Discusion about Homelessness and what can we do - Andrea's 1 PM gate code #6087

The discussion will center around Homelessness and possible solutions - part of the intent of the discussion is to discuss a social problem that we can possible do something about.

A number of good article links have been sent out through an email chain and I will post some of them here. Please bear in mind that the articles are for in-person discussion. Online discussions seem to not work as well as in-person discussion.

Just as an FYI, every Sunday morning at Z Mansion in downtown Tucson there is a group that puts on a breakfast for the Homeless. I've been once and hope to start attending more regularly. There are several areas to volunteer - in the kitchen washing and chopping vegetables or helping the actual cooking process. I believe there is also a clinic and possibly some educational activities run by an organization called WorkShip.

One of the benefits of the activity is that it allows you to build your OWN in-person social circle. Many homeless people are homeless because of social isolation, having lost touch with family or friends who might have helped them out or provided a roof over their head and food and connections for productive work.

Feel free to bring useful articles of your own. Let's think about possible solutions - Z mansion is certainly one example of a potential solution - I don't have enough experience with it yet to know if it is actually SUCCESSFUL or not. I feel good working there on Sunday mornings but I'm not sure that in the long run it actually makes a difference. There was an article discussing how in Denver there was a program that gave homeless people 1000 dollars a month for like 18 months but the article did not convince me that it was anything other than a temporary solution which may have actually made things worse in the long run.

Do people appreciate being GIVEN assistance vs. having to work for it? My personal belief is that people would rather work for it but hey, that's why we discuss things!!! Any program that is implemented needs to have some reasonable before and after measures to agree upon its effectiveness