More and More Seniors Are Among America's Homeless

Societies are always abusive to the poor, the homeless, the disabled. Cicero, the Roman orator, owned apartments. There is writing from him, talking horribly about his own tenants.

Just part of the human picture of not caring about those in need.

We don't have a lot of billionaires because we have a society that gives fair pay and shares the wealth...
 

It is all very scary, in the past I thought if I ran out of money I could get a roommate, but if I try to think seriously about that it is super depressing. I have had some good experiences of roommates back in college days, but also some not-good experiences, it feels like a big gamble.
 
My cousin is 73, divorced, childless and has some serious health conditions. Her house is falling into disrepair because she relies entirely on a monthly social security check of less than $900 and some food stamps. She fears she will be homeless at some point (we won't let that happen) but steadfastly rejects offers by family members to help repair her home. She will eventually have to yield to our offers to help her otherwise she WILL be homeless.
 
HoneyNut said:
It is all very scary, in the past I thought if I ran out of money I could get a roommate, but if I try to think seriously about that it is super depressing. I have had some good experiences of roommates back in college days, but also some not-good experiences, it feels like a big gamble.
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The chances of roommates like the Golden Girls might be few and far between.
 
Jeni said:
...
Many people that I know ............simply are unaware of how their check for SS was determined or based on:

"Not everyone receives the same Social Security benefits. In fact, your benefits are based on many factors including the age when you claim benefits, how much you earned over your career, and how many years you worked and paid into the Social Security system."...
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Once most of us reach 40 or so, we begin to notice the increasing loud sound of the downriver waterfall. But some will only stick their head down in the hole deeper lest they see what they are afraid of.

Top 35 years of income on a bell curve chart ought be pounded into the minds of younger adults as they will be able to understand why with clarity why it is important to work with good income at least 70% of adult years. After 5 years of retirement, I a frugal single in a very expensive region has lived totally off my monthly SS benefit actually adding a bit to my assets that inflation is shrinking. However I did make good money in Silicon Valley for electronic troubleshooting skills.
 
"10.5 percent (13.8 million) of U.S. households were food insecure at some time during 2020."

https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/foo...t (13.8 million) of,from 10.5 percent in 2019.

14 million Americans worrying where their next meal is coming from, is not because we are a deeply caring society. If we were, this would never be the case.

100,000 vets coming back from the Mid-East with PTSD...all getting only tiny bits of care ---- far, far, far from their real needs.

Soldiers getting paid so little, they have to go on food stamps.

My wife's Dad was dying of cancer. Hospital left him on a gurney, in hallway, for 48 hours. Sent him the wrong cancer medication. He fell out of bed, twice...because the nurses neglected to put up the guards. Second fall is what cascaded his health down towards death.

Endless, endless examples...

Our society's indifference to those in need is endless.
 
Leann said:
My cousin is 73, divorced, childless and has some serious health conditions. Her house is falling into disrepair because she relies entirely on a monthly social security check of less than $900 and some food stamps. She fears she will be homeless at some point (we won't let that happen) but steadfastly rejects offers by family members to help repair her home. She will eventually have to yield to our offers to help her otherwise she WILL be homeless.
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If she is rejecting these kinds of offers, you might be able to get power of attorney over her. Not necessarily an easy process..but if you want to protect her, it might be necessary.

We had similar problems with my mother.

Broken pipe took out about 1/4 of the house. She refused to leave the house / construction site, while the work was done.

I don't have money for a lawyer. Begged and begged and begged my idiot brother to get a power of attorney and protect her. He refused.

Her health started to significantly collapse after that experience (breathing in dust, chemicals, whatever)...
 
I've read that the government spends about $36,000 per person per year on the chronic homeless (emergency room medical care, prisons, shelters, etc). Compare that to the average social security payment of about $19,500 per year.

Hmmm.
 
we put a man on the moon with a computer capacity less than modern calculators.

If we put time and resources into solving these problems, we can solve them. We don't put time and effort in.

Our country, like many other countries and large institutions, is subjected to the corruptions produced by greed.

Greed runs the show. Not democracy. And certainly not the better angels of our nature, like compassion.


So, of course, greed is going to have difficulties solving social problems. Its entire focus is completely in the opposite direction.


My wife worked for a major, international non-profit. Annual budget about $100 million.


Her organization, like many non-profits was run by the philanthropy of very very wealthy people. I believe it was tobacco money.

These folks spent their entire lives plying every manipulative un-ethical trick in the book, to get as wealthy as possible.

Of course they have no clue how to help other people. It is entirely foreign to them.


If our society truly put people in charge who are caring and competent and gave them appropriate resources, of course we could solve the problem. But we don't do anything of the kind.

Look at the VA. These guys risked their lives to protect us all. And even those guys, we can't treat with any decency.
 
The small town factory/mill/plant - a manufacturing entity - provided secure employment and chances for advancement for unskilled millions but NAFTA and the like sent America's industry out of the country leaving little but the service industry to employ the country's young and the service industry is low pay, little chance for advancement and no job security. Yes, there are 'made in America' industries but most are highly mechanized requiring few human hands.

20 years of that has brought us to today where there is a minuscule number of obscenely wealthy individuals, a slightly larger group of financially secure and a massive number of destitute or near so. The wealthy, as well as our own government, work philanthropically to help the disenfranchised in countries all over the world but ignore our own citizens. While we 're-build' abroad, our own nation crumbles.
 
helenbacque said:
The small town factory/mill/plant - a manufacturing entity - provided secure employment and chances for advancement for unskilled millions but NAFTA and the like sent America's industry out of the country leaving little but the service industry to employ the country's young and the service industry is low pay, little chance for advancement and no job security. Yes, there are 'made in America' industries but most are highly mechanized requiring few human hands.

20 years of that has brought us to today where there is a minuscule number of obscenely wealthy individuals, a slightly larger group of financially secure and a massive number of destitute or near so. The wealthy, as well as our own government, work philanthropically to help the disenfranchised in countries all over the world but ignore our own citizens. While we 're-build' abroad, our own nation crumbles.
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I agree. When I hear of Bill Gates helping the poor in Africa, it makes me wonder why he doesn't help the poor here in the U.S. And then all the trillions we dumped into Afghanistan and Iraq could have gone to improving conditions right here at home.

Like a lot of things in this world, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
 
SeniorBen said:
I agree. When I hear of Bill Gates helping the poor in Africa, it makes me wonder why he doesn't help the poor here in the U.S. And then all the trillions we dumped into Afghanistan and Iraq could have gone to improving conditions right here at home.

Like a lot of things in this world, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
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less restrictions is my guess .... even in non-profits and charity IRS needs info about money coming in and going out.
little transparency in third world countries and great press making them look saintly

Saw in news for example ......... the BLM leader who just bought a 6 million dollar house and was surprised and did not know about the reporting form that must be filed.
So many celebrities/ sports stars in last decade have created " charities/ foundations" they get caught in this reporting system if using as a tax dodge..... A creative accountant is GOLD.
 
Pepper said:
Bill Gates can help the indigent in THIS country just by paying taxes which I bet he does as little as humanly possible.
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heard many philanthropists ....... say they prefer to pick programs and uses ............. that tax money is wasted more and they have no control over use.
 
Pepper said:
Hi, @Jeni
Today is April 15th. I've decided I will not pay because "tax money is wasted more and I have no control over use."
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Never said i agreed ...........just was repeating what i heard in an interview .....they do have a point for best results targeted help would be most helpful in some issues.

some wealthy also say "they COULD pay more "...
that is super simple to send a payment to the department of treasury but .... they don't .... but it sounds good in interviews to say such things
 
We are so lucky because here in BC we just don't have any real homeless, except perhaps at the coast. Winters would kill anyone really homeless. We do have a place here to house so called homeless for free, but the local RCMP spend more time there than anywhere else and at any time during the day you can drive by and see drug deals going on. That is what they spend their welfare on. There are people who have homes in far out locations, so they come to town mostly in summer and spend their time here drunk. Rents here are outrageous, but worse in other areas. Then because of the pandemic groceries have gone sky high and for the first time the other day we put $100.00 dollars worth of gas in our car, and we get our gas at the local reserve, where it is cheaper.
 
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