Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Scuba
Scuba's Journal
Scuba's Journal
December 22, 2013
Utah Is on Track to End Homelessness by 2015 With This One Simple Idea
http://www.nationswell.com/one-state-track-become-first-end-homelessness-2015/Give them an apartment first, ask questions later.
Utah has reduced its rate of chronic homelessness by 78 percent over the past eight years, moving 2000 people off the street and putting the state on track to eradicate homelessness altogether by 2015. Howd they do it? The state is giving away apartments, no strings attached. In 2005, Utah calculated the annual cost of E.R. visits and jail stays for an average homeless person was $16,670, while the cost of providing an apartment and social worker would be $11,000. Each participant works with a caseworker to become self-sufficient, but if they fail, they still get to keep their apartment.
MORE: San Franciscos homeless take free showers on a bus retrofitted with bathrooms
Other states are eager to emulate Utahs results. Wyoming has seen its homeless population more than double in the past three years, and it only provides shelter for 26 percent of them, the lowest rate in the country. City officials in Casper, Wyoming, now plan to launch a pilot program using the methods of Utahs Housing First program. Theres no telling how far the idea might go.
Utah has reduced its rate of chronic homelessness by 78 percent over the past eight years, moving 2000 people off the street and putting the state on track to eradicate homelessness altogether by 2015. Howd they do it? The state is giving away apartments, no strings attached. In 2005, Utah calculated the annual cost of E.R. visits and jail stays for an average homeless person was $16,670, while the cost of providing an apartment and social worker would be $11,000. Each participant works with a caseworker to become self-sufficient, but if they fail, they still get to keep their apartment.
MORE: San Franciscos homeless take free showers on a bus retrofitted with bathrooms
Other states are eager to emulate Utahs results. Wyoming has seen its homeless population more than double in the past three years, and it only provides shelter for 26 percent of them, the lowest rate in the country. City officials in Casper, Wyoming, now plan to launch a pilot program using the methods of Utahs Housing First program. Theres no telling how far the idea might go.
December 21, 2013
The Rev. Dr. Love
December 21, 2013
"... the opposite of what America does."
December 21, 2013
It's not an investment if ...
December 21, 2013
Holiday greetings from LaGrinch
December 21, 2013
We're being robbed.
December 21, 2013
Wisconsin: Attention Attorney General VanHollen
December 21, 2013
This one took me a minute
December 21, 2013
There is no Plan B
December 21, 2013
Turns out that having money does make people into jerks.
http://blog.ted.com/2013/12/20/6-studies-of-money-and-the-mind/6 studies on how money affects the mind
As a persons levels of wealth increase, their feelings of compassion and empathy go down, and their feelings of entitlement, of deservingness, and their ideology of self-interest increases, he says in his talk from TEDxMarin. Through surveys and studies, Piff and his colleagues have found that wealthier individuals are more likely to moralize greed and self-interest as favorable, less likely to be prosocial, and more likely to cheat and break laws if it behooves them.
The swath of evidence Piff has accumulated isnt meant to incriminate wealthy people. We all, in our day-to-day, minute-by-minute lives, struggle with these competing motivations of when or if to put our own interests above the interests of other people, he says. Thats understandablein fact, its a logical outgrowth of the so-called American dream, he says. And yet our unprecedented levels of economic inequality are concerning, and since wealth perpetuates self-interest, the gap could continue to widen.
...
On average, households that earned $50,000 to $75,000 gave of 7.6 percent of their income to charity, while those who made make $100,000 or more gave 4.2 percent. Rich people who lived in less economically diversethat is, wealthierneighborhoods gave an even smaller percentage of their income to charity than those in more diverse neighborhoods: in ZIP codes where more than 40 percent of people made more than $200,000 a year, the average rate of giving was just 2.8 percent.
...
The more expensive the car, the less likely the driver was to stop for the pedestrianthat is, the more likely they were to break the law. None of the drivers in the least-expensive-car category broke the law. Close to 50 percent of drivers in the most-expensive-car category did, simply ignoring the pedestrian on the side of the road.
As a persons levels of wealth increase, their feelings of compassion and empathy go down, and their feelings of entitlement, of deservingness, and their ideology of self-interest increases, he says in his talk from TEDxMarin. Through surveys and studies, Piff and his colleagues have found that wealthier individuals are more likely to moralize greed and self-interest as favorable, less likely to be prosocial, and more likely to cheat and break laws if it behooves them.
The swath of evidence Piff has accumulated isnt meant to incriminate wealthy people. We all, in our day-to-day, minute-by-minute lives, struggle with these competing motivations of when or if to put our own interests above the interests of other people, he says. Thats understandablein fact, its a logical outgrowth of the so-called American dream, he says. And yet our unprecedented levels of economic inequality are concerning, and since wealth perpetuates self-interest, the gap could continue to widen.
...
On average, households that earned $50,000 to $75,000 gave of 7.6 percent of their income to charity, while those who made make $100,000 or more gave 4.2 percent. Rich people who lived in less economically diversethat is, wealthierneighborhoods gave an even smaller percentage of their income to charity than those in more diverse neighborhoods: in ZIP codes where more than 40 percent of people made more than $200,000 a year, the average rate of giving was just 2.8 percent.
...
The more expensive the car, the less likely the driver was to stop for the pedestrianthat is, the more likely they were to break the law. None of the drivers in the least-expensive-car category broke the law. Close to 50 percent of drivers in the most-expensive-car category did, simply ignoring the pedestrian on the side of the road.
Profile Information
Member since: Thu Apr 29, 2010, 03:31 PMNumber of posts: 53,475