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And it's either we put in these clearly just gargantuan amount of resources to really

get to people, understand where everyone's at, work person by person, not give up with

any single person. Or we just live with an atrocity and keep kind of like pointing fingers

and, you know, just blaming people.

You're listening to how to. I'm Amanda Ripley. If you live in just about any city in this

country, you're probably familiar with the issue of homelessness. Or houselessness, as

it's increasingly being called, as you'll hear. And it can feel like a never ending problem

with no solution. One that's especially hard to reconcile in the winter and around the

holidays. There's been a lot of politics and fear swirling around this subject for

a long time. But what if we put all that noise on pause and just asked what works and

what doesn't? What can we do? Are there tangible ways to make a difference in the lives of

people who are unhoused? That's what our listener this week wants to know.

My name is Alex. I'm 35. I've lived pretty much my whole life in Los Angeles. And growing

up, there's always homeless people, which is, I don't say that lightly, but it was just

a fact of life. But within the last, I don't know, five or 10 years, the problem is just

...