Living in a Shelter, Long-Term

by Little Miss Attila on January 2, 2010

The Anchoress is right. We may not be able to help everyone, but we need to do more to assist those who are homeless: people who can live in shelters long-term are likely to be able to make a transition to better digs over five years.

I wonder if we need more halfway houses for those who have kids. Let’s all get some sleep and figure it out. I hope/fear that the next year is going to provide us plenty of opportunities for free-market solutions to the problems that go along with poverty. It’s time to get a little bit creative.

After all {{{sigh}}}, our homeless shelters and domestic violence refuges may need the beds.

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

Peter January 2, 2010 at 11:27 pm

The problem is twofold. The first problem is composed of funding, or lack thereof and NIMBY. So the shelters we do have are poorly funded and in neighborhoods whenre no one wants to be in the first place.

The second problem is that the shelters for those who need shelter the most have more rules than those people are willing to put up with. And this is the really big problem. The people who need those long term shelters the most are those with either mental problems or drug problems or both. And the shelters cannot exist without rules for taking the medications and refraining from the illicit drugs. And then, since some people have no problem with drugs or drinking, they still can’t have, say, a beer on a hot afternoon because of the same rules for everybody thing.

There are a lot of pitfalls in the shelters for women with kids, too. The biggest one, besides the above, is men. Some women will be running from a dangerous one, some will be looking for an in the flesh savior, others will be looking for that rebound guy, etc. So, what to do?

In case you care, after I retired I took a job in a halfway house for a few years. Maybe twenty-five percent of the men there made it. Most fell back in the cesspool. Of course, twenty-five percent is better odds than those who just left prison. What to do? I dunno. After the first couple tries, lock them up forever but give them all the dope and drink they want? Take ’em out to sea a hundred miles and let ’em swim back?

I just dunno.

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retriever January 3, 2010 at 6:27 am

Good post and comment. Stirred up a lot, past work experience, fears for a family member, and things friends work on…Off to post on it…

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