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Comment by mojomark | Hacker News Reader

Homelessness induced by mental health challenges. I know this isn't exactly what you were asking, but this is an area in which creating engineering solutions can go a long way. As suggested - think geographically local. Improvements in the way our society handles these issues, proven to work on a local scale, can be adapted and replicated globally.

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I'd go further and slightly more abstract by focusing on countering loneliness and/or on fostering community. I strongly suspect that technological and societal developments have increased loneliness in a worrying degree. At least based on my research and personal experience homelessness is very often a 'symptom' of loneliness, or lack of a tribe/community. I also believe that mental health or lack thereof is, sadly, often a symptom of waning communal life. Even more specifically, high-functioning autism might well be, in part, a symptom of a less 'cohesive' society.

Theory aside, I think our work as programmers has significantly changed the way society communicates and interacts. For better and worse. Would it not make sense that we continue this work, but more towards solving the issues we perceive, whether self-created or not?

I propose programmers spend more time talking to friends about challenges in their life that might be 'programmed' away, and less time on ads, tracking, manager checklist #321, or anything fundamentally centered around Business, because, let's be fair, on the whole, at least in 'the west', we as programmers have it incredibly good, so we can afford to be ideological.

That's solved in every industrialized country besides America. It's an issue of political will. I think it's a great thing to work on, and desperately needed in the US, but it's not a question of how to implement it but rather the political change to implement it.

Edit: it's not even, strictly speaking, nation-wide. Idaho for example, does a great job on this. California had most of its mental health facilities shut down during the 1960's when Reagan was Governor to save costs.

How? Is there a simple solution that would work in the U.S. as well? Most people I've heard that are reasonably informed about it here invariably end up with, "It's complicated, because it's a combination of issues spanning mental health, law enforcement, drug policy, etc..."

>>That's solved in every industrialized country besides America.

Whoa. That's an interesting unsubstantiated statistic. A quick (albeit unnecessary) Google search begs to differ: https://homelessworldcup.org/homelessness-statistics/

It's really not. First, I said industrialized. I know that homelessness is high in some poorer countries. I'm talking about the wealthy countries such as most EU countries.

Switzerland, for example, doesn't remotely have this problem.

I can only assume you haven't spent a lot of time in the EU... Switzerland (which is not in the EU) is the only European country I've been to that does not have a very visible population of homeless people.

20 years in Europe. I've never never never never tripped over crazy homeless. It's all I do in Berkeley and SF.

It's not a small, nuanced difference but literally night and day. Have you really seen tents downtown in any city in Europe?

I'm American but most Europeans I know struggle with living in the Bay Area because it's such a shock for them.

SF is also an extreme example of homeless problems because of various factors (weather, systems which attract homeless, etc).

There's a homeless problem in other cities, but we don't have tents downtown.

I was in LA recently and there was an entire tent city in the heart of downtown Orange County.

The link below lists around 30 US cities with tent cities downtown.

Canada has also had this problem.

http://tentcity.wikidot.com/list-of-tent-cities

I have in Japan, I have seen drunks at 10am arguing and throwing shit at each other. It's not a US only problem.

Edit: autocorrect -.-

The parent of my comment was claiming that it is a solved problem everywhere outside of the US. My claim is simply that it is far from solved, and if someone thinks homelessness is "solved" in the EU, I can only assume they haven't been there.

You're saying it's worse in SF/Berkeley, and no doubt it is. But it's not "solved" in the EU.

That was me. I said, "Homelessness induced by mental health challenges" was solved in every other OECD country -- and it's true. In those countries there are programs to make sure people with significant mental health issues, especially those which would lead to homelessness, are placed in special care.

I've spent 20 years living in various countries in Europe. I stand by my statement.

I can only assume you haven't spent a lot of time in at least one of the following:

- The EU

- San Francisco or Oakland

I know from being involved with a Washington state based NGO That there are entire unincorporated Spanish speaking villages in Washington. Even in places like Germany and Japan, you have itinerants. I highly doubt any country has a zero homeless population. That said, there is a big difference between such people who are largely self sufficient and stay out of the public eye, and those that don't. The latter are identified by society as a problem.

It's really not an issue of visibility.

European countries tend to spend less of their money on military and more on social programs so that it's both harder to become homeless in the first place and, if it happens, there are programs to help you.

They do. But I would like to see homeless populations as a percentage of the whole population before making a judgement. I would still expect the US to have a larger percentage but not that much higher. I was in Denmark/Germany/Netherlands/France/Greece this year and saw a good amount of homeless -- though they've been dealing with a migrant crisis unlike the U.S. has experienced.

Many commenters here are extrapolating on their experiences in SF/Oakland/LA/Seattle/Portland and thinking the rest of the US has a commensurate homeless population. Spoiler: they don't.

though they've been dealing with a migrant crisis unlike the U.S. has experienced.

There are many parallels between the current migration crisis and the Irish potato famine, though I'm not sure how they compare in scale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHr9GRgRw_M

Australia has the same issue. Unless you can argue Australia isn't a 1st world country.

Did you read the full comment? Australia, I'm guessing, is more similar to Idaho than California.

I commented before the edit, but even after the edit I don't agree. (As someone who volunteered assisting mentialy handicapped homeless for 3 years).

Homeless is increasing fast in Australia, largely a consequence of property speculation. It's also increasing in every European country except Finland (https://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2016/sep/14/less...).

Switzerland is also not in the EU and is completely different from all the other countries. It's the only place in Europe where engineers can earn Bay Area salaries.

You are a recruiter, and that's a recruitment link.

Plus suicide, disability, etc.

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