(#5605) Why many of the homeless won't leave the streets

      There are programs everywhere to help those who are on the streets living without homes to find themselves again and get started back into our society of being responsible for ourselves and building a life. Unfortunately it isn't enough for too many who still choose to live in jeopardy on our streets. They see the help offered from governmental services as a double edged sword. Sure, they get relocated to some form of housing with food and job offers but the deal is they cannot carry their bad habits of alcohol and drugs along with them. So too many just say forget about it and keep living on the streets so that they can continue to drug and alcohol at their leisure.
     That is the addiction problem inherent within our homeless community. Sure there are some who want to live off the grid without being addicted to drugs and alcohol but those are not many and they seem to be self sufficient enough to manage their homelessness with some comfort. Yet even they need to have some connection with health services and those services are available. Living in a democracy allows us each to decide the pursuit of our own happiness so forcing folks from the streets into programs of care is not democratic. What we each have to decide is the quality of our lives and contrast that with our options. Many in the homeless community have made that comparison and have yet to decide to change their current homeless situations.
     I have great respect for the many jurisdictions that have been proactive in generating policies and programs that address homelessness and their efforts are not to be denigrated by the choices of the homeless to ignore them. The homeless have options right now to change their lifestyles toward a more healthy and safe environment. What they do with that is on them yet we who are trying to help them change cannot quit on them. They are not in a mental state to objectively see the desperation of their own plight enough as opposed to what good could come from accepting help and leaving their addictions behind. How we build that bridge to overcome their rights as free human beings and helping them see their choices clearly beyond depressive acceptances is our current burden.