We are constantly told that solutions to some of the greatest challenges facing poor and working class people in the U.S. do not exist. Meanwhile, billions taxpayer dollars are being used to fund the genocide of Palestinians.
That very money could have ended homelessness in the United States.
Money for our needs, not the U.S.-Israeli war machine!
For those with a skeptical nature, I hunted down these numbers.
The US has spent ~$18B on direct military aid to Israel since October 7, 2023. They've also spent ~$5B for operations in the region, mostly in the Red Sea and Yemen.
HUD does not provide numbers to "end homelessness", they report on the state of homelessness including an estimated census of the homeless.
Some annalists have taken these numbers and multiplied them by the cost to imprison someone, or the average cost of American housing. These estimates come out to $11-30B.
So the numbers check out. The only fault I could find with this meme's claims is that they are slightly misleading in suggesting $20B could "end homelessness" without the caveat that that's only for one year.
Of course the numbers are good.
My bullshit detector is going off for a different reason. This is an arbitrary short term vs long term comparison. The money that went to Israel wasn't going to HUD either way. As someone correctly pointed out, $20B is a rounding error here.
20 billion could go a long way to curbing homelessness.
20 billion invested in high density, low rent housing units could make housing more accessible to millions of people, including the homeless.
Remember, not all homeless people are completely jobless. Many are couch surfing or sleeping in their cars, have stables jobs, and just can’t afford rent where their job is. An apartment they can afford could do a lot for these people.
You are correct. I like to focus instead on those lacking shelter who've been completely alienated from society and cannot be 're-rehabilitated'. These are the people who are erased when we speak about how lifestyle or work ethic "redeem" those in extreme poverty.
Lack of housing really isn't the root cause of the homeless epidemic. That money would need to go to revamping the mental health services Reagan destroyed to help the chronically homeless.
Housing First is the correct way to reduce homelessness. The main cause of homelessness is being priced out of the housing market, because the vast majority of housing in America is entirely privatized. Plus most public housing in America is not done nor funded well, until our European counterparts.
The problem in America is the housing market is nearly entirely private, zoning laws that prevent dense housing from being built, and the lack of public funded (nice) public housing. Housing is first and foremost an investment here, not a fundamental right to shelter like it should be.
Drug addiction is a symptom of late-stage homelessness, not a cause. The cause is almost always the private housing market pricing people out of affording even rent.
https://www.pdx.edu/homelessness/housing-first
This has worked famously in Finland
Housing is a human right: How Finland is eradicating homelessness - CBC
Here's how Finland solved its homelessness problem - WEF
Lack of affordable housing is certainly an issue.
When rent is over half of your budget, how do you keep a roof over your head when an emergency comes up.
We need mental health care too, but we also need to correct the housing market in general. Building lots of cheap housing is still a good option.
The new housing development near me is trying to sell brownstones for half a million, and the new condos are going for 250K. They’re all nearly empty because very few can afford them. So we either need higher wages, or actually affordable housing. Ideally we’d get both, it’s not like we don’t have the money to try multiple solutions.
There are two demographics of homeless people. The first is people who are down on their luck and just need some help to get back on their feet. Those are not the people being talked about when the homelessness epidemic is being discussed.
The homeless epidemic is largely people who are mentally ill, drug addicts, or both.
These people need help, but giving them cheap housing isn't going to be the help that they really need, and will just end up with them being back on the street.
Wages have not kept up with everything else.