Should poorhouses be built to take the beggars off the streets ?

Question

They could build them themselves in return for board and lodging and a small remuneration for soap etc.

Answer 1

Provocative question. Maybe people found begging should be housed and obliged to do some form of community service to earn back what society is giving to support them. I think this might be helpful to those who really do need help, and it could discourage those who just do it to top up their dole money. It's a shame to see such a potentially large workforce doing nothing instead of contributing to the economy and the good of the nation.

Answer 2

No, because the illegal immigrants are taking them all, and all the f*ckin jobs. Thats why all the BRITISH are poor.

Answer 3

nah. put the chavs in the poorhouse and give the beggars thier houses. At least the beggars go out to work.

Answer 4

yes definietly, we should be doing all we can to get people of our streets.

i knwo its the same old line, but if we didnt go to war. the money spent in one day could build enough cheap accomodation to house people.

but nobody cares do they?

Answer 5

If you build it they will come.

Answer 6

No because there are lots of drug addicts so at the end of the day if you build them they'll still go out and beg to feed their habits.  It's not the 1920's when people begged for food.

Answer 7

who would train the people who want to live in the poorhouses how to build it, the already have places like this

there is one where i live in hull called the warren

Answer 8

Great Britain 2008, What a very sad question. But thanks for asking it.

Answer 9

Yes.It would help them a lot.

Answer 10

Yes they should be given shelter, but I think first thing what should be done is, knowing reason for their poor economic condition and it should be resolved.

Answer 11

the only problem with this idea is that some people are not willing to help themselves. i have many a time seen beggars out in the street begging for money only later to find them in the local train station getting bladdered on bottles of vodka and cider. people like these use peoples pity to then go out and get wasted instead of using it to help themselves by having a meal and a nice warm drink.

Answer 12

In Cuba I observed a project in which the municipality provided land and materials for home construction,,, rather rudimentary but adequate,

Walking by in an evening I would see the family out moving a slip form up the wall, filling it with concrete, and then leaving it to harden. They would  make a room (4 metres  by 4) in a week. They were building long narrow houses so that they could use standardized forms, roof structures etc.  But I observed that some of those houses had grown to 20 metres in length, turned a corner, enclosed a courtyard.

The reason behind this was obvious. These structures were less costly for the government to provide than even factory built apartment buildings.

One grouping of these homes had used Bare land for growing vegetables and a few orange trees. Why not!

Answer 13

Ignoring the fact that you're just proposing to hide poor people from plain sight, how is this a Conservation / Environment question?

Answer 14

They've already got homes, they're just scrounging,and very rewarding it is too. (all tax-free)

Answer 15

Most of Americans are already living in their POOR HOUSES right now! Or haven't you heard that millions of working stiffs are being foreclosed on by the sleazy dealings of mortgage brokers! Surprising how many utterly disgusting people there are when the subject of homelessness comes up.  The only thing these 'beggars' need is a job at a 'living' wage! I work full time,and my wife is on SSI, AND WE ARE JUST ONE PAYCHECK FROM HOMELESSNESS! What is the "magic" transformation that will happen to my wife and I if we find ourselves homeless? Why would you terrible people say or do those things just because a poor person needs help? Aren't many of you standing around waiting for the gracious govt. to give you some 'borrowed' spare change rebate thingy? Aren't you just like the 'off-ramp' beggar? This economy is DEAD! The so called "stimulus" package will only make the corpse TWITCH! The whole story of spending being the thing that drives the economy is just like saying that the trees make the wind blow! You can shake the tree all that you want,but it will never make the wind blow! Let's see how many of you feel about this in a year or two! If you drink out of this water system,you might consider moving away NOW!

Answer 16

You are all heart.

Answer 17

There are already homeless shelters, its just that most are in the city, and sometimes they don't have the right funding to take more people in.

I think there should be more though.

Pacific Garden Missions in Chicago is a very popular shelter, and they also help them get jobs and get on their feet.

Answer 18

No need to.  Successful beggers have their own homes.

Read the link about "The Shaky Lady" in Toronto.

Answer 19

There already are shelters for homeless all over the place..but there are still not enough of them to accommodate the number of homeless out there.  Also, many of the homeless are mentally disabled..they usually don't even seek out shelters nor would they be capable of building one.

Answer 20

The homeless have rights, therefore cannot be forced to live in shelters, poorhouses or special housing.  Many of the homeless do not want to have a permanent home, they have emotional, psychological and drug/alcohol dependence problems that disqualify them for permanent housing.  Many of them should be in mental and rehab hospitals, but because they have rights no one can put them in the hospitals.

Another large group of homeless are simply people who have had illness, lost jobs or other misfortunes.  They would benefit from temporary housing and vocational training.

My wife and I help feed about 200 homeless every week, so we are right there on the front lines and know the situation.  For many of them it is the way they choose to live.  

We have been 2 weeks from being homeless once ourselves. It was not the fault of any rich people, it was due to 9/11 destroying our new business.  In fact several of our customers were very wealthy and spent a lot of money with us, just not enough to stay in business.

Those families who were rich three generations ago are now just well off and many who were born to poorer families are now rich.  The 1% of the population that owns 40% of the wealth is not always the same people, they are constantly changing.  Bill Gates of Microsoft has more money than most countries, yet his father was a lawyer and his mother was a schoolteacher, firmly middleclass, and not wealthy.

Answer 21

Nah they'd still be begging on the streets.

Answer 22

i would not call them all beggers we all have a time in our lives when times get tough,you people should try too get a job without an address and see what your out come is. some are homeless and are on the street because they have nowhere to turn.

Answer 23

Homeless is unequal to poor.

Some homeless people can be not poor. They want their free lives.

Some poor people are not homeless, they need more money to buy food, clothes or so on.

I think we should give poor people houses.

1. Help them to build up confidence

2, Improve their lives

3, Earth resources should be shared

4. Make the street more beautiful

5. People should help each other

6. To prevent the spread of disease. It is easy for them to get sick and, if they just sleep on the street, they make everywhere pathogens,

Answer 24

Sure many on the streets are just irresponsible, addicts etc.   Many hardworking people are one paycheck away from being on the streets also.

Broad generalizations on homelessness are not very useful.  There are many factors.   I would argue that it is a reflection of our society as a whole.

Do you think it might have anything to do with this?

from the Albion Monitor at  http://www.monitor.net/monitor/10-9-95/a...

from results of a study published in the New York times

"And what it says is that the United States of America today has by far the most unequal distribution of wealth in the entire industrialized world. And the article says that:

Recent studies show that rather than being an egalitarian society, the United States has become the most economically stratified of industrialized nations. Even class societies like Britain, which inherited large differences in income and wealth over centuries, going back to their feudal past, now have greater economic equality than in the United States.

Then the article goes on to say:

Federal Reserve figures from 1989, the most recent available, show that the wealthiest 1 percent of American households, with net worth of at least $2.3 million each, own nearly 40 percent of the Nation's wealth.

That in contrast to Britain where the richest 1 percent only own 18 percent of the wealth. So in other words, we are now living in a country from which the richest 1 percent own 40 percent of the wealth, which is more wealth than the bottom 90 percent

the reality is that since 1973, four-fifths, 80 percent of the American workers have experienced falling or stagnant real incomes.

Since 1973, for production workers, there has been a 20-percent decline in real wages."

And it is probably worse than when this was written

Answer 25

In Venezuela, they were considering making it the law that every  bedroom in a house accommodate 3 people.  That would help the homeless problem quite considerably, not to mention, it would be IN YOUR FACE, not in some sort of hidden slums.  

I don't think they went through with the idea.  I don't know.  

I really liked frflyer's answer!  He's right on the money!  It's why we'll never succeed against other serious issues like wars and resource management (Global Warming)

Answer 26

Yes, why not go backwards 100 years to Victorian values.  These people could die quietly behind stone walls without pricking the social conscience, without offending you that you live so well at the expense of others.  I'm sure you feel that's a good idea and may you sleep well.

Answer 27

Lazy s**+ts should have a wash, get a job and then rent a room somewhere, it's a start and then they are on the ladder.

It's a life choice just like drug taking dickheads.

Answer 28

I agree with Pantagruel, and frflyer.  Homelessness is really just a symptom of an ailing society.  You cannot treat the symptoms, without addressing the core cause, and then expect any problem to go away.  *sm*