Wow that was a really depressing read. I did learn several new problems that homeless people can face getting back into the working world that I wasn't aware of (e.g. night shift work isn't compatible with homeless shelters).
These folks are so dependent on both the income from their jobs, and the precarious balance they maintain of income to expenses, that anything that threatens either can quickly lead to cascading and compounding problem that become insurmountable.
It's very much possible to get ahead in America[2], that's why I love this country. It's also very important to recognize that it's very much possible to create a house of cards that can come crashing down, and that to also recognize that if that has happened to someone, it's not because their unwillingness to work hard, or some other perceived flaw of their character.
As an aside, this is one of my favorite moments in US politics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iGmY...
[1] http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/04/09/398576196/...
[2] I'm aware of the international readership of HN. However as an American, I can only speak to the opportunities I've experienced.
My guess is that it cost Amazon more money (opportunity cost had they hired a more fit individual) and that they were actually looking for cheap PR not cheap labor.
However Amazon doesn't give a fuck about their minimum-wage employees anywhere, especially in their warehouses.
Yes, amazon obviously benefits from having a larger labor pool to chose from when hiring the poor, but why is this a bad thing?
If you had the opportunity to go make Warren Buffett an extra $1 Billion, but you'd only get a 1% cut of it, would you say that's a bad deal? I would hope not, because 1% of $1,000,000,000 is still $10 Million. You'd have to be either crazy or filthy rich already to turn that down just because it'd make a wealthy person wealthier.
A seasonal amazon warehouse job might not be the most luxurious, but it still has an unusually low barrier to entry, and is likely to be sustainable for amazon to provide it regularly. Even most of the wealthiest billionaires had to start out by doing annoying grunt-work at some point in their careers.
yet the services are abysmal!
One of the things I've long thought would be three areas to address homelessness;
1. create "hygiene trucks" - they are semi trailers that are mobile that would provide showers, bathrooms, 'scrubs' style basic clothing.
2. container based micro housing, divide the containers into ~3 rooms.
3. "standard pantry" -- give them a basic standard pantry which has the ingredients or basic meals (a step up from MREs)
4. basic min-wage jobs with initiatives like this with Amazon where the co gets a tax break - but must provide basic skills like cleaning, organizing etc.
Then -- FOCUS ON MENTAL HEALTH
Mental health degenerates REALLY fast for those that dont have the above basics.
NO PETS.
How is this better than a permanent facility? It's got to be way more expensive to build this into a truck.
> 2. container based micro housing, divide the containers into ~3 rooms.
Containers are not an affordable way to build housing. Shipping containers converted into housing is a fetish for rich people with architects.
> FOCUS ON MENTAL HEALTH
Yep. Mental health problems are highly correlated with homelessness. Everything from depression to schizophrenia to substance abuse. Often multiple issues combined.
> NO PETS.
This eliminates a huge number of homeless. Many homeless desperately cling to their pets because they have no one else.
A fair amount of people wouldn't want a homeless shelter or washroom next to their house, but a mobile truck could have the same benefit while placating the NIMBYs.
There is a startup in SF doing exactly this. I've seen their trucks around the Tenderloin. http://lavamae.org/
[replying to dpark's child comment here] How is this better than a permanent facility? It's got to be way more expensive to build this into a truck.
One reason is that the public bathrooms around the Tenderloin/Civic Center are just constantly fucked up with needles stuck in the drains and other issues, requiring constant maintenance. Most of the time I walk by one it's closed or actively being worked on. With the truck they can probably manage and control it a lot better.
I'd go further, especially in the case of a company scaling in the billions:...provide basic housing near order processing centers, or any other place where unskilled labor is needed, or semi-skilled labor can be offered training...with whatever amenities are necessary for employees to be productive--transportation and a reliable phone are huge deals for a homeless person...
It's not enough to say "I'll hire the homeless, give them a chance" just to make the news...it's much better to say "I'm committed to doing whatever it really takes to put someone back on their feet, provided they are willing to work "
If that's the price of admission, Amazon will probably decide it's not worth the trouble and abandon the project, and the homeless people you're concerned about will have even fewer opportunities.
If you are in a position to help others and you do not that says something very profound about you...effective benevolence is hard work...always has been...
People like respect and affection much more than they like food and heat.
On a really good day everyone gets fed, clothed, bathed and has a climate-controlled place to spend the night...most of the time its a stiff challenge to provide those basics..the wherewithal required to offer extras like counseling, job coaching, or to accommodate individual patron's schedules (coming and going--a security issue) is just not there the majority of the time...
What do you do about the 15 that you left on the street in the middle of winter, and it's -40 out? Will they get by until you're ready for them?
What other prioritization will you be doing? Maybe you'll also prioritize the most hireable candidates to the top of the list to be re-groomed for the workforce. What about those that find themselves in a less hireable state? How far down the list are they, and how long do they have to wait to be helped?
What about the people that are homeless due to untreated mental health conditions? Do you just ignore them for now? Are they the "class" of homeless that gets helped last?
Head off to G+ and look up Andreas Schou. He used to run a homeless shelter in Boise, Idaho. Kind of fell into the job, previous boss was incompetent. Or skimming. Or something else. But he was out and Andreas, just another volunteer, was in.
Some days he could help out. Some he couldn't. Sometimes he kept his cool. Sometimes he didn't. I'll try to find the article.
Here: https://plus.google.com/+AndreasSchou/posts/B9iRsq2kVeL
Andreas works for Google now. Writes some amazingly fucking good shit on G+ as well.
If not, then help a number you can actually help. Apply a selection process: triage, sortition, intuition. Whatever.
Someone's going to get helped, someone's not.
If you've got additional bandwidth, make loudly known that there are more people who need help, and that others should step forward.
It's rather like emergency first-responder practices. First ensure you're safe yourself. Then save who you can. Avoid wasting time on helpless cases, or those who can survive without help. Recruit others.
Consider what the jealous groupies sing about Captain Hammer's girlfriend in Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog:
So they say he saved her life
They say she works with the homeless, and doesn't eat meat
We have a problem with her!
Alternatively, how hard would it be for an employer to provide barracks, or other housing options for seasonal employees?
Are they not best positioned, and inclined to help?
> most homeless shelters close during the day and have strict curfews that don’t allow people to arrive in the night
I thought homeless shelters had some sort of semi-permanent living arrangement. Does this mean that they essentially drive everyone out during the day? Otherwise, how does it affect work on a night shift?
Yes. Many (most?) homeless shelters are like this. Semi-permanent housing is less common, and it's very difficult to get into due to the limited number of beds. Most semi-permanent housing also has curfew, and might still interfere with night shift work.
But this is a tiny fraction of the total quantity of shelter beds - most are mattresses that are laid out on a gymnasium floor at 8pm (first come first served, so yes the lines form much earlier), then collected and stacked at 7am the next morning when everyone is given a quick breakfast and turfed out onto the street.