Many homeless suffer from mental issues. But what's the cause and what's the effect? Are people homeless because they have a mental problem or does homelessness cause mental issues?
In Finland they had been studying the problem for years. Conclusion of the report: the problem most people have with homeless people is that they are out on the streets and cause irritations by begging, being drunk, relieving themselves in alleys, smell bad and so on. The problem for most homeless people turned out to be...not having a home.
This is what Finland did to solve the problem and is now the only country in the world where the number of homeless people has dropped: they gave homes to the homeless.
Click here to see how many homeless people (per 100,000 inhabitants) your country has. For The Netherlands (one of the richest countries in the world!) that number is 23.
What's the number of homeless people in your country?
The good news is that governments are looking at Finland's succes and follow its example. On a tiny scale, but still. Like in Dorset. But only until temperatures rise again. Because apparently homelessness is less of a problem when it's not freezing.
Another 'real English' solution is this plan, launched by The Conservative Party:
(It's not photoshopped but authentic)
But if it solves the problem? Great! But perhaps it's a bit more effective to halve the amount of money billionaires receive in government handouts and use that money to help the homeless.
============
No comments:
Post a Comment