Sometimes I find myself wondering what things have fundamentally changed, that have contributed to the huge numbers of homeless people we have now — other than the obvious, which is of course the obscene and unconscionable increase in the price of buying or renting a place. What I mean is, there have always been alcoholics and drug addicts; there have always been those with mental health issues; and, frankly, a few who just can't do the 9 to 5 thing. (no shame in that. I'm kinda that way myself.) But in the past, those folks wouldn't necessarily be on the street. Why is that?
I know one big reason is that we closed many institutions caring for the mentally ill. A lot of them were hell holes, yes. But at the same time, I think the puritan notion of everybody as being “curable” is a problem. There are people who will never get better, people who will never get a job, and people who will never get clean. Are they all supposed to just die?
I think the housing crisis has affected this not just directly, but indirectly as well. When I was a young adult, a lot of people who would be homeless now, back then had friends or relatives who had a spare room. Nobody has a spare room anymore. You can't afford to have a roommate who doesn't kick in for rent. Back then it wasn't life-or-death. Also, it seems like people's parents didn't all demand rent from their kids if they had to come back home.
Bear in mind that the earth's population has doubled or maybe tripled since I was born. That's a lot more competition for jobs and apartments, even though they've increased too.
I guess I was just wondering if we simply provided people with homes, what percentage would fuck it up; and why the fuckups didn't necessarily end up on the street in the past. (again, no judgement. I'm a bit of a fuckup too) It seems like if we tried to do that now, it couldn't work because we would expect them all to get jobs that would pay the rent, and it's super hard to find one of those anymore.
It feels like there's no way out for any of us.