How to Increase Homelessness Chapter Outline

1. The Absurd - Homelessness is an absurd phenomenon in a country that is so rich and powerful. It languishes in our communities to the point that people either ignore the problem or shrug their shoulders in disgust and despair.

2. The Absurd Response - Our response to this absurd problem is to point fingers at each other, blaming everyone involved. As if blaming others will make the problem go away. The federal government spends one billion dollars each year for homeless services, and yet the problem still exists.

3. The Conspiracy - Maybe we should propose an absurd conclusion-that we really want homelessness to increase in our community. Perhaps taking this to a ridiculous level of logic will move people to actually do more for this problem than simply finger point.

4. Build Our House On Sand - Decrease available housing so that the price of housing is more than most people can afford and homelessness increases. The result also spawns a debate over whether urban redevelopment is just a form of gentrification or a positive step toward urban renewal.

5. Keep Minimum Wage to a Minimum - If you pay people a wage so low that they cannot afford to rent an apartment, they will soon end up homeless. However, increasing minimum wage hurts business. So what is the appropriate wage compromise? Minimum wage? Prevailing wage?

6. No Free Lunch-Or Bed - New York passed a landmark consent decree giving every homeless person in the city a "right to shelter." San Francisco took a different approach encouraging "tough love" programs and literally steam-cleaning their streets. Is there a reasonable approach that helps the community become cleaner and safer, but also compassionate enough to care for those who are homeless? Can we have clean streets, but not mean streets?

7. The Homeless Outlaw - As more and more people in our community tire from the constant in-your-face homeless problem, the trend is to pass ordinances banning panhandling, public urination, public feeding, and other quality-of-life offenses. How do we ensure a secure community without criminalizing homelessness?

8. Don't Ask, Don't Plan - When inmates, patients, and mental health residents finish their programs and are released without a housing plan, they typically become homeless. Having no discharge plan increases homelessness.

9. The Leaf-blower Mentality - Many communities dabble at deploying their police force to sweep the homeless out of their neighborhoods. Tempting, as it may be, that simply increases homelessness in another community. And as we all know, homeless people are mobile and will return if they do not have access to transitional supportive services.

10. Access Denied - Traditionally, homeless service providers are spread out throughout a community so people who are homeless have to travel some distance to access more than one service. It is a great system if efficiency, timeliness, and access are not important. A system of co-location, where agency services are located at one site is much more efficient.

11. Fostering Homelessness, One Emancipated Youth At A Time - Since when does 18 become a magical number on the road to adulthood? And yet, that is the age that our county systems choose to release foster youth with backgrounds of physical and sexual abuse, criminal behavior, and emotional neglect. As if, at that age they instantly become mature, responsible, motivated adults ready to find a job and buy a house.

12. Eliminate Welfare - Clearly the system to care for the poor needed adjusting, as was completed last decade. Some would argue that rather than an adjustment it simply needs to be dismantled. A decision that would certainly increase homelessness. After five years on the rolls of welfare, are recipients ready for employment and independence?

13. Bring On The War - An unacceptable number of homeless people served our country in war. Sometime between being discharged from the military and walking through the front door of a homeless program a homeless veterans fall through the cracks of the system. Is there a link between individuals fighting at war and ending up homeless?

14. Free Will For The Mentally Ill - You can't institutionalize a person with mental illness unless he or she allows it. That's why we see so many people on the streets screaming at imaginary friends. But do they really have the mental capacity to know when they should be institutionalized? How do we balance a person's civil right with the right of a community to keep itself safe?

15. At The Trough (but ignore why they are hungry) - With a Good Samaritan attitude, community groups pass out delicious, piping hot meals for the homeless. They say it is their compassionate duty. Others say it is enabling the homeless to stay on the streets. Can we feed without enabling?

16. NIMBYs R Us - Not in my backyard! We work hard to achieve the American Dream. Why would we want a new homeless shelter to move into our neighborhood and ruin that? Preventing programs from finding a home is just as good as stopping a homeless person from obtaining permanent housing.

17. Bootstraps In An Age of Sneakers - If a person doesn't "lift up his own bootstraps" and get with the program then he is just lazy and deserves his plight. If that's the case, why provide any services? With no help, certainly homelessness will increase.
18. Give Them Liberty, Not Death - We are a free country. People have the freedom to do what they want. Including sleeping on the streets. Who cares if it could kill them?

19. Give It Up - There will always be the poor and homeless. Why try to stop the flood, when all we have is a bucket? Certainly all this money we are pouring down the system is simply a waste. Should we just give up, and use our resources on other pertinent issues, like education and the environment?

20. An Extreme Machine - If we let the civil rights groups advocate for a person's right to live in squalor conditions, or the community builders fight for gentrification, reasonable solutions will clearly be overshadowed. Can we all just get along?

Imagine - Imagine if we did all of these steps…We would be overwhelmed with homelessness…Calcutta here we come.

Hunting For Good Will –To end homelessness, we need the community and political will.

Epilogue

Reader’s Guide