This article is about a way to provide low-barrier housing to homeless people. As we will discuss today, a lack of low-barrier housing is one of the barriers to homeless people turning their lives around. It is not a problem our project can address, but an associated problem we hope can be addressed by others.
First, enjoyed the talk today and really appreciate your whole group’s passion for this issue. The article you referenced has some pretty ingenious and wild ideas for how to help homeless people overcome the barrier of housing. Personally, I have always struggled with this idea as I think we already have too much of a welfare state and that providing free homes could lead to an abuse of the system and a lack of motivation to improve your situation once you stabilize. I also think these sorts of homes would fall prey to the “tragedy of the commons” with a lack of ownership leading to a lack of care and creating a run down “ghetto” type atmosphere which will lead neighborhoods to resist having them placed in their backyards. Don’t get me wrong, I really want to be part of the change that ends homelessness and have lots of empathy for their situation, but I don’t want to flood the issue of homelessness with funds and resources which only lead dependency and do not arrive as a sustainable solution (see generally, aid efforts in Africa). But I love the designs in the article and know too little about the issue to say that housing units would, categorically, be a bad idea. These are just some of my musings on the issue from afar.
I think that Michael makes a really great point about a tragedy of the commons issue. In addition to the tragedy of the commons issue I’d imagine these projects would face a lot of “not in my backyard” opposition. It’s a troubling reality, but while everyone can look at these concepts and marvel at how they would give homes to the needy, I would bet that you would find it very difficult to have those same people sign up to attach one of these installments to their own apartment building. You would face substantial push back, warranted or not, about decreases in property value and increases in crime by inserting these into existing residential areas. I agree with the idea that a crucial step to fixing the homeless problem is getting these individuals places of their own that they feel obligated to maintain, however its my opinion that the majority of society would oppose putting these next to where they live.