"Increase social service programs so that we address the reason why they're homeless and doing drugs in the first place."
"No, that's socialism and Fox News tells me I should be scared of that word!"
The real anti homeless infrastructure is cheap or free housing
Let's consider a tax on vacant homes. If landlords got charged market rent for vacancies the house prices would plummet.
Grace to second homeowners or set-length renovations.
It's actually social services. You gotta treat the reason they're homeless in the first place.
No but see they need to be punished so they still exist as an example to motivate workers and create an internal other to justify police.
Not to help them. Why would we help them? Stop trolling.
nimbyism prevents that,
That's not enough, well it might be enough in the US, but here in NL people who are officially Dutch or have been through the process as a refuge to get housing and food etc. Should have at least some kind of shelter.
Then there are still the like 2 (estimation) people in this country who choose to be homeless for whatever reason. I don't try to judge, but there might be some mental issues involved.
And then there are the people who came here from other countries, but haven't gone through the official channels. Some of which came to work, lost their job and cannot find somewhere else to work. Generally this group has housing paid for by their employer, but if you don't have one you don't have a house, at least not here in NL.
There are probably other examples in other countries where basically everybody can have some place to live, but there are still homeless people. I don't believe you just need free housing, you probably need some extra social security and the social opinion on homeless people or people who are at the bottom of society needs to change.
The last panel reminded me of almost 20 years ago when the HPV vaccine first came available. Here in the US I remember the conservative backlash over it.
It wasn't the same as today where conservatives reject the COVID vaccine because that's how they prove to themselves that their freedom and bodily autonomy are intact or some shit. It was much more along the lines of how they like to see people suffer as long as they can tell themselves it was justified.
So it was basically "my daughter isn't getting it because she doesn't need it and isn't a slut," and of course they meant it in the way that anybody who IS a slut deserves to be punished with cervical cancer. Back then they didn't always say the quiet part out loud.
Interesting, in Canada the only backlash I really heard (and from my own mother) was that it was too new and we weren't sure of the longer term effects. I got it anyway since it was being offered for free to people my age (I remember jokes about being guinea pigs). I don't have HPV and the vaccine doesn't seem to have killed me yet so win-win I guess.
*You're
If you believe that laws forbidding gambling, sale of liquor, sale of contraceptives, requiring definite closing hours, enforcing the Sabbath, or any such, are necessary to the welfare of your community, that is your right and I do not ask you to surrender your beliefs or give up your efforts to put over such laws. But remember that such laws are, at most, a preliminary step in doing away with the evils they indict. Moral evils can never be solved by anything as easy as passing laws alone. If you aid in passing such laws without bothering to follow through by digging in to the involved questions of sociology, economics, and psychology which underlie the causes of the evils you are gunning for, you will not only fail to correct the evils you sought to prohibit but will create a dozen new evils as well.
—Robert A. Heinlein, Take Back Your Government
That sounds like something Heinlein would write during his earlier days. I completely agree with both the argument and reasoning, even tho he turned anti-Communist and insane before he wrote that.
Funny thing! Here's a quote from the same book:
Of what use, then, are the American Communists?
They serve one function extremely useful to you and to the country, so useful that, if there were no Communists, we would almost be forced to create some. They are a reliable litmus paper for detecting real sources of danger to the Republic.
Communism is so repugnant to almost all Americans, when they are getting along even tolerably well, that one may predict with certainty that any social field or group in which the Communists make real strides in gaining members or acceptance of their doctrines, any such spot is in such bad shape from real and not imaginary social ills that the rest of us should take emergency, drastic action to investigate and correct the trouble.
Unfortunately we are more prone to ignore the sick spot thus disclosed and content ourselves with calling out more cops.
Drug use rooms?
Why not give all people living in a country homes to live in and be done with it?
That is one option, yes.
But safe injection sites are a good idea even when you're housed.
In germany they even provide safe syringes, I was impressed when I saw those dispensers in public WCs.
Not sure if it is that easy to just built housing for everybody (excluding those 2 people in the entirety of NL who choose to be fully homeless). At least speaking from a NL point of view. If you have no income and you don't have assets you get money and the ability to rent something. It isn't a lot of money, but it should be enough to survive. This is sayiong that if you are actually Dutch and not somebody who came from another country without going through the system to get either asylum or become Dutch.
However, it is really hard to find housing for people in general. Even harder if you earn just enough to not have any rights for social security.
I believe the people who want to do drugs here in NL have the ability to do so in coffee shops (the drug serving once)
There's no logical objection for it, but it goes against the interests of landlords, real estate managers, and other people who see housing as a financial investment rather than a human right. If we want to give people homes to live in that they will not be deprived of, we first have to bring out the guillotine.
Add in "we can't give them drugs that stop overdoses because they'll just want to overdose more"
Nah nah, that’s not cruel or honest enough. “Why should we save them? They deserve to overdose for being an addict! Has anybody seen my coffee order?”
The language of the left in America has been so thoroughly played with by the right we have to go to absurd lengths to try and communicate any policy approach that involves public interest.
Someone should create safe injection sites and call them "jails" and then I bet right wingers would be all over letting addicts go to jails for "short term incarceration".
Better yet, create ultra low security "prisons" that allow "prisoners" to have "unescorted temporary absences" but really they're just free homes for the unhoused and they can sign in and out as they please.
I think that's the language those people prefer.
you're*
*you're
Fuck you I enjoy doing my drugs in a bathroom!
exactly, where else has the thrill of risk with the safety of probably not getting caught?
Every single one of these always links back to a government that absolutely refuses to help its people. It’s simple cause and effect.
Switzerland cleaned up their drug problem.
How?
They built government run facilities for drug addicts and the dosages are controlled by medical staff. The result, decreases in crime, over doses, emergency medical care, and garbage left by junkies. The USA and their pointless War on Drugs is a fucking scam because the problem is the demand for illegal drugs.
Where else are they supposed to shit, they don't have a house, that's the whole premise of the thing
And give them affordable housing and you'll solve the homelessness problem.
MYYYYYYYYYYYY promoting drug use??!! :D
I know it sounds wrong too. Of course, obviously, it does, but a pretty cartoon-y solution would be a no-privacy bathroom for the homeless. A private space also provides secrecy and allows crime.
The correct solution of course, is to eliminate drugs and homelessness.
