First you have to recognize that not all homeless people need to be that way. There are many that choose it—whether it’s laziness or dependency, it’s by their choice. Then you have to look at why people became homeless. Most times these reasons are out of their control. And then you can start helping them fix their issues.

There are enough empty buildings in the US for every homeless person to have their own I once read. I wonder if that is still true?

Affordable housing in a nutshell.

We have a housing system and banking system that creates property bubbles which price most folk out of buying. Low interest rates also mean investors are buying property to get a decent return on their money.This also further pushes up property prices and rentals go up too.So its a double whammy on those living hand to mouth. Doesn't then take much to tip you over the edge into homlessness.

I belong to a group called Positive Money and we are campaigning to get the banking and money creation systems in the western economies reformed. Contrary to popular belief,the state can easily produce money to pay for health,housing or whatever we as society deem necessary,currently banks create 97 % of all our money and this then goes on property loans and stock/shares markets.(80 % of all bank investments) Not enough money is getting to where it needs to be,it is circulating financial and property markets making a few very rich and the rest struggling to get by.We are seeing huge leaps in inequality

For more info see here

[positivemoney.org]

Root causes are bad divorces, PTSD veterans, addiction to drugs/and/or alcohol and abused runaways. Social services needs to improve in all these categories. Social programs need to be funded contrary to herr trump's administration.

A.A.o.A. (Atheist Alliance of America) does a lot of work with the homeless , ask them about their progress with the subject . Some people choose to be homeless , they do not want responsibility with their own home , or a landowner to answer to . Others are addicted to drugs , & no other way is more affordable , or more reliable to get drugs . It's still sad though

[goodreads.com] This book was so enlightening, how laws and rules are created to help keep poor people poor and sometimes homeless. Did you know in certain zip codes if you are a renter and call 911 the police will complain to your landlord, and by complain I mean they will strongly suggest that the landlord evict you using nuisance laws. The poor pay a greater portion of their income on rent than the general population. Most marginal housing rents are exorbitant for what you are getting.

As to what to do, there are many possible solutions. One is tiny house communities. Provide small efficient homes to the less able community. That will help them find some stability to move up. Mental health treatment needs to be unstigmatized and treatments need to be more available. And substance abuse also needs to be unstigmatized. Treat the underlying problems, but you need stability of housing to do this.

I don't know all the answers, but I know the US has the resources to make a huge dent in the homeless issue, if only that is where our resources were directed instead of giving more money to the already rich.

I remember in business class the teacher saying that 5% of Americans were unemployable. Looking around, I can see this. So my question is this; If 5% of Americans do not fit into our system of capitalism, socialism or whatever, does that leave them still Americans? Obviously, yes. If we can accept that a certain amount of our population will never produce in a matter that the rest do, what is to done about them? We can either stigmatize them of find a place for them, hell, looking through history there are some instances where the 5% were right and the rest wrong. Maybe they have something to teach us. In any case the least we could do is feed and house them, we certainly have the resources.

Some people get comfortable on doing what they want to and at times are things we don't understand. Not everyone homeless is because they don't have a choice. Mental issue... somehow always. There are even times that some homeless receive a check on a relative house. In other words there are different levels of homeless. My experience in Las Vegas... is the only place were all homeless have a suitcase. No plastic bags and sacks in Vegas... suitcases, ready to leave I guess. Or just got there. Different levels.

MonetarIsm. ... ContrIved under employment
.... BuIld homes not churches

It costs a city less to provide a person with an apartment and food stamps than it does for that city to provide services to a homeless person on the street.
The solution is housing vouchers and food stamps.

there are too many humans

My thoughts are to provide Motel 6 style housing. A clean room, with a door lock, shower, bed, and clean clothes. Add to that security, cafeteria, local phone, address, doctor, and medical supplies, and it would give them a chance to find work, and get on their feet again.

I see regulation as a big part of the problem. Safety standards have their place but red tape is over done. Here to create housing you have to pay for enormous infrastructure. I had to build a small bridge and 2 klms of 2 lane bitumen road up the side of a mountain once because I wanted to subdivide some land. If society accepted people are poor, and would let them try and house them selves, make some cheap land available let people build for themselves with safe but reasonable standards.

I don't have answers. I think part of it is that our society makes it much more expensive to be poor. It takes just one late payment to get caught in a vicious cycle of debt that can lead to homelessness. The system is set up to punish falling behind with increasing the debt load and decreasing the time table in which to repay it. It's insanity, and it really begins with greed, specifically corporate greed, as so many services are provided by corporations. And since corporations basically feed politicians money (in one way or another, skirting laws however they may through loopholes etc.), The politicians keep writing and that just further those corporate interests.

What I don't understand is this is how corporations expect that they can keep this up in perpetuity. Eventually such a system will collapse, either when (mostly) everyone is behind and unable to pay (blood, turnip), or when there's no one left to buy their services. Sooner or later, something will give. That's going to be a rough time for all of us.

One if my daughters is mentally ill. I would love for her to get disability but she can't get through the process. I've done all I can but she needs to get more diagnosis' from more doctors. I've taken her to loads of doctors but they treat for just anything else, we leave without a diagnosis. I'm like, Sure, she has a piece of paper that says birth control Rx but she can't fill it and couldn't take pills routinely if she had them. At 25 years old and several babies down the line and gone, she gets arrested a lot and run out of town. Last week she called from Wichita KS. She said she's staying with a new guy she met, he has serious mental issues. ... She actually mooches off people who can draw the disability payment. She gets the boot every few days. It's always a big drama in the projects when someone has the power to kick someone lower out. That's her world. I've done all I can and the local cops don't want her here. I didn't even have enough $ to bail her out last time. 7 weeks in county jail. bummer.

I used to think upon this concept long and hard. Once I thought well maybe the restaurants who throw out their food could feed them. Someone told me it was against the health regulations. When one does not have anything to eat, health regulations hardly seem important. It's better than digging through the garbage for it which is what happens. Oh well, no one is listening anymore. The poor people.