For context re the California reference
Added for context if people don't know about this.
A state audit has found that California spent $24 billion to tackle homelessness over a five year period but didn't consistently track the outcomes or effectiveness of its programs.
www.cbsnews.com
I haven't posted news links and hope it is alright. If not please remove and I will add a google search suggestion instead.
You are so right about this
@anthony. The ONLY good thing about being homeless for so long was that it gave me a real look at what was happening with thes supposed humanitarian non profit agencies. I sat on boards (while homless), participated in studies, got political to an extent, did a lot of lived experience stuff to help the higher ups know what was happening.
My wake up moment was when I was at a meeting being paid pittance for 'a lived experience perspective' where I and others were asked questions. How do we improve this situation? I won't go into detail but there was one point I brought up and the response shocked me. 'Why are there no id clinics in the area. The area I was referring to was highly populated and expanded across 10 bustling cities. The response? We can't afford it.....
People without ID can't get jobs. They can't get housing. They can't get anything. And it is extremely difficult for a person who is homeless to keep their ID as it is a big target for theft. My brain went into defrag mode - put this little factoid together with many of my past experiences and Ifinally figured it out. THEY DON'T WANT US HOUSED.
Ply homeless with 'safe supply' and you can legitmatly convince the masses that the homeless are a bunch of addicted bums.
I worked at a non profit meant to support the homeless. They encouraged harm reduction, safe supply, and we had deaths all over the place. Our staff were all trained in Narcan application and there were days where we rescued 10 or more in a day.
We also had an extremely successful program that was extensive and gave opportunity to work at an internship. It changed lives. I taught it. It was sponsored by the United Way. I begged them - we had such a high success rate - please I said, let me teach people how to run this course and let's get it into more homeless shelters and get this going. They absolutely wouldn't.
Why would these supposed humanitarian agencies refuse access to ID, refuse access to a program that has a 90% success rate it getting people WHO HAVE NEVER WORKED BEFORE back to work - yes indiscriminately fund free drugs if they wanted to solve the homelessness crisis?
They wouldn't. And that experience changed my entire outlook on what the government's role actually is.
