I've been homeless twice. Thankfully I had a car and I could live out of it temporarily while I found some family to save my ass while I got back on my feet.
If I hadn't had family keep me from rock bottom it's hard to say if I would have pulled out of those situations on my own.
Unfortunately for many people they have little to no empathy for homeless because they have been lied to or attacked by homeless and they then view all homeless that way.
I remember once in my teens I skateboarded over to a sandwich place to get lunch for myself and my brother. On the way there I passed a homeless guy with a sign asking for "anything". I decided to get him a sandwich while I was there. Just a basic turkey sandwich or something as plain as I could think of. When I tried to give him the sandwich he threw it back at me and told me I should have just given him the money so he could get drunk.
That experience really tainted my view of the homeless from that day onwards. Then later in life I would have two different girlfriends get grabbed by homeless people over the years.
I have a buddy that lived downtown and the homeless people there were always breaking their windows and stealing their stuff. One of them set fire to the side of their house out of boredom. When the police came they just escorted him to the street and then left. He didn't get tried for arson or anything. The cops don't care. They have no system in place to deal with those people.
Its easy for people to have empathy for a group that they have never interacted with. Anyone who lives near homeless or regularly interacts with homeless people will tell you that not all of them are good people who just got abandoned by society. Some of them are evil bad people who have refused help or just don't want it. Most of them need mental support.
It's a very complicated issue and I dont think it has any easy or cheap solutions.
Same here on a few bad experiences trying to help
- a guy asked for money to get a meal combo from McDonalds. I bought him the meal combo, so he keyed my car for not giving him cash
- I suppose I can see this being taken the wrong way, but I tried emptying my pockets a few times, only for them to throw the counts on the ground. After that I started noticing homeless with coins on the ground around them
Realistically, it doesn’t matter anymore since I almost never have cash. They seem to know that world has gone too, as I’m rarely solicited anymore
Yeah I haven't carried any cash for years and most of the time I offer to buy them food they decline. Once in awhile they take me up on the offer and are thankful but I am still always a little worried they are gonna throw it in my face after that experience I had as a kid.
It's a shit situation all around.
My parents wouldn't even have the fucking space to let me stay.
And then we have people like musk, who grew up with a golden spoon and view those on social security as parasites.
Homelessness is not only living on the street either. There are lots of housing insecurities. Some people may move back in with family but the location isn't safe or welcoming.
I've seen many young mothers face this exact situation, often even when that same family pressured her to carry the pregnancy to term.
Yep, anyone can be homeless.
If you sell your house and are between houses now, technically you are homeless but you're privileged you can live in a hotel or rent a storage unit and couch surf or if you have a friend or family member to stay with. If you have a job, you can still afford shelter and not lose everything. This was my family when my brother was a baby and we just stay with a friend for 2 months until we moved into our new house. Both of my parents had jobs. We were privileged.
If you're evicted because you lost your job or got sick so you were unable to afford to pay your rent. Not all landlords give you a grace period to get behind in rent when something out of your control happened. These people also lose everything if they had no friends or family to help out. If they live paycheck to paycheck, they couldn't save money. Many Americans are one paycheck away from homelessness. It just means if they get sick or get into an accident or lose their job, they're screwed.
My mom died when I was 20 and the old man sold the house and took off with anything of value while I was just out of electrical engineering and there was a big economic downturn in the early 90s .. I crashed on people's couches in crack house neighborhoods and sometimes slept under bridges or highway overpasses... Had no car - no job and lucked into a job at Sears selling PC's back when windows 3.11 was king. I earned enough to buy a bike and bike my way to work from wherever I was crashing and bought a damned pink barbie backpack from a tag sale for 2 bucks so I could bring my suit jacket and tie required in those days and I took a damned ribbing until I could get a better situation. People that have a fallback are lucky as hell and should consider themselves so.
Forced Homelessness is the policy of many Governments and the DOJ in the United States as a means of punishing those they are after without any due process. Your ability to work or even have ID can be taken from you if they choose to do it. Your money can be taken. Your bank accounts can be frozen.
City, State and Federal Governments have been creating these zones where large numbers of homeless and poor people are forced into with a kind of virtual redlining. Usually, these are downtown areas in major cities, and then the system creates the ability to target them with systemic drug usage, even to the point of the government supplying pipes and needles for people to use. They are given just enough food to stay alive while forced into this position. No employers are going to hire anyone and it isn't like it used to be where someone can just walk into a factory and make enough money in cash to live for a week.
In many ways it is a public execution system that just operates very slowly and you'll only occasionally notice the dead body--- which even are often not recorded as a death correctly, and it's nothing you will see in the obituary sections of your newspapers. Imagine a system that lets tons of your former neighbors die slowly on the street while everyone walks by inside their little tech bubbles of safety, confident in the belief that it could never be them.
At some point, it's really about your view of a human life versus your value of money. At some point along the way, it was decided that the amount of money someone has at that point in time determines their value as a person to even keep existing, or to have basic rights...
If Governments wanted to solve the problem, they could find a building to put people in, they could force drug rehab on some, others probably should be in jail. The ones willing and able to work should be given the opportunity, with a path out of the state imposed public execution systems, and back to a life where they are capable of taking care of themselves.
“When one individual inflicts bodily injury upon another such that death results, we call the deed manslaughter; when the assailant knew in advance that the injury would be fatal, we call his deed murder. But when society places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death, one which is quite as much a death by violence as that by the sword or bullet; when it deprives thousands of the necessaries of life, places them under conditions in which they cannot live – forces them, through the strong arm of the law, to remain in such conditions until that death ensues which is the inevitable consequence – knows that these thousands of victims must perish, and yet permits these conditions to remain, its deed is murder just as surely as the deed of the single individual; disguised, malicious murder, murder against which none can defend himself, which does not seem what it is, because no man sees the murderer, because the death of the victim seems a natural one, since the offence is more one of omission than of commission. But murder it remains.”
Well said!
No one should judge homeless people. It's easy to judge being in a privileged position, but without having experienced bad shit yourself you should just shut the fuck up. Maybe help the less privileged, otherwise you will be judged by my.
I don't think people judge them specifically, around me are a lot of scammers, making it very difficult to know who needs "help"
Yeah, there’s that too. A decade or more ago, our local paper ran an expose on the scammers, but they kept it reasonably constructive, giving equal space to strategies for identifying those in actual need.
For my teens, I kept it simple
- someone actively soliciting you in a high traffic area is likely a scammer
- someone sitting quietly, trying to “shrink” away from attention, whether they have their hand out or not, is more likely in need
my view of homeless people changed forever when I learned that more than half of them were foster kids who aged out of the system and were left with no family or resources.
Jesus, that's dark.
Sure, it may sound bad when children become homeless. But have you ever thought about how much money it saves? Just think of all the good things we can afford with all that money!
Like anti-homeless park benches. Or those little speakers that emit ultra-high-pitched sounds so that young people don't … enjoy … existing somewhere or something, idk.
And just because I'm unable to actually satirize reality at the moment, yes, /s
Yep... there's also a massive overlap with vulnerable groups like LGBT and disabled
For real. And I don’t. I always feel humbled when I see a homeless person because I’m just a hop and a skip away from being in their predicament. All it would take is an unfortunate event or two.
Liberals are also to blame for gaslighting and selling workers out to the capital class for 50+ years. The last Democrat President that actually fought for the proletariat was FDR with his New Deal programs.
Yes, liberals were less evil than Republicans, but when Obama tried to give us universal healthcare they stabbed him in the back and when Bernie set multiple grassroot funding records, they conspired against him and stabbed the entire nation in the back. So if we factor in the opportunities for real leftist leadership that liberals stole from us than that opportunity cost is nearly as damaging as what Republicans are doing.
nearly as damaging
really? More BS false equivalence. The liberals where never in control enough to make any of that happen. They may not be perfect by any means but to say they're "nearly as damaging" as the right is just ridiculous.
fuck.
One in four foster kids will end up homeless.
https://nfyi.org/issues/homelessness/
up to 3 out of 10 homeless people are foster kids who aged out.
what the fuck.
I thought it was bad enough knowing about the veteran rights.
some of the studies show higher rates.
The studies. on the homeless children.
Also black families are over-policed, and their kids more likely to be put into foster care "National estimates suggest that 53% of Black children will experience CPS contact by age 18, as compared to 28% of White children" "We consider that, at their root, these inequities are the consequence of systemic racism: there is no inherent relationship between race and child maltreatment. Rather, race is a proxy for the societal and institutional privileges and oppressions people experience because of their membership in a racialized group" https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9325927/
Movement for Family Power is a great advocacy organization if you want to get involved https://www.movementforfamilypower.org/
Also impacts Native Americans. ICWA was put in place to basically stop DHS from kidnapping native kids. (The Right has been waging a war against ICWA for a while too - they tend to be against any form of oversight in child welfare/adoption. They want kids to go to “quiverful” white families)
there is no inherent relationship between race and child maltreatment
The pipeline is systemic racism -> poverty -> child maltreatment.
Even worse a ward of the state loses ALL benifits permanently if they are convicted of any offense, guess how motivated social workers are to find an excuse? For anyone that's never been through these systems when you spend a lot of time with a social worker, I've never been more clearly threatened more credibily by anyone my entire life. I told one that I needed help with child care and they said ''you don't want to tell ME that, if you're having such a hard time watching your kids, maybe you need them removed by CPS, I can have an office over there before you get home if you'd like, or can you manage without talking to be about it?'' Imagine being 18, right out of foster care, trying to get enployment or training through health and human services, and they know all they have to do is get you on any technicality and case closed. I know they'd get you a job with a van picking you up, and let police have a look at your ID and run it to find any lapse. Had a cop pull over a van with 8 people, never even talked to the driver, just demanded everyone in the van give over ID and, clearly targeting, went right for one guy and ''found out'' he had failed to report the job we all started that day to his case worker who set up the job assignment, and got him charged right there. The business we were hired by was furious, because apparently they've lost vital numbers of workers this way, and the social workers did this fairly regularly, also the amount of times they send you paperwork that gets to you on the 9th, and had to be turned in by the 8th was VERY precise and consistant. The welfare state isn't about helping anyone, it's about reducing the burden on the tax prayer by any means necessary. They do not care about getting you kicked out permanently. They want your case closed.
It's because those orgs have been captured by their enemies, people that don't want to help. They blame the people that need the services as being leeches, but they are the ones getting paid to fail at their jobs. They don't want to see it succeed, they want it to fail so they can say how bad the system is.
In addition to the appalling foster care kid stats for homeless, around 13% of homeless are veterans (obviously some qualify as both). Funny how support for the military dries up once they get discharged.
Then we have the complete lack of any kind of assistance for the mentally ill.
We shouldn't even pretend that we are civilized. We treat our fellow humans so barbarically.
Two time boomeranging failson here.
I tried Lord how I tried. I fell flat on my face trying to make it on my own. Actually did wind up homeless for a stint. If I didn't have the option to crawl back home to lick my wounds, I'm not sure I would have made it.
When I see things like this it makes me so proud of my parents. They are the few people I know who do foster care because they care. They have actual love for every kid that ever walked through their doors. They have had so far 3 kids that moved back home at one point or another and for all 3 of them the only question They ever asked was "how soon do you want to move in?"
At the same time stuff like this hurts me because I always thought unconditional love was the standard growing up. The knowledge that most people didn't / don't have that is so sad.
Anyway on a side note I am going to call my folks and tell them how great they are.
FYi readers, I don't know the actual statistics on foster children who grow out of the system and how prevalent that is in the homeless population, but from what I know at least, particularly in my own time homeless, is that most homeless people are actually small families who live in their car or in someone's garage.
I think we need to do a lot better to show what poverty really looks like in the USA, because we picture the media-spun image of America that we have a huge middle-class in nice suburban homes, and then there's the "the poors" who are like, generic homeless dudes who are grizzled old bums warming their fingerless-gloved hands over a burning metal drum down in skid-row.
The reality of the distribution is the "middle class" in America is much, much smaller and more poor than most people realize. Most people who seem to "have it all" are in immense debt, and the larger percentage of families in the US are working poor, people who live in shared homes and apartments with too many other people, people who live in their car and go to work and school every day, people who live in motels and abandoned homes or who "Stay after work" to take advantage of the company showers before sleeping under the desk. These are not jokes or tropes or memes, this is really how many, many Americans live... in the wealthiest country in the world.
There are an incredible number of people with gym memberships for access to the showers.
I've been a homeless teen, thankfully it was over a decade now though.
Shit sucked. I get angry when I hear people make excuses about how homeless people are just lazy or trying to rip you off somehow. Like stfu you have no idea what it's like!
The reality if you're working class in America; we're all one really bad day and a few less people caring about us from being homeless.
This right here is my biggest fear for my daughter.
She’s lazy. She’s unfocused. She’s isolated.
She is one of the greatest artists I have ever encountered in my life. Bad shit seems to come with that. I am afraid that the world will never know it because she isolates almost completely.
Her mother died from breast cancer when she was 13. I have been so unkind to my body and I’m afraid I won’t be here long enough to help her the way she might end up needing it.
She has her step dad who has remained a big part of her life since her mom passed away. He’s a great man and she and her mother were very lucky that he’s the one she found. She can’t get along with any of her mom’s family. I believe that my wife would always look out for her, but I wish they’d get closer. Her mom made that hard by saying only days before she died, “If you replace me with that woman I will spend eternity rolling in my grave.”
I have survived in this world because of my mother and my uncle. Without them I would have been homeless over and over again. I wish she would get closer with her mom’s family. I can’t make her stay with them though. Her aunt takes her to school if she misses the bus, so maybe she’ll look out for her.
It keeps me awake at night more than anything else.
Has ADHD ever been ruled out? Cause being treated, this immensely increases the chances of a healthy and successfull adulthood...
Recently found a pretty interesting video about China and how they combat homelessness (sorry on reddit). You can buy a 1 room apartment for $15.000 and the monthly costs are minimal. Of course I don't truly know if there really isn't any homelessness in China, but we absolutely have the technology to solve this problem lol
It's probably mostly accurate, most other developed nations DO prioritize housing and caring for their homeless because it just makes sense that if you don't want decay in your population, you do SOMETHING to take care of them.
Now that said, I am far more concerned/curious how China is handling one of the leading causes of homelessness which is mental and physical health problems, and how much access the average person starting to slip through the cracks can get to proper healthcare.
I am not well versed on China's healthcare situation though, and it's been almost 17 years since I've been there last, when I was there people seemed kind of... miserable. Overworked, unable to afford more than the most basic amenities and living conditions. At least the working-class drivers and clerks. Honestly, China 17 years ago feels a lot like many places in the US right now.
Well, for 2022 I found that the average wage is 2600¥ or 330€ per month (with enormous differencs between the regions). That means a flat is 4 annual salaries on average, assuming ithe 15000$ or 14000€. That's not that much off a difference to Germany, where I am from.
So one could argue that this is just the advise "get a job and buy a house!!!" To a homeless person.
4x the annual median salary for a house sounds amazing to me. In the US, low cost of living areas can have a median income of $40k and houses will still cost $320k (8x your annual salary). In areas like San Francisco, median income is around $140k while median house prices are $1.2M (8x the annual income).
So it seems that housing is twice as affordable in China and Germany.
But absolute scale makes a difference, especially if you compare having a job or not, and how expensive it is to give a home to a homeless person. My impression was that they just give you an apartment for free.
The proper comparison would be complicated, when building and maintaining an apartment block, how much money is siphoned off as profit to the capitalists?
Also e.g. Germany has a lot of regulations which is sometimes nice, but also lead to higher costs. Like converting your car to electric isn't done in Germany, because regulations demand you make an EMF test which costs something 5-10 thousand euro. So there are practically none. That held back private innovation for EVs. There are countless regulations for building too which might sound good on paper but have been tweaked to only benefit the capitalists and make costs go up and projects take forever.
Then in Germany you wouldn't give an apartment as a homeless person for free, you'd have to show that you're jobless and that has to be verified then they give you money then you can pay rent to someone. Although I'm not quite sure how the situation in Germany is overall.
That happens. I dated someone who worked in a group home for foster kids and they try to set a kid up with some place to live, like an AFC home after they turn 18, but sometimes they don't have any options and get dropped off at a homeless shelter.
Point taken... also ouch...
