Comment on What are some good uses the new ballroom can have after the Trump regime is over?
natecox@programming.dev 1 day agoFun fact: there are more vacant houses in the US than there are homeless people. We literally have an empty, unused house for every single homeless person right now.
I didn’t know that, but I do know that homelessness isn’t just a housing problem. A huge number of cases are more mental health related: E.g. even if the person had money they wouldn’t be able to live in a stable home. I would also consider drug addiction to be a mental health issue here by the way which would be a significant percentage of the homeless too.
And that is of course heavily associated with the lack of affordable mental healthcare in the US :( And drug addiction care.
There have been repeated studies and examples where homeless people have simply been giving a house and basic living wage, with no qualifiers on who can receive it based on mental health or drug use. Every time this is done people thrive and pull their lives back together.
It absolutely is, at its core, a housing problem. Provide basic humanitarian safety and stability and people can pull themselves out of the darkness just fine.
Are the houses where the homeless people are?
Oh I'm aware! Sheltering in the WH may speed up housing!
kbobabob@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Yeah, but that would crash the airbnb market. Please remember to think of the shareholders
relativestranger@feddit.nl 1 day ago
fuck airbnb. rents have tripled here with so many apartments and homes taken off the market and turned into untaxed and unlicensed hotel rooms.