Arresting that guy will help solve the vagrant problem. It won't solve the homelessness problem, and that's definitely a hugely important point. Most people who become the vagrant type of homeless have serious underlying mental illness or got seriously deep into drugs though, and they're in a state where they are not going to voluntarily accept help. A guy down on his luck is unlikely to turn into this disruptive stereotype even if he does unfortunately end up on the street longer term, while there are vagrants who came from wealthy families and are on the street entirely by "choice" (which I put in quotes because they are seriously ill).

I heard a talk recently from a couple social workers that run programs for addressing homelessness in New York. There are 100 or so homeless people that are well known to services in NYC because they have repeatedly refused offers for help, and these people have stayed on the streets for years while an entire homeless populations' worth of people has been successfully helped back onto their feet (of course with a never-ending flow that keeps the overall population at high numbers). Occasionally one of the vagrants ends up in the news for attacking someone, but short of that they will be left on the streets, which is really a lose/lose.

> a never-ending flow that keeps the overall population at high numbers

I think of high housing prices as a "homelessness producing machine" that can generate more people without homes faster than the government or non-profits can help people out.

Lower housing prices mean lower flows, which makes it easier to get a handle on things, like the Texas article discusses.

Right, that group of 100 is a burden on society and are likely not able to consent to their current situation, to treatment, or to basically anything besides eventually getting run over. I'm sorry if it's mean, but we have a duty to the millions that walk through their shit, needles, and piss every day.

The group we should have more compassion for is the working class who's fucked by our housing policy. Those Boomers retiring with big housing payouts are living on the suffering of the single mother staying at her friends house, of the guy living in an RV so he can afford insulin, etc.

That's the abomination.

Almost two decades ago I started dating this Chinese girl who had relatively recently come over from mainland, yet in the space of 5 years after arriving managed to leave an abusive home situation, find work as a medical interpreter ( and thereby secure her own work visa to stay in this country) and save up a down payment for a modest house.

She told me at the time, which I thought was some sort of amusing misunderstanding about language, that I was "homeless boy" - because I lived in an _apartment_. And thus that she needed to help me get into a house (hint hint) so that I could stop being homeless and be a "man."

I had never heard the word homeless used this way before, but as the years went by I began to understand that it was not a mistake at all but a very particular attitude about what constitutes being settled down and stable in one's life and that I, despite whatever other qualities I had that appealed to her, was unacceptably immature and reckless in this department.

Much later on I discovered that for various reasons, there's a certain generation of Chinese immigrants that as a cohort correspond roughly to our late gen Xers/early millenials, who broadly seem to share this point of view.

> The guy on the corner screaming and smoking meth is NOT a representative homeless person - it's a second issue that doesn't really have a word.

In general, those are mentally ill people who aren't getting proper treatment. They don't have family members willing or able to support them, so they slip through the cracks in our social systems.

To me, it's cruel to treat these people like criminals, so I fundamentally disagree that they should be arrested.

Why don't we have a place to house them and provide mental health care and recovery services, outside of jails?

We do, but there's a subset that's too violent to go to a halfway house.

The subway pusher set needs to be warehoused. Not necessarily in prison but the old asylums need to come back at least.

Not true, at least in California. The state-run facilities are completely full, and they turn people away even when there's serious mental health issues.

You ever get the bill for an inpatient mental health stay? I hope these homeless people have better health insurance than me.