• cricket97@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    A majority of the homeless people in my local library are drug addicts. They are not people simply down on their luck. And they will continue to be homeless until they stop taking drugs. As long as they are on drugs/drinking there is no way out. And they refuse treatment most of the time.

    • Phegan@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Drug addict is a disease, not a failing of the individual, we lack the support to aid those with addict to better health.

      Also, I am not saying you are lying, but there is often a direct mental association with the unhoused and addiction. A few of them may be addicts and we extrapolate it to the whole group.

      You don’t understand how addiction or homeless work. They won’t continue to be homeless until they stop taking drugs. They need support systems to aid in recovery, and support for housing. Often times the unhoused become addicts after they experience homelessness, not the other way around, it’s a stress response to self medicate.

      Also, at the end of the day, they are still human, and we should not treat them as anything less. We should not remove services from the whole because we are afraid of the unhoused. So many parks were never built because people were afraid of the unhoused, so many public bathrooms were closed, so many benches removed. We can’t continue on treating them like ourcasts.of society, we need to support them in getting physically and mentally healthy.

      Society has failed them.

      • cricket97@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It absolutely is a failing of the individual. It can still be a “disease” at the same time.

        A few of them may be addicts and we extrapolate it to the whole group.

        Oh please, most of them are. Drug addiction is the leading cause of prolonged homelessness, followed by mental illness.

        Often times the unhoused become addicts after they experience homelessness,

        And often times their addiction caused them to be homeless. I’m not sure what value there is in trying to prove exceptions when the general trends are clear as day.

        Society has failed them.

        I used to work at a homeless shelter when I was doing some community service work and I can tell you first hand most of them don’t want help. They don’t care. They just want drugs. They get offered treatment opportunities all the time but they refuse because they can’t get loaded.