Thanks Onslow!
Over all, your comment and assessments are pretty spot on. As you made mentioned, the vast majority of social services- and other forms of goverment/public aide -have either been wholly inadequate or simply incapable of properly addressing this plight. As such, I personally believe that in order to properly address or abolish such shortcommings, society as a whole- and not government explicitly -has to re-approach the issues of poverty and homelessness in our country; from a completely new/different perspective. Ideally, one in which our collective futures rest not in the individual pursuit- or attainment -of the so called "American Dream", but one in which the basic necessities of life are both required, and provided, for every individual citizen of our nation. Or said another way; if we treat access to food, clothing, and shelter on the same level as other civil rights, then we will begin to see a paradigm shift (and dare I say actual lasting change and progress) towards abolishing these great stains (i.e. poverty and homelessness) on human life and dignity. Alas... I am afraid that this is an ideal for a society much more mature and organized, then our present one.
In any case, one possible solution (aside from the aforementioned) is for our government to legally recognize that: in order for an individual to both function and thrive in this country, he/she needs a legitimate place of residence. And by residence I do not explicitly mean a physical structure or location per-se (though this is implied by inflection), but a legally recognized point of reference in which other forms of aid and assistance- both public and private -can be administered, monitored, and or directed. A possible example would be a type of virtual P.O. Box system that is not tied to any one local, but rather to the individual owner of the box.
This is important for many reasons, but the main one is that most homeless individuals tend to be transient or incapable of being in any one location for a fixed amount of time- for obvious reasons. As such, they can not realistically be expected to meet certain criterion needed in order to secure aid or employment of many types. Because in most all situations, the main thing a given agency or potential employer wants to know is where an applicant lives. And if he/she can't provide that information, in most all cases, they will be denied service or consideration for employment outright. But with a legally recognized virtual P.O. Box, a person at least has a chance to provide a valid point of reference for which potential aid or consideration for employment can be directed. Additionally, and because of the virtual nature of the box, should they up and move for what ever reason, the will still have access to their information and property over time and from most any place.
Now granted, the logistics of any and all physical media and property being directed and redirected to actual postal locations- close to a registered users current location -would have to of course be worked out. However, a novel prerequisite of this service could be that the bulk of most paper corrispondence would be digitized at the point of address to obviate any and all problems that might arise from handling them in volume, over time, and across multiple locals, for the plurality of users who will invariably use the service.
Ultimately such a system would benefit us all. It will provide far more advantages for those in our society who, historically, have gone the most without, plus it would be a great start on the road to eradicating poverty and homelessness in these United States (if such a thing is possible that is, lol).
Just my two cents.
Regards,
T.D.
Ciao-