Okunrinboye

Isaac Okunrinboye

Professor Marisa Koulen and Professor Ann Kroger

English 1301

2 November 2022

The Route to a Better Society

The two articles, namely "why we should give free money to everyone" and "how

Houston moved 25000 people from the streets into homes of their own," avail evidence on

the effectiveness of meeting problems and needs head-on. Social programs fail at

rehabilitating or improving the lives of the people they target because they do not solve the

actual situation facing them. As Lee (2022) states, “When you’re drowning, it doesn’t help if

your rescuer insists you learn to swim before returning you to shore. You can address your

issues once you’re on land.” This essay will present an argument for direct investment in

solving people's needs and analyse the ethical considerations surrounding such an initiative.

In the first article, when the residents of Dauphine in Mincome were given a monthly

paycheck as part of a social experiment, their lives improved drastically. Instead of ceasing to

work, the opposite occurred. Young people used the basic income to conduct more studies,

women used it for a few months of maternity leave, and breadwinners rarely reduced their

working hours. While the birth rate decreased, the average age of marriage increased. The

Mincome cohort had higher rates of school completion. The people completed only 13%

fewer hours of work overall. The hospital visits decreased by 8.5%, which was Forget’s, the

study researcher’s, most impressive finding. It resulted in enormous savings—more than

$200 billion annually in the United States in today's money. Domestic violence statistics and

mental health also improved after a few years. Mincome improved the town's overall health.

The basic income continued to impact the following generation’s health and wealth

(Bregman, 2013).
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Likewise, the housing program in Houston has accommodated over 25,000 people,

who have, in turn, gone ahead to improve their lives. By having a roof over their heads, they

have sought employment, accessed education, and generally improved their daily lives. For

instance, Ms. Harris, whom Lee (2022) was tracking for her study after enrolling in the

Houston housing program, stated, “I’ve learned how to save money, how to be an adult —

how to be a mother. I want to finish college and watch my baby go to school and

graduate.” She could regain focus in her life by simply having access to housing, assuming

more responsibility in raising her child, and improving herself. The Houston area's homeless

population has decreased by 63% since 2011, according to the most recent statistics provided

by local authorities. Houston reduced homelessness during the previous ten years twice as

well as the rest of the world nation, even when measured by the more moderate parameters

listed in a 2020 government report. It now takes an average of 32 days for homeless veterans

to get housing compared to 760 days and 76 bureaucratic procedures before implementing the

program (Lee, 2022).

In the 1980s, Dr. Sam Tsemberis started noticing that the patients he was treating in

inpatient care at the hospital were living in the streets once they got discharged from the

hospital, often in the same pyjamas they had during their stay at the hospitals. Upon asking

them what the problem was, many of them repeatedly told him they just wanted a decent

house to overcome their homelessness. Instead of wasting funds on social rehabilitation and

self-improvement programs, Dr. Sam Tsemberis and some colleagues started providing direct

housing to homeless individuals by simply taking them from the streets and giving them a

house without any condition apart from signing their lease and paying rent. The program was

extraordinarily successful. In treatment programs, it is expected that a third of the people will

do better, another third will be worse off, and the last third will not change. However, through
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the program, 84% of the fifty individuals enrolled in the program were still housed, which

made the doctor realize that they had unearthed something profound (BBC News, 2016).

Often, such direct intervention is frowned upon and even outrightly opposed. In most

cases, direct intervention in providing solutions is seen as giving people 'freebies', which will

make the people lazy. This line of thinking also applies to giving people money. For instance,

The Salvation Army, which offers temporary emergency lodging in certain of its living

houses, discourages donating money to the homeless. They state that doing so risks

"trapping" them in an "endless cycle" of vagrancy, especially for those struggling with drug

and alcohol problems. The organization insists on buying hot food, a cup of coffee, or warm

clothing as the best approach to helping homeless people (Bulman, 2018). Whereas the

Salvation Army focuses on determining the initial origins of homelessness and offering

useful support, it overlooks that most homeless people are homeless because they do not have

enough money to rent a house. As the Denver experiment, like the Dauphin basic income

program, revealed, people did not stop working because they had a basic income but instead

focused on self-improvement initiatives such as going back to school and focusing on careers

such as art (Bregman, 2013).

Other opponents to free housing for the homeless point out that there is runaway

homelessness simply because there is not enough housing. They often associate the lack of

housing with inflated costs. For instance, citing the high expenses required to create low-

income housing, California decided to freeze expenditures in this area. Likewise, Utah, a

state lauded for "fixing" its homelessness issue, is currently experiencing a scarcity of cheap

housing that endangers the overall sustainability of its housing-first policy (The Tylt, 2017).

Inflated cost, coupled with the fear of independent women, is also why the social welfare

system that would have seen every American get a basic income in the 1970s failed

(Bregman, 2013).
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Giving homeless people homes is an ethical undertaking. The government spends

significantly less on housing people than other social programs designed to improve their

lives. According to a study, homeless people visit the emergency room five times yearly, with

the average cost per visit being $3,700. Conversely, by giving them housing, the cost of

medical care reduces drastically. Healthcare, emergency rooms and hospitalizations costs for

general inpatients decreased by 59%, 61% and 77%, respectively (The Tylt, 2017).

Therefore, providing housing to homeless people is ethical because it saves taxpayers money.

Likewise, giving homeless people money is ethical because it helps them meet basic needs.

Contrary to the common wisdom that giving money to homeless people only leads to drug

and substance abuse, research reveals otherwise. A panhandling study in San Francisco

revealed that 94% of the money given to panhandlers is used for purchasing food. Also, they

often need money for other needs, such as bathing in gyms and other sanitary uses (Horvath,

2017).

It is also ethical to give homeless people accommodation because programs that

prioritize housing have a history of success. The housing first service, although still

experiencing several challenges, has been proven to be more impactful than social programs.

In contrast to individuals who got standard care, Housing First participants spent 73% of their

time in stable housing. Furthermore, Housing First may lead to less use of emergency room

services, fewer hospitalizations, and shorter hospital stays compared to standard care,

according to a meta-analysis of controlled trials (Tsai, 2020). As discussed earlier, the

Housing program in Houston indicates that giving people housing is a practical approach to

countering homelessness. About 549,928 people were homeless in 2016, according to the

Housing and Urban Development's Department, despite existing approaches to addressing

homelessness (The Tylt, 2017). This reality shows that alternatives such as free housing

should be considered viable solutions to this nightmare.

This paper demonstrates that direct-impact solutions to problems in society, such as

giving affordable housing and money to homeless and needy people, can be effective.

Contrary to widely held belief, people are poor because they do not have money, not because

they cannot think. The numerous articles cited in this paper show that people are willing to

better their lives if their immediate problem is solved. Giving the people of Dauphine a

minimum income improved their living standards, allowed them to better themselves by

furthering their education, and impacted their future generations through a sturdy foundation.

Likewise, the Houston project has allowed 25000 people to regain their focus in life and start

the journey of self-improvement. Governments worldwide need to consider direct solutions to

their citizenry's needs as an effective method of improving lives.

Works Cited

BBC News. (2016, April 26). Should we give every homeless person a

home? https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36092852

Bregman, R. (2013, December 24). Why we should give free money to everyone. The

Correspondent. https://thecorrespondent.com/541/why-we-should-give-free-money-

to-everyone/20798745-cb9fbb39

Bulman, M. (2018, January 10). More than 9,000 people are sleeping rough in Britain - but

should you give homeless people money? The

Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/should-we-give-

homeless-money-a8124951.html

Horvath, M. (2017, March 31). Giving money to homeless people is okay.

HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/giving-money-to-homeless-people-is-

okay_b_58de9ef7e4b0ca889ba1a57b

Lee, C. (2022, June 14). How Houston moved 25,000 people from the streets into homes of

their own. The New York Times - Breaking News, US News, World News and

Videos. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/14/headway/houston-homeless-

people.html

Tsai, J. (2020). Is the Housing First model effective? Different evidence for different

outcomes. American Journal of Public Health, 110(9), 1376-

1377. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2020.305835

The Tylt. (2017, July 10). Should we give the homeless free housing? | The

Tylt. https://thetylt.com/culture/should-we-give-the-homeless-free-housing-2

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