It's just like communism in that it entirely ignores the needs and capacity of an individual and makes them slaves to the idealism of the state.
They're no better than a homeless encampment because you can't give people a house and then expect them to act like a homeowner overnight. It was the wrong problem to solve, and I think people rush to solve it out of self conscious guilt and a desire to quickly make the apparent parts of the problem disappear from common view.
It's a cruel and ridiculous strategy.
I have found that many people who receive housing benefits are very poor stewards of their personal resources.
The first thing someone does when they get housed is to invite all their homeless friends over, to shower, to eat, to crash, to do drugs, to play games, whatever.
So your typical Section 8 housing recipient is not just a single person/family benefiting from housing, they're dragging in their entire circle of loser friends who don't have those benefits, and so now you've got a cluster of mooches who aren't invested nor responsible for disruption or damage in that community.
It's really an unfortunate thing, and I just saw it over and over again. So many people lose their benefits very quickly because they can't resist helping other folks out, but that's not what you do with welfare and entitlements.
Both those comments are voted down and replies aren't agreeing.
HN has its biases and problems, but I think you're misrepresenting it.
Oh and link to the entire thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38979970
no worries, the fucking thread is full of fucking americans just not understanding that what they hate are fucking american cities which aren't built for living in them