There was a news piece this morning via N-TV (German commercial news network) that hyped up homelessness in Germany and the national numbers (680,000 out of 82-million).
It's an interesting topic for me.
Germany is one of those countries that you can walk into the social office of each 'county' and announce your situation. The system is built to help pick you up. Course, there are little stumbling blocks.
Lets be honest here and admit....if you attempt to announce your situation in Frankfurt or Hamburg....there's marginal housing for folks in your situation. Just in general....these highly urbanized areas are in serious problems when it comes to any housing.
But out of the 680,000....how many are drug addicts, alcoholics, or people in serious emotional or mental issues? No one can cite those numbers. If you walk around Frankfurt, I'd say that almost 80 to 90 percent fall into those three categories. In their case, plain housing help or social help won't cut it. These are individuals who probably need a place in a permanent facility, and be 'fenced-in'.
The odds of the public buying into that? No....no one wants to really step up and sign onto the idea of permanently putting folks into facilities that involve a closed door. It's the same problem you see in the US and highly urbanized areas (like NY, Philly, Chicago, Houston, Seattle, Portland, etc).
A likely public chat forum coming out of this discussion? Maybe, but their chatter will be for simply more funding, without really affecting or changing the outcome.
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