Can Compassion and Choice End Homelessness? Experts Weigh In
Homelessness isn’t just a lack of housing—it’s a societal choice. In this episode, hosts Dave Conley and Jerremy Alexander Newsome sit down with choice psychologist David Jacob and nutrition expert Leslie Bobb to explore the human side of the crisis. Through personal stories, they reveal how empathy, nutrition, and clean shelters could slash homelessness by over 50%. But with $80 billion wasted annually, is America choosing to fail? Discover why Finland succeeded—and how we can too.
Timestamps
- (00:00) Introduction: A Global Crisis, an American Choice
- (02:25) Personal Stories: Homelessness Up Close
- (07:37) The Causes: Addiction, Mental Health, and Society’s Role
- (13:26) The $80 Billion Problem: Where the Money Goes (and Fails)
- (20:12) Solutions: Community, Nutrition, and Rethinking Shelters
David Jacob
Leslie Bobb
Transcript
Dave, the requests keep flooding in from all over the
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:world, but most specifically the US of
A, and they need to know what we are
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:solving and addressing in this episode.
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:Dave Conley: In this week's episode
of solving America's Problems,
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:we're tackling homelessness head on.
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:It's not just about housing, mental health
or hard times, but what if it's fixable
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:and we're just missing the real issues.
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:Joining us today, David Jacob, a
choice psychologist expert who's
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:transformed lives by rethinking
decisions, sees homelessness as a
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:societal choice, not a personal choice,
and we need to choose differently.
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:And Leslie Bob, an integrative
nutrition expert who seen nutrition,
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:lift people up from despair to hope.
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:Together, they challenge how we see
this crisis and how we can change lives.
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:And that's this week on Solving
America's Problems from apathy to
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:Action with David, Jacob and Leslie Bob.
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:Jerremy Newsome: We feel very few people
are appropriately talking about this.
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:We know how to end homelessness
slash it by over 50%.
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:Finland totally wiped it
out, but here's the thing.
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:Every solution starts with a
choice America again, we're
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:kind of choosing a failing path.
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:I'm Jerremy Alexander Newsom alongside
my co-host Dave Conley, and this
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:is solving America's problems.
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:Today we are sitting down
with two incredible voices.
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:David Jacob is a choice psychology
expert who believes homelessness
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:isn't just about housing, about
the choices we make as a society.
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:Baum is an extraordinary nutrition coach
who's worked with people in transition.
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:She knows that something as
simple as proper nutrition.
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:Can lift people up.
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:Both David and Leslie have joined me
at the abundance summit, at the aerial
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:BVI, and they have worked consciously
and continuously on just becoming the
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:best versions of themselves as possible.
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:And they truly do feel that they can
work on creating a solution, even if
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:it's just one, two, and homelessness.
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:So David Leslie, welcome to the show.
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:@DavidJacob_1: Thanks for having us.
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:Leslie Bobb: Thanks Jerremy.
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:Jerremy Newsome: Absolutely.
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:Both David, myself, and our thousands
of listeners would love to know.
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:And David, I'll have you go.
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:Nope.
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:Leslie, I'll have you go first.
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:Ladies first.
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:was a moment in your life?
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:Perhaps it was a personal encounter
or a story that you heard that made
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:homelessness feel real and human to you.
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:Leslie Bobb: The more I think
about that, the further back I go.
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:Uh, my, I think my mom's just always
had a real open heart and open door.
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:Uh, as a teenager I was living in Los
Angeles County and I was, uh, part
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:of the bad crowd, so can't see my
air quotes there, but I had a lot of
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:friends that were crouch surfing or
getting kicked out or running away, and
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:my mom just always welcomed them in.
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:And it was a really nice feeling to be
able to provide some safety in a, in
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:the storm of adolescence for these kids.
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:And I remember traveling with my
mom and stepdad one year for the
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:holidays, and we went to a Denny's
or something on Thanksgiving.
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:There were a few homeless guys outside.
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:And my stepdad, instead of giving
them a couple bucks, invited them in
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:to join us for our meal at the table.
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:So we sat there and, and talked with
them and learned about their lives and
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:how normal they were and that they had
may or may not have had family, some of
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:them had family they were estranged from.
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:And it was just a really pivotal moment
for me to see someone bravely welcoming
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:in some people that are normally sort
of avoided or, um, feared by society.
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:Jerremy Newsome: Yep.
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:Leslie Bobb: And, uh, it just really
helped my heart expand, seeing my
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:parents have such big open hearts.
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:So I think that must have
probably locked me in there.
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:Jerremy Newsome: Yeah, I love that.
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:I love that.
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:And again, it kind of sounds like David
will talk about in a second, most likely
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:is your parents made a conscious choice.
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:And I love how you said, as a
society, almost as a collective
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:choice, a lot of people just ah, they
pretend homelessness isn't there.
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:It's almost like this terrifying,
scary group of people that has
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:leprosy that no one wants to talk
to or touch or interact with.
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:parents, again, made that choice
to kind of bring them in you the
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:humanity, which I really admire that.
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:And your parents, David, did
you have a similar situation, or
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:how did it become real to you?
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:@DavidJacob_1: So when I was
at college, I worked at a.
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:Like a craft beer bar, uh, in the
center of Manchester in the uk.
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:there was a guy who used to
sit just off to the right of
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:where the bar front door was.
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:and he was there like every time
I used to finish, finish work.
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:And eventually we as bartenders, we'd get
tips pretty, pretty frequently, much less
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:than in the us but we still got tips.
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:And I was already getting paid a fairly
reasonable hourly wage, so the tips were
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:kind of neither here nor there for me.
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:So I used to give him the tips.
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:And after a few times I ended up, like,
sat down with him and we were chatting
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:and kind of, I got to know his story and
I made a point of every time I went to
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:work and every time I finished, I used to
sit down and I, I'd give him my tips and
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:we'd kind of talk about his life and how
he ended up there and all the rest of it.
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:And after probably it would've been end of
the summer, so three or four months of me
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:sat down with him one day he disappeared.
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:I was like, oh, you know, maybe you
know the situation got the better of him
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:and that was the end of it or whatever.
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:I see him probably a year later
and he's completely different.
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:He's dressed in kind of quote
unquote regular people clothes.
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:He's cleaned up.
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:He's completely an otherwise
normal looking human being.
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:And this guy runs up to me while
I'm walking down the street
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:with a couple of my friends and
he goes, David, David, David.
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:And I was like, I didn't
even recognize who he was.
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:it was this same homeless guy that I
used to sit down and talk to after work.
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:And he said, honestly.
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:The conversations that we had, and
you just sitting down and talking
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:to me for all of those times, even
if it was for 10, 20 minutes, made
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:me feel like I could actually go
out and, you know, reclaim my life.
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:and that was the first time that I kind
of really saw homelessness for what it
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:was, which is people just don't care.
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:And as a result, it continues.
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:And that's a hard thing to
swallow because there are so
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:many, organizations that do care.
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:But the average person really
struggles with that empathy idea.
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:And then, you know, a
bunch of other stories.
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:When I was again at college, a
friend of mine did an open mic night.
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:There was a homeless guy who performed,
he was probably, I don't know, 17, 16,
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:17 at the and he said, you know, I'm
raising money so I can sleep at a shelter.
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:And without really thinking about what
that meant, I was like, oh, it's fine.
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:Like, we've got a couch, just
come and sleep on our couch and.
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:I wake up the next morning and my
housemates are furious because all
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:of like the, you know, you're a
student, you've got laptops, you've
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:got, PlayStations, TVs, whatever.
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:It's all in the living room
where this kid was sleeping.
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:And I didn't consider that.
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:I just was like, well, I mean, I'd
much rather you on my couch than
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:in like a homeless shelter with
a bunch of much older dudes who
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:probably have substance abuse issues,
potentially mental health issues.
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:And you are just a kid who doesn't have
a house like sleep on my couch, dude.
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:Like, it's okay.
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:So I kind of saw it when I was at college
and then even now homelessness I think is
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:a blight on the modern society as a whole.
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:Dave Conley: David, do you think that
that's how most people see homelessness
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:through this, this lens of apathy?
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:@DavidJacob_1: I think
apathy is a, is a tough word.
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:I think and this is, I guess how I've,
I've learned to conceptualize it.
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:I.
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:It's more as a result
of the normalcy bias.
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:So the normalcy bias is the idea
that if see something frequently
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:enough, and that is the basis point
or the idea by which we understand
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:the world, it just becomes normal.
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:It is normal that, for example, you
know when you turn the tap on in
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:your kitchen, right when you turn
the faucet on, water comes out.
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:If one day water didn't come
out, you wouldn't start to, you
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:know, think the world was ending.
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:You'd be like, oh, maybe there's
a problem with my plumbing.
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:I.
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:But the way that we view homelessness
is that, you know, now, I
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:mean that just happens, right?
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:Some people get down on their luck,
some people are behind on bills.
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:So it just, the way the world works and
I think that the average person doesn't
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:really conceptualize it as a problem.
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:They just see it as normal.
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:It is just simply a thing that people end
up sleeping in the streets or homeless
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:or whatever, and you know, that boils
down to another cognitive faculty and the
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:whole thing just compound and compound.
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:Dave Conley: So like the would,
would you say that most people think
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:that way given like that person is
successful and that's just how it is?
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:Like the converse.
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:@DavidJacob_1: Yeah, a hundred percent.
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:Right.
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:So that's the, the second cognitive
bias is the idea of a just world, right?
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:We believe you look at every different
culture across the planet and there's
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:this idea of like karmic balance, right?
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:Or something that is similar that we
live in a just world where bad people,
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:you know, get their just desserts and
good stuff happens to good people.
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:So when you take that as the basis, well,
if someone is homeless, then they must
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:have deserved it in some way, right?
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:It is their own choices or their
own faults, or the problems that
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:they have that led them there.
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:And the idea of a just
world is a fallacy, right?
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:Like, as I'm sure you guys know, and
as many of the listeners will know.
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:Bad stuff happens to good people, right?
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:There's kids that are born with cancer,
like it's a, there is no justice in terms
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:of like dumb luck and randomness and chaos
theory and all the rest of it, right?
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:Some people just have really tough
stuff happen to 'em and if we work under
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:the idea that, there is a just world
where, you know, whatever you've done
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:leads to some consequence, that means
that if you are in insert situation
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:here, you deserve it by some mechanism,
then yeah, it's really easy to look at
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:that as a system and go makes sense.
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:There has to be something they've
done that has led them to this point.
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:Jerremy Newsome: Yeah, but
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:Point is there, there are.
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:There is a lot though
that do end up homeless
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:I don't know the exact percentage, but
our last episode we probably settled
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:on somewhere around 70% of homelessness
is due to addiction and mental health.
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:I think Leslie kind of
touched on that quickly.
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:Yeah.
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:Leslie, what's, what's your take on
that percentage and just on a general
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:basis, do you think most people also
rationalize or view most homelessness
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:is probably because of addiction
of some kind, or is it laziness
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:and I'm just getting it all wrong?
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:Leslie Bobb: I, that was a couple
of different questions there, but I
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:hesitate to speak to, too much about
the logic fallacies because we have
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:a like real psychologist on the line.
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:So I don't, I don't want 'em to be
like, well, actually you're wrong.
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:I, I think the, the just world fallacy, I
wonder how much that still applies because
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:all I see is the like millionaire villain
fallacy and that doesn't really apply
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:to good things happening to good people.
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:But I would say as far as your question
Jerremy about the statistics of how
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:much is men, I don't know the statistics
either, but I think there is definitely
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:a large portion of substance abuse
issues and men untreated mental health
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:issues in the homeless population.
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:And I think that contributes to
people's aversion to interact with
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:the homeless because there is a
safety element and we are innately.
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:Averse to dangerous situations.
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:And when someone isn't behaving in what
we would consider a normal way talking
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:to themselves or yelling at light poles
or, you know, whatever the case may be,
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:our instinct is to protect ourselves or
our children and stay away from them.
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:There's obviously something
illogical or irrational about them,
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:and you can't expect normal agreed
upon safe behavior from them.
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:And I, I think just trying to be a
little bit more fair to society, um,
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:that's a pretty legitimate aversion
to people experiencing homelessness,
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:even if it isn't necessarily.
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:I think that I have heard somewhere
that most of them do have mental health
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:problems, but they are not dangerous.
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:But we don't know that.
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:And if there's one of them that is
dangerous, that could cost us everything
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:dear to us and we can't really risk it.
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:So I think that also contributes
to our tendency to wanna look away
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:and maybe there is a, a, a, an.
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:In kind of inner knowledge
that it could happen to us.
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:And we don't wanna look at not, not
many people wanna go look at cancer
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:patients in the hospital either because
it could happen to us and we're afraid
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:of our vulnerabilities in that way.
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:So I think, uh, I think we're all in
agreement on this, uh, this group, that
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:this is an issue that we are really,
really poorly dealing with and, and it's
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:something that should be eradicated.
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:But I'm just trying to kind
of balance a little bit.
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:I think some of our versions
are just natural and fair.
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:I think I steered way away from
your question though, so you
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:could redirect me if you want to.
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:Jerremy Newsome: No, this, it is great.
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:It's a great open conversation,
but that's really the goal is
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:just to have, know, a non-scripted
dialogue about how do we solve this
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:relatively egregious problem, right?
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:In the United States of America,
there's over 700,000 homeless, and we
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:brought David in because one of his
discussions about, Hey, if you have
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:all the money in the world, what's
the problem that you're gonna solve?
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:Right?
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:He stood in front of a bunch
of entrepreneurs and said, I'd
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:love to solve homelessness.
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:again, the reason that I brought him on
the show and this podcast, but ultimately,
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:you guys can all tell from Zach that
he lives in London, and guess what?
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:England has homelessness too.
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:And so you can you go country
to country to country.
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:Go, wait a minute, this
is like very global.
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:So it's not just us.
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:Yeah.
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:We get it wrong for sure.
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:But any general idea, David, on how much
your country spends on homelessness?
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:And then Dave Conley is gonna throw
a really surprising statistic,
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:it's you on how much we poorly
spend on our homeless problem.
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:@DavidJacob_1: I wouldn't even
be able to hazard a guess, but I
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:would assume it would be billions.
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:Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
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:Well, I mean, so the UK most
likely, but in the United
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:States it's 80 billion annually.
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:Right down the
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:@DavidJacob_1: Good.
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:Jerremy Newsome: Right down
the garbage disposal because
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:they're doing something with it.
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:And I just, I just don't know what
like are they getting, a hundred
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:thousand oranges and just throwing 'em
at the homeless hoping they eat them?
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:I'm not sure what they're
doing with the money.
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:I don't see I.
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:How many cities have homeless shelters?
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:Like the big ones, but very,
very, they're not well marked.
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:They don't have a lot of signs.
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:They don't have like a lot
of open invitation on, Hey,
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:who would like to help us?
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:Who would like to spend time?
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:I just feel like it's a very underrated,
underserved issue, especially with all
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:of that money flooding to an annual.
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:Leslie Bobb: So we actually have an
advocate here in our city that works
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:with the homeless, and she's been
battling our city council for years on
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:this, particularly during COVID when
we as a city, were receiving millions
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:of dollars in grants for homeless.
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:And she couldn't find it anywhere.
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:The shelters are never open.
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:Uh, the, the call sent the call
hotline numbers never answer.
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:There's an organization that's sponsored
by the city that's supposed to tie all
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:the resources together and does annual
homeless counts, and she can't ever get
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:them to account for the money because
they say some of their funding is private.
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:So they don't have to have like,
freedom of Information Act.
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:Rules applied to it so they don't
have to tell her where the money goes.
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:So it, it really is a problem and
we're just one, fairly small city.
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:So I imagine the bigger cities,
it's just, it's just an open bucket.
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:There's just no one will
be able to find that money.
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:@DavidJacob_1: But I think the
really interesting part of that,
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:and I think this is where a lot of
my frustration comes from, is that
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:solving homelessness is bad business.
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:There are entire industries built
around treating homelessness.
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:The symptom not dealing with
the cause of homelessness.
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:Right.
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:And even the ones that are trying
to address the cause require the
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:problem itself to continue in
order to then keep being funded.
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:Like it's the same reason when you hire
a personal trainer, their goal is not
300
:to get you fit in the shortest amount of
time possible because then you're not a
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:client anymore when you've got, emergency
shelters or I dunno, transitional housing
302
:programs or drug rehab contracts, or, I
dunno, even Leslie, to your point, like
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:grant writers and people that are in
the process of being able to pull that
304
:money from, you know, communal coffers.
305
:all of those people have jobs.
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:of those people work for
someone that has a business.
307
:Those businesses.
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:If they solved the problem,
now cease to exist, and now
309
:all of that money goes away.
310
:It's the whole idea of, I I, I'll relate
it to something probably very, very, very
311
:far away, but when I worked in consulting,
we would have massive, billion dollar
312
:corporations who would come to us in the
final three weeks of a quarter saying,
313
:Hey, we have budget that we need to spend,
otherwise it goes away next, next quarter.
314
:And we don't need to
do this work right now.
315
:But I know that if we don't spend
this money, then we're not gonna
316
:get it next quarter, and we might
actually need it next quarter.
317
:It's the same problem, right?
318
:If you don't spend the
money, the money goes away.
319
:Well then it has to be spent with someone.
320
:And those people don't want
the problem to go away either.
321
:'cause otherwise the money dries up.
322
:Right.
323
:So it's, it's you, this is the
definition of an economy built
324
:around a problem never being solved.
325
:So why would you ever then solve it?
326
:It's a fallacy because if you
solved it, the money dries up.
327
:If the money dries up, then
those people don't have jobs.
328
:And those businesses done.
329
:Yeah.
330
:Dave Conley: That's the
perverse incentive, right?
331
:Like we, we've talked to somebody who had
been homeless and, uh, Cara, Kara candid,
332
:and with the amount of, we have more and
more homeless people every single year.
333
:You know, last year alone it was
771,000 people that were homeless.
334
:We're spending 20 billion,
that's $26,000 per person, it
335
:keeps on getting worse, right?
336
:So we already know that that money is
not being spent to reduce homelessness.
337
:There are some exceptions, right?
338
:Like Houston and Finland, like we
started this with, but in talking
339
:with Kara, that was exactly the case.
340
:The resources that she needed,
which was different than somebody
341
:who was in addiction, which was
different than somebody who was had
342
:mental illness, which was different.
343
:I mean, she was just down on her
luck and she was with a small child
344
:and she was really struggling to
just get through nursing school.
345
:She needed different things.
346
:And yet there was this one size fits
all, most of it went to, supporting
347
:businesses you know, like NGOs
and organizations that didn't have
348
:an incentive to get people off.
349
:They had an incentive to keep people on.
350
:That's the tragedy I think we
learned last week, don't you?
351
:Don't you think Jerremy
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:Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
353
:Yeah.
354
:Like it's essentially the
people who do need it.
355
:To David's point, if something happens
to them just, or unjust, they need help,
356
:they need assistance, they can go apply
for these grants or these loans or these
357
:applications, these things to help.
358
:And it just doesn't truly like, it
just kind of falls through the cracks.
359
:Right.
360
:She was a veteran
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:Dave Conley: Right?
362
:Jerremy Newsome: United States
there's 32,000 veterans.
363
:Veterans who are homeless, which
again, seems like that should,
364
:that number should just be
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:Dave Conley: It should be zero.
366
:Yeah.
367
:Jerremy Newsome: or 10.
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:It should be 10 people.
369
:Like it shouldn't be that high.
370
:32,000 is like a city.
371
:so that's very, very tragic.
372
:But yeah, there, there's definitely a
lot of things falling through the cracks.
373
:And this is a joint question for anyone
who would like to ask it 'cause it
374
:also came up in our last conversation.
375
:would you feel, or what do you
feel is the difference between
376
:homelessness houselessness?
377
:What are the two differences
or two distinctions there?
378
:I'll start with David.
379
:@DavidJacob_1: What is the difference
between homelessness and houselessness?
380
:I guess homelessness is, is the
physical sorry, houselessness
381
:is the physical element, right?
382
:Like you literally do not
have a roof over your head.
383
:That is, the bottom of
Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
384
:You literally need somewhere to rest
your head so you don't feel like
385
:you're gonna die when you go to sleep.
386
:Go all the way back to
evolutionary psychology.
387
:That was the one thing that allowed
us to, you know, thrive as a species.
388
:How homelessness is, way
more psychological than that.
389
:I guess it's the idea of you don't feel
like you belong, you don't feel safe.
390
:You don't have like a community.
391
:There's no identity based in, your
ability to survive in and of yourself.
392
:And I think that's, you know, a
way harder problem to deal with.
393
:Jerremy Newsome: What
do you think, Leslie?
394
:Leslie Bobb: Based on the,
the way I've seen the terms.
395
:I would agree.
396
:Houselessness is the unhoused.
397
:It means sleeping on the streets.
398
:No roof over your head.
399
:Look, if you look at the
statistics, it presents homeless
400
:versus unsheltered individuals.
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:So not all homeless are
unsheltered, but I think on a, on a.
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:Simpler level than David
went with homelessness.
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:I would just call homelessness,
just not having stable housing.
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:So you might be couch surfing, um,
maybe even living in your car or
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:shelters, temporary housing hotel
vouchers, living with relatives or
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:moving around from place to place,
but not having a stable home versus
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:Jerremy Newsome: Yeah,
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:Leslie Bobb: unhoused is
just literally shelterless.
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:Jerremy Newsome: exactly.
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:Yep.
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:'cause I think, uh, in the US
right, there's some hundred 71,000.
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:Total homeless.
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:But the shelter, to your point, like
using that term, is half a million.
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:So 522,000 approximately.
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:And then she unsheltered million, 250,000
people are unsheltered Finland solved
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:the issue essentially by saying, I think
there's two solutions in Finland, like
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:if you're houseless too long, you die.
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:'cause it's really cold in Finland.
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:And so they're like, listen,
you've gotta get a house.
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:And so they went out
and just built houses.
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:And essentially, I don't believe they
made it illegal, but it was essentially
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:like, listen, single person in this
country is required to live somewhere.
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:they built a bunch of small homes
that didn't have any requirement
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:other than someone had to live in
them per the capital, like per person.
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:And that helped decrease homelessness
because again, they had a place
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:to stay that didn't have any.
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:Requirements.
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:There wasn't any minimums or
maximums that need be met.
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:I go, Hey, everyone has a house.
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:Dave Conley: Like it's a,
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:Jerremy Newsome: something
will, oh, go ahead, Dave.
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:Dave Conley: like it's a,
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:Jerremy Newsome: yeah,
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:Dave Conley: I mean,
it makes, it makes some
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:Jerremy Newsome: you're a
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:Dave Conley: sense, like,
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:Jerremy Newsome: whoa, you're a human.
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:Let's, but let's put you in shelter.
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:Dave Conley: Yeah.
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:Jerremy Newsome: So you give
you and your family protection
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:from the freezing fenland cold.
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:Dave Conley: Yeah.
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:Jerremy Newsome: But it's like
that in a lot of places in the us
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:like North Dakota, South Dakota,
Michigan gets cold in the winter.
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:So ultimately the cities and the states
with the largest homeless population are
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:gonna be the warmer clients climates.
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:California, Florida.
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:But a lot of people in the US
they're wondering, is that a
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:choice that they're making?
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:Or I guess how many of these
unsheltered just can't find shelters?
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:A quarter million people in the US
who just can't find shelters, are they
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:choosing not to find shelters or do
you think they just can't, Leslie, is
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:it like a choice that they're making?
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:Like, I just wanna not a house, I don't
wanna pay taxes, I just wanna go live on
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:the beach and just like have a tent for
the rest of my life and be kind of Ivy.
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:Leslie Bobb: I have met quite a few
individuals who did choose, they have
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:some QAC lifestyle in their head,
and they did choose to be nomadic.
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:The majority of the chronically homeless
that, that I've seen, though it's not
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:necessarily a choice, but they aren't
always, shelters fill up really quickly.
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:They're not always open.
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:They're difficult to find, like we
discussed before, but a lot of people
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:are not comfortable in shelters.
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:You have to split up from
your friends or your partners.
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:They're not safe, they're
crowded, they're nasty.
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:And a lot of these people,
they, they do have an issue.
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:Functioning in society, so the rules being
stuck inside, all of that sort of stuff.
467
:They they can't do it.
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:They have, they do have some of these
mental health issues that prevent them
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:from functioning in an institutionalized
setting or in normal societal settings.
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:And that's why they're homeless.
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:They can't hold a job, so staying
in a shelter, just, it just
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:psychologically doesn't work for them.
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:And they would rather be
outside than in a shelter.
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:They would not rather be
outside than in a home.
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:Although we have seen some of those too.
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:They, they get housing and they
can't, they just can't stay inside.
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:They have to come back out.
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:But I think that's treatable
psychological trauma.
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:And it's not necessarily like just who
they are, the choice they're making.
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:Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
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:Well I really like your focus there
on that comment about the shelter.
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:'cause I don't think we really, truly
have do dove into that too much in the
483
:sense of, okay, if you were to solve
homelessness by placing people in a.
484
:Location, giving them shelter, right?
485
:How safe is it?
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:And having the homeless shelters
presently reorganized, restructured,
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:audited, cleaned, made it like a primary
focus on our government to go listen.
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:Okay?
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:More people probably would take
advantage of this resource if it
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:wasn't overcrowded, if it wasn't
gross, if it was sanitary, if it was
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:a nice, kind, safe, welcoming place.
492
:Uh, David, any opinions or thoughts on the
homeless shelters any neck of the woods?
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:@DavidJacob_1: Yeah, the, from any
conversation I've ever had with anyone
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:that's homeless in the uk, the, the
consensus is that shelters are exactly
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:to Leslie's point, unsafe, overcrowded,
particularly enjoyable environments to be
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:in, but they were never, at least from my
understanding, they were never designed
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:to be long-term housing solutions.
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:They were short term housing solutions.
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:when you turn what was meant to
be one very temporary solution
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:into a much longer, again, going
back to the same idea, like that's
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:just kind of how it is, right?
502
:Like this.
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:Idea of determinism that, oh, well
that's just how the world works.
504
:Some people get the
short end of the stick.
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:Oh well, when you use a solution
that was designed to basically lift
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:people out of that initial slump and
get them back on their feet and you
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:turn it into a longer term solution,
that is a problem in and of itself.
508
:Right.
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:And I'm, I would be almost certain
that if you looked at the data, the
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:higher the capacity IE, the higher
the amount of people who are in a
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:shelter, the slower those people end
up actually solving for their homeless.
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:Leslie Bobb: I would bet on that.
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:@DavidJacob_1: Yeah,
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:Jerremy Newsome: Wild.
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:Leslie Bobb: I think shelters might
have been a good solution decades ago,
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:@DavidJacob_1: hundred
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:Leslie Bobb: know?
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:But it, it's the, the problem
continued to grow and the
519
:solution never evolved with it.
520
:Yeah.
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:Jerremy Newsome: Fascinating.
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:And that's a really,
really cool perspective.
523
:Alex: “We’ve unpacked real stories
and the mess of a system spending
524
:billions with little to show.
525
:But what if housing
isn’t the whole answer?
526
:Next, our experts dig into how
nutrition and sleep could change
527
:everything—and why what we’re doing
now might be missing the mark.”