Food for Thought

[brynndragon]

What do car pollution and homelessness have in common? A hockey-stick-curve instead of a bell-curve and solutions rendered impossible (or at least extremely difficult) by the human psyche: Million-Dollar Murray

Comments

[benndragon.livejournal.com]

I'm curious where you got those two significant populations from? I've not heard "single-parent families" as being a primary source of homelessness before.

Also, I'm gonna argue that homelessness is self-limiting as long as there is pollution, since the cure for the later will also end the former ;P.

[glenmarshall.livejournal.com]

The single-parent families are typically lead by women. The triggering condition is that some single-parent families are one paycheck away of economic disaster. All it takes is one major illness, or a job loss, to push them over the brink. This particular componement of homeless is well-known to social service agencies, but it is not as noticeable or as publicized as the schizophrenics and alcholics visibly spleeping on doorsteps, sidewalks, and nooks & crannies.

Most homeless families go to public shelters and are provided public housing or other types of assistance. So there are fewer chronic homeless in this group, even though the population-size (and the causes of it) is fairly constant.