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cover of episode A Solution For the Chronically Homeless, and Listening to Taylor Swift in Prison

A Solution For the Chronically Homeless, and Listening to Taylor Swift in Prison

2023/9/15
logo of podcast The New Yorker Radio Hour

The New Yorker Radio Hour
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David Remnick
J
Jennifer Egan
J
Joe Garcia
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David Remnick：节目的开篇点明了解决无家可归问题并非完全不可能，并引出Jennifer Egan的报道。他指出虽然问题看似巨大且棘手，但实际上存在解决方案，可以大幅减少悲剧的规模。 Jennifer Egan：她详细阐述了针对无家可归者的两种主要类型（短期和长期）的不同解决方案。她强调，对短期无家可归者，提供长达两年的租金补贴是有效的；而对慢性无家可归者（通常伴有精神疾病或成瘾问题），支持性住房（租金补贴加现场服务）非常有效，且成本效益显著。她还分析了富裕城市无家可归人数上升的原因，归结为高昂的租金和不足的精神卫生保健。她以布鲁克林的90 Sands支持性住房项目为例，说明了支持性住房的有效性，并指出虽然存在一些问题，但该模式的成功率很高，且比让这些人流落街头更经济实惠。她还谈到了联邦层面资金投入的重要性以及目前缺乏统一行动的现状。最后，她还谈到了自己对这个问题的关注，部分源于她兄弟的精神疾病经历，以及她对那些生活与自己看似截然不同的人的同理心。 Joe Garcia：他讲述了自己在监狱中聆听泰勒·斯威夫特音乐的经历，以及音乐如何帮助他度过艰难时期，并促使他与过去的恋人重新联系。他分享了他在监狱中的生活，以及他即将获得假释的机会。他用泰勒·斯威夫特的歌曲来比喻自己内心的挣扎和希望，以及对未来的期许。 David Remnick: He begins the show by stating that solving homelessness is not entirely impossible and introduces Jennifer Egan's report. He points out that while the problem seems gigantic and intractable, there are actually solutions that could greatly reduce the scale of the tragedy. Jennifer Egan: She details the different solutions for the two main types of homeless people (short-term and long-term). She emphasizes that for short-term homelessness, providing rent subsidies for up to two years is effective; while for chronically homeless people (usually with mental illness or addiction problems), supportive housing (rent subsidies plus on-site services) is very effective and has significant cost-effectiveness. She also analyzes the reasons for the increase in homelessness in affluent cities, attributing it to high rents and inadequate mental health care. She uses the 90 Sands supportive housing project in Brooklyn as an example to illustrate the effectiveness of supportive housing and points out that while there are some problems, the success rate of this model is high and is more cost-effective than leaving these people on the streets. She also talks about the importance of federal funding and the current lack of unified action. Finally, she also talks about her concern about this issue, partly due to her brother's experience with mental illness, and her empathy for those whose lives seem so different from her own. Joe Garcia: He recounts his experience listening to Taylor Swift's music in prison and how the music helped him through difficult times and led him to reconnect with his past lover. He shares his life in prison and his upcoming parole opportunity. He uses Taylor Swift's songs to illustrate his inner struggles and hopes, as well as his expectations for the future.

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Jennifer Egan discusses the effectiveness of supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals, highlighting its potential to reduce homelessness significantly.

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About 1.2 million people in the United States experience homelessness in a given year—you could nearly fill the city of Dallas with the unhoused. But there are proven solutions. For the chronically homeless, a key strategy is supportive housing—providing not only a stable apartment, but also services like psychiatric and medical care on-site. The *New Yorker *contributor Jennifer Egan spent the past year following several individuals as they transitioned into a new supportive-housing building in Brooklyn. She found that this housing model works and argues that it could be scaled up nationally for less than the cost of emergency services for the homeless. But “no one,” Egan notes ruefully, “wants to see that line item in their budget.” Plus, Joe Garcia, an inmate serving a life sentence for murder in California’s High Desert State Prison, reads from his essay “Listening to Taylor Swift in Prison,” recently published by The New Yorker.