Why do homeless folks live where they do?

rockhead wrote :



that's what my - now departed - boss always said . he grew up during the depression years in canada , rode the rails , tramped through the woods of northern ontario ... ...
he joined up at the beginning of the war , attented university on the canadian GI bill after the war and made it to vice-president of a life-insurance company .
he NEVER forgot what his life experiences had been . he NEVER passed a panhandler without handing over some money .
"that could have been me " , he would say if someone said that he was just giving money to a wino or bum who would waste the money .
HE NEVER FORGOT !
hbg

I grew up in the immediate aftermath of the Depression. People were still in a mind set of being in the same boat together. It was hard for me to watch the conviction dissipate over the succeeding years.

Not to be pessimistic, but that homeless person may be me---I am of an age that make professional jobs not so readably available, and educated and experienced enough to make many potential service level employers gun shy. On the other hand, I am too young to claim retirement (penalties) or social security and am damned with good health and intelligence.

So if in about six months, you see a greying middle aged man standing somewhere by an interstate ramp wearing a signboard saying "educated, sober, and out of work" think of me.

On the other hand I can juggle, dance and tell jokes. Busking can be profitable on the right corner even for an old fart like me.

Rap

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTi802EJ-j8
scene from Life Stinks
Mel Brooks

This is my belief also and I do a lot of volunteer work in food banks. I will not enable someone to fuel their addictions by giving them cash. I don't want to chance paying for the last needle load they stick up their arm or the last bottle they drink before falling in front of a subway train. Many young women, and even children, who are begging on the street are doing so because a "handout pimp" is making them do so and taking all the profits. I have given food directly to people who seem to need it, but when it comes to money I tell them: "I write checks to my charities".

Thanks for making my future look even more grim.

Rap

Sorry. I meant no disrespect.

A couple months ago Rockhead asked me to help him find a link to a story he'd heard on NPR. It was the story of a woman who was trying to survive. She was also trying to make a difference in the life of another -- her stepdaughter. It's a very poignant story that touched me deeply, as it had him, and brought back many memories of years past.

The only link I have is to the main NPR "selected shorts" history. It was broadcast on May 5 and is titled 'Discarded People'. There's an intro about the two stories read that day. "Second Hand", read by Mary Beth Hurt, begins around the 1:40 mark. It's well worth a listen...

http://www.podanza.com/podcast/npr-selected-shorts/ae7109b8349323f7a24e9a9a320d1bbd/

Thanks, JPB. That was on the radio the day Stink and I were moving to the farm. I hadda stop and we both listened to the end. I was moved more than he, I presume.

He never mentioned it again...

OK, so I am back over by the boulevard to get my sweet tea, and was front row to another of life's sad dramas. I will post and listen...

As I waited to pull in to the "restaurant", I heard someone cursing me.
I looked over to the far curb, and there was a young lady waiting to cross the street. She was pregnant, and in her early thirties to guess.

She was just finishing her business with two cruisers, and 4 local vice cops. I apparently was the straw that broke it, cuz my waitng for traffic to clear was delaying her exit from her interaction with the law.

I pulled in and parked. got out, and was there right in time to hold the door for her. She shocked me with her up close appearance.

She had been cute once. She had 4 stripes on her upper left arm, looked distinctly as though a hand had grabbed her VERY firmly. She had on a brand new black dress (still had a tag on it), cut to try and hide her bulging belly, and loose to the point that her chest was exposed. The whole left side of her face was puffy and swollen, and looked to have been discoloured until very recently. And one still very purple eye.



That was not the sad part.


She saw one of her associates in line, and they started to commiserate over her dilemma. This was her fourth bust. She will be classified as a habitual offender. They were discussing warrants and cause as though they were paralegals, and angry that they were not just allowed to do what they wanted.

(No pimps were harmed)



Thoughts?

How interesting is that?

30+ views, but no comments.

Seems kinda like how the problem is being dealt with in the real world as well.

I guess if you close your eyes tight enough...

Oh well.

hey, wait a minute.

you know I'll comment.

while reading that, I couldn't help but think of the thread by cjwhatevertherestofitis about the "anorexic" pregnant woman at work.

I guess people aren't commenting because, well, you know, that's the womans business and everything.

It might hurt her feelings to ask her if she's alright.

I think anything said to her at that point would have drawn spew. She was angry at the world.

I'm not lookin' to pounce on anyone here, I truly wonder if I am the only one that sees the hopelessness in this girls life that she is ignoring, and the way the system allows it?

The kid is destined for statistichood, assuming it goes to term.

(and thank you shay, for talkin' back...)

:wink:

rockhead wrote :



i googled/cheated : " Why should we walk a mile in someone else's shoes before we criticize them ? "

one of the answers was :


i suppose i should have first stated my own answer to the question/dilemma told by rockhead - this was an easy way out .

i would add that it is often impossible for an outsider to understand what a person that is "down and out" has gone through . how can we understand how and why they arrived at such a low point (the way we see it , but does the person "down and out" even agree that they are at a low point ? i surely don't know! ) .

i certainly would not pass judgement on the person . what brought them down ? job loss , mental problem , little education ... and the list goes on and on !

my personal belief is that in our "modern and enlightened (???) " society every person should be entitled to be able to live in dignity - even if they are not holding down a job for whatever reason .

i gave that answer on some other thread and was quickly shot down because it would be "charity by government " - "can't have that" , i was told .
(it seems to be that all governments hand out charity of one kind or another - even to large corporations - but that seems to fall under a different heading) .

enough rambling for tonight !
hbg

It's a subculture, for better or worse, that has probably existed as long as humans have had societies. I used to rub shoulders with some who live that way, though not recently. None asked my opinion of anything, and I didn't offer one. I often wonder how long these people live, and what happens to them as they grow older.

I was one who checked it out recently, as well as responding earlier in some confusion re your title, which I think I mistook at the time.

But, rh, sometimes views are not from a2kers. And, there is often a 10 to 1 ratio between views and comments posted.

When I looked at the description of the woman and her situation earlier, I was again a little confused re the story - she had been rousted for soliciting? she had been just let out of some official place? She had been rousted and then ran across traffiic?

What do you want to see happen? that she, pregnant, should be forced into care? I might want that, but get some reasons against it. I simply don't know, except that deinstitutionalization has wrought another kind of hellish havoc.

My father was in some facilities in an involuntary way and he should have had better help but he had the best we could get at the time, the VA. That was before the major change re institutionalization. We were beside ourselves and without money or recourse, and that's with the young me knowing some doctors. The doctors had little help for me with my mother with alzheimer's either. Both wandered and were incoherent on the street, though they didn't live there.

Homeless are, as I figure you know, not all one group. Not all are mentally troubled, except by circumstances - oh, look, for some, multiple kinds of depression; not all are druggies; many are both of those. Some can't imagine getting along in 'regular' life.
Some are brilliant (the violinist befriended somewhat by the LA philharmonic).

I don't have any easy answers. I, like RapRap, see potential tough scenarios for myself, as many others are coming to grips with in different ways.

Not everyone who reads your post will have some snappy answer at the ready. Her situation is hellishly sad, not least for the baby.

osso wrote :



there sure is no easy answer to these problems but i still believe every human being is entitled to be treated like a human - with respect , dignity and decency , although that is difficult at times .
someone said on another thread : "sink or swim" - i don't think it's that simple !
some people simply cannot swim - no matter how hard they try - at best they'll tread water and not always successfully !
hbg

Agree.