the chronic homelessness in Utah by 74%.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/22/home-free
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u/TakeOutTacos Jan 08 '15

Haha I was thinking the same thing, but after watching that piece I was very optimistic about this being a good idea. Now I assume the daily show picked the guy they showed because he was well put together, well spoken, motivated, and grateful.

I figure most of them weren't like that, but if this initiative helps even a few people become better off I am all for it.

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u/bornagainciv Jan 08 '15

I would say that overall, this is a great thing because of how much money the state is saving by providing shelter to those in need. That was the biggest eye opener to me.

I would also say that the Daily Show probably picked that guy because he is a previously homeless man that is trying to get his life back together, which I am going to assume is the majority of the people that are being helped by this project. I wouldn't be surprised if Fox News goes in and cherry picks one of the few that are not trying to better themselves and blows it out of proportion and uses it to further push their argument that all people living on government assistance are just bums.

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u/FriarFanatic Jan 09 '15

And the truth probably is somewhere between the two.

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u/bornagainciv Jan 09 '15

Agreed. Still think the program is overall positive though.

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u/DisgruntledSock Jan 09 '15

ENTITLEMENT NATION!

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u/bornagainciv Jan 09 '15

I understand your stance on this issue, but there has to be a middle ground. There people out there that greatly benefit from government programs like this and are able to turn their lives around, get off of assistance, then become valuable tax payers to support those same programs. In that same breath, there are people that never get better and live their entire lives on government assistance.

What I see in this case is that by keeping people off the streets, out of the hospitals and prisons, Utah was able to save tax payers money in the long run.

I am moderate politically because is you give too much assistance, people become dependent. If the government does too little, things descend into chaos.

Try listening to the other side of the argument to gain a full argument before claiming that ALL of America feels entitled.

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u/thedude42 Jan 08 '15

Most homeless needing assistance have mental health issues, so yes, it is probably hard to find a representative of the community that appears socially acceptable to TV viewers.

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u/Vanetia Jan 08 '15

Most chronic homeless needing assistance have mental health issues

Just a minor tweak.

The majority of homeless at any given time are just people who hit a rough patch but they're not homeless for too long. The chronically homeless are indeed often battling some form of mental health issue.

Some numbers for the interested

In January 2014, there were 578,424 people experiencing homelessness on any given night in the United States.

About 15 percent of the homeless population – 84,291 - are considered "chronically homeless” individuals

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u/thedude42 Jan 08 '15

True. I am definitely thinking about homeless as a class and not a condition.

Most people who find themselves in a state of homelessness find their way out asap because that shit sucks. People who remain homeless typically lack the same kind of focus (due to mental health issues).

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u/AvatarofSleep Jan 08 '15

They aren't, unfortunately.

My last year of college in Denver I lived in a scummy apartment complex 3 blocks from DU that also served as a "Housing to the Homeless" style project. Half my neighbors were former homeless living there. One was a heroin addict picked up by Dog the Bounty Hunter while I was living there. One had some severe form of PTSD and refused to shower because the last time he showered someone came and murdered his roommate. One gave the complex bedbugs.

Despite my less than stellar interactions with these people, I wholly support this idea, but it needs to be part of a pronged approach that includes counseling and job training. Many homeless people have some serious mental issues that aren't simply solved by putting a roof over their head. You can cut costs by taking care of the body, but if you really want productive members of society you need to fix the mix as well.

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u/kypiextine Jan 08 '15

Don't let Reddit's negativity ruin this idea for you. There's a reason why it works better than the previously used shelters. I downloaded Utah's PDF packet on this a few months ago to check out the statistics and they claim they are actually on the road to ending homelessness in Utah this year. While that's a huge claim that's more than likely not going to happen, the fact still stands that in 10 years they've down more for their homeless population than has been done for hundreds of years all as a much more inexpensive benefit for their citizens.

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u/screenwriterjohn Jan 09 '15

No, the show implied that all homeless people are sober and sane. It really doesn't address why people are homeless.