You can visit a city like Helsinki: and yet, there’s barely any homeless people around (of course, homeless people still exist) while comparing that to Los Angeles, it’s a fucking joke. It’s because they prioritize housing for everyone indifferent to their circumstances (even those addicted to drugs or with mental health issues are also sheltered) as they recognize that housing is a human right.
The housing is managed by the state, while Finns pay A TON in taxes at least it’s heading to cover expenses for getting people off the streets. It’s because the Finnish government is on board with putting them into housing while American government demonizes their existence as a whole not even considering them as human beings at all, like WTF is wrong with their mindset?
Have you been to Finland?
6 months of the year, homeless people would freeze to death in short order if they were left outside.
Finland has homeless people, just not on the street.
True, but that does surprisingly little to prevent homelessness.
In Nordic countries homelessness is mostly due to mental illness and drug abuse.
In USA you can end up homeless because you got just a little bit unlucky, and got sick and lost your job, and can’t pay even the basic bills. By a little bit unlucky, I mean it may be very bad in USA, but here we at least have healthcare for all, and we have regulation that ensures we get paid during sick leave.
Yes, but it does a LOT to keep people experiencing homelessness of the streets and in shelter. In US cities that have harsh winters, they also have many fewer homeless folks visible on the streets than you’d find in California or Texas, where people can pretty much live outside in perpetuity
So you’re saying homeless people have, um, homes?
Being in a shelter hardly qualifies as having a home. Unless you like shelters maybe…
If you have a room in a shelter every day, you’re not homeless. It’s not nice, but it’s not homeless.
“not nice” is doing some competition level heavy lifting. Getting barely enough food, just that little bit of hygiene, all your things in one bag, surrounded by helpless or crazy people and desperation so great you are constantly paranoid you might get abused or robbed. All of the safety and security you want a home for is hardly available in a homeless shelter.
It’s like saying being in prison is also living. Sure, on a technicality. But in real life no one would agree - prison makes people age faster for all the wrong reasons.
My immediate thought too. We have homeless people here in Norway too. Homeless does not mean without housing or shelter.
Same is true for much of Canada yet we can’t seem to shelter them either. It isn’t just the weather, the finnish government is far more compassionate towards homeless people than any other government I know of.
Finland winter ranges from 23F to -4F
Similar to Northern US states.