Years ago, I took a class on Homelessness and Public Policy through SFSU to try to understand housing issues from the perspective of the poorest of the poor. I joke that later spending 5.7 years homeless and living in a tent myself was advanced field work.
While homeless, I started the San Diego Homeless Survival Guide. I eventually created a sister site called What Helps the Homeless.
I am no longer homeless and I don't intend to develop those two sites further. This is my new blog for talking about homelessness. I am not yet clear what direction this site will take, but as the title suggests, my focus is on practical solutions.
My thought at this time is that some of those solutions will be things that are helpful for people currently homeless and some of those solutions will be aimed at a larger vision of reducing the number of homeless people in the US. Many programs aimed at helping the homeless are problematic in that they create perverse incentives that help entrench homelessness. If you have to already be homeless to get help and if you can't survive without that help, that tends to keep you stuck on the street.
If you care about the people, that's the wrong way to handle this. I am interested in talking about answers that help:
While homeless, I started the San Diego Homeless Survival Guide. I eventually created a sister site called What Helps the Homeless.
I am no longer homeless and I don't intend to develop those two sites further. This is my new blog for talking about homelessness. I am not yet clear what direction this site will take, but as the title suggests, my focus is on practical solutions.
My thought at this time is that some of those solutions will be things that are helpful for people currently homeless and some of those solutions will be aimed at a larger vision of reducing the number of homeless people in the US. Many programs aimed at helping the homeless are problematic in that they create perverse incentives that help entrench homelessness. If you have to already be homeless to get help and if you can't survive without that help, that tends to keep you stuck on the street.
If you care about the people, that's the wrong way to handle this. I am interested in talking about answers that help:
- Improve quality of life while on the street.
- Get people off the street.
- Prevent people from landing on the street to begin with.