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Twitter is unfortunately still the best place.

But instead follow people who are involved in policy decisions, social workers, psychologists, housing advocates etc. As you will get a more nuanced look at some of the issues.

Drug use and homelessness are two of the most complex problems in society to solve and usually require multi-faceted approaches across a wide array of disciplines to solve.




Drug use and homelessness are two of the most complex problems in society to solve

Homelessness is not a complex problem to substantially ameliorate: https://seliger.com/2022/06/29/homelessness-is-a-housing-pro.... Northern California has tried absolutely everything to reduce homelessness except building more housing: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-will-do-anything-to-en....


Social housing does work but can be hard to do well.

Places in London that built large scale apartment complexes for social housing saw them turned into slums with rampant drug use, violence and criminal activity.

And it can be harder to get smaller-medium density housing to work because you're constantly fighting against local governments and NIMBY types.


Slums are a substantial step up from people sleeping on the street. It localizes the issues, such that social services can be provided centrally, it keeps the more problematic elements away from the rest of society, and at the end of the day having an address and shelter is a huge step up from having neither.

If building slums eliminates homelessness, that's a net win. No need to let "perfect" get in the way of "better".


>Places in London that built large scale apartment complexes for social housing saw them turned into slums with rampant drug use, violence and criminal activity.

...some places were just badly designed and encouraged the slum aspect (and associated problems).


Or, just enforce laws and follow the proven “broken windows theory” of policing. Which worked in cities such as NYC.


While the environment in which a person lives may dictate their value of their surroundings the real problem is a lack of hope. To further compound the lack of hope the local government has proven itself inept at solving the problems it is responsible to solve let alone the problems it is not responsible to resolve. That said it makes applying a "broken window" theory next to impossible. I do hope and pray they figure it out. For the sake of those on the street and the honest person that travels through there daily.




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