A federal UBI would solve this problem. If we all know with absolute certainty how much money every one of us has access to we would no longer be vulnerable to claims of helplessness by people with signs asking for help. If I know the panhandler on the street corner is getting $1000/month and there are apartments for rent in El Paso texas for $250/mo I won't be as likely to say "They don't have any other options but to ask for handouts at this corner" Because once a UBI is in place we know they have other options.
Fundamentally, the homelessness problem is a shortage of homes. If there are more people than there are homes, it doesn’t matter how much money you have, someone is going to be without one.
We can argue about why there is a mismatch between the population and homes, and I think there are probably many reasons going into it, but any solution focused on the people rather than the homes isn’t likely to solve anything. The people aren’t the problem.
If you think giving the homeless money will solve this, I’ll ask this: what housing do you expect them to rent?
There is not a shortage of homes. This is a contrived fallacy created by the YIMBY movement and real estate lobby. The truth is we have too many people who feel like they are entitled to live wherever they want for whatever price they can afford. I would love to live on the beach in Hawaii, but I can't afford it. I could claim that there is a shortage of homes on the beach in Hawaii, but thats not an accurate description of what is actually the root cause of the grievance here.
6
u/warrenfgerald Aug 04 '22
A federal UBI would solve this problem. If we all know with absolute certainty how much money every one of us has access to we would no longer be vulnerable to claims of helplessness by people with signs asking for help. If I know the panhandler on the street corner is getting $1000/month and there are apartments for rent in El Paso texas for $250/mo I won't be as likely to say "They don't have any other options but to ask for handouts at this corner" Because once a UBI is in place we know they have other options.