home first
i bash former president george w bush fairly regularly. some say religiously. but no. i bash him cause he deserves it. notice that i called him president bush. usually when i bash him i drop the honorific. cause in that context he doesn't deserve it. but today's different. i explain. homelessness isn't like poverty or starvation. you can make huge reductions in the number of homeless people by giving them homes. like duh. oddly enough. this strategy works. unlike analogous solutions for poverty and starvation. anywho, the status quo is to round up the homeless and offer them this deal: get off drugs and we'll give you a shitty place to stay. stay off drugs and we'll give you a nicer place to stay. and pretty soon you won't need us any more. problem is, it doesn't work. in order to get off drugs you need to have a sanctum sanctorum. a place you can retreat to that's safe. where the bogeymen in the real world can't get you. so there's an anti-homeless program called home first. which does exactly that. it gives people a home first. offers them drug rehab options second. it's much much cheaper than the status quo. cause it gets people off the streets. out of the emergency rooms. and out of the jails. all of which are way more expensive than giving people a tiny apartment for free. president bush adopted this program. and not just on a trial basis. so big fat kudos to him.