Re: Residents say no to men's homeless shelter

From: Jim Blair (jeb_at_wisc.edu)
Date: 01/20/05 

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 11:31:56 -0600

"David James Polewka" <joseywales@outlaw.nospam> wrote in message
news:41ed54ca.9592903@news.east.earthlink.net...
> Chapel Hill Herald, Jan 9, 2005, by Rob Shepard
>
> CHAPEL HILL -- Another group of local residents is saying
> they don't want a new homeless shelter for men anywhere
> near their neighborhood.
>
....
>
> Among those reasons were their contention that many of the
> men in the current shelter were substance abusers, and that
> "substance-abusers are a nuisance, and sometimes a danger,
> to adults, children and businesses."

Hi,

The current "homeless debate" in Madison is over building a "wet shelter"
for drunks and druggies. There is currently enough room in homeless
shelters, but some are run by churches or other organizations that require
people to be sober if they want to stay there.

Here it is considered a violation of civil rights to require people to
sober up or not be high on drugs when they ask you to give them free
shelter. But since we have not yet expanded the local anti-discrimination
laws to protect the drunk and stoned, there is a push to build them a
special shelter.

.....
>
> Dealing with the homeless problem by centralizing it
> and throwing money at it would be my second choice.
> My first choice would be to rescind the laws that
> suppress the low-end of the housing market, and
> stop suppressing the low-end of the job market by
> abolishing the minimum-wage laws. This would
> allow more people to be involved in dealing on
> the problem.
>
>
But that would deal only with the "affordable housing" aspect of the
problem. But much of the homeless problem is not affordable housing but
behavior. Remember the company that gave cash to homeless people to take
part in some kind of study? They were criticized for being irresponsible
and of harming the homeless by paying them in cash, because that just
enabled them to buy more alcohol and drugs, making their problems worse.

This gets back to the old Milton Friedman vs Oscar Lewis debate. Are people
poor because they lack money? Or do they lack money because they live in a
culture of poverty?

http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/4834/poverty.txt

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