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HeroOfOldIron t1_j1049bg wrote

Reply to comment by SandyBouattick in Proposed permanent housing building for those experiencing homelessness raises concerns with some Dorchester residents by ak47workaccnt

That's why the state should enforce a minimum amount of housing for homeless people in every major town and city.

The only reason that homeless people congregate at Mass/Cass is because that's where all the support services are. If they were instead spread out all over boston along with a decent amount of housing, then you wouldn't run into the problems that come with a huge encampment of homeless people.

Extending the logic, if Dorchester is the only place with this kind of housing initiative then it's going to run into problems, but with mandatory minimums spread out over the state then no individual neighborhood will run into problems so severe that they can't deal with them.

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SandyBouattick t1_j106mi6 wrote

Good luck passing that in the legislature, where reps vote for the interests of their towns. Also, I agree with you that having housing spread out would make sense, but spreading out the extremely limited free addiction and mental health services is tough. There aren't enough of them to have them available in every town like you want the housing to be. Telling a homeless addict with mental health problems that they get a free apartment in Framingham, but they have to go to Cambridge to get counseling or addiction treatment, isn't going to work for people who typically have no car or income.

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HeroOfOldIron t1_j108558 wrote

Agreed, I meant something more like instead of having one central location that provides food, medical care, housing assistance, etc. for 1000 people, build 20 of them spread out that can each serve 50.

Obviously the numbers aren't representative, but having smaller support centers to provide all of the necessary resources is what we should aim for.

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SandyBouattick t1_j109wlg wrote

It makes sense in theory, but we have a provider shortage. You can imagine that providers working for non-profits serving homeless people aren't making a ton of money. Recruiting them to such an important, but stressful and low-paying position is tough. Having one hub for services maximizes the number of patients you can treat with limited providers. If you spread those providers out, then you probably can't serve as many people. You'd need way more providers to make it work spread out that way, and we already have a shortage. Like everything else in low SES service work, funding is the major limiting factor. When you ask for more money AND for towns to open up homeless addict residential treatment centers in their town, you can probably guess the answer. Most of them are happy to keep those places concentrated where they are.

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