Solution to housing the homeless in Central Texas

[grampaTom]

The homeless are 'anti-citizens'. Citizens want clean neighborhoods, low crime and law&order.
The homeless litter, commit crimes and generate disorder.

Some may be in need of mental care but many are just drug abusers who have exhausted their options for employment and have alienated friends and family.

There is a small park on the lake near me where people used to go launch their boats and kayaks, fished, had picnics and played with their kids. The homeless pitched tents and pulled in ancient junked out RV's to live in.

They use a hole in the ground for a toilet and bathe in the lake. As soon as law enforcement runs them out another group moves in.

[Igor Blevin]

Originally Posted by foodyum

Homeless families with children play just as nice as families that are not homeless. Although best you not go over to the shelter for the playdates. Honestly the families that have homes have better toys and snacks.

Applicable generalizations always have exceptions. The vast majority of homeless are adults. I see stats that 100,000 of the 550,000 permanently homeless are children, but I can never find a breakdown for age. How many are 15 year old runaways living on the street?

That is terrible and I wouldn't wish that on any teenager, but you still have many of them with the same issue -- drug addiction and mental illness. It is not as if you have 100,000 kindergarten children living on the streets. There are some and that is tragic and those families should be priority #1, but it still comes down to Mom being a drug addict or some such, and the cities still not making drug treatment and mental health treatment priority, instead of handing out tents and needles.

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by Igor Blevin

Applicable generalizations always have exceptions. The vast majority of homeless are adults. I see stats that 100,000 of the 550,000 permanently homeless are children, but I can never find a breakdown for age. How many are 15 year old runaways living on the street?

That is terrible and I wouldn't wish that on any teenager, but you still have many of them with the same issue -- drug addiction and mental illness. It is not as if you have 100,000 kindergarten children living on the streets. There are some and that is tragic and those families should be priority #1, but it still comes down to Mom being a drug addict or some such, and the cities still not making drug treatment and mental health treatment priority, instead of handing out tents and needles.

Per Austin’s Point in time census taken in early 2021:

Almost 70% of the homeless population in Austin are people who are living with a disability. Fifty-one percent are chronically homeless, 41% are domestic violence survivors and 34% of the population are families with children.

https://www.kvue.com/amp/article/new...2-0eea6e1c52cc

[ParaguaneroSwag]

I sure hope not!

[cheeva]

It's occurred to me recently that our goal of "housing first" is unrealistic due to our inability to create affordable housing in Austin due to the cost of land and construction materials. Average cost of new builds are reaching aroudn 500-600K. We've spent $400 Million so far, and we still have unhoused individuals on our sidewalks.

Novel idea (and bear with me here), what if the homeless were to live in less expensive areas, where single-family houses can be bought for less than $100,000?


Thoughts?

[supfromthesite]

Most of them are drug addicts. Even if you exported them to a small town in south Texas where you can get a nice house for less than $100k they will still be homeless.

You want to fix the homeless problem? Stop giving them money.

[verybadgnome]

Sanctioned campsites with all of the standard amenities would be a great start by council failed at finding a suitable location last year due to the long lists of requirements (that many single family areas don't meet).

If not that maybe the city should buy land in the county and put in mobile homes where someone could stay for 1-6 months to get back on their feet.

The problem with both of these scenarios is if the living conditions are inadequate then the homeless won't want to move there and if it is too nice then they will never want to leave. If the latter then word will get out that Austin has free housing and more will be drawn to our city.

This one might sound crazy but I don't see why the city could not have its own voluntary mental institution for those with incurable schizophrenia, bipolar, depression, PTSD, etc. There would be screening to make sure they actually have a disorder. This at least would get a class of people incapable of caring for themselves off the street.