The reasons often offered include a moderate climate, the availability of generous welfare benefits, mental health and drug abuse. However, a lengthy and meticulously sourced article in the current issue of Atlantic magazine demolishes all of those supposed causes.
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Horseshit. I did advocacy work for the homeless about 20 years ago and the reasons for California's homeless problems are exactly for the reasons in the second paragraph.
The simple fact of the matter is, they can build all the housing they want but unless it's provided at no cost to the homeless, California is still going to have a homelessness problem.
I put every spare moment I had trying to get people off the streets. I helped Vets deal with the VA system, I got people into rehab, I hunted down jobs and housing. For all of mine and my ex-wife's efforts, we got exactly 2 people off the streets, and I don't even know if that was long term.
Fuck, we had a hard enough time just getting people to go into transitional housing, you know, group homes and shit like that. They were so used to being homeless and doing whatever they wanted that they fought going into a structured environment.
I remember one young healthy guy who was bitching and moaning about being homeless, so I went to the manager of the local Popeye's who had helped in the past by hiring ex-cons and people fresh out of rehab, and he agreed to hire him.
It was a minimum wage job, but it was still a job. It was a starting step to get back into the work force - work there for 6 months to reestablish a work history, then move on up to something better that paid more.
I went back to Art and told him he had the job, all he had to do was fill out an application and show up for an interview, strictly a formality. Art looked me in the eye and said that he wasn't working a fast food job because it was 'beneath his dignity'.
I looked him back in the eye and told him to get the fuck out of my office. He never got a bit of help from us after that.
