This will not end homelessness in Newark. And it'll have the opposite effect, it'll encourage more homeless into Newark.

The only way to end homelessness is to rebuild all the Mental Hospitals with demolished! All this homeless epidemic began as soon as mental psychiatric institutions were abolished. Expecting mentally unstable people to maintain a schedule regimen of taking pills has landed us here. Most of these homeless people are not people that are down on their luck like we had during the Great Depression. These are 99% alcohol and substance abusers who are trapped in a mental Loop they can't get out of. They need to be institutionalized until the demons are out of the system and they are able to function as normal human beings. And if they are never capable of being functional, then they should stay there. Not as prisoners, they should be free during the day to go about,work, shop, visit nearby family but like a halfway house, provided they follow the rules.

How about we just give people housing first instead?

I agree with both of you, by why not do both at the same time? Can’t get your life on track if you can’t get your mind right first, but part of that journey to work on your mental and physical health is having a safe and clean place to live. On the other hand, like the top comment said, you can’t expect people who are unstable to be able to assimilate back into society smoothly without the proper mental health care.

Because private group homes are outrageously expensive and state group mental hospitals got carried away with the icepick lobotomies and shocking the shit out of patients, so there's some earned mistrust there.

You can give them all the housing in the world, the problem is can they keep it? Many of the homeless aren't contributors to society. Heard of squatters?

The level of cognitive dissonance required to make sense of the prevailing wisdom surrounding housing is staggering.

How will we give the homeless something that does not exist? Perhaps you are not aware that there is an acute housing shortage in the urban centers of America.

50 % of the members on this board oppose private development based on bigotry against the people who will live in these new developments. The city does not want to build public housing and is actively trying to put what little public housing there is in the hands of developers.

If there are no net units added; where are the magical housing units to give to homeless people going to come from?

He didn't say charge them rent. He said give them housing. This works and is cheaper to society than leaving them on the street.

Most homeless are temporarily homeless. It is very hard to get a job without an address, clean clothes, and a shower every day.

There is no such thing as bigotry against people in luxury housing. That is ridiculous. Everyone wants more housing - we just want apartments that are affordable to everyone. 100% luxury developments are not goot for neighborhoods.

As stated most of the homeless people aren't down on their luck. They're mentally unstable. They have to be put in a secure facility 1st with rules they have to abide by, then work on getting them housing.

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You evade the core question ; why is 100% “luxury” housing “bad” for the neighborhood? If you concede that the problem is fundamentally one of supply; then any net new units should be welcomed.

I know some of the new transplants who live in the “luxury” units personally; contrary to the prevailing wisdom on this sub; they are ordinarily Americans who took out student loans to go to collage and got a degree that enabled them to get good paying jobs. They want to be financially responsible and choose to live in Newark vs. other higher cost of living cities in the area. According to you, these people are not welcome in Newark! They should seek housing elsewhere! How is this not bigotry? wanting them to be excluded not because of anything they have done as individuals, but based on their membership of a group ( those who can afford more in rent) ; that is the textbook definition of bigotry!

Housing built to cater to this group is somehow reducing affordability; how? Either affordability is a function of supply or it is not, if it is, then any addition to the supply will help ease costs over time. If it is not, then is bigotry really the answer? I contend that it is not! My answer is to build more housing at every price point including subsidized housing for those who can’t afford current prices. Private developers say they can’t build affordable units because the economics don’t work. The state has to either call their bluff and build the units themselves or put up and subsidize the builds. It’s as simple as that! Instead, an entire industry has been build around encouraging people to hate and blame their neighbors.

Instead of holding elected officials accountable for the decades of corruption and policy failures that got us here, you want the Amazon truck driver who makes 45k a year to hate the Amazon programmer who makes 100k a year. Has it never occurred to you that both are workers, subject to the same insecurities and market forces? That both of them have more in common with each other than Jeff Bezos or his C-suite?

I can't take this seriously.

Not surprised; bigots tend to deflect when in a tight spot 😂🤣

Extremely funny that you have redefined the word bigotry to mean anyone opposed to flooding neighborhoods with luxury housing.

You oppose the building of housing based on a desire to exclude those who would potentially live there. That is the text book definition of bigotry ; no redefinition required 🤣. Look it up