This is why I think covid was a wasted opportunity. Building / converting quarantine quarters near support services and re-purpose them for homeless and disaster (flood / fire) victims. Wouldn’t win too many votes though.
All it takes is one nutter going on a rampage, and the other inhabitants of a dorm would be adversely impacted. Also, keeping people in dorm conditions encourages theft and abuse - source : boarding school with upper middle/upper class kids (guess who the worst thieves were).
Given the instability of a lot of the homeless community - through mental health issues, substance issues, interpersonal stuff which gets so much worse when you have nothing except what you can keep safely with you - having a shared dorm setting has the potential to get really sketch really fast.
I live pretty much next door to a homeless hub in the CBD. The community garden which we so carefully planted and cared for turned into a homeless encampment because of overflow from the outreach centre…and while some of the regulars were okay if you were courteous with them, some were really, REALLY not. They trashed the place. Needles, broken glass, human waste, the lot. We had a couple of deaths in our garden, and more close calls on top of that.
None of us who had built the garden felt safe using it, and it’s only recently - having had the area cleared, fenced off so we could fix it without more rough sleepers immediately moving in, and a regular rotation of working bees now that the fence has come down - that we do.
This is why I think covid was a wasted opportunity. Building / converting quarantine quarters near support services and re-purpose them for homeless and disaster (flood / fire) victims. Wouldn’t win too many votes though.
That is a good idea.
but can you imagine the outrage at dorm quarantine conditions?
All it takes is one nutter going on a rampage, and the other inhabitants of a dorm would be adversely impacted. Also, keeping people in dorm conditions encourages theft and abuse - source : boarding school with upper middle/upper class kids (guess who the worst thieves were).
Yeah.
Given the instability of a lot of the homeless community - through mental health issues, substance issues, interpersonal stuff which gets so much worse when you have nothing except what you can keep safely with you - having a shared dorm setting has the potential to get really sketch really fast.
I live pretty much next door to a homeless hub in the CBD. The community garden which we so carefully planted and cared for turned into a homeless encampment because of overflow from the outreach centre…and while some of the regulars were okay if you were courteous with them, some were really, REALLY not. They trashed the place. Needles, broken glass, human waste, the lot. We had a couple of deaths in our garden, and more close calls on top of that.
None of us who had built the garden felt safe using it, and it’s only recently - having had the area cleared, fenced off so we could fix it without more rough sleepers immediately moving in, and a regular rotation of working bees now that the fence has come down - that we do.
I don’t know what the answer is, sadly.
Homelessness causes mental illness too. So having emergency dorms would save many people from that
Please, add in the Tragedy of the Commons. It’s relevant.