The section about your second-hand experiences makes the point very clear and illustrates it well. Thank you for sharing, and I hope your colleague and your relative stay in a good place.
As for the general policy, Daniel Houck already pointed out on twitter, the idea is that it's "housing first", not "housing only".
I think you will find it very uncontroversial and generally agreed upon even among HF proponents (and I do count myself among them) that this is meant to give people some degree of stability so that they can even begin to meaningfully address other problems they might have, like me tall illness or substance abuse issues.
Not everyone can be helped, certainly not only giving them a place to stay. But everything from finding a job to dealing with mental illness becomes easier and more accessible if you know you have a place to sleep tonight. And tomorrow. And next week.
I'm sincerely not trying to diminish Guy X's efforts, but this is the difference between "just" getting to sleep in someone's remodeled garage and a solid social net.
The housing alone doesn't fix the problems and was never meant to fix all the problems. I absolutely agree with you, it still needs doctors and social workers and therapist and lots of other things. HF just aims to make it easier to to get to those in giving you the stability of a place so you can concentrate on that.
The section about your second-hand experiences makes the point very clear and illustrates it well. Thank you for sharing, and I hope your colleague and your relative stay in a good place.
As for the general policy, Daniel Houck already pointed out on twitter, the idea is that it's "housing first", not "housing only".
I think you will find it very uncontroversial and generally agreed upon even among HF proponents (and I do count myself among them) that this is meant to give people some degree of stability so that they can even begin to meaningfully address other problems they might have, like me tall illness or substance abuse issues.
Not everyone can be helped, certainly not only giving them a place to stay. But everything from finding a job to dealing with mental illness becomes easier and more accessible if you know you have a place to sleep tonight. And tomorrow. And next week.
I'm sincerely not trying to diminish Guy X's efforts, but this is the difference between "just" getting to sleep in someone's remodeled garage and a solid social net.
The housing alone doesn't fix the problems and was never meant to fix all the problems. I absolutely agree with you, it still needs doctors and social workers and therapist and lots of other things. HF just aims to make it easier to to get to those in giving you the stability of a place so you can concentrate on that.
Thank you for writing this! I appreciated it, even having read Scott's comment highlights.