Not the temporary homeless, folk who've had a financial set back but can get on their feet after a few months to a year with some governmental assistance, I'm talking about the chronically homeless. I'm talking about the folk who have been homeless for so long they've lost touch with reality; defecating in the street, sleeping under freeways, talking to themselves, digging out of trash cans, unclean, yet lucid enough to pan handle. Those folks. What can or should be done?


discuss.

I ignore them as best I can Not really, well, maybe sorta

It's a terrible problem. Here in Berkeley there is a group for whom it seems to be a lifestyle choice for young people. That's fine, but I don't have sympathy or feel the need to help them buy pot, as they advertise their intentions to be.

It makes me feel incredibly jaded, oh well
[Edited 4/6/10 17:03pm]

My stepdad said the reason why there are so many homeless folk is because Reagan closed up a bunch of mental institutions to save money.

Those people are that way because of mental illness. They never got the help they needed, and neglect has caused their condition to continue and in most cases deteriorate.

I say, provide them the shelter they need and drugs to help them cope and all the therapy they need and desire. A friend or two will also help them on their journey back to normalcy.

I used to give a few dollars here and there to them whenever I went into NYC because I felt so bad.
Now that I go into the City a lot more, I've gotten because there are so many.

paintedlady said:

The problem is that a lot of them refuse the proper care.
Also the ones who genuinely need help are overlooked because of the ones who are scam-artists.

A police officer friend of mine told me when he use to work for Port Authority, some of those guys panhandling in the train station still got their monthly checks and had more money than some of us. One used to buy HIM coffee and donuts every morning!

Give them makeovers.

Pray and help, my friend. Pray and help.

chocolate1 said:

Yes but the ones I spoke to are veterans who were on meds and couldn't get the meds... like pain killers because they became addicted and switched to heroin and went downhill from there, or some are undiagnosed bi-polar or depressed men that stopped functioning in society.

And some are crack head/alcoholic deviants that left jail but never learned how to become productive members of society.

These people would have to sober up to get into shelters and receive the care they need. They can't sober up because its the drugs that keep them going.

One particular guy that we all call "Happy" is an alcoholic and I think suffers from autism and he is in his 40's. He never got the help he needed, he is the sweetest guy, and he needs help but we as a society are not very compassionate towards grown disabled men in general. We tend to write those men off.

Happy sprayed piss on my foot on me one day at the bus station. I screamed, he cried after and apologized profusely. He told me he was a bad man, and that he didn't want to hurt me but that he had to pee-pee.

I felt so bad for him, smelling like ammonia, filthy, overdressed in the hot sun, dick swinging freely...

I just told him its OK and if he needed help he should ask... he asked me for a place were he could go to brush his teeth and wash his face. So I bought him a few toiletries and a pack of socks and he smiled his jack-o-lantern smile and went off.

Told me his name was Happy and that he wouldn't pee on me again.

God bless Happy.
I hope he got the real help he needed.
[Edited 4/6/10 18:18pm]

What a story! A lot of people would have freaked out on him and gotten the police. You were patient and kind...

I hope he got some help as well...

I was reading something the other day that asked the question "what if God hasn't forgotten us? what if God is the starving, the homeless, the sick, the hurt....and we've forgotten God." There's a story in the Bible about the angels who went to peoples' houses dressed as strangers, to see who would let them in and who wouldn't.

We are supposed to help each other, not ignore each other. maybe it seems like God is ignoring us, when we are really ignoring him by not helping each other out when we see need.

Even if you don't believe in God, doesn't it feel wrong that this world would rather kill each other than feed each other....

When I was growing up in NY I used to kick a dollar or 2 out, or buy a slice of pizza, or a cup of coffee. My mom had taught me you could offer food, if they just wanted money then you knew they just wanted to go buy liquor

I need to get that caring spirit back.

BklynBabe said:

Yes...
I've done that for that reason.

Tuesday, April 06, 2010 7:07:53 PM

Positive References to President Ronald Reagan Are Misplaced
Gary Ater May 04, 2008

One of Ronald Reagan's first moves as president was to remove most of the federal support for low-cost housing. Upon taking office, President Reagan cut the housing budget for the poor and disabled from $32 Billion to $7 Billion. Now some people at the time said, "that's great that Reagan cut that kind of spending". Unfortunately, no one considered what the cost was going to be for removing housing from thousands of the poor, disabled and disenfranchised and putting them out on the streets. The costs for the increases in crime, drug trafficking, pan-handling, living on the street, increase in street gangs and gang riots far out weighed the original cost of the housing budget for the less fortunate and their low-cost housing.

When asked about the homeless people on the street across from the White House, President Reagan responded with; "They make it their own choice for staying out there." In a subsequent interview in Parade Magazine, Reagan's daughter, Patti Davis said: "How do you argue with a person who states that the people who are sleeping on the streets of America are homeless by choice." Patti Davis also commented about her fear that she might someday be attacked by a homeless person while jogging if she were recognized as the President's daughter.

somewhere in a time long ago someone alledgly stated "let the eat cake."

i say if "they" don't have the means to make the cake, what then?

make them net celebs like Brother Sharp!

http://images.google.com....=&gs_rfai=

I've often wondered why, in all the debates about what to do regarding the "homeless problem" nobody ever asks actual homeless people their opinion. We've got smarmy politician after fat, well-fed cop after upper class "expert" all pontificating about how to help those people, but no one ever bothers to address directly the people they claim to be so concerned about.

As long as we talk about homeless people and not to them, nothing's going to get fixed.
[Edited 4/6/10 21:03pm]

PunkMistress said:

I actually think that's a really good idea.

DesireeNevermind said:

yeah I think they let out people they decided were not dangerous. I also remember hearing 1/3 of homeless were Vietnam vets.

NDRU said:

As the laws stand you can't force a person into care if they aren't considered a harm to themselves or others. A good idea in principle, but "harm" is pretty much only considered to mean violence. IMO we need to redefine the notion of "harm to oneself or others" to include self-neglect. There are plenty of people on the streets who are completely calm and peaceful; who wouldn't hurt a fly, but can't feed themselves.

most of the homeless people where i live are mostly Vietnam War veterens who i guess never got the proper care needed when they came back and alot of them still are suffering from the mental illness thing and since Reagan closed down the mental falicites that use to help them out, all these people were pretty much dumped out onto the streets with no where to go it's quite sad actually but I think the best thing we can do is pray and open up as many neibhorhoods as we can that offically help homeless people out

Put the people who are in prison LONG term 2 work on neighborhoods (with abandoned buildings/homes) that needs revamping. Have them pay their debt 2 society by fixing up and rebuilding these properties, then have the homeless relocated to these places.

I'm on the Board of a Mentoring program for teens. We take the kids to feed the homeless in a YMCA that houses families. We set up all the food, and then the facility makes an announcement to come down and be served.
The first time I went, I was struck by how many FAMILIES there were.

Some were single moms who seemed to have obvious issues (quite a few who were various stages of recovery).
The one family that stood out to me, tho, was a young man and his wife who was about 8 months pregnant; they had 3 other kids. Dad was dressed like a white collar worker who had lost his job, and subsequently their home- like he was a victim of the economy.
Then my sister was talking to someone- it was her boyfriend's cousin, whose house had burned down.

Spending time in the facility changed my perception of homelessnees... they're not all drunk/high/mentally ill men.

Graycap23 said:

Not a bad idea. Many prisons are badly in need of rehabilitative work programs for inmates so they have skills and experience to take into the world once they're released, as well as the psychological boost that comes from having a use or purpose. Affordable housing is severely needed in a lot of cities. Why not marry the two ideas and have inmates in a work program to revamp old buildings?

chocolate1 said:

Very true. From my own experiences working with people who are homeless, the vast majority are victims of circumstance.

That said, I do think we need to get past the discourse of classing homeless people by worth. A single mother down on her luck is not "better" than an addict, and the addict is not lower. If we're going to condemn and scorn people with addiction issues we should be turning our backs on doctors and lawyers with drug habits too.

i see all kinds of shit

booty said:

?

meow85 said:

i see all kinds of shit with the homeless, crackheads ect...ect...

Graycap23 said:

But that sounds way too productive for the prison system!

meow85 said:

Oh, I agree.

We were talking about the future, and my brother asked what we might look back on and say "I can't believe we used to have _____" and my girlfriend suggested "homelessness." We all thought that was maybe the best answer.

We can hope!