Doctors could prescribe houses to the homeless

>>116593
>a state senator, Josh Green, has introduced a bill to classify homelessness as a medical condition. Green, who is also a physician, said the idea originated in his own work in the emergency room, where he saw many homeless patients arrive for treatment of basic conditions at great expense, but no real long-term benefit. “I’m really just applying a band-aid,” he said of his medical work. “But these problems require intensive long-term support.”

>>116593
It sounds ridiculous, but giving someone who's homeless a free house is a lot cheaper in the long run, medical care is extremely expensive and obviously someone living in a house needs a lot less medical care

>>116593
This is patently ridiculous. One would think medical Doctors could tell the difference between correlation and causation in cases like this. These people don't get sick because they're homeless, they get sick for many of the same reasons they're homeless. And simply giving them a home does not promise some otherwise unknown hygiene, it likely promises the same issues, just now kept in a smaller area. If I could reply with an image and had I the stomach to save it, I'd post the screencap of the guy who simply couldn't into cleanliness. His fridge was covered in blowflies, there was trash literally everywhere, and the sour cream picture nearly made me vomit.

>... a recent internal study by a major Hawaiian insurer found that over half of the state’s $2bn Medicaid allotment was consumed by a tiny fraction of users, many of whom are dealing with homelessness, mental illness and substance addiction.

Well shit, looks like I found your problem. The biggest drivers of homelessness are mental illness and substance addiction, with one often leading to the other. But yes, please give more responsibility with public money to people who cannot manage their lives to begin with. Surely it will not worsen Hawaii's drug and prostitution problems. Surely.

You want a solution? Turn that money to mental health facilities and loosen the rules to allow people to be committed without consent in cases other than when they pose a threat to self or others.

>>116884
You seem to misunderstand what giving them homes means. Salt lake city has already pioneered this and its proven to work well and reduce costs. Hawaii isnt exactly jumping into the unknown here. The issue with mental institutes is people dont want to be in one, they leave them and they get addicted to shit again. Are they pieces of shit for doing that? Sure. But it would also make us dumb to keep doing it that way. Autonomy is important to them, rehab is important for us. The middle ground works best.

http://www.sltrib.com/home/4654207-155/salt-lake-city-selects-four-sites

>The relatively small shelter/resource centers will provide comprehensive services for homeless people, including mental health, substance-abuse treatment and job-skills training — and will reduce the pressure and chaos around The Road Home shelter in downtown Salt Lake City, which is expected to be phased out and closed.

The homes are rehab centers, really. Easy access to methadone and applications for the nearest supermarket can make a huge difference.

Ok. Howuch weed do I need to ingest to get a free house?

I am very lazy. Pay me bitches.

Ben Carson did get elected HUD secretary.

Well I'm chronically broke, maybe the doc could prescribe me a few millions?

Ok as bullshit as it may sound, if it gives homeless people a chance and better living I'm Ok with this.

>>116593

Who stands the best chance of getting clean and/or off welfare? A person who shows up on time to doctor's appointments, who takes meds when prescribed, who does follow-ups?

Doctors may be the most efficient people to judge among a subgroup of people who could really get the most out of the best quality scarcest public goods. Hell, they should be able to write job recommendations for those homeless patients too -- just fill out the checklist above.

>>116891
Perhaps I did misread. Looking at the article, I was under the impression it was a "you're homeless, here's a house" kind of deal, rather than the mental institution lite type of thing you're talking about. Yours at least offers help to those who want it. It doesn't help that the examples of homeless given in the article are homeless for reasons that are likely their own. Staph can be pretty well prevented with regular washing, and having lived on Hawaii I know there are at the least beach showers and soap's cheap. They may discourage homeless from showering there, but it's still an option. And someone who is mentally disabled enough that they end up in the middle of the street and unable to speak is not someone who would reliably stay in one of those shelters.

It also doesn't help that I've encountered a lot of people who are lazy, stupid, out of shape, or some kind of combination. Most of the good things about that state can be attributed to specific groups in the state (i.e., career athletes and military contributing to fitness ranking, small rich communities contributing to state average income ranking). I can see how I could have a bias in my perception when reading this article.

>>116593
This doesn't seem like a bad idea, as long as it's not too abused

It's not hard to see why this isn't a bad idea.

>Be homeless, try to get employed.
>Can't be employed because no safe address.
>Go to doctor, prescribes house.
>Now I can get a job.
>My work taxes are going towards housing homeless.

>>117452
You arent wrong about anything. Many are lazy, many are stupid, many of them are addicted to drugs, some are mentally ill. Welcome to pretty much every homeless person that exists. There are no gems in the rough here, these are the worst of us.

But take the best of us and make him homeless, and getting out of that is daunting even for a capable person. How do you think our less capable members of society will do? Terrible right?

At one point, you have to decide if you want to actually fix the problem, or just ignore the problem and let it fester. Build 4 250 room block houses and you can clean the streets of an entire city up at 18k per person and have them pay for themselves in reduced medical and welfare costs.

>>117507
They might breed.