Detroit effort puts priority on ending homelessness...

[emu steve]

Some people are homeless merely because of the fact that someone won't give them a home. Those folks will always be homeless. They're mentally ill, addicted to drugs, or have some other kind of issue. Other than free housing, those folks can't be fixed.

We need to concentrate our efforts on folks that don't want to be homeless, folks that want to be employed, folks that want to battle drug addiction, etc...

Eliminating homelessness simply isn't achievable, but we can reduce it and change it for those that want to be helped.

I'm pretty well with you on this:

Knowing what we know on things like intelligence, there are going to be a few percent who are retarded. A few percent who are mentally ill. A few percent with addictions.

Sometimes I'm surprised the homeless problem is worse, but I think I know why: Many end up in jail so instead of being homeless due to mental illness, addictions, etc. They eventually become part of the criminal justice system.

The mentally ill may be involved in violence. The addict in theft and other crimes.

Our mental health system is a total mess despite the presence of meds which could help a lot of people [[that wasn't true 50 years ago).

I bet there are a lot of folks with IQs of say 70 or 75, who could also be diagnosed as schizophrenic out there...