Homeless People Don’t Need an App, They Need a Fucking House | Hacker News Reader

Homeless People Don’t Need an App, They Need a Fucking House

jacobinmag.com

45 pointsjamesknelson19 comments

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> The founder of WeCount, a tech entrepreneur who has sold multiple companies to Google, raves to the press about the “huge emotional ROI” (return on investment) donors get from participating.

It sounds like these apps aren't designed to help the homeless in the first place. They're designed to help people with spare change feel a little better about themselves.

This seems even worse than trying to make a difference to the housing situation and failing. Along with the idea of requiring homeless people to wear a beacon around their neck to pick up scraps from the wealthy, it sounds dehumanizing. Almost like the romans and their coliseum?

I'd love to hear the perspective of any people who've used these apps from the receiving end though. Maybe it's not as bad as it sounds.

> Users can then read the profile of the beacon-wearer, and donate money if they’re so moved. Donations can be redeemed at select stores and restaurants. They cannot be used to buy alcohol. The beacon-wearer must check in monthly at a participating nonprofit, or else their beacon is disabled.

Soon there will be multiple agencies that helps homeless individuals build the most marketable profile and increase "Donation conversions".

I don't know much about homelessness and I don't have a solution to the problem but this whole process of only being able to redeem donations at selected locations feels inhuman. We can't trust the homeless so we'll donate this amount but we say what you can use it for because we know better.

Again, I admit my naivety but I can't help feeling there's something fundamentally wrong with this approach.

There's some positive results coming out of Helsinki:

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jun/03/its-a-miracle...

Worth exploring.

To play devil's advocate here, why don't you think we do in fact know better? They're homeless as a result of their life choices and we're in a position where we could help them as a result of choices we made in our lives. It may not be their fault, but do you think in their current state they can make the most rational, logical choices? Would it be better for us to enable these people's bad habits/mental illness and let them destroy themselves further with alcohol and/or other drugs? If we are going to make the case that we shouldn't blame them for their state of being, and that they're victims, then we need to accept that a lot of them need help from themselves. If on the other hand you want to respect their free will and self-determination or whatever, then hey, they made their bed. I'm certainly not going to fund their lifestyles if they have agency and self-determination and this is what we get.

> They're homeless as a result of their life choices

that's just false. the same as people in privileged circumstances claiming to have gotten to where they are due to their 'hard work'

Most people's ideas of how poverty works and how to get out of it are wrong.

https://www.npr.org/2017/03/20/520587241/the-scarcity-trap-w...

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/magic-bureaucrat-rive...

Homeless people need a LOT more than a house. Every single one has their own story and circumstances. From what I have read about people who have made their way out of homelessness at my local Rescue Mission, it was a multistep, and long, road to get back to "normal". One man spent years at the Mission. Just giving them a house would not have saved them.

Indeed. Without a education your new found asset will likely only lead to worse destruction, much like the process of how winning the lottery bankrupts most winners.

I 100% (100,000%!) agree that we need to resolve our housing supply issues. It's a major contributing factor to homelessness.

The rest, I mostly disagree.

The primary reason for the limitations on after donation use is because that's how donations generally work. It isn't a homeless thing.

People will not give you money or other assets if you don't first tell them what will be done with it. If you don't give them some control, most people won't give you anything at all.

A lot of homeless people have complex issues. Yes, helping them really is more complicated than "just give them a house!"

Some homeless need homes, others need medical care, drug rehab, jobs or education

Some just need a second chance and a hand to be able to climb out of the hole they’re in

Others won’t be able to ever help themselves

Saying they “need homes” because they’re “home less” sounds so naive

Edit:

Everyone needs shelter and I hope a comprehensive solution could be implemented where anyone in need could find the type of shelter that is most helpful

Give a bunch of homeless people homes they don’t work for, and they will trash them in short order. People don’t respect things they don’t work for. I suggest the author give up their house and show us how it goes! Instead of telling others how they want to take their money from them (that they worked for) to fund crazy liberal schemes.

>And that’s because it requires taxing the rich and redistributing our society’s wealth.

The article is right. But of course... I work hard so that I can pay for my home. The homeless should, too. His proposal is theft through tax.

"The unspoken notion is that homeless people need help, but they also need to get their acts together."

I'm glad the author pointed this out. Our lame Puritanical values are far-reaching.

They don't need a house. They have shelters and its known many if not most choose not to use them. So its their own fault.

Its well known in Los Angeles where we keep burning taxpayer money and the government officials keep making their friends rich by building more shelters that aren't used. So its just a waste until we make it a crime for them to sleep on the street and loiter and harass people if there are shelters available. They just cause trouble and commit crimes, that's what they do best.

So much [citation needed] here.

While I can't speak to Los Angeles specifically, every shelter I've ever been to in the last ten years has been overwhelmed with more people than they can house.

> its known

Right...

Shelters are like ghettos. You can not get out of a homeless situation by being in a community of people with no clear vision out of which many have serious drug, alcohol and crime problems.

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