Let’s get right into it!
- Federal and state governments need to establish detox and rehab facilities for twice as many people as each state thinks it has living in homelessness.
- Local governments need to hire outreach personnel to educate the homeless in each community about the forthcoming opportunities and mandates so they know what’s coming and have time to process and prepare for significant changes in lifestyle.
- Housing co-ops must be created/refurbished for rehab participants. These areas/apartments/structures become the property of each participant in order to reestablish a sense of self-worth and belonging. Of course, there need to be rules where property is sacrificed if they’re broken or disregarded. Paying rent is essential. “Free” means nothing to lose. Even if the only income is from picking up trash or pulling weeds in the co-op, there has to be rent or the project will fail.
- Ongoing counseling must be made available to all participants. There’s a reason each person is homeless. We need to identify the problems, individually, and work to help each person conquer their issues. This step is essential. This cannot be a one-size-fits-all plan that only addresses a portion of the population.
- Legislators must establish laws and mandates—if facilities have rooms available, it’s because of resounding success or resounding failure. Not owning or not renting a home cannot be illegal, but public spaces cannot be allowed to be overrun with people who are breaking other laws.
- As citizens of communities which include homeless people, we must STOP enabling the addicts. Not all homeless people are addicts, but I can confidently say that almost all homeless people living in urban areas are addicts, and those who are not, typically don’t want to be homeless anyway and will accept help when it’s offered. Once the facilities are made available, that option should be the only option. Every blanket, every jacket, every five-dollar bill is another step away from making the right decision—to get the help they need to get out of the tunnel for good.
- Business owners need to start taking chances on hiring people with gaps in employment history.
- Creditors need to be willing to negotiate settlements to eliminate the outstanding debt which makes regular home-ownership impossible.
- We MUST close drug trafficking routes across our borders, stemming the flow of debilitating chemical substances.
- We need to educate our nation’s children about the glamorous lifestyle of people who make bad decisions and refuse to accept professional help when things start to spiral downward.
- Our education system must include lessons in finance. If a primarily agrarian nation failed to teach its children how to raise crops, it would fail over time. America is a capitalist/entrepreneurial nation—we need to teach our children how to handle money/credit/budgeting.
These solutions will take time to end the homelessness phenomenon, but we have to start making the right moves as soon as possible. Continuing on the current path to enabling addicts to continue in their self-destructive behavior will only continue with its current success rate. The homeless population in America continues to grow each year despite billions of dollars being spent on miscellaneous failed projects.
It’s plain as day—if we continue to do what hasn’t worked, it will continue to not work.