Civil Disobedience from Homeless People

Agreed that it costs more for the city to jail someone as opposed to a homeless person occupying a city park or bathing in men's and women's restrooms. But in answering the first sentence of your post:

"I'm curious about why homeless people are not able to band together and push back a bit harder than they do."

Now, nobody is more of an advocate of assigning homeless people to facilities that get them on track to being productive members of society than me. However, you still have to consider the homeless that are heavy drug users or homeless people who are heavy alcoholics. How can homeless people band together when they face internal conflicts such as alcoholism, drugs, rape among homeless women. Surely the city has more pressing issues however we have to factor these problems. Besides, what about the homeless people who play on society's empathy?

You need to consider these issues.

"I'm curious about why homeless people are not able to band together and push back a bit harder than they do."

I suppose this was not stated well. It's kind of obvious that many people who have let their lives fall apart have something that's keeping them from maintaining any form of general organization.

But not all homeless are drug addicts or rapists, and there are plenty who do have sufficient wits to organize and push back. Perhaps they are lost individually, but if they were to get organized then they'd be a force to reckon with. So I wonder how .gov would counter heavy duty civil disobedience?

Tragically, many of the homeless are people battling with mental illness, addiction, etc. Unless a person is a danger to him/herself or others, psychiatric facilities won't help in caring properly for those in need. Most of these people pose no danger to others, but are unable to help themselves either. Ronald Reagan had a role, since his policies affected mental healthcare funding.

One of the biggest drawbacks to helping the homeless is the notion being pushed in the general consciousness that they are lazy good for nothings, likely mentally ill and on drugs. Notice, even here, the first descriptions you see are on that order. The homeless also is made up of veterans, single parents with kids, and the like. The mania for cutting assistance, such as food stamps, will only drive more over the edge.

True..but there is a large portion of homeless people with mental illness, that need to be cared for...we shouldn't turn and look the other way. I know there are people without either addiction issues ,or mental illness, that are just a few pay checks away from homelessness ..often due to circumstances beyond their control. I also mention the people with addiction issues because, there isn't a system that really helps. The imposed legal penalties are quite harsh, and often land these individuals in circumstances they cannot recover from. I think rehab would be a better option than incarceration in most petty cases...that's not what happens. Many find themselves unable to obtain work, due to idiotic indiscretions that result in misdemeanor convictions.

What you say is correct. There are really subsets of homeless. No one description fits all. Regardless of which homeless we target, there is scant help available.

What your saying there, hit's the nail pretty much on the head.

I've been homeless in 8 differant Borough's in my own country, I guess in the states, you'd refer to that as being homeless in 8 differant states.

People have this mental image in there own mind about homeless people that is just plain wrong and when you try to set them straight, there brain short circuits trying to connect the dots, so they often class the homeless as being scroungers or they come up with terms like "Voluntarily" homeless.

Nobody volunteers for it, that's Bull!

Myself, I shouted at the social worker from the local authority whilst still under an assured short-hold lease on a place, an then I got the notice of eviction for violating the terms of my lease, no aggressive or abusive behaviour, didnt matter that I'd nearly frozen to death and was being eaten alive by bugs that I picked up going into one of there housing units an it didnt matter that I had been refused any kind of social aid after the rehousing because they said an I quote "we only give that to people that we've just re-housed!" Que: the puzzled expression!

So then I found myself having to live it out in a Squat and all of the guys I was staying with had all had similar experiances of bureaucracy gone mad!

Stayed living that way for the better part of 4 years, secure a Job, how can you secure a Job when you dont even know, if when you come back at the end of the night if your possessions will even still be there?

The druggied homeless are easy to spot, because the regular homeless avoid them like the plague. At the end of it all I ended up still having to spend time on the street's and that was almost for a full year until someone came along an offered to scrape me back up and rehouse me, which they did through a Housing Association, then the housing association passes you to a letting's agency and the lettings agency, secure's a maximum of over $1000 in social aid grants, then houses you at the top end of the scale for the maximum allowance they can sqweese out of the government.

Didnt matter that the property in question was damp, roof falling in, had no fire-alarm an very shody electricity because house rats had chewed through all the cables. So even if you secure employ, which I did, the rent was so unbelievably high, that I had to move. However at that stage you can forget about youe 1500 deposit, you think the lettings agent who's got rats in his building ever really intended to pay you that back?

But in there ideal little world they think nothing of trying to make you pay !920 per calander month

After a year searching the Job ques and sitting on social, I now find out my newer landlord another agency hadnt even been paying his utility bill's and the first I knew of it was when the lights went off, the gas went off and then the water got turned off an now another lettings agent is trying to extort $499 out of myself, dude, I moved faster than a jack-rabbit and now yeap i'm back to square one.

The idea of banding together sounds good in theory, but most of the time trust me and take it from someone who know's, your better going it alone!

I've been mugged for my phone, had people try to steal the bag, watched junkies steal other homeless peoples sleeping bags oh and got to witness an attempted murder! All good fun eh?

No wonder they turn to the drink!

An to cap it off they say "why wont these people come to us for help?" I could name hundred's of reason's but in the end you only need one.

Oh an it's the governments own fault, they bankrupt the country taking it to war, so the people that end up paying for it all are you and me!

Connecting the Dots...

Government goes to War...
Government then Ban's Crisis Aid for Families in a Crisis...
Government then Sell's off all locally owned Social housing...
Letting's Agencies buy up all the Housing...
Teenagers under the age of 30 told, they can no longer apply for Allowance or Aid...

Goodness me, they've made things so much better...

I guess that's what they ment by Big Change?

Some free advice for those facing the prospect of living on the street, dont sleep in the town centers, do not sleep in shop doorways, do not light a fire (it gives away your possition & it's against the Bylaws!) do not erect a temporary shelter, they simply try to charge you money for it! Best option from years of experiance, buy the huge wheelie bin liners from the 1 buck shop, along with the double sided sticky tape and the silver thermal blankets that are rubbish, but hey what did you expect for a buck? Turn wheelie bin liner inside out, cellotape the silver blankets to either side, turn it back inside out and roll it and stow it in the bag, next find a place off the beaten path, woodlands, etc... Light a small fire after 5 when the wardens have gone home! Pull out bin-liner, put sleeping bag inside and climb into the entire kaboodle, now arnt you toasty, waterproof and warm?!? You wouldnt have been in some shop door-way!

You would have been poked, prodded, spat at, abused verbally etc etc and people say they dont like the woods at night because it's scary, trust me, it's far more scary sleeping in the town! Go down the library pick up a survival book, read it and digest what it says, positive mental attitude! Buy a canteen carry your own water! Buy matches and a lighter and a single cell LED torch, these are things you pick up and it takes years of suffering before you finally get it right! Dont learn the hard way, prepare in advance, so when that time comes, you know exactly what to do.. An yes the woods are scary, because i'm in them having a sleep! LOL

"If you go down to the wood's today, your in for big surprise!"

Thermal imaging camera, good luck with that, that's why you line it with the silver survival blankets first, because 1> it reflects your body heat back at you and 2> it's pitch black, if someone stroles by where your sleeping in a hedge, they'd be incredibly hard pressed to notice you even with a torch!

I've tried it all an this way you can survive minus one conditions quite comfortably with or without the sheltered fire, I had the frost bite once watched the black blotches coming up and swore it would never happen again! Double duvet, doesnt work, tarpaline, doesnt work, bubble wrap, it doesnt work, cardboard, work's if you want to lie on concrete in shop doorway but in the rain, yuk!

You've been homeless?