Trump's deployment of the National Guard to Washington, DC costs more than 4 times as much as it would cost to simply house every homeless person in the city, according to researcher Hanna Homestead.
I agree with the general point of this post. But FYI any city that has put serious money into housing the homeless has found the homeless didn’t get housed. No amount of money ends famine in Africa and no amount of money eliminates homelessness.
So yes, having national guards stand on street corners all day is a very stupid waste of money. But you can’t compare it to a fictional amount of money someone just made up on the spot. Because anytime someone has made up a similar figure, and then gotten it, that number didn’t do the thing they said it would. So I don’t think anyone has shown they know how to estimate that number.
What a cynical take. European cities with proper social safety nets have addressed the problem very well, and while homelessness is at non-zero levels, it’s insignificant compared to what we see in the US. “We’ll never solve it completely” doesn’t justify not trying.
I agree with the general point of this post. But FYI any city that has put serious money into housing the homeless has found the homeless didn’t get housed. No amount of money ends famine in Africa and no amount of money eliminates homelessness.
So yes, having national guards stand on street corners all day is a very stupid waste of money. But you can’t compare it to a fictional amount of money someone just made up on the spot. Because anytime someone has made up a similar figure, and then gotten it, that number didn’t do the thing they said it would. So I don’t think anyone has shown they know how to estimate that number.
What a cynical take. European cities with proper social safety nets have addressed the problem very well, and while homelessness is at non-zero levels, it’s insignificant compared to what we see in the US. “We’ll never solve it completely” doesn’t justify not trying.
No amount of money ends famine in Africa? I can definitely give you a number that would.
If the causes of famine include corruption and repression, then more food or more money will just be taken by that corruption.
A better take is it’s more complex than just providing shelter