(11-03-2022, 06:40 AM)The Real Marty Wrote:

(11-02-2022, 10:30 PM)mikesez Wrote: Lack of housing and mental illness are a cycle. 
They don't want to build more housing, is basically the entire problem.
If these people weren't evicted due to decades of new money coming in chasing old buildings, they wouldn't be on the street, and they wouldn't be mentally ill.

It seems like you're saying they're homeless because of mental illness, and they're mentally ill because of homelessness.  

So, if we build homes for them, and we get them on medication, has anyone figured out the cost of that?

If the private sector had been free to build the new homes that the new residents actually wanted, most of these people would still be in old homes and the government wouldn't have to spend any new money on them.
Even now, most of these people can end up in stable housing if the city just liberalizes its zoning laws.  It'll take a while but it won't take much government money.  Of course the government would have to spend some money on drug treatment and on paying their first few months of rent while they get situated into new jobs, but that's probably a lot less money than what you had in mind asking the question.

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You know why it's not going to happen. Implicit in this plan is that supply of housing would increase such that housing prices actually go down from the unreasonable highs they are at now. That makes everything cheaper from the perspective of getting the homeless into homes. But the current homeowners will never vote for that, of course.

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