I had the wonderful opportunity to work for Jack Welch of General Electric fame at close quarters

[barryqwalsh]

It is the sort of invaluable experience that is hard to replicate, even if, at times, his pace of work was shocking for someone 30-odd years his junior.

During the period, we had time to chat about all sorts of things.

At one stage, we were talking about crises or challenges, not just in business but in life in general and he sat me down, almost pointing his finger at me, and stated that there are three things to do in a crisis, or when faced with a challenge.


With a few simple steps, State could provide social houses for €800 a year - Independent.ie

 

[Dekster]

Ireland has excess housing units already. They could house everybody homeless and needing improved housing and only use up maybe 50% of its excess capacity. There is no need to build even more housing units when it has too many already (same in the US BTW)

 

[Picaro]

Ireland has excess housing units already. They could house everybody homeless and needing improved housing and only use up maybe 50% of its excess capacity. There is no need to build even more housing units when it has too many already (same in the US BTW)

While I certainly agree with this, the caveat is where that housing is located relative to the needs of those that are homeless. It's rarely in viable locations here in the U.S.

 

[Picaro]

It is the sort of invaluable experience that is hard to replicate, even if, at times, his pace of work was shocking for someone 30-odd years his junior.

During the period, we had time to chat about all sorts of things.

At one stage, we were talking about crises or challenges, not just in business but in life in general and he sat me down, almost pointing his finger at me, and stated that there are three things to do in a crisis, or when faced with a challenge.


With a few simple steps, State could provide social houses for €800 a year - Independent.ie

Another poster here also had that experience with Welch. Snouter worked with him, or see he used to claim, anyway.

 

[Dekster]

Ireland has excess housing units already. They could house everybody homeless and needing improved housing and only use up maybe 50% of its excess capacity. There is no need to build even more housing units when it has too many already (same in the US BTW)

While I certainly agree with this, the caveat is where that housing is located relative to the needs of those that are homeless. It's rarely in viable locations here in the U.S.

It comes down to a question of how much you are willing to let beggars be choosers for lack of a better phrase. If I were homeless and truly looking for shelter, I would have no problem moving somewhere else to have it. The greater problem is that cities are trying to export their homeless so they do not cost them anything in the way of social services or jail space. Poverty is largely seen as a moral issue in this country still.

 

[Picaro]

Ireland has excess housing units already. They could house everybody homeless and needing improved housing and only use up maybe 50% of its excess capacity. There is no need to build even more housing units when it has too many already (same in the US BTW)

While I certainly agree with this, the caveat is where that housing is located relative to the needs of those that are homeless. It's rarely in viable locations here in the U.S.

It comes down to a question of how much you are willing to let beggars be choosers for lack of a better phrase. If I were homeless and truly looking for shelter, I would have no problem moving somewhere else to have it. The greater problem is that cities are trying to export their homeless so they do not cost them anything in the way of social services or jail space. Poverty is largely seen as a moral issue in this country still.

I was referring to the U.S., specifically; my bad, and yes, cities are playing musical chairs games with the homeless here as well, instead of looking at other methods of dealing with the problem. And I agree it's a moral issue.

The welfare system in the U.S. is a state administered program here; even though the Federal govt. provides a lot of the funding, moving those on assistance from one place to another isn't possible under that set-up, and of course, the public transportation system in non-existent in areas where the surplus housing is available. It would be great if people living under bridges in Brooklyn could be re-located to a better environment in, say Salt Lake City, but that isn't possible under our current services system here. It's not as simple a problem here as it is in Ireland, which is relatively small and has a better public service system, especially transportation, than the U.S. has.

The old public housing methods here failed, and only resulted in crime infested 'Projects'. What is needed is something like what some architects and designers have come up with in housing projects for Third world communities, small shelters on small plots instead of massive slums building. The U.S. also has a miserable record in dealing with the mentally ill, it prefers to let the prison system handle 'housing' for those people, which is a massive crime and immorality, imo.