I read the Guardian online each day. I find it to be generally an excellent news source. I find that the best North American news is usually from the Guardian and the BBC.

That perspective is that people are intrinsically bad and must be made to suffer their folly and should only be rewarded for righteousness. The reality from a Humanistic perspective is that people will do what they need to do for survival. Those of us who are in relative comfort and who have not faced that kind of existential threat, don't really seem to understand what people will do to survive, to cope with tremendous pain, to subsist.

Maslow created the Hierarchy of Needs pyramid as the basis for Humanistic Psychology describing motivations for people, with Subsistence or survival needs being the base and Self Actualization being the narrow point of the pyramid.

People are not going to be able to focus, in most cases, on the kind of "beyond the self" thinking that is needed for self improvement, when they don't know where they are going to sleep at night or when their next meal is coming. When those needs are met, then people can move on to more complex social needs. If there is a loving community, whether through family or friends, that helps people then move on to working on themselves and their self image. Finally, when a person has the space to figure out where they belong in the world, then, they can move on to how they will contribute and what kind of legacy they might leave.

Finland and other countries seem to be figuring that out. Hopefully, one day the US will do so.

They would rather skip Christmas than give a needy person a helping hand!

so they want to keep people needy, desperate, and subservient. That's why they put all sorts of draconian restrictions on benefits and obsess over imaginary scenarios of people abusing the system.

You just described their real credo.

and this guy will pay for it. ( i dont want to pay my taxes is the whine .)

Make people so poor that in order to survive they will be servants of the wealthy at rock bottom pay. The same with working in their factories and corporations for minimum pay. The poor young people will have no choice but to go into the military in order to get paid a paltry sum and do the bidding of their masters.

They think they’re brilliant.

It’s a no brainer. The solution to homelessness is a home.

I think it might just be the Salt Lake City area, but I could be wrong on that. But it certainly seems like a no-brainer.

Sometimes avoiding the vices of life can help people think straight in certain scenarios. (that statement could apply to homeless people or Mormons)

of those people's who have fallen by the wayside's needs; food, clothing shelter, meaningful work, etc. They grow their own food and have food banks that in addition to providing food and shelter, offer work. They have social services offices that provide assistance. They take strangers into their homes. Some here may not agree with their Church, but this is one area where they get it right. When I visited there, I was thoroughly impressed with their Church's social safety net. I was surprised by the number of family's that had adopted minority children.

Bravo Finland

How can anyone expect someone to have the energy to engage in treatment when all of their energy is spent seeking food and shelter?

-Puzzler

That the wealthiest nation in the history of the world somehow has such a problem with poverty and homelessness?

"The tragedy is that it’s entirely within our power to do something about it: homelessness is not a choice made by the individual, it is a reality forced by government policy."

Good luck with ever even being able to say that here. Even the MSNBC wouldn't dare say that last phrase on air.

They found it was more economical to build homes for the homeless than "traditional shelter" methods.

Test it out on the wealthy areas of the country and see how it floats. Middle class areas where people are trying to survive day-to-day and , in many cases, their only tangible asset is their homes is not going to welcome this type of program. And yet, that is where it will be tried out.

The reason we have homelessness in America is that we hate the poor. I remember when I first heard a poverty law professor tell me that, I was shocked. I thought, how can that be? How can people hate someone just because they are poor? I was so young and naive then. I now know he spoke the truth.

America's old Puritan beliefs that poverty is caused by laziness, that poverty is a moral failing, continues to hold sway to this day. Until that changes, we will continue to have poverty and homelessness.

https://www.salon.com/2015/04/11/why_we_hate_poor_people_partner/

Would housing be built out in the country somewhere as a new development?

On and on...we refuse to follow the simple directives shared by most religions.

The solution to these so-called social problems are expressed right in the statement of the problem.Just do it. But we humans are so reluctant to give anything to each other we sit back and tsk tsk on how to fix this mysterious problem. And then we choose leaders who are all too willing to do our dirty work under color of authority for profit - by passing laws, exclusions and penalties.

Only thing humans won't do is work together to create a sharing sustainable economy that gives all of us ability to live a life of dignity and sufficiency.

to me for years.

is that the areas with the most homeless are also the areas where housing stock is limited and tight. How can we find housing for the indigent when people with jobs can't afford the housing in these areas?