Responding to Kristopher's review:
Most of the houseless people in Austin are from Austin. Just like an any American city, there is no social safety net for the working class. Real wages haven't gone up in decades; meanwhile the cost of living has skyrocketed. Gentrification pushes people out of their homes; add to that a lack of protections for workers and a lack of affordable healthcare. People have to choose between medicine and housing everyday.
Making houselessness illegal would just put more people in jail or in debt to the system. America already has more of her citizens incarcerated than any other country.
Sending houseless people back where they came from is a good idea if you mean back into houses, but otherwise I don't know where you expect people to go.
There are obvious solutions like M4A, raising wages, affordable housing through rent control/subsidies, federal jobs programs, etc. Without policies like that, we can all expect to see more and more people living on the streets in the cities they call home. Hopefully once it becomes too inconvenient for people to step around their neighbors, we will work towards positive solutions rather than trying to push people where we can pretend they don't exist.
K |
Austin, TX |
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