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San Diego Declares Housing A ‘Human Right’ Without A Plan To End Homelessness
The Federalist ^ | 02/03/2023 | Caitlyn Axe

Posted on 02/03/2023 7:28:22 AM PST by SeekAndFind

By unanimous resolution last week, the city of San Diego declared that “housing is a human right.” But no one knows exactly what that means.

The city went on to reaffirm “its commitment to providing more housing services geared toward putting a roof over the head of every San Diegan.”

Quick to downplay the legal implications, city attorney Dan Eaton said of the resolution, “it’s pretty clear it doesn’t have any legal effect.” So, what does the declaration mean?

The city council rightly values housing as “a component of a standard of living adequate for health and well-being.” The resolution affirms that “housing provides stability and security” and that individuals “should have a secure, peaceful, and dignified place to live.” Nearly everyone agrees on the central importance of housing for human dignity. But if declaring housing to be a human right means that the government is obligated to provide housing with no strings attached, won’t that result in human disempowerment rather than security, peace, or dignity?

Protecting something of value, regardless of “human right” status, differs greatly from providing that object of value. When the government protects human rights such as life, speech, and marriage, it prevents those rights from being wrongfully stripped from us. It does not provide them for us. For example, the government is not responsible for keeping us alive, platforming our speech, or offering us suitable spouses. This is a good thing. Maybe the real question, then, is not whether housing is a human right but whether the government is responsible for providing things, like housing, that are central to dignity and quality of life.

Many things add dignity and quality to human lives — safe homes, fulfilling jobs, healthy relationships, and nourished bodies. The government allows human lives to flourish when it acts to protect the pursuits of these things, not when it becomes the provider of them. With over half of the unsheltered-homeless population citing mental illness or substance abuse as a cause for their loss of housing, the narrative that more affordable housing will solve the problem is tired and untrue.

Commendably, at the end of their resolution, the council members acknowledge that ensuring their neighbors are housed requires “policies that address the root causes of homelessness.” Yet nowhere in the resolution do they name the root causes of homelessness nor provide a plan to address them. Governments that use excessive amounts of taxpayer money to create free housing with no requirements for treatment or training fail to address the root causes of homelessness. Worse, free housing with no responsibility isolates suffering individuals and deprives them of ownership and accountability.

The people of San Diego, whether housed or unhoused, gain nothing from the city council’s resolution that “housing is a human right.” At best, it is an empty promise of an unclarified ideal: housing for those who have none. At worst, it obligates the government to spend millions on rooms that leave those suffering from addiction, mental illness, and the traumas of homelessness isolated and alone to continue suffering.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: homeless; homelessness; sandiego
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1 posted on 02/03/2023 7:28:22 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Any “human right” that requires resources from others means that those others have no rights at all.


2 posted on 02/03/2023 7:29:54 AM PST by cgbg (Claiming that laws and regs that limit “hate speech” stop freedom of speech is “hate speech”.)
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To: SeekAndFind

And every Public Employee in the county should be mandated to take in to their homes as many as necessar5y to rid the streets of homeless people.


3 posted on 02/03/2023 7:30:19 AM PST by eyeamok (founded in cynicism, wrapped in sarcasm)
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When I was there last year, the homeless would come into restaurants asking for money.


4 posted on 02/03/2023 7:32:23 AM PST by TakebackGOP
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I propose building oodles section 8 in Carmel Valley, La Jolla, and Point Loma


5 posted on 02/03/2023 7:32:37 AM PST by dsrtsage ( Complexity is just simple lacking imagination)
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To: SeekAndFind

If housing was a “human right”, I’m sure G-d would have made sure we were all born with a house. Besides, if housing is a “human right”, WHY THE HELL ISN’T BEING BORN A “HUMAN RIGHT”? WHEN YOU’RE MURDERED BY THE LEFTIES, WHO GETS YOUR HOUSE?!


6 posted on 02/03/2023 7:34:34 AM PST by FlingWingFlyer (Spay and neuter your "migrants" and liberals.)
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To: SeekAndFind
To steal other people's money is now a human right.!

I say we start with Soros, and finish up with Bill Gates...

So let it be written, so let it be done.....

7 posted on 02/03/2023 7:35:11 AM PST by unread ("It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required." W. Churchill.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Illegals are getting free housing along with free maid service and chef prepared free meals. Free to them courteously the US taxpayer.


8 posted on 02/03/2023 7:37:36 AM PST by bgill
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To: FlingWingFlyer
If housing was a “human right”, I’m sure G-d would have made sure we were all born with a house.

23 x 2:

John 2

19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
21 But he spake of the temple of his body.

🤔

9 posted on 02/03/2023 7:44:15 AM PST by Ezekiel (🆘️ "Come fly with US". Ingenuity -- because the Son of David begins with Mars ♂️, aka every man)
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To: SeekAndFind

Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. Inalienable. Not given by anyone on earth, not able to be lawfully or unlawfully taken away by anyone on earth.
These pinkos are so completely jacked up.


10 posted on 02/03/2023 7:46:09 AM PST by vpintheak (Live free, or die!)
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To: SeekAndFind

What a idiotic attempt at solving a real issue. The entire group should be thrown out. Incompetent bunch. Why do people stand for this nonsense from elected officials.


11 posted on 02/03/2023 7:50:10 AM PST by Jonny7797
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To: SeekAndFind

America, and particularly its leaders, have lived in a bubble of printed, fiat, manipulated Federal Reserve money for a couple generations now.

It, and the massive government debt it supports, has created a kind of woke magical thinking about true availability of resources


12 posted on 02/03/2023 7:54:16 AM PST by PGR88 (, )
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To: SeekAndFind
I'm so glad I sold my property in San Diego. The property taxes were misappropriated to build stadiums, purchase tickets for empty seats at those stadiums and subsidize professional athlete salaries. That was just the most visible misappropriation.

In the 22 years that I've lived in the Pocatello area, the politicians have made two attempts to put their grubby paws on property taxes to build/renovate a sports stadium. The local citizens are VERY vocal about not allowing that to occur. The latest attempt was targeting use of "COVID relief" money to build a stadium and put ongoing maintenance on the property tax payers. It was loudly exposed and the politician pushing it acted like a small child having a tantrum in the toy section of a store.

We have a small, seasonal homeless population in Pocatello. Subzero temperatures make it unwise to pursue the urban outdoorsman lifestyle (unlike the mild weather in San Diego). Another good reason to live in a place with real seasons.

13 posted on 02/03/2023 7:58:18 AM PST by Myrddin
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To: SeekAndFind

“housing is a human right”

“Rights” are endowed from our Creator, not extracted from taxpayers.


14 posted on 02/03/2023 8:05:20 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer (The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money)
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To: SeekAndFind

I can solve homelessness in a couple of months, but the electric chair is gonna get mighty busy.


15 posted on 02/03/2023 8:08:43 AM PST by Uncle Miltie ("The News” is a fake narrative promulgated by the Deep State Uniparty to control you and enrich them)
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To: SeekAndFind

We just drove up Hwy 99 through the central valley of California. What a 3rd world craphole! These anti social druggies not only leave their trash all over, they spread their graffiti everywhere. Enough is enough. Put these people where they belong. Jail for public vagrancy and vandalism.


16 posted on 02/03/2023 8:34:05 AM PST by willk (Local news media. Just as dangerous as national media.i later)
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To: SeekAndFind

“Rights” aren’t what the government must give to you, but rather they are what it must not take away. The government’s job is to leave us be, and to ensure that others leave us be.


17 posted on 02/03/2023 8:37:40 AM PST by rightwingcrazy (;-,)
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To: eyeamok

Five and and half million illegals have ‘blended into’ the country - the only ones NOT willing to work for a living are the ones sent to New York and hosted by guilty white elites in fancy hotels - that they’re now being evicted from.

California is clueless.


18 posted on 02/03/2023 8:41:45 AM PST by GOPJ ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muw22wTePqQ Gumballs: Immigrants by the numbers.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Folks who live in tents are not homeless.

Although squatters on public lands they have tents in which to dell and call home


19 posted on 02/03/2023 8:43:34 AM PST by bert ( (KWE. NP. N.C. +12) Juneteenth is inequality day )
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To: SeekAndFind

Why not decree that every homeowner with a spare bedroom take a homeless person in. Those that don’t, by decree, loses their home! By the kings order. That’s where we are headed.

The heck with the constitution.


20 posted on 02/03/2023 8:59:16 AM PST by DownInFlames (P)
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