Helping chronically homeless persons

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ArlissWhiteside
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Helping chronically homeless persons

Post by ArlissWhiteside »

I have suggested ethical belief 00134: We should help a chronically homeless person by first providing permanent and supportive housing. A chronically homeless person is one who has been continuously homeless for a year or more, or intermittently homeless for three years or more (HUD definition.)

This approach has been demonstrated to be best in the United States, being both extremely effective and costing less than letting persons remain chronically homeless. Please see:
"Room for Improvement," Mother Jones (magazine,) March-April 2015, pp 30-39
http://www.housingfirstcharmeck.org/faq/ question 2
http://www.urbanministrycenter.org/help ... -homeless/

HUD (the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development) also says a chronically homeless person must have some (physical or mental) disability. However, essentially every person who has been continuously homeless for a year or more, or intermittently homeless for three years or more, has such a disability, although it may not have been diagnosed yet.

Research shows that while the chronically homeless make-up only about 10% of the overall homeless population, they utilize 50% of the homeless resources. The situational homeless make-up about 90% of the homeless, usually due to one problem, and are homeless for about two months on average.

wvanfleet
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Re: Helping chronically homeless persons

Post by wvanfleet »

Yes, I very much agree.

I do think that our beliefs about this fall a little more appropriately under "Economy" rather than "Cultural Values and Behavioral Tendencies," which has more to do with our attitudes toward them as a group and our culturally induced incorrect beliefs about them. "Economy" has more to do with how we should spend our resources, and that is what the proposed belief is about. Action taken to make our beliefs about them more correct would seem to fall under "Cultural Values and Behavioral Tendencies."

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