Free food for the homeless

The UK Times complains that Free food for the homeless lures people who are too lazy to cook and especially that

SOUP runs in London are being increasingly abused by people who are not poor, needy or homeless, according to research that claims there is now one for every two rough sleepers in the capital.

Research for Westminster City Council has found that many of the capital’s 65 soup runs, which provide good quality sandwiches and hot and cold drinks, are attracting people with homes from all over London, who regard them as a convenient, free catering service.

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The report, which will be discussed on Monday at a conference organised by the council, is bound to reopen the fierce public debate on whether soup runs do more harm than good. The view of Westminster is that the over-provision of hand-outs in central London helps maintain a street lifestyle for people unwilling to come indoors. It also draws people out of accommodation and back into street culture.

Although the council has made several attempts in the past five years to deal with the problem by bringing support for homeless people off the street and into hostels, shelters and advice centres, it believes there is now an urgent need to revisit the issue.

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Emphasis Mine

The simple solution of putting the homeless into hostels ignores the realities of life in hostels. The one, I know about, has a strict lockdown policy: if you are not inside by 9 p.m., then you have to spend the night outside even if a bed is available. And you have to leave by 7 a.m.. No food is provided: only a bed and a shower. For people coming out of jail, the regime of a hostel can be seen to be similar. There is also the violence in hostels. Men cooped up in confined spaces for long periods can explode at the smallest provocation. The only purpose of hostels is keep the homeless out of sight at night.

There was a vacant building next to the soup kitchen. A Real Estate agent moved in and started a media campaign to get the soup kitchen because land values were depressed by the homeless coming in for their one meal of the day. Eventually, the campaign worked and the land and rental values went up. This is the compassionate side of Capitalism.

The DSP has in its party program for the liberation of women:

Women will not be able to enjoy genuine economic equality with men as long as they are forced to bear the main burden of domestic work. This is a socially created problem that demands a social solution. This would include the socialisation of domestic services through the creation of a network of easily accessible, low-cost, high-quality public laundries, cafeterias and restaurants, house-cleaning services organised on an industrial basis, etc.

Emphasis Mine

Instead of forcing people off the streets by starving them, the socialist solution would be for neighbourhood cafeterias to feed anyone who shows up. This would be a good way to meet your neighbours and start to rebuild communities.