Austin Crisis: Is Spending $28,000 per Homeless Person the Answer?

[Elderberry]

Texas Scorecard By Jacob Asmussen August 15, 2019

Austin is following the same dangerous path San Francisco has already traveled.

You already read the headline, but that’s not even the worst part.

Yes, Austin City Council is spending a record-high $62.7 million this year to try and solve homelessness, equivalent to giving roughly $28,000 to each homeless person in the city. But the more startling fact is that Austin officials are leading the city down the same dangerous path San Francisco has already journeyed—a path Austinites should be wary not to travel.

Before peering down the road toward Austin’s future, let’s look around for a moment at the crisis happening right now in Texas’ capital city. The homeless population is rapidly rising, up 5 percent a year for the last two years; the number of those unsheltered on the streets is the highest it has been in nearly a decade. And you may have even noticed people camping in the middle of public areas all across town, thanks to a recent decision by the city council that has spread contention throughout the community.

We already know city council’s plan to solve this whole problem is to spend a lot of money, but instead of just writing a $28,000 check to each homeless person, they’re sending pallets of tax dollars through a cash-eating maze of city administration and bureaucracy, hoping that a fraction of it eventually comes out the other side to the people on the streets.

Will that plan work? Enter San Francisco, the potential Austin-of-the-future.

More: https://texasscorecard.com/local/austin-crisis-is-spending-28000-per-homeless-person-the-answer/

[Sanguine]

Austin has been spending vast amounts of taxpayers' money on these people for years, and oddly enough, the numbers of street people keep increasing. 

[Victoria33]

@Elderberry
@Cyber Liberty

If a person wants to be homeless, he/she is going to be homeless no matter how much money is thrown at the problem.

Other countries, cities in other countries, have tried giving the homeless people money per month to find a place to live and stay here.  It didn't work anywhere, the people used the money for whatever, not getting an apartment, etc, and the money was stopped.

See, if you live with four walls around you, you have to make decisions about how to get food.  That means leaving the four walls to find it.  It is easier to live on the street and eat whatever comes along - no decisions.   If you get sick on the street, go to an emergency room and get treated, paying nothing.  Everything is free on the street.

A story:  My husband was going to have a serious surgery so he was put in hospital the day before the surgery.  Another man was brought to the room to be in the other bed in the room.  He was obviously dirty and unkempt with ragged clothes - he was not yet in a hospital gown.

A nurse came in with some papers for him to fill out.  He yelled, "I'm not signing anything and you have to keep me here and take care of me!"  She said the papers would help pay for his treatment.  He threw the papers on the floor, again yelling he wasn't signing them.

I followed the nurse out and said I didn't want my husband in this room and using the same bathroom as this dirty man since husband was having surgery the next day - didn't want this man's germs in the room or in the bathroom anywhere near husband.  She agreed; husband was quickly moved to a single room.

Question: If living on the street is all free stuff, why are we not all living on the street?  Life is easier on the street, no decisions to make.  Excuse me for a while, leaving home to live on the street.  Will take computer and find a free electric outlet somewhere.  Will check some garbage behind a high class restaurant to see if I can find some free chicken and free cigarette butts to smoke.  

[Sanguine]

Well said, @Victoria33

[GrouchoTex]

Austin has been spending vast amounts of taxpayers' money on these people for years, and oddly enough, the numbers of street people keep increasing.

Odd, isn't it?

 

[berdie]

@Elderberry
@Cyber Liberty

If a person wants to be homeless, he/she is going to be homeless no matter how much money is thrown at the problem.

Other countries, cities in other countries, have tried giving the homeless people money per month to find a place to live and stay here.  It didn't work anywhere, the people used the money for whatever, not getting an apartment, etc, and the money was stopped.

See, if you live with four walls around you, you have to make decisions about how to get food.  That means leaving the four walls to find it.  It is easier to live on the street and eat whatever comes along - no decisions.   If you get sick on the street, go to an emergency room and get treated, paying nothing.  Everything is free on the street.

A story:  My husband was going to have a serious surgery so he was put in hospital the day before the surgery.  Another man was brought to the room to be in the other bed in the room.  He was obviously dirty and unkempt with ragged clothes - he was not yet in a hospital gown.

A nurse came in with some papers for him to fill out.  He yelled, "I'm not signing anything and you have to keep me here and take care of me!"  She said the papers would help pay for his treatment.  He threw the papers on the floor, again yelling he wasn't signing them.

I followed the nurse out and said I didn't want my husband in this room and using the same bathroom as this dirty man since husband was having surgery the next day - didn't want this man's germs in the room or in the bathroom anywhere near husband.  She agreed; husband was quickly moved to a single room.

Question: If living on the street is all free stuff, why are we not all living on the street?  Life is easier on the street, no decisions to make.  Excuse me for a while, leaving home to live on the street.  Will take computer and find a free electric outlet somewhere.  Will check some garbage behind a high class restaurant to see if I can find some free chicken and free cigarette butts to smoke.

The homeless seem to be content. Good for them, I guess. I don't have the guts to do it...but the freedom would be nice...I guess. Unless I want to have a meal on demand and a roof over my head all of the time.

[GtHawk]

Damn, it's gotta be cheaper than that to send them to Germany, France or England!

[rustynail]

Big money in administrating 'help' for the homeless.