Covenant House (which works with unhoused youth) takes volunteers. You sign up and then you're able to choose from a variety of opportunities and schedule whenever you want to help.
There's also Beans kitchen, I think they take volunteers.
I'm not familiar with the adult programs.
Feeding a person may not lead directly to relieving their homelessness, but it could be a first step in giving them a chance to worry less about their next meal and more of an opportunity to start to think about taking their next step to housing, job, seeking help for whatever issue/addiction they are battling.
So while they aren’t “designed to mitigate homelessness”, as you stated in your first sentence, they are beneficial.
Hmmm, I am not sure you fully understood what I wrote. So let’s run a little experiment. Take a week off from eating three meals a day and remove access to running water for drinking, cleaning, bathing and such. Once you’ve gone through the exercise, let me know if simply having access to a meal, helps improve your attitude towards life, and like I said in my first post in the very first sentence “feeding a person may not lead directly to relieving their homelessness…”
Also, you mentioned business and costs and damage done, which I hadn’t even talked about, but agree businesses and the community are being impacted greatly in a negative way. Like others have probably stated, the issue isn’t ONE thing, each individual has a problem or two, no two individuals are alike, but many may suffer from similar conditions, thus, there is no ONE answer/way to deal with this issue, but instead of people arguing at each other, we should come together as a community, regardless of race, creed, skin color, religion, political affiliation, etc…we live in this community together we should stand together to address it…
I’ve lived through your “experiment”. I lived through a couple of years where I only ate a meal every 2 or 3 days ( McDonald’s cheeseburger ) . I slept in a bus terminal . So don’t mistake what I have in terms of life experience. The difference is I do not suffer from mental illness and I was able to navigate myself on a road to success .
I think what you are not understanding is the lack of mental health support . Food and water are not what’s lacking . Access to mental health facilities are what’s lacking .
Oh- forgot to mention that while I was homeless - I didn’t trash every space I inhabited.
I am sorry to hear that you have gone through exactly what many are going through. I wholeheartedly agree that the lack of mental health programs contributes greatly to what you and many like you have/are going through. I do feel that expanding a community outreach for people suffering with mental health issues would help individuals and the community at large.
I do believe that many folks could benefit from just a meal alone, as a start. But the community as a whole needs to recognize all aspects of why folks struggle with keeping a home, job etc. By no means am I saying it is the solution, but a stepping stone to help folks get a leg up to help boost them out of what ails them. I have been told that my view or stance to assist those that want it may be naive, I believe many view it as socialistic thinking, which I don’t feel is wrong. Of course it doesn’t play into our capitalistic ways…I appreciate you sharing your story and helping me to see this issue from your perspective.
As one non wealthy person, you won't have much impact outside of volunteering.
For root cause you can, within your social, religious, political groups start getting people riled up about treatment. Get them screaming about needing in patient mental health facilities. Access to detox and rehab. Access to and oversight of medication beyond discharge from hospital / jail (doesn't help much when a medication dependent person gets released, then can't afford the meds that stabilize them post release). Post treatment communal housing as a bridge to independence. Systems to give hard credentials for job skills that will afford a person a studio apartment and placement assistance, perhaps with incentive for a business to give them the chance.
We won't eradicate homelessness this way, we can massively reduce it though.
>**Myth:** **Most people experiencing homelessness have a substance use and/or mental health disorder.**
>**Fact:** While rates of homelessness for people with severe mental health or substance use disorders are high, the majority of people with no home also have no mental health or substance use disorder. Furthermore, the large majority of Americans with mental health or substance use disorders do *not* experience homelessness, demonstrating that mental health and substance use disorders do not cause homelessness.
[https://www.usich.gov/guidance-reports-data/data-trends](https://www.usich.gov/guidance-reports-data/data-trends)
Homelessness is a lack of housing. Anchorage does not have enough housing to meet demand. Ask any reasonably forthright landlord.
I would add that if someone has been homeless for a while and gains housing, they may need some counseling or therapy to help them adjust to their new situation and to process the trauma they likely endured while homeless.
Show me data for anchorage. Father was a 25 year firefighter for AFD, as well as my uncle and brother is a career paramedic. My wife is a RN that has worked at ANMC and Providence, and I even have a cousin who works for that company that does social services calls for the homeless.
Addiction may not have been the root cause of everyone experiencing homeless, but it seems near inevitable that it will become a hurdle to overcome. The stories I've heard are so much worse than what the public is aware of. People calling 911 at 3am because they're sleeping in a tent and so drunk they pissed themselves and theyre covered in freezing piss.
Do i blame them? Absolutely not but to talk about this problem and try to dance around the addiction topic is just a dishonest way of trying to humanize this problem to those that are apathetic and won't care about these people, addicted or not.
I have a family member who is homeless because of mental health problems but he is now an addict as well and he will never get better as long as he's addicted. If we truly want to improve the homeless problem in Anchorage then we need to be able to discuss it honestly. It is a housing problem, a mental health crisis, and a crisis of addiction.
Through my occupation I do a lot of work with ANC's and internally at least they discuss this problem with quite a bit of honesty.
You are basing your assertion on about 100 of the most chronic and hopeless unhoused folks.
The actual population is over 3000 people, most of which have no mental or addiction issues.
So, other people's experience, observation, plus actual data and research. All pointing to "most homeless don't have mental or addiction issues" Most homeless I come in contact with near my home are not dealing with addiction. All these facts, and your response is
"Lmaooooo"
You must be a real smart person to know better than the experts. I bet you know a lot of things experts don't. Are you always the smartest person in the room? I bet you are.
That’s a long term legislative process . I think we need some practical short term solutions ? Perhaps establishing a more comprehensive municipal team that works with non profits would be beneficial? Establishing short term housing throughout the municipality of anchorage . Engaging the state government to direct more support ? Etc
You can get involved in efforts to address the shortages in behavioral healthcare, health-care, and housing. These are complex issues which may take some work to understand. I'm of the view that solving these problems will require altering tax policy in a way that lowers the cost of housing and changes how we fund health-care.
I was disappointed by that also. The cost was significant, but I think people underestimate how much projects cost. Tying a bathroom into the sewer system downtown is expensive.
Mmm, why would it not be more cost effective to consolidate it? No, I don’t want the homeless drawn to places they already aren’t drinking and drugging themselves to a passed out stupor on the corner near me. 🤦♀️
Accessibility, not cost efficiency, is the primary attribute that dictates the usefulness of any housing & treatment service.
If one consolidates a service to be cost effective but in so doing make it harder to get to or access for those that need it one has actually caused it to be less cost effective because the money spent is helping fewer people. Not only have you increased the cost/per person served you decreased the services overall adequacy at helping to curb societal issue being addressed.
We are talking about getting people that have access to few resources including limited communication and transportation options.. The easier it is for someone to get find and get the help they need the more likely they will seek it and will do so sooner and more consistently than they would have otherwise.
If they are getting treatment then the goal would be to no longer be drug users. There are homeless people literally everywhere in Anchorage. Having a place for them to sleep would help to eliminate that. But no, let’s just continue to ignore the problem and blame their legitimate medical conditions on their character, that’ll definitely show ‘em and stop making them be homeless.
You don’t need to be defensive. I’ve seen the bullshit tolerated along Campbell creek trail, the wildfires started, and don’t really want more of that spread even closer to my house so I’m the bad guy?
I don’t see how insisting it disperse through the city rather than offering the services in a few consolidated locations doesn’t help the services operate more efficiently and more of the money goes to helping the people rather than overhead. Explain why that’s not a good thing?
Lmao
Explain to me how consolidating resources under fewer roofs is not beneficial in terms of dispersing more money to help the folks targeted vs operating more offices less centrally located… way to ignore that completely.
What is the benefit to dispersed resources? The homeless ARE (or were) consolidated to certain areas.
So, to do that right you need to build out the infrastructure to support the whole population you're consolidating. You could zap entire categories of (essential) city services and still not have the funds to run a project of that scale. If you distribute the project, existing infrastructure can stretch a bit without breaking entirely.
The idea that it's more cost effective to do mass housing of homeless fails to take into account externalities, and it turns out that externalities are actually the majority of the cost.
Because it is nearly impossible to get any kind of mega projects off the ground anymore with the political gridlock we have. It also puts all of the homeless in one or 2 concentrated areas which can and will have the opposite effect of what we want, and puts a strain on security and maintenance resources. Covenant house is already very crowded and im sure we all remember the very loud complaints about Sullivan Arena.
Your only motive is to keep the homeless problem away from you. You’re the definition of a NIMBY. You don’t actually care about solving the problem you just want it out of your face.
Multiple smaller shelters and rehab programs placed throughout the city are easier to get setup, can be managed more efficiently by local management resources and keeps the issues related to rehoming and rehabing homeless in smaller, focused groups. It also makes it easier for homeless folk to make it to these places.
not to mention a complex issue like homelessness isn’t solved by simply plopping one giant Sullivan arena-type building in town. You just let everything congregate there as the understaffed, underfunded management team there struggles to keep a lid on things and the sheer mass of “undesirables” would also drive out local businesses and residential project interests.
Won’t get any complaints from me, although the commenter arguing for consolidation makes some good points. I’m vaguely familiar with the golden lion saga, are there other examples?
The problem with homeless is once you are in it, you are slowly dwindling into the hopelessness chain. It also gets worse by jobs not giving you a chance to lose that faith and confidence. Drugs and hanging out with bad people doesn't help as well.
It takes a lot of effort, but also the effort from the people themselves which are already facing that part. Some are even in that entitlement stage and thinks the world owns them a favor. Some even take a job and fuck it up with stealing as they do not have any sense of righteousness
Support the charities, as the ones who do need help will go there, do not support them directly as most do take advantage
Small government conservatism is kind of the reason the government doesn't have the resources to take on major challenges. Sure, if you can fix something with minor tweaks then well run shoestring budget governance can do the job, but the homelessness crisis is a major problem with multiple causes, some of which are external to the municipality. It's just out of scope for the downable in a bathtub scale of municipal government.
Some things that can help:
-Loosening zoning restrictions on density, particularly ADU's to try to drive up supply of housing (to try to drive rental cost per unit down).
-Every time a politician lionizes the tax cap vote for the other one.
-Don't oppose small to medium scale facilities in or near your neighborhood (trying to park every homeless person in one spot creates more problems than it solves so mega projects are out. It's not that mega projects can never work, it's just that the only way they work is with adequate and stable funding which is literally impossible to secure in this political environment, so we're stuck with a more distributed model)
-Support labor friendly policies whenever they come up. Since minimum wage doesn't get you housing anymore, we need to drive median wage up so a larger proportion of jobs pay enough to afford housing.
Just to add on to this, while I generally support higher minimum wages, raising the minimum wage in isolation has the potential to make things worse as business owners become extra picky about who they hire and look for every loophole possible to avoid paying labor. It's the nature of the beast.
I don't have a better solution, just pointing out that labor friendly policies have to be balanced with business friendly policies, not the zero sum madness we keep fighting over. Jobs have to be created somehow before they can be filled by anyone. While exceptions exist, a business owner generally has to be feeling pretty secure before they're going to take a risk of hiring unhoused people with sketchy or non-existent CVs.
Most homeless folks are suffering from addiction or mental health issues or both. Push you elected officials/politicians to make treatment and funding of treatment a priority.
Thats wrong. [https://www.usich.gov/guidance-reports-data/data-trends](https://www.usich.gov/guidance-reports-data/data-trends)
>
**Myth:** **Most people experiencing homelessness have a substance use and/or mental health disorder.**https://www.usich.gov/guidance-reports-data/data-trends
>**Fact:** While rates of homelessness for people with severe mental health or substance use disorders are high, the majority of people with no home also have no mental health or substance use disorder. Furthermore, the large majority of Americans with mental health or substance use disorders do *not* experience homelessness, demonstrating that mental health and substance use disorders do not cause homelessness.
I would go so far as to say that no one is more motivated to do anything to maintain their income as someone with a serious substance abuse problem. No money=no substance.
That isn't true. Even addicts improve their lives with money. Studies have shown that most money goes toward food and shelter, even with addicts.
And addicts given money are much more likely to end their addictions than those that weren't.
Most aren't like your cousin. Don't try to punish everyone because of your knowledge of one person.
Every study on the subject shows beyond a doubt that cash helps the most. It is the best use of funding.
I'm hoping he's the exception not the norm, but you're saying "studies" whereas I've dealt with the real thing. I think everyone deserves a chance or 2, but those who bite the hands that feed them & burn their bridges again & again, deserve no sympathy.
I think I have more experience than you. But it is more than that, personal experience often leads to misconceptions because you are applying one person's situation to thousands of other people. It is bad to base policy on one dude. It is good to research, survey, and collate actual data about the situation, then with information and knowledge form opinions and policy.
Fact is most people dealing with homelessness aren't addicts, don't drink, and are generally good people that just need a hand.
Money that they can use to deal with the specific issues they are dealing with helps the most.
This guy is a professional gaslighter. Obviously the dumbest thing you could do is enable an addict. He also thinks that most of the homeless in anchorage are totally mentally well and not addicted so there’s that
We spent a lot of last summer in tent city helping people. I talked with a lot of people. One of the problems I hear a lot from the woman that would go to these winter shelters like the aviators, Sullivan etc was that they were sexually abused by staff and would rather live outside then in these places I heard that often
I see a lot of homeless people try to fix their life. They live in a Shelter and they have a job. But the access to a house is so difficult.
And there are other kind of homeless who are very wild an inadapted. They don't want to follow any roles they want to do whatever they want. And take their drugs and alcohol. I will force to go to rehabilitation and to have mental health care. In this State there are a lot of mental health problems.
Really is so difficult to help someone who doesn't want help.
We need to fund alternative housing options, and expand on our mental health care in the state by offering state funded bonuses to those who move to the state.
But also grants to students who wish to get into the field. On top of that the 1115 waiver along with the ACT have wordage for housing, and support.
Keep in mind it’s mainly for those who have substance abuse issues, and for that one have an inpatient program at some places. But if expanded properly it could offer a once in a lifetime opportunity for those on the street.
So you don’t want to help those most vulnerable, and give them a chance to succeed in life?
What if you got sick, lost your job and got evicted? And due to your situation you don’t have retirement benefits, etc.
How would you feel someone saying “not on my dime” I think you need to look deep down and ask yourself that?
I already do as a homeowner & I dont go to work to support other people's problems. So no I don't. Their family's can help or some non profit. Sorry...
It's called taking care of yourself and not relying on others. Alaska has enabled people and the homeless people to the point where they think they are owed or entitled to working people's money. Include the liberal ideology into the mix, the person has became lazy.
This really isn't my issue at the hourly wage I make. I want to take fun trips and do fun things because I earned my money & don't want to give it away for a cause that isn't my problem
I always give food to them that I won't eat out of my cabinets and fridge. Financially, as a homeowner, I already pay alot in property taxes to take care of them.
So, here's what we do:
Everyone in Alaska gets a collar with an explosive. To prevent it from detonating, everyone has to pay a meager weekly subscription fee of say $500. Can't pay, boom, one less useless eater to worry about. I figure this will eradicate homelessness, cut way down on poor and sick people, put a sizeable dent in the minority population, and finally put an end to those pesky welfare queens poppin' out kids for extra PFD $$$. The "Life" subscription will increase monthly, and eventually every Alaskan will be a millionaire! It's fuckin' foolproof!
I'm not saying that anyone (or all) wants to do this/these; but these are the pathways to fixing it:
(1) Volunteer or donate to a specific organization that works with this issue.
(2) Vote for a party that will contribute funding (or other resources) to help these people (the homeless)
There's really not much else.
This is the exact answer. Stop rewarding poor behavior from these bums. They are bums for a reason and every time you give them money they will use it to make poor decisions.
Stop coddling the homeless the anch assembly mainly king constant and gen felix the homeless czar over the last 6 yrs have the homeless dependent on anch .now the new mayor says she will have a plan to deal with the homeless situation that they created in a 100 days that's funny .she and the boys have been throwing millions of dollars at the homeless and non profits for 5 yrs so where was the plan then .so when do constant and felix get on the city payroll
Sure be nice if the villages would stop sending Anchorage their problems. They come in to town, get held for a few days then they are homeless in Anchorage. Time and time again I see it. The state needs to decentralize it's mental health system.
Not racist. Just facts. Tiny communities don't have the resources to manage mental health problems. Couple that with a culture that kicks out troublemakers and centralizing all your mental health in one city is a recipe for disaster.
The worst part of this is these people get disenfranchised from there culture by their own families. They are mentally crushed, tossed out and forgotten. Left to fend for themselves in a city and a culture almost completely foreign to them.
The state needs to either dump resources into Anchorage to pay for these issues or decentralize mental healthcare and get it to those who need it before they end up here.
We need to train leadership and families in the small communities to help also.
I hate to burst your bubble but you know who else doesn't have the resources to manage mental health problems? Pretty much the whole US for at least several decades.
I mean, neoliberalism won. We don't really have a 'left' in the sense of 'there are big problems in society that government really needs to fix'. We have technocrat neoliberal Democrats and kleptocratic culture warry Republicans. Neither of those world views really involve government intervening in a big way to solve social problems. One abdicates to the market and the other one... is not intellectually consistent but certainly doesn't advocate substantial intervention.
At the end of the day it's a self fulfilling prophecy that 'only the market solution will work' because the choices tend to be the market solution and no solution at all.
You're not wrong, but the market solution is working fine for the people with money and influence and municipal government is pretty shoestring budget and low intervention (unless it's to artificially inflate property value with restrictive zoning and barriers to housing starts because those things benefits the aforementioned people)
Low intervention government isn't going to upset consolidation of real estate wealth. Economists actually talk about the income earned using this dynamic as 'rents' because it's a situation where sitting on capital without being particularly productive lets people rake in cash for low to no effort.
Science looks at this issue a lot.
People who think like you are so certain that they are right that they invest tons of money over and over again to prove it.
Then the studies show they are wrong.
No, it is always conservative politicians trying to prove they are right or rich conservative folks trying to prove the path forward. Someone thinks they can prove liberals wrong by tracking the actual measurable facts surrounding the question. They measure the facts. Liberals are proven right.
It is often your tax dollars being wasted though, you are absolutely right about that. Those monies would be better spent actually helping people, rather than trying to figure out if we should.
Conservatives put people to work, help those who want to work and help those who are helping themselves. That's what I liked about President Trump.
Your second paragraph, I agree with
Very true! This subreddit is full of liberals that hide behind the vale, people like you and I are logical and know what the problem is, the villages pass their problems onto the homeowners and residents of Alaska. The native corps don't do anything either but keep giving free money to enable these people more, rather than contribute and fix the problem. It's a sense of entitlement
> The state needs to decentralize it's mental health system.
Well your problem statement is wrong but at least you got to part of the solution to solve homelessness in the state as a whole.
The problem I see is that all “solutions” people come up with are how to get homeless people housing and/or jobs or get rid of them. However, for those people that are mentally ill and/or in active addiction no amount of employment or free housing is going to fix those things. Sending them elsewhere is just making it someone else’s problem. The root cause of their homelessness needs to be addressed before any solution will be successful.
Alaska has a unique problem… if you become homeless in Alaska, you’re kinda f*cked. In the lower 48, people can hop trains or get cheap bus tickets to go to other cities. You cannot leave Alaska cheaply.
As far as "sponsoring a homeless family's housing" everyone who thinks "other" people are not doing enough should do this. Go ahead, house someone and then report back on how it worked out and if this solves everything. I mean if that's all it takes sounds great.
Get involved in local politics on every level. Volunteer. Don’t give to panhandlers. Support housing initiatives. Support mental healthcare. Support addiction recovery. Support assistance for the poor, young, elderly, and vulnerable.
Where did I suggest giving money to poor people? I suggested supporting programs that give people assistance and a hand up, but in no way did I suggest giving them money. A hand up is different than a hand out. Helping people accomplish change is the exact opposite of helping people stay in the same situation. But I’m sure you are a rugged individualist Alaskan who overcame every adversity in life and is certain that others who struggle could have everything you have if only they weren’t lazy and that their fate is entirely their own fault. Yet you aren’t a millionaire with six pack abs and a model girlfriend but you surely could be if you just pulled yourself up by your bootstraps?
No, I'm saying you are wrong. I am disagreeing with what you stated; giving money to poor people is actually the best thing you can do for them.
Programs that help are also great, can provide structure and guidance and whatnot. But money always helps.
A robust and complete safety net is vital for any society to be successful. No strings cash assistance has a proven track record of success, and should be included in that safety net.
Elect assembly members that aren’t going to shoot down every single form of help from the city just because they are from a different political party. Especially when they claim they are “seriously concerned about the homeless issue” and then refuse to be bipartisan on any of the resources being offered. What really sucks is it’s the lower level city employees that have been there through multiple administrations that are the ones going out of the way to secure resources only for them to be stopped by assembly members because they think it would benefit the city executives’ resume to actually pass. A true resolution to this issue would be to take out ego and parties from both the city executives and assembly members to allow them to actually get things done instead of continuing to take shots at each other just because they disagree with the others’ political parties.
I assure you I know more and he’s talking about one specific issue. You have no idea how many more resources we’ve been denied because of the partisanship. Items behind closed doors that were specifically requested by assembly members only to have been denied on “official terms” by the same ones just to make the admin look like chumps. Partisanship is going to be the end of this city. We are all so fucked.
Have you looked at the plan? The mayor rejects well researched, publicly supported, and thorough plans. He then presents his own plans that are bad and should be rejected. They are also often illegal.
I don't care what happened behind closed doors, the mayor was going to look stupid no matter what after these plans got reviewed.
Maybe have the police do their jobs and start charging criminals with the crimes they are committing , have prosecutors do their jobs and prosecute them for the crimes they are committing. The few who aren’t criminals and need mental help, get them the help they need. Problem solved
Best thing to do is to stop feeding them. Enablers feed those that dont care to feed them selves. Enablers give shelter to those that dont care to find it. Heres the truth. If someone is truly down on their luck and needs help initially, there are plenty of programs and places to get help. Chronic homelessness just shoo them away! JMO.
Lol.. in highschool yes. I worked at McDonald's until the 12th grade then moved up and worked for an Executive chef ak Doug. Do you like to enable people?
McDonalds turns most applicants away. Your success doesn't mean everyone will also succeed on the same path.
But yeah, absolutely, I enable people whenever I can. Most of the time people that get cash support themselves and improve their life.
Point is, the people asking for money are able to work. There are plenty of places to work Ak Doug. If you give these people money, you are feeding alcoholism and addiction. Obviously you are a liberal who thinks everything has a bright picture, in the picture doesn't always turn out to be that way. Common sense doesn't run to strong does it ak Doug : )
Nope. I work hard for my money.
I do think we need to have a safety net though. It is the best thing for society. It is much cheaper. There are no downsides.
Covenant House (which works with unhoused youth) takes volunteers. You sign up and then you're able to choose from a variety of opportunities and schedule whenever you want to help. There's also Beans kitchen, I think they take volunteers. I'm not familiar with the adult programs.
While those programs are beneficial - they aren’t designed to mitigate homelessness
Feeding a person may not lead directly to relieving their homelessness, but it could be a first step in giving them a chance to worry less about their next meal and more of an opportunity to start to think about taking their next step to housing, job, seeking help for whatever issue/addiction they are battling. So while they aren’t “designed to mitigate homelessness”, as you stated in your first sentence, they are beneficial.
How is this helping to mitigate the systemic problem ? Businesses are having difficulties and costs associated with the damage done - so explain ?
Hmmm, I am not sure you fully understood what I wrote. So let’s run a little experiment. Take a week off from eating three meals a day and remove access to running water for drinking, cleaning, bathing and such. Once you’ve gone through the exercise, let me know if simply having access to a meal, helps improve your attitude towards life, and like I said in my first post in the very first sentence “feeding a person may not lead directly to relieving their homelessness…” Also, you mentioned business and costs and damage done, which I hadn’t even talked about, but agree businesses and the community are being impacted greatly in a negative way. Like others have probably stated, the issue isn’t ONE thing, each individual has a problem or two, no two individuals are alike, but many may suffer from similar conditions, thus, there is no ONE answer/way to deal with this issue, but instead of people arguing at each other, we should come together as a community, regardless of race, creed, skin color, religion, political affiliation, etc…we live in this community together we should stand together to address it…
I’ve lived through your “experiment”. I lived through a couple of years where I only ate a meal every 2 or 3 days ( McDonald’s cheeseburger ) . I slept in a bus terminal . So don’t mistake what I have in terms of life experience. The difference is I do not suffer from mental illness and I was able to navigate myself on a road to success . I think what you are not understanding is the lack of mental health support . Food and water are not what’s lacking . Access to mental health facilities are what’s lacking . Oh- forgot to mention that while I was homeless - I didn’t trash every space I inhabited.
I am sorry to hear that you have gone through exactly what many are going through. I wholeheartedly agree that the lack of mental health programs contributes greatly to what you and many like you have/are going through. I do feel that expanding a community outreach for people suffering with mental health issues would help individuals and the community at large. I do believe that many folks could benefit from just a meal alone, as a start. But the community as a whole needs to recognize all aspects of why folks struggle with keeping a home, job etc. By no means am I saying it is the solution, but a stepping stone to help folks get a leg up to help boost them out of what ails them. I have been told that my view or stance to assist those that want it may be naive, I believe many view it as socialistic thinking, which I don’t feel is wrong. Of course it doesn’t play into our capitalistic ways…I appreciate you sharing your story and helping me to see this issue from your perspective.
How’s that working for all of the businesses impacted ? Just take a real look around and describe what you see ?
Thank you for the idea. If you already volunteer, thanks for taking the time to help our city and it’s people.
Thanks for having a heart ❤️
As one non wealthy person, you won't have much impact outside of volunteering. For root cause you can, within your social, religious, political groups start getting people riled up about treatment. Get them screaming about needing in patient mental health facilities. Access to detox and rehab. Access to and oversight of medication beyond discharge from hospital / jail (doesn't help much when a medication dependent person gets released, then can't afford the meds that stabilize them post release). Post treatment communal housing as a bridge to independence. Systems to give hard credentials for job skills that will afford a person a studio apartment and placement assistance, perhaps with incentive for a business to give them the chance. We won't eradicate homelessness this way, we can massively reduce it though.
I am absolutely agree with you. A lot of homeless people have a mental disease. They need to have access to their treatment.
>**Myth:** **Most people experiencing homelessness have a substance use and/or mental health disorder.** >**Fact:** While rates of homelessness for people with severe mental health or substance use disorders are high, the majority of people with no home also have no mental health or substance use disorder. Furthermore, the large majority of Americans with mental health or substance use disorders do *not* experience homelessness, demonstrating that mental health and substance use disorders do not cause homelessness. [https://www.usich.gov/guidance-reports-data/data-trends](https://www.usich.gov/guidance-reports-data/data-trends) Homelessness is a lack of housing. Anchorage does not have enough housing to meet demand. Ask any reasonably forthright landlord.
I would add that if someone has been homeless for a while and gains housing, they may need some counseling or therapy to help them adjust to their new situation and to process the trauma they likely endured while homeless.
Show me data for anchorage. Father was a 25 year firefighter for AFD, as well as my uncle and brother is a career paramedic. My wife is a RN that has worked at ANMC and Providence, and I even have a cousin who works for that company that does social services calls for the homeless. Addiction may not have been the root cause of everyone experiencing homeless, but it seems near inevitable that it will become a hurdle to overcome. The stories I've heard are so much worse than what the public is aware of. People calling 911 at 3am because they're sleeping in a tent and so drunk they pissed themselves and theyre covered in freezing piss. Do i blame them? Absolutely not but to talk about this problem and try to dance around the addiction topic is just a dishonest way of trying to humanize this problem to those that are apathetic and won't care about these people, addicted or not. I have a family member who is homeless because of mental health problems but he is now an addict as well and he will never get better as long as he's addicted. If we truly want to improve the homeless problem in Anchorage then we need to be able to discuss it honestly. It is a housing problem, a mental health crisis, and a crisis of addiction. Through my occupation I do a lot of work with ANC's and internally at least they discuss this problem with quite a bit of honesty.
Bullshit. Just drive around the city and you can see that’s not true.
You are basing your assertion on about 100 of the most chronic and hopeless unhoused folks. The actual population is over 3000 people, most of which have no mental or addiction issues.
Lmaooooo
So, other people's experience, observation, plus actual data and research. All pointing to "most homeless don't have mental or addiction issues" Most homeless I come in contact with near my home are not dealing with addiction. All these facts, and your response is "Lmaooooo" You must be a real smart person to know better than the experts. I bet you know a lot of things experts don't. Are you always the smartest person in the room? I bet you are.
Okay Doug.
I see you are impervious to facts and logic. Impressive.
Not as impervious as you are to common sense, it seems
So do alot of people who work for a living
That’s a long term legislative process . I think we need some practical short term solutions ? Perhaps establishing a more comprehensive municipal team that works with non profits would be beneficial? Establishing short term housing throughout the municipality of anchorage . Engaging the state government to direct more support ? Etc
I 100% agree. I would add help with transportation so people can make it to their appointments. Also, help with navigating social systems.
One volunteer may not have a large impact by themselves, but if a few hundred of us volunteer it could make a significant difference.
You can get involved in efforts to address the shortages in behavioral healthcare, health-care, and housing. These are complex issues which may take some work to understand. I'm of the view that solving these problems will require altering tax policy in a way that lowers the cost of housing and changes how we fund health-care.
One thing that would’ve really helped would’ve been having public restroom and dumping facilities but the voters in Anchorage struck it down.
I was disappointed by that also. The cost was significant, but I think people underestimate how much projects cost. Tying a bathroom into the sewer system downtown is expensive.
……because they would have cost $500,000 each.
Stop complaining and protesting when the city tries to open up housing/treatment facilities in your neighborhood.
Mmm, why would it not be more cost effective to consolidate it? No, I don’t want the homeless drawn to places they already aren’t drinking and drugging themselves to a passed out stupor on the corner near me. 🤦♀️
Accessibility, not cost efficiency, is the primary attribute that dictates the usefulness of any housing & treatment service. If one consolidates a service to be cost effective but in so doing make it harder to get to or access for those that need it one has actually caused it to be less cost effective because the money spent is helping fewer people. Not only have you increased the cost/per person served you decreased the services overall adequacy at helping to curb societal issue being addressed. We are talking about getting people that have access to few resources including limited communication and transportation options.. The easier it is for someone to get find and get the help they need the more likely they will seek it and will do so sooner and more consistently than they would have otherwise.
If they are getting treatment then the goal would be to no longer be drug users. There are homeless people literally everywhere in Anchorage. Having a place for them to sleep would help to eliminate that. But no, let’s just continue to ignore the problem and blame their legitimate medical conditions on their character, that’ll definitely show ‘em and stop making them be homeless.
You don’t need to be defensive. I’ve seen the bullshit tolerated along Campbell creek trail, the wildfires started, and don’t really want more of that spread even closer to my house so I’m the bad guy? I don’t see how insisting it disperse through the city rather than offering the services in a few consolidated locations doesn’t help the services operate more efficiently and more of the money goes to helping the people rather than overhead. Explain why that’s not a good thing?
This was tried at Brother Francis shelter near downtown.
You quite literally are being a NIMBY
Lmao Explain to me how consolidating resources under fewer roofs is not beneficial in terms of dispersing more money to help the folks targeted vs operating more offices less centrally located… way to ignore that completely. What is the benefit to dispersed resources? The homeless ARE (or were) consolidated to certain areas.
So, to do that right you need to build out the infrastructure to support the whole population you're consolidating. You could zap entire categories of (essential) city services and still not have the funds to run a project of that scale. If you distribute the project, existing infrastructure can stretch a bit without breaking entirely. The idea that it's more cost effective to do mass housing of homeless fails to take into account externalities, and it turns out that externalities are actually the majority of the cost.
Because it is nearly impossible to get any kind of mega projects off the ground anymore with the political gridlock we have. It also puts all of the homeless in one or 2 concentrated areas which can and will have the opposite effect of what we want, and puts a strain on security and maintenance resources. Covenant house is already very crowded and im sure we all remember the very loud complaints about Sullivan Arena. Your only motive is to keep the homeless problem away from you. You’re the definition of a NIMBY. You don’t actually care about solving the problem you just want it out of your face. Multiple smaller shelters and rehab programs placed throughout the city are easier to get setup, can be managed more efficiently by local management resources and keeps the issues related to rehoming and rehabing homeless in smaller, focused groups. It also makes it easier for homeless folk to make it to these places. not to mention a complex issue like homelessness isn’t solved by simply plopping one giant Sullivan arena-type building in town. You just let everything congregate there as the understaffed, underfunded management team there struggles to keep a lid on things and the sheer mass of “undesirables” would also drive out local businesses and residential project interests.
Won’t get any complaints from me, although the commenter arguing for consolidation makes some good points. I’m vaguely familiar with the golden lion saga, are there other examples?
The problem with homeless is once you are in it, you are slowly dwindling into the hopelessness chain. It also gets worse by jobs not giving you a chance to lose that faith and confidence. Drugs and hanging out with bad people doesn't help as well. It takes a lot of effort, but also the effort from the people themselves which are already facing that part. Some are even in that entitlement stage and thinks the world owns them a favor. Some even take a job and fuck it up with stealing as they do not have any sense of righteousness Support the charities, as the ones who do need help will go there, do not support them directly as most do take advantage
Small government conservatism is kind of the reason the government doesn't have the resources to take on major challenges. Sure, if you can fix something with minor tweaks then well run shoestring budget governance can do the job, but the homelessness crisis is a major problem with multiple causes, some of which are external to the municipality. It's just out of scope for the downable in a bathtub scale of municipal government. Some things that can help: -Loosening zoning restrictions on density, particularly ADU's to try to drive up supply of housing (to try to drive rental cost per unit down). -Every time a politician lionizes the tax cap vote for the other one. -Don't oppose small to medium scale facilities in or near your neighborhood (trying to park every homeless person in one spot creates more problems than it solves so mega projects are out. It's not that mega projects can never work, it's just that the only way they work is with adequate and stable funding which is literally impossible to secure in this political environment, so we're stuck with a more distributed model) -Support labor friendly policies whenever they come up. Since minimum wage doesn't get you housing anymore, we need to drive median wage up so a larger proportion of jobs pay enough to afford housing.
Thank you for the comment. I will pay more attention to these issues.
Just to add on to this, while I generally support higher minimum wages, raising the minimum wage in isolation has the potential to make things worse as business owners become extra picky about who they hire and look for every loophole possible to avoid paying labor. It's the nature of the beast. I don't have a better solution, just pointing out that labor friendly policies have to be balanced with business friendly policies, not the zero sum madness we keep fighting over. Jobs have to be created somehow before they can be filled by anyone. While exceptions exist, a business owner generally has to be feeling pretty secure before they're going to take a risk of hiring unhoused people with sketchy or non-existent CVs.
Most homeless folks are suffering from addiction or mental health issues or both. Push you elected officials/politicians to make treatment and funding of treatment a priority.
Thats wrong. [https://www.usich.gov/guidance-reports-data/data-trends](https://www.usich.gov/guidance-reports-data/data-trends) > **Myth:** **Most people experiencing homelessness have a substance use and/or mental health disorder.**https://www.usich.gov/guidance-reports-data/data-trends >**Fact:** While rates of homelessness for people with severe mental health or substance use disorders are high, the majority of people with no home also have no mental health or substance use disorder. Furthermore, the large majority of Americans with mental health or substance use disorders do *not* experience homelessness, demonstrating that mental health and substance use disorders do not cause homelessness.
Okay now show some data from alaska
Bullshit. As a former addict, the people you see on the streets of anchorage are strung out. Or mentally unwell. Period.
I would go so far as to say that no one is more motivated to do anything to maintain their income as someone with a serious substance abuse problem. No money=no substance.
More govt money is always the answer. Let me know when the native corps step up to help.
They should be contributing
They aren't.
LOL, hilarious.
DO NOT give any money to the panhandlers
Giving money to poor people is one of the very best things you can do to improve their lives.
Not if they're addicts.
That isn't true. Even addicts improve their lives with money. Studies have shown that most money goes toward food and shelter, even with addicts. And addicts given money are much more likely to end their addictions than those that weren't.
Tell that to my cousin.
Most aren't like your cousin. Don't try to punish everyone because of your knowledge of one person. Every study on the subject shows beyond a doubt that cash helps the most. It is the best use of funding.
I'm hoping he's the exception not the norm, but you're saying "studies" whereas I've dealt with the real thing. I think everyone deserves a chance or 2, but those who bite the hands that feed them & burn their bridges again & again, deserve no sympathy.
I think I have more experience than you. But it is more than that, personal experience often leads to misconceptions because you are applying one person's situation to thousands of other people. It is bad to base policy on one dude. It is good to research, survey, and collate actual data about the situation, then with information and knowledge form opinions and policy. Fact is most people dealing with homelessness aren't addicts, don't drink, and are generally good people that just need a hand. Money that they can use to deal with the specific issues they are dealing with helps the most.
Did you not read my last post? I agree with most of that.
This guy is a professional gaslighter. Obviously the dumbest thing you could do is enable an addict. He also thinks that most of the homeless in anchorage are totally mentally well and not addicted so there’s that
Yeah. Not having sympathy bothers me a lot though. You keep falling back on real life experience, which causes you to have a deeply flawed outlook.
Ak Doug is simple
True. I believe well researched facts over popular opinion. Keep it simple and you too can be better informed.
Professional gas lighter lmao
Make it easier and just give them fentanyl
You think panhandlers primarily use money to buy fentanyl? Wild. Where did you come by this opinion?
Eyes
I think you might need glasses.
For real lmao
We spent a lot of last summer in tent city helping people. I talked with a lot of people. One of the problems I hear a lot from the woman that would go to these winter shelters like the aviators, Sullivan etc was that they were sexually abused by staff and would rather live outside then in these places I heard that often
I see a lot of homeless people try to fix their life. They live in a Shelter and they have a job. But the access to a house is so difficult. And there are other kind of homeless who are very wild an inadapted. They don't want to follow any roles they want to do whatever they want. And take their drugs and alcohol. I will force to go to rehabilitation and to have mental health care. In this State there are a lot of mental health problems. Really is so difficult to help someone who doesn't want help.
As a resident I would treat them like the human beings they are.
We need to fund alternative housing options, and expand on our mental health care in the state by offering state funded bonuses to those who move to the state. But also grants to students who wish to get into the field. On top of that the 1115 waiver along with the ACT have wordage for housing, and support. Keep in mind it’s mainly for those who have substance abuse issues, and for that one have an inpatient program at some places. But if expanded properly it could offer a once in a lifetime opportunity for those on the street.
Not on my dollar
So you don’t want to help those most vulnerable, and give them a chance to succeed in life? What if you got sick, lost your job and got evicted? And due to your situation you don’t have retirement benefits, etc. How would you feel someone saying “not on my dime” I think you need to look deep down and ask yourself that?
I already do as a homeowner & I dont go to work to support other people's problems. So no I don't. Their family's can help or some non profit. Sorry... It's called taking care of yourself and not relying on others. Alaska has enabled people and the homeless people to the point where they think they are owed or entitled to working people's money. Include the liberal ideology into the mix, the person has became lazy. This really isn't my issue at the hourly wage I make. I want to take fun trips and do fun things because I earned my money & don't want to give it away for a cause that isn't my problem
Agree. Stop the bandaids, money wasting, and handouts and give tough love.
https://alaskapublic.org/2024/05/29/southcentral-foundation-breaks-ground-on-new-behavioral-health-center-in-anchorage/
I volunteered with the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness once or twice (and want to more).
On a national level, we can always try to reform the government to allow housing (along with many other things) to be a basic human right.
I always give food to them that I won't eat out of my cabinets and fridge. Financially, as a homeowner, I already pay alot in property taxes to take care of them.
So, here's what we do: Everyone in Alaska gets a collar with an explosive. To prevent it from detonating, everyone has to pay a meager weekly subscription fee of say $500. Can't pay, boom, one less useless eater to worry about. I figure this will eradicate homelessness, cut way down on poor and sick people, put a sizeable dent in the minority population, and finally put an end to those pesky welfare queens poppin' out kids for extra PFD $$$. The "Life" subscription will increase monthly, and eventually every Alaskan will be a millionaire! It's fuckin' foolproof!
Tell me you’ve watched/read Battle Royale
I'm not saying that anyone (or all) wants to do this/these; but these are the pathways to fixing it: (1) Volunteer or donate to a specific organization that works with this issue. (2) Vote for a party that will contribute funding (or other resources) to help these people (the homeless) There's really not much else.
Don’t give the panhandlers money and if you feel bad enough move them into your back yard Itl be safe for them there and you can feed them regularly
This is the exact answer. Stop rewarding poor behavior from these bums. They are bums for a reason and every time you give them money they will use it to make poor decisions.
That reason is often mental health issues where they have no family/friends to help them and don’t have access to the medications they need.
Or others tried to help and they don’t want the help or medications. It’s not always a nice picture that everyone actually wants help.
Very helpful
Have to house them first. Have you read the land mines experience in the shelter? Nobody can do it sober.
Stop coddling the homeless the anch assembly mainly king constant and gen felix the homeless czar over the last 6 yrs have the homeless dependent on anch .now the new mayor says she will have a plan to deal with the homeless situation that they created in a 100 days that's funny .she and the boys have been throwing millions of dollars at the homeless and non profits for 5 yrs so where was the plan then .so when do constant and felix get on the city payroll
Sure be nice if the villages would stop sending Anchorage their problems. They come in to town, get held for a few days then they are homeless in Anchorage. Time and time again I see it. The state needs to decentralize it's mental health system.
Here we go again… 🙄
Oh look a racist who thinks only natives are homeless. I can already tell who you're voting for
Not racist. Just facts. Tiny communities don't have the resources to manage mental health problems. Couple that with a culture that kicks out troublemakers and centralizing all your mental health in one city is a recipe for disaster. The worst part of this is these people get disenfranchised from there culture by their own families. They are mentally crushed, tossed out and forgotten. Left to fend for themselves in a city and a culture almost completely foreign to them. The state needs to either dump resources into Anchorage to pay for these issues or decentralize mental healthcare and get it to those who need it before they end up here. We need to train leadership and families in the small communities to help also.
I hate to burst your bubble but you know who else doesn't have the resources to manage mental health problems? Pretty much the whole US for at least several decades.
Thanks to missmanagement by the corporate Dems and all around horrible conservatives.
I mean, neoliberalism won. We don't really have a 'left' in the sense of 'there are big problems in society that government really needs to fix'. We have technocrat neoliberal Democrats and kleptocratic culture warry Republicans. Neither of those world views really involve government intervening in a big way to solve social problems. One abdicates to the market and the other one... is not intellectually consistent but certainly doesn't advocate substantial intervention. At the end of the day it's a self fulfilling prophecy that 'only the market solution will work' because the choices tend to be the market solution and no solution at all.
We need an overhaul.
You're not wrong, but the market solution is working fine for the people with money and influence and municipal government is pretty shoestring budget and low intervention (unless it's to artificially inflate property value with restrictive zoning and barriers to housing starts because those things benefits the aforementioned people) Low intervention government isn't going to upset consolidation of real estate wealth. Economists actually talk about the income earned using this dynamic as 'rents' because it's a situation where sitting on capital without being particularly productive lets people rake in cash for low to no effort.
You live in a fantasy land. Your assertions have no basis in fact and your conclusions are extraordinarily poorly formed.
Ok Doug. I see it happen about once a week. If I had the money I'd do a study.
You see villages buy tickets to Anchorage for local residents once a week?
No I see the state ship them here for services then when they try to send them back they are refused by their communities.
.... huh? What services from the State flies people to Anchorage? I hadn't heard of that.
The ones I’ve seen seem to have plenty of meds.
The State service that flies people to Anchorage also gives people lots of meds? I definitely feel like I'd have heard of this before.
May I ask you to show examples? If that's true, it's a problem for sure
You live in a fantasy world ak Doug , you are blind and want to make the problem worse and you can't see how
Science looks at this issue a lot. People who think like you are so certain that they are right that they invest tons of money over and over again to prove it. Then the studies show they are wrong.
Do you mean the pointless studies I pay for as a tax payer and that are backed by a liberals opinion? Not everyone has to agree
No, it is always conservative politicians trying to prove they are right or rich conservative folks trying to prove the path forward. Someone thinks they can prove liberals wrong by tracking the actual measurable facts surrounding the question. They measure the facts. Liberals are proven right. It is often your tax dollars being wasted though, you are absolutely right about that. Those monies would be better spent actually helping people, rather than trying to figure out if we should.
Conservatives put people to work, help those who want to work and help those who are helping themselves. That's what I liked about President Trump. Your second paragraph, I agree with
How do Conservatives put people to work?
Very true! This subreddit is full of liberals that hide behind the vale, people like you and I are logical and know what the problem is, the villages pass their problems onto the homeowners and residents of Alaska. The native corps don't do anything either but keep giving free money to enable these people more, rather than contribute and fix the problem. It's a sense of entitlement
> The state needs to decentralize it's mental health system. Well your problem statement is wrong but at least you got to part of the solution to solve homelessness in the state as a whole.
Elaborate
The problem I see is that all “solutions” people come up with are how to get homeless people housing and/or jobs or get rid of them. However, for those people that are mentally ill and/or in active addiction no amount of employment or free housing is going to fix those things. Sending them elsewhere is just making it someone else’s problem. The root cause of their homelessness needs to be addressed before any solution will be successful.
Bingo
Alaska has a unique problem… if you become homeless in Alaska, you’re kinda f*cked. In the lower 48, people can hop trains or get cheap bus tickets to go to other cities. You cannot leave Alaska cheaply.
Camp Walmart is growing. 50 people living on the sidewalk, every third one without a shirt. Thank God Suzanne is coming to fix everything.
We need to elect people that will help us get more inpatient treatment option for addiction in anchorage
As far as "sponsoring a homeless family's housing" everyone who thinks "other" people are not doing enough should do this. Go ahead, house someone and then report back on how it worked out and if this solves everything. I mean if that's all it takes sounds great.
Agree. 👍 they also forget some people want to be homeless by choice - it’s their preferred way of life.
Get involved in local politics on every level. Volunteer. Don’t give to panhandlers. Support housing initiatives. Support mental healthcare. Support addiction recovery. Support assistance for the poor, young, elderly, and vulnerable.
Giving money to poor people is the very best way to improve their lives.
Lol!!!
Lmao
Where did I suggest giving money to poor people? I suggested supporting programs that give people assistance and a hand up, but in no way did I suggest giving them money. A hand up is different than a hand out. Helping people accomplish change is the exact opposite of helping people stay in the same situation. But I’m sure you are a rugged individualist Alaskan who overcame every adversity in life and is certain that others who struggle could have everything you have if only they weren’t lazy and that their fate is entirely their own fault. Yet you aren’t a millionaire with six pack abs and a model girlfriend but you surely could be if you just pulled yourself up by your bootstraps?
No, I'm saying you are wrong. I am disagreeing with what you stated; giving money to poor people is actually the best thing you can do for them. Programs that help are also great, can provide structure and guidance and whatnot. But money always helps. A robust and complete safety net is vital for any society to be successful. No strings cash assistance has a proven track record of success, and should be included in that safety net.
Ohhhhhh, shit Doug.
Buy somebody a meal. Not cash. A meal.
Cash is better.
Booze is even better. That’s what they really want. Or drugs. Booze and drugs.
liar.
And now the name calling.
Sorry, what I meant to say was you speak without thought or honor. You bring shame upon your house.
Elect assembly members that aren’t going to shoot down every single form of help from the city just because they are from a different political party. Especially when they claim they are “seriously concerned about the homeless issue” and then refuse to be bipartisan on any of the resources being offered. What really sucks is it’s the lower level city employees that have been there through multiple administrations that are the ones going out of the way to secure resources only for them to be stopped by assembly members because they think it would benefit the city executives’ resume to actually pass. A true resolution to this issue would be to take out ego and parties from both the city executives and assembly members to allow them to actually get things done instead of continuing to take shots at each other just because they disagree with the others’ political parties.
If the mayor’s plan wasn’t a huge lie and ploy to make his campaign donors rich then maybe the assembly would’ve worked with him on it.
Tell me you have no idea the details I’m talking about without telling me 🤣
I know the details. Turd is spot on.
I assure you I know more and he’s talking about one specific issue. You have no idea how many more resources we’ve been denied because of the partisanship. Items behind closed doors that were specifically requested by assembly members only to have been denied on “official terms” by the same ones just to make the admin look like chumps. Partisanship is going to be the end of this city. We are all so fucked.
Have you looked at the plan? The mayor rejects well researched, publicly supported, and thorough plans. He then presents his own plans that are bad and should be rejected. They are also often illegal. I don't care what happened behind closed doors, the mayor was going to look stupid no matter what after these plans got reviewed.
I think all pot sales should require home delivery. No home no drugs. Same with liquor.
Maybe have the police do their jobs and start charging criminals with the crimes they are committing , have prosecutors do their jobs and prosecute them for the crimes they are committing. The few who aren’t criminals and need mental help, get them the help they need. Problem solved
Best thing to do is to stop feeding them. Enablers feed those that dont care to feed them selves. Enablers give shelter to those that dont care to find it. Heres the truth. If someone is truly down on their luck and needs help initially, there are plenty of programs and places to get help. Chronic homelessness just shoo them away! JMO.
Blame the victims. That’ll teach ‘em. /s
"If they can ask you for spare change, they can say Welcome To McDonald's can I take your order please?" -Charles Barkley
You ever try to get a job at McDonalds?
Lol.. in highschool yes. I worked at McDonald's until the 12th grade then moved up and worked for an Executive chef ak Doug. Do you like to enable people?
McDonalds turns most applicants away. Your success doesn't mean everyone will also succeed on the same path. But yeah, absolutely, I enable people whenever I can. Most of the time people that get cash support themselves and improve their life.
Point is, the people asking for money are able to work. There are plenty of places to work Ak Doug. If you give these people money, you are feeding alcoholism and addiction. Obviously you are a liberal who thinks everything has a bright picture, in the picture doesn't always turn out to be that way. Common sense doesn't run to strong does it ak Doug : )
lots of people can't get a job. For lots of reasons. You know that, right? It seems like you don't.
Of course they can, you must want free money to with out working for it
Nope. I work hard for my money. I do think we need to have a safety net though. It is the best thing for society. It is much cheaper. There are no downsides.
Ok good. Then give all your money away for those who don't want to contribute to society's problems
I mean, most of them do want to contribute. More than anything. They just need a hand sorting out the barriers that are preventing them.