among homeless people by as much as 90%. This experience creates a compelling case for how expanding eligibility produces broader societal benefits.
A social-services official in London described the case of a man who had been a heroin addict for 20 years and slept rough for 15 of them. He accepted a hotel room after years of insisting upon his independence and rejecting shelter. Once in a hotel room, he received social support to help him stay drug-free and other assistance, including counseling. He has since moved from the covid hotel to his own private flat—a success that took the crisis of covid-19 to achieve.
A curious dimension to the homelessness crisis is the number of people who choose to stay on the street. It is hard to believe that someone who sleeps rough would not accept the offer of a shelter bed. Yet for many, the ability to lie down where they choose, often with a group of friends that look out for each other, is greater comfort than sleeping in a rule-bound dormitory among strangers. But this logic changed when, because of covid-19, the accommodation on offer changed.
The lesson is that the bureaucratic assembly-lines that characterise homeless services may satisfy auditors, but they undermine the very reason the services exist and must be constantly questioned by front-line workers who face the human need for services on a daily basis.
What's the betting though that we go back to stepping over the homeless soon enough?