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Comment by Mandatum | Hacker News Reader

You obviously have never lived with unstable people who often live just above the poverty line. There’s a reason why share houses and shelters don’t work.

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We live just barely above that line, and recently got $600/mo of food stamps revoked, which did an order of magnitude more harm than the pitiful raise that got us there.

Means testing is a nightmare. Sorry to hear about your situation.

The abrupt cutoff for benefits is one of the most inept things the government has ever done. A reduction in benefits should always be less than the increase in income.

I should qualify for my own benefits, theoretically. I'm autistic and bed-ridden, but don't get any of those benefits, because they want me to provide evidence of an active, ongoing job search, as well as previous rejections that show attempts to get a job.

I don't want to do that. I am not someone who needs to tire themself out working for the rest of their life. Yet that is what I would need to do in order to qualify for any support.

I have burnt out of at least 2 jobs already because of severe ADHD and this is just totally soul-sucking and terrible.

I have diagnoses of ASD and ADHD. They know I have both. Soon they'll know I also have DID. Maybe at some point they'll realize how much I need the help.

Anyway, sorry for veering off-topic.

I totally grant you that $1000 doesn't solve long term homelessness driven by drug addiction and mental illness. That group likely wouldn't spend the money on housing anyway.

But it does offer a viable solution for transient homelessness for working poor who might have lost a job, become disabled, been evicted, etc..

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