WEBVTT - SYSK Selects: How Homelessness Works 0:00:00.840 --> 0:00:03.880 Hey everyone, Chuck here and welcome to the Saturday Stuff 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:06.760 you Should Know Select episode. I picked this one out 0:00:06.840 --> 0:00:10.400 this week. It's ah well, it's our famous homelessness episode 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:13.720 and for those of you don't know, we recorded this 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:18.119 and released it around Christmas time December ten. We thought 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:20.760 it would give everyone the warm fuzzies and make people 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:24.000 want to go help those in need. But no, actually 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:25.479 it did do that for some of you. But we 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:28.159 actually got a lot of flak over this one, and 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:32.040 very disappointingly, a lot of people wrote in and said, 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:33.960 you know what, people deserve to be homeless. They put 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:37.559 themselves there. I am not supposed to help them if 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:40.800 they can't help themselves, screw it. And that was really 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:43.199 disappointed to hear. But we stand by the show. I 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:45.879 think it's a good one. So please to enjoy our 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:48.680 episode on homelessness from two thousand ten and have a 0:00:48.720 --> 0:00:56.960 great Saturday. Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House 0:00:56.960 --> 0:01:05.360 Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:08.240 I'm Josh Clark. With me is Charles W. Chuck Bryant. 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:11.360 Fresh off of the Stuff you Should Know Facebook page, 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:15.040 where we've been discussing all manner of interesting stuff like 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:17.959 Bob Ross has come up. Have you been posting Bob 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:22.000 Ross videos? He's the best? Yes? I posted. I posted 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:26.000 the Peanuts Christmas time? Is here a little segment? Uh, 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:28.720 you've been posting some pretty good stuff too, but thank you? 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:31.240 What's what's some what's one of your favorite things that 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:35.360 have gotten people buzzing lately? Did I post about Bonnie 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:37.240 Prince Billy or was that on my own Facebook page? 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:40.600 I don't know. Yeah, did you know? Because you would 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:42.960 have taken it down? I would not have. I would 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:45.920 respect your post. I'm sleepy today because of Bunny Prince 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:48.240 Billy last night. I would scoff at it, but I 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:50.400 wouldn't take it down. I love that. That's become a 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:53.400 running gag. Is me loving him and you're making fun 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:58.680 of him? Go ahead, okay, you ready for me to 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:02.560 make fun of him. I'm not going to. He seems 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:08.840 like a nice guy. Okay, So Chuck Chucker's um. I 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:14.440 wrote a blog post actually recently on homelessness. I read it. 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:17.920 Did you read it? Really? I read your stuff? Man? 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:23.480 Are you kidding? I'm a fan? Really? Yes? Really? So? 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:26.680 The whole thing, then, you know this already was centered 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:31.360 around well, it started around this UM, this news that 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:36.840 came out in July that the homeless, the population of 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:42.080 homeless school children had risen dramatically to about one million 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:48.119 kids in US schools, public schools, I would imagine who 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:53.040 are homeless? Yeah? Right, and uh in one particular area, 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:58.480 I think by the numbers statistically speaking, in Sue Falls, 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:02.440 South Dakota, that's a homeless kid per classroom. Yeah, they 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:06.200 had a huge increase didn't they there. Oh yeah, something 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:09.080 like that in that state period. Yeah, in uh, in 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:15.160 Sioux Falls school District, it's jump over the last five years. 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:19.320 And what in Texas like a hundred plus percent. Yeah, 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:25.040 So across the across the US, there's been UM an 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:29.760 increase of forty one percent nationwide, right of school children, Yes, 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:33.440 of homeless school children and um, the so Texas has 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:36.200 seen an increase of a hundred and thirty nine percent, UM, 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:39.360 Iowa a hundred and thirty six percent. The lowest of 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:43.400 the highest five is New Jersey with an eight percent increase. 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:46.440 And this is, of course, i'll due to the great 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:49.880 recession that's going on right now, right of course. And 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:53.000 somebody actually posted I haven't read the links, but somebody 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:56.000 actually posted a comment on the blog that said, Um, 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:59.160 you know it's bad enough. You know, homeless school ChIL 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:02.760 children are to pressing enough. But you know there's plenty 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:06.080 of homeless kids out there who aren't in school. Well yeah, sure, 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:09.360 you think about that. So with the economic recession is 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:14.280 clearly to blame for this increase in homeless school children. Um. 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:16.240 And there's a lot of other factors that over the 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:19.440 years have contributed to homelessness, which we'll talk about. But Chuck, 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:22.960 let's talk about homelessness in the United States, shall we? 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:25.279 And we should say we're just going to concentrate in 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:27.920 the United States. Actually, I've got a few stats. Do 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:31.359 you have, Well, just some stats, Okay, so let's go 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:34.200 ahead and talk about this and get the around the 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:37.880 world out of the way. Worldwide, they they approximate, and 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:41.200 we should go ahead and say that counting homeless people 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:47.120 is is a tough bag because they changes drastically week 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:49.680 to week sometimes. Well, we should say that there's two 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:52.400 ways of doing it. One is it's called a point 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:56.080 in time count, where it's basically like, all right, everybody, 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:58.960 go count the homeless people in your area today, right 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:02.880 on this one for picular night. And then um reported 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:05.320 in and then we'll tally the numbers. And then the 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:08.480 other way to do it is UM basically over a year, 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:13.320 and that's like a huge undertaking UM usually done by 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:17.680 the Census Bureau. UM that identifies, you know, how many 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:19.719 people have used homeless shelters, how many of them have 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:22.200 been different, and it comes up with a pretty rough number. 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:25.000 Well yeah, but one of the reasons it's it's difficult 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:30.119 is because fortunes change rapidly in this crazy, fast moving world, 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:34.200 and homeless people sometimes are in cars and campgrounds and 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:36.360 places where you can't find them, so it's tough to 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:38.960 get the dead accurate numbers. But having said all that, 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:42.200 my friend, I do have some stats worldwide. Approximately one 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:46.120 hundred people around the world are homeless, uh the u N. 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:49.080 And what you say, a hundred million people in the world. 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:51.520 It sounds like you just said a hundred one million, 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:54.640 Uh the u N. It says there's about thirty million 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:56.920 displaced indigenous people. I don't know if they count that 0:05:56.960 --> 0:06:00.159 as homeless necessarily, I would imagine so that to be 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:02.839 a part of that larger number. UM. And then I 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:06.680 started thinking about, like, are there homeless everywhere? And of 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:09.480 course there are, but I said, what about places like 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:13.599 Sweden and Norway, like where you would not expect homeless people, 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:16.719 They have them there, But Sweden only has about seventeen 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:20.600 thousand homeless out of nine point three million people. It's 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:24.320 this pretty small percentage. Uh. Norway though, has one point 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:27.599 for homeless people per every one thousand people, which is 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:32.400 it's not too far off America's percentage really because we 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:37.000 have about one percent right two About three to three 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:39.120 point five million people is the latest number I saw. 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:41.880 The latest number I saw, it was actually less than that. 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:44.960 What was it? And this this doesn't make sense because 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:48.520 it's it's to the the the homelessness population has increased 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:52.760 right in the US since the recession. So the two 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:57.400 thousand five number I think was two point three and 0:06:57.520 --> 0:07:00.880 three point five million between those two right like like 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:03.960 you just said. But then there's another one from two 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:08.839 thousand nine. It's one point five six. So the numbers 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:11.080 are all over the place. A bet this not right. 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:17.160 So that's a little bit from around the world, Russia, China, Africa, Canada. 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:20.080 It happens everywhere, but most of this is U S 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:23.640 base because that's where we are. What we can say, though, 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:28.600 is that percentage wise, there's a disproportionate number of minorities 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:31.440 that are homeless. Minorities in this country make up about 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:34.560 twelve percent of the population, and African Americans make up 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:42.240 about fifty and another are Hispanic right, homeless in the 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:46.560 United States, right, African Americans are the account for between 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:51.680 thirty eight and of the homeless population, right, but they 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:55.480 only make up about twelve percent of the US population. Right, 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:58.560 And uh, this is you know, obviously you'll see most 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:00.120 of this in big cities, but it's a problem in 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:04.920 rural areas as well as well as well. And typically 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:09.920 homeless families make up a greater proportion of the homeless 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:14.400 in rural areas, which is that's any kind of homelessness 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:18.040 is sad, But an entire family being homeless, iss, that's 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:21.239 really tough. Chuck. We we talked about what was driving 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:27.480 homelessness right now. Driving the increase is the recession, but um, 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:35.400 in the late twentie and this century as well. First, right, UM, 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:39.160 there's been a combination of factors and the two biggest 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:44.560 drivers are poverty, an increase in poverty, and UM a 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:50.719 decrease in the availability of affordable housing, two huge factors. 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:53.480 In addition to others that we'll talk about later, um, 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:58.079 that have contributed to people not having a home. The 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:01.360 saddest stat what a well, because we'll talk about all 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:05.439 the other factors like drugs and alcohol and mental health 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:07.400 and stuff like that, but it's sad that the reason 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:11.080 why people aren't have homes because they can't afford housing. Right. 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:13.680 And here's here's something I just want to put this 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:16.400 out there now. I was reading a history of homelessness 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:20.960 in the US UM and the author was basically saying, 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:26.840 homelessness been around forever, like apparently, um, fourteenth century England 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:32.000 had vagrancy laws, right, people have been homeless, have been um, 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:34.200 not necessarily living on the streets, but don't have a 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:37.360 permanent residence. And that's an important point too. When we 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:41.400 talk about homelessness, we're not just talking about people sleeping 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:43.959 on the streets. We're not just talking about people sleeping 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:47.720 in emergency shelters or even in their cars. The true 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:51.920 genuine definition of homelessness is you don't have a home, 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:54.880 you don't have a place that's your own, you're staying 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:58.120 with family, you live in a weekly motel. That that's 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:02.160 homeless as well. Yeah true, right, Um, But back to 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:05.160 the uh the history of homelessness. The author was saying, 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:08.880 you know, we've had homeless in the US since we've 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:13.679 been here. Um, the differences. We used to have homeless 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:17.360 because we couldn't afford to give them work. I couldn't 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:20.440 afford to take care of them. Now we can't afford 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:23.800 to take care of them. We just don't write you know. Well, yeah, 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:25.840 that's interesting. You brought that up because I was reading 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:29.400 about other countries. In America seems to be unique in 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:32.679 a very bad way, and that a lot of Americans 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:38.520 feel like it's deserved and because you messed up by 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:41.240 doing something really bad or you're on alcohol or drugs, 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:44.040 and a lot of Americans take that attitude that homeless 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:47.040 people deserve to be homeless, and then most of the 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:49.920 rest of Americans just don't think about it at all, 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:53.120 and it's a very invisible problem, right or there are 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:56.600 you know, people that do care and don't think they 0:10:56.600 --> 0:11:01.360 deserve it, and they're what we call good people or advocates. Yeah, 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:23.960 so how do people get homeless? Josh, Well, Chuck, let's 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:27.920 talk about it. We we said that poverty and um, 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:30.520 the lack of affordable housing are two of the biggest 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:38.040 drivers um with with poverty. Okay, right now, when you 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:42.680 when you quantify poverty and the poverty line, you basically 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:46.800 figure out how much the average person pays in a 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:50.079 state or in a nation or something like that for housing, utilities, food, 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:52.720 that kind of thing. Then you set a line and 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:56.679 say anything below this is you're eligible for government assistance. 0:11:56.800 --> 0:12:01.880 Right your your poverty stricken. UM. In the US, the 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:05.800 poverty line is somewhere around seventeen grand a year for 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:08.840 a family of three. Right. The problem is there's a 0:12:08.840 --> 0:12:13.080 big disparity between the poverty line and the minimum wage. 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:16.400 So the federal minimum wage is seven dollars and twenty 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:20.520 five cents an hour. Right, for a person to work 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:25.400 forty hours a week, that's a normal work week, UM, 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:29.600 fifty two weeks a year, vacation none, like they work 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:32.360 five days a week every week. Uh, they would gross 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:37.040 fifteen thousand, eighty dollars. That's not very much money, right, 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:39.800 So you're actually falling below the poverty line making the 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:44.760 federal minimum wage. Right, and then consider that actually too 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:50.960 afford a two bedroom apartment. This is the median for 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:54.320 across the states. Uh, to afford a two bedroom apartment 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:57.680 at thirty of your income, which is the definition of 0:12:57.679 --> 0:13:03.559 affordable housing. UM at seven, making seven, you'd have to 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:07.080 work eighty seven hours a week. Ridiculous. So there's a 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:09.560 big part of the problem right there. Well, yeah, it said. 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:11.160 One of the stats in here that was shocking was 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:15.240 about fiftcent of homeless people actually have jobs. So, um, 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:20.600 I saw actually not in this article, but I just 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:25.560 across the internet. Well, what is clear is that a 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:28.000 lot of people end up homeless that I don't think 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:31.280 they would ever end up homeless. They live paycheck to paycheck. 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:33.199 They have a job and they're getting by, but then 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:35.600 something happens. They either lose a job, or they have 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:40.240 some outrageous medical bills, or some catastrophe happens, and then 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:43.680 your average Joe or Jane with a job can find 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:48.080 themselves homeless, like pretty easily. Sometimes it's not always just 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:52.680 some schizophrenic who has a heroin problem, you know, right. 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:56.400 In fact, most of the time I would say it's not. Um. 0:13:56.920 --> 0:14:00.640 We also talked about a lack of affordable housing, right 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:05.720 we said, the definition of affordable housing is of your income. UM. 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:14.400 Apparently there are five million that you're shooting for. Yeah, yeah, 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:18.360 five million US households pay more than half of their 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:22.120 income in rent, Right, that is unbelievable. That's called worst 0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:24.600 case scenario. And the rule of thumb is if you 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:30.000 pay a quarter, you're doing good. Yeah yeah, so yeah, 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:33.120 half of your income in rent, you're in a bad, 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:36.640 bad way. Um, that all shouldn't be living in whatever 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:39.920 big city you're living in. Well, that also encompasses that 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:42.480 worst case scenario. Also encombs as people who live in 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:46.680 substandard housing as well. So, um, it's not just how 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:49.440 much you're paying out, it's what you're paying for, right, 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:52.360 or a combination of the two, right, Um, part of 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:56.040 the problem. Chuck, do you remember tech Wood? Yeah, techwood housing, 0:14:56.120 --> 0:15:02.120 techwood housing. Uh no, it's not. And that, um, the 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:05.160 demolished Remember they demolished tech Wood, which is like the 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:08.080 projects in Atlanta right before the Olympics. They were just 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:10.880 gone and it was like, okay, all you poor people, 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:13.160 you don't have to go home because you don't have 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:16.120 one anymore, but you can't stay here. And that was that. 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:19.520 And apparently there's a there there. That was a nationwide 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:24.120 trend since the eighties. Yes, between eight and two thousand three, 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:29.320 more than two million low rent housing units were basically 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:32.680 either demolished or turned into you know, high rise, expensive 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:35.360 high rises. And during that same period from eighty to 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:41.360 two thousand three, government assistance for housing UM fell by half, 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:44.680 decreased by half. So that's gonna equal a lot of homeless. 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:46.360 So it's not and not only are we not helping 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:51.360 the homeless, we're actually creating homeless. Right. So, uh, we 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:55.120 talked about obviously pay and being down on your luck 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:59.240 temporarily living paycheck to paycheck, why else would you become home? Well, 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:02.240 you kind of hit the the nail on the head 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:05.560 a little bit when you talked about heroin addicted schizophrenics. 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:10.200 Those those can be a combination of those two or separately. 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:13.720 Mental illness and addiction are two big factors in homelessness 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:20.040 as well with mentally ill um. Apparently about twenty of 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:23.200 all homeless people have some type of mental illness. That 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:25.520 brings up a really interesting point. Have you ever heard 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:29.000 the urban legend that Ronald Reagan is responsible for the 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:32.120 increase in homelessness because he closed down all of the 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:35.480 mental institutions. Yes, I have heard that that's actually not 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:38.200 too far off the mark. When he was governor of 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.360 California from like sixty seven to seventy four. He shut 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:46.240 down a lot of these state run psychiatric hospitals. When 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:49.400 he became president. One of the major things he cut 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:53.600 funding too was the treatment of mental illness. And because 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:57.280 of this cut and funding, a lot of mental hospitals 0:16:57.280 --> 0:16:59.920 shut down and a lot of mentally ill people found 0:16:59.920 --> 0:17:04.520 themselves homeless. So kind of indirectly in that sense, he 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:08.359 he definitely contributed to an increase in homelessness. Well, should 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:11.120 we go ahead and talk about the McKinley Vento Act then, 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:15.760 since we're talking Reagan, Well, yeah, now that here we go. 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:21.280 He also signed the first and it says only Significant 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:27.879 Homeless Act of Congress. Yeah, the McKinley McKinney Vento Act 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:30.400 that was had a different name, but then they named 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:33.479 it after Stuart McKinney and Bruce Vento, who were two 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:35.800 of the biggest champions, and it had all sorts of 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:41.200 cool programs in it, right, Yeah, emergency shelter, transitional housing, healthcare, food, 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:45.600 job training, substance abuse services, all kinds of cool stuff. Yeah. 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:48.440 And it's really ironic that he he was the president 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:51.960 that signed that into law because he is also widely 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:55.240 credited in this kind of take off so many Republican listeners. 0:17:55.720 --> 0:18:00.040 He is widely credited as creating the homeless problem in 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:05.000 the US, not just through de institutionalization, but through the 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:10.120 creation of the wealth gap that we've seen between nineteen 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:13.800 eighty and now. You talked about substance abuse, and about 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:16.680 two thirds of homeless people struggle with some kind of 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:21.360 alcohol or drug problem, not surprisingly, and then uh, sadly, 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:24.080 domestic violence has a big part to do with it, 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:27.600 especially with women. About half the women are battered women, 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:31.640 and they oftentimes don't have anywhere to go. They'll flee 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:34.560 there if if they're brave enough to actually flee they're 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:38.520 jerk husband, abuse of husband, then there they have nowhere 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:40.760 to be because their husband might be the sole breadwinner 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:43.960 and in that kind of circumstance, so they have battered 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:47.480 women shelters that God for, just for women that that 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:51.439 suffer from abuse, and kids too. I think half of 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:58.240 a runaway homeless runaways, Um, we're fleeing domestic abuse or 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:01.879 homeless kids on their own. I guess we're fleeing domestic abuse, 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:06.560 and about we're fleeing sexual abuse. Yeah, right, But it 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:10.520 doesn't stop there. Unfortunately, when you are homeless on the street, 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:15.360 you encounter even more abuse. Many times you leave home, 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:17.680 you leave an abusive situation at home, you live on 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:19.520 the street. Then you get attacked on the street for 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:23.640 being homeless, or you are forced into doing really bad 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:27.680 things for food and shelter and stuff like that, untoward 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:31.879 things at the bus station. At the bus station, and veterans, Josh, 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:33.840 are a big part of our homeless problem. And that 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:37.080 I can't say saddest of all because it's all really sad. 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:40.439 But when you're veterans, when you've got to fight for 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:43.800 this country and you end up one of the two 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:48.320 hundred thousand homeless single men, usually with mental illness substance 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:52.120 abuse problems because of maybe post traumatic stress disorder, that 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:55.879 is heartbreaking. Yeah, and and again you just keep hitting 0:19:55.920 --> 0:19:58.480 that nail right on the head man. There's a lot 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:03.840 of overlapping problems or factors of in homelessness. Like you know, veterans, 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:07.440 Maybe homeless veterans may be more prone to having a 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:10.439 substance abuse problem or suffering from a mental illness like 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:14.760 PTSD or substance abuse and mental illness overlap and other 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:18.119 people as well. Uh, And part of the problem is 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:21.199 you get to get into a vicious cycle. There are 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:27.840 far few services, far fewer services available easily accessible on 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:30.840 the street. Um then there are if you have a 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:32.720 house and an income and an address and a fine 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:36.159 number and all the normal stuff that that you just 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:38.119 kind of need to be able to get by in 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:41.480 the US these days. And you know, you you look 0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:44.920 at something like the Department of Veterans Affairs, which does 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:47.280 as good a job as they can as far as 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:51.679 I know, but they can only accommodate about of homeless veterans. 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:53.879 But what's so frustrating is that they coul accommodate all 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:56.720 of them. They could if they wanted, if they had not, 0:20:56.760 --> 0:20:58.679 if they wanted to, if they had the funding. So 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:02.760 you see these record bonuses for CEOs on one hand, 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:06.960 and then you hear about homeless veterans. The money's out there, yes, 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:09.240 And I'm glad it was veterans that got you. I 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:12.240 hope it's homeless school children that gets somebody else. I 0:21:12.280 --> 0:21:16.520 hope somebody hears this and realizes that we have all 0:21:16.560 --> 0:21:20.040 the money we need to get it's just some of 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:22.120 the wealthiest are gonna have to give up a little 0:21:22.160 --> 0:21:24.159 bit of it. So that some of the poorest have 0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:28.080 a house. It's as simple as that we have the means, 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:30.480 just that the will. Yeah, and we're not talking about 0:21:30.880 --> 0:21:33.480 just some social program with these alcoholics living off my dime. 0:21:33.520 --> 0:21:37.800 We're talking about homeless veterans and children and abused women. 0:21:38.200 --> 0:21:41.480 And even if it is alcoholic veterans, we've already learned. 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:44.600 Have we not learned already that alcoholism and all addiction 0:21:44.760 --> 0:21:47.280 is a brain disease that follows the brain disease model 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:50.439 these days, you need treatment. Well, that's the whole stupid 0:21:50.440 --> 0:21:52.359 American idea that I talked about, was that some people 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:54.280 feel like they deserve to be homeless. They see him 0:21:54.320 --> 0:21:55.879 on the street and they think, what did you do 0:21:55.920 --> 0:21:58.600 to get here? Yeah, instead of what can I do 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:02.080 to help you? Yeah? Well, this is touched a nerve today. 0:22:02.840 --> 0:22:08.960 It's homelessness. Really shocked. But I'm glad, I'm angry, That's 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:11.320 what I'm saying. Okay, I'm glad you're angry too, Chuck. 0:22:11.720 --> 0:22:15.760 So Josher's uh, let's talk about some of the effects. 0:22:16.240 --> 0:22:18.920 And a lot of these you can file under duh. 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:23.400 But it bears saying, well, you're talking about women's shelters. Yeah, well, 0:22:23.440 --> 0:22:26.399 women's shelters only let in women. And if you have 0:22:26.480 --> 0:22:30.080 a teenage son, do you can kiss him goodbye? Yeah? 0:22:30.240 --> 0:22:36.160 So bye bye family unit. Uh. Physical attacks homeless people 0:22:36.160 --> 0:22:41.560 are attacked and beaten, kicked, chained, fet on, gurnated, spray 0:22:41.560 --> 0:22:46.119 painted people, lit on fire, pet on is pretty bad. Yeah, 0:22:46.280 --> 0:22:48.760 just because they're homeless. People will go out and beat 0:22:48.840 --> 0:22:53.120 up homeless people. Yeah. Well there's like a whole line 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:57.240 of thinking that like serial killers, practice on drifters, or 0:22:58.480 --> 0:23:33.199 sure health effects for kids. Um, if you're homeless, you're 0:23:33.240 --> 0:23:37.119 gonna have a higher rate of stomach problems, asthma, ear infections, 0:23:37.160 --> 0:23:44.960 Depression anxiousness PTSD is pretty prevalent. Yeah, it's a cause 0:23:45.000 --> 0:23:48.479 of ang is caused by homelessness and not just um 0:23:48.640 --> 0:23:51.879 adults but kids as well. Right, Like, you can actually 0:23:51.880 --> 0:23:54.600 start to develop PTSD because you don't know where you're 0:23:54.640 --> 0:23:58.199 going to sleep the next night. I mean think about it, Chuck, Like, 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:03.040 have you ever been without a home? H No? Like 0:24:03.240 --> 0:24:05.480 I I would think it can be really weird to 0:24:05.640 --> 0:24:08.000 not know where you're going to stay or did not 0:24:08.119 --> 0:24:10.000 just you know, have a hard day at work or 0:24:10.040 --> 0:24:12.959 a hard day at school and to go to know 0:24:13.200 --> 0:24:15.800 that at the end of this day. You have no 0:24:15.840 --> 0:24:17.600 idea where you're gonna sleep. Maybe you're gonna sleep in 0:24:17.600 --> 0:24:19.320 your car, maybe you're gonna sleep in the woods. But 0:24:19.760 --> 0:24:23.240 you don't get to just rest. You don't get to 0:24:23.320 --> 0:24:26.080 just take a shower, pop a beer and watch you know, 0:24:26.160 --> 0:24:29.680 TV or whatever it takes the unwine. So you're you're 0:24:30.160 --> 0:24:35.000 stress level is heightened constantly without any resolution to it. 0:24:35.080 --> 0:24:37.479 And of course you're going to suffer PTSD or at 0:24:37.520 --> 0:24:42.840 least stomach aches something bad. Adults too. It's not just kids. 0:24:42.880 --> 0:24:49.280 They can get frostbite, leg ulcers, respiratory infections, HIV and AIDS, 0:24:49.280 --> 0:24:53.960 and diabetes way more common than homeless population. So lots 0:24:54.000 --> 0:24:59.400 of health effects going on. Josh, I agree, Chuck so check. 0:24:59.720 --> 0:25:03.800 We talked about UM Reagan as both creator and alleviator 0:25:04.080 --> 0:25:07.840 of homelessness. UM. You you talked about some of the 0:25:07.840 --> 0:25:12.280 programs that the McKinney Vento Act created. UM. Some of 0:25:12.280 --> 0:25:15.880 the other programs that have been developed in the United 0:25:15.960 --> 0:25:20.760 States are UM like Section eight housing. Yeah, right, do 0:25:20.800 --> 0:25:24.840 you know about this? That's uh, well, that there's there's 0:25:24.880 --> 0:25:29.639 homeless shelters which are like the emergency beds when it's cold. 0:25:29.760 --> 0:25:32.480 That kind of thing where you can go temporarily, right, 0:25:32.520 --> 0:25:35.639 And a lot of those are I would say most 0:25:35.760 --> 0:25:37.440