Very interesting, thank you. I volunteered for Citizens Advice for 2 years (you might know who they are so I won’t explain) and that was how I learnt the truth about homelessness, namely that’s exactly as you write: what we call homelessness is really untreated/poorly treated mental illness (often the severe kind - we are not talking mental illness as almost exclusively presented by celebrities and people in the media „fighting stigma”) and addiction. Of course, living in one of the most expensive regions in the world, with rampant NIMBYism, doesn’t help. But in my very limited experience, the primary reason is that we are so bad at dealing with people who are adults but are so mentally I’ll they really should not be treated like adults. We pride ourselves on no longer looking such people up in asylums, but iis the current system any better?
Yep. It's interesting you mention nimbys, the book covers that too, the fact that the bobos fight like hell against any kind of densification (say, infill development) in their own neighborhood because the property value may go down. It's one of my pet topics.
Mine, too. I’m always glad to find people who share my property obsession. They are almost all British, BTW, most of my Polish friends aren’t interested.
Superb analysis and reporting, Lydia, thank you.
Very interesting, thank you. I volunteered for Citizens Advice for 2 years (you might know who they are so I won’t explain) and that was how I learnt the truth about homelessness, namely that’s exactly as you write: what we call homelessness is really untreated/poorly treated mental illness (often the severe kind - we are not talking mental illness as almost exclusively presented by celebrities and people in the media „fighting stigma”) and addiction. Of course, living in one of the most expensive regions in the world, with rampant NIMBYism, doesn’t help. But in my very limited experience, the primary reason is that we are so bad at dealing with people who are adults but are so mentally I’ll they really should not be treated like adults. We pride ourselves on no longer looking such people up in asylums, but iis the current system any better?
Yep. It's interesting you mention nimbys, the book covers that too, the fact that the bobos fight like hell against any kind of densification (say, infill development) in their own neighborhood because the property value may go down. It's one of my pet topics.
Mine, too. I’m always glad to find people who share my property obsession. They are almost all British, BTW, most of my Polish friends aren’t interested.
Because we all grew up in building flats!
Yes! And many of them are still in flats, but also mortgage-free.
Locking, not looking, and ill, not I’ll - should really swoich Auto-correct off🙄