officerripley
Well-known Member
- Location
- Porlock, Calif
Unfortunately, I think that's exactly what too many people would be fine with.
Seniors living in tent encampment desperate for safe housing
- Thread starter GoneFishin
- Start date
VaughanJB
Scrappy VIP
Indeed. And helping people who are doing dumb stuff, and are even resistant to help, is a really really hard thing to do. It's not something many of us could handle, which is why we need funding for experts in the field to come together and work it all out. You and I can give money, but we hope it's used in the very best way. The very best way, for me, is clearly for the immediate needs (clothing, food, etc.) but my concern is always root cause. What we see on the streets is a symptom, and perhaps one day we can fix the cause.
It’s been reported for years many of our city living homeless as the “lost” after many of our huge mental institutions
closed to sell / use the land for housing , many of the “patients” were placed into housing trust ( low income ) flats in undesirable areas …. many named as feral …
However many didn’t know how to cope on their own/ pay their rent/do shopping/ cooking due to being locked up in an institution in some cases for years …..and were treated like dogs ….
yes many had case workers who were supposed to check they were taking medications ..,bathing …buying food but sadly case workers can tick the box and say I visited …..where in many cases it was a downright lie …..
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Each of us has the freedom to choose their own priorities and to choose to give to charities of THEIR OWN CHOICE. I personally put my pets on the top of my priorities.
I find most people who criticize (directly or indirectly) what others are doing are usually (not always) doing nothing themselves.
I agree it is very sad that theses people are in this situation and if you are in a position to help (rather than just criticize others choices in what I consider a cowardly way) why not contact CBC who wrote the article and see what YOU can do to help.
Knight
Well-known Member
As a problem I think it is a global problem. Rather than narrow it to one country [I'm guessing that part was aimed at America] I thought this was about the plight of the elderly living in Halifax. There might be a Halifax in America I tried Googling that but only came up with Canada.January got it.
Let's be honest, the richest most advanced country planet earth has ever seen, really ought to be able to get a program together to deal with these kinds of issues. IMO.
Since Canada was cited in the Article this comparison to Canada might be helpful
There are 18 million street children in India, the largest number of any country in the world, with 11 million being urban. Finally, more than three million men and women are homeless in India's capital city of New Delhi; the same population in Canada would make up approximately 30 electoral districts.
homeless children in India pics - Google Search
The how & why so many are homeless doesn't have a one fix for all. Throwing money at the problem IMO should be monitored more closely. I can't cite facts or figures but I'm pretty sure a lot of the well intended money gets into the pockets of unscrupulous people.
Ladybj
Live, Laugh and Love
- Location
- Somewhere in the USA
Most people may be reluctant because they don't know the status of the person they allow into their homes. I would not allow a drug addict in my home. I would be willing to help find them resources for their addiction.
VaughanJB
Scrappy VIP
100%, it's a global problem. People are increasingly getting left behind. And when I say left behind, I mean on the streets. It's also a problem that's existed for decades, it just seems far worse right now.
VaughanJB
Scrappy VIP
There's a whole story I won't go into, but I had someone staying with my wife and I at one point. The day I came home from work to find a used syringe and burned spoon in the bathroom was the end of the arrangement.
Knight
Well-known Member
IMO the change [getting worse is this]
What is the world's population in 2024?
8,161,972,572
World Population (2024 and historical)
| Year (July 1) | Population | Fertility Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 8,161,972,572 |
They were offered a place to stay but they can’t stay together. Although this would suck to be separated at least they would have a safe place to be until something better could be arranged.
The perfect resolution is not always available if a person is in need of help (and these two obviously are) they may want to consider being a little more flexible.
The perfect resolution is not always available if a person is in need of help (and these two obviously are) they may want to consider being a little more flexible.
officerripley
Well-known Member
- Location
- Porlock, Calif
There was a similar situation to that here in California. Our then-governor spearheaded and got passed a law--supposedly to make it harder to institutionalize someone against their will (one of those p0liticos always going on about "freedom", dontcha know)--and a lot of people who were in mental institutions got kicked out. And as you pointed out, even if housing is provided, if one has been intitutionalized for very long, it's a challenge to take care of even simple daily tasks.
Muskrat
Senior Member
- Location
- Mainly arizona
@officerripley….i had a whole post about that same person that i erased. He also cut funding to the state hospitals when he was governor. Caused huge stress to both patients and staff. At the same time he painted the image of people on welfare as milking the system.
dilettante
Well-known Member
- Location
- Michigan
And how am I the bad guy here?
If you have the money to piss away on torturing slave animals for your amusement you might consider redirecting it to help suffering people instead.
What's cowardly is turning a blind eye to your sins.
Remy
Well-known Member
- Location
- California, USA
You have kids. They cost plenty.
For some people pets are life savers. You don't have to have or like them.
I didn’t imply you were a bad guy I implied that your actions were cowardly.
Let me get your whole way of thinking straight everyone should stop spoiling their pets by getting strollers and sweaters for them and stop buying nice things for themselves like arm chairs and give their money to the poor and homeless. What happens when that runs out? Who do we stop looking after next? I think it’s a cowardly act to sit behind a computer screen and make sarcastic jabs at people if they choose to buy a stroller or sweater for their dog or an armchair. Were you not held as a child? How could a person grow to be so miserable as to begrudge someone for loving an animal?
As for the amount of money I have it’s none of your business but you can be sure I worked very hard for it. What do you know about how much I give? You assume and we add lol know what they say about the word assume.
Torturing Slave animals!!!!!! Are you kidding me? There is no way on this great earth you can possibly believe a person having a dog in a stroller or putting a sweater on it is torture.
A sin by whose definition? Yours? Anytime a person resorts to using the word sin when having a disagreement speaks volume in my opinion. (See how that works “in my opinion” it’s not a judgement) Don’t try and shame people into pretending to see things the way you do. It’s not high school.
.
Some pet owners have been known to leave their entire estate to their pets , I knew one such lady in Adelaide who left her estate to a man on the condition he take care of her beloved dog in its ‘own home” of for the rest of its life
I’d met him a few times when I’d call in to see her….he was her …cousin’s … daughters ….estranged husband
She never had children of her own
The dog was a youngish snappy / snarly aggressive Chihuahua, who could do no wrong in the owners eyes
it would come up behind me and nip me on the back of my leg/ at times .
Anyway the man in question didn’t even attend the woman’s funeral … (no one attended her funeral ) and he had the dog put down shortly after
because it had “accidentally” broken it leg ….…yeah sure …
I was away when she died ,and she had divorced her husband of of 60+ years a year or two before she died
I’d met him a few times when I’d call in to see her….he was her …cousin’s … daughters ….estranged husband
She never had children of her own
The dog was a youngish snappy / snarly aggressive Chihuahua, who could do no wrong in the owners eyes
it would come up behind me and nip me on the back of my leg/ at times .Anyway the man in question didn’t even attend the woman’s funeral … (no one attended her funeral ) and he had the dog put down shortly after
because it had “accidentally” broken it leg ….…yeah sure …
I was away when she died ,and she had divorced her husband of of 60+ years a year or two before she died
VaughanJB
Scrappy VIP
The issue here isn't a simple choice. Can you imagine having nothing in this world? Truly not knowing where your next is coming? Not being able to use a bathroom when you need to? To have had all life's accoutrements stripped away - photographs, furniture, jewelry, clothes, etc. What do these people have? In their case, they have each other. In consecutive days of doubt, fear, and worry - they at least have their partner beside them.
Saying goodbye, in those circumstances, would be extremely difficult and just add another worry (what is my wife going through). With poverty, your world gets very small. You might go from traveling the country, or even the world, to being confined in a filthy street with no amenities. Danger is all around, from addicts to criminal gangs. It's not always so easy. When you're on the bottom, and then find another distance to fall... just horrible.
I can't say what instigated that jibe, but my assumption was that it was a reference to the "Who is worse, Cat or Dog Owners" thread that happened recently.
For the record, I have a dog, and I'm thinking of getting another. The dog is 100% reliant on me. In some ways he's a dumb animal, a living, breathing, creature who offers a distraction from a world full of angst and disasters. A dog, generally, has the ability to learn 165 words. So let's say, conversations are limited, and are mostly one way. But I love this piece of nature I have welcomed into my home. I have made a commitment to care for him, and I hold to that responsibility. Pets matter.
Back to homelessness - it's not simply a matter of getting people off the street. I hear myself saying this over and over - but being on the street is a symptom of something. You have to get to the cause. Plenty of money has been spent on the problem, but that money has to be spent intelligently, and that's not always the case.
In the UK, and no doubt elsewhere, we have many issues. One issue are single parents. In the UK currently, there are 120,000 families in temporary accommodation (which for us is emergency housing that might be in hotels etc.) That's adults. They come with 150,000 children. If that doesn't point to an area of societal breakdown, I don't know what does. Fathers failing to take responsibility for their children, women having children when they should know better, domestic violence, drug addiction, the reasons seem endless. We'll have long-term bad consequences for allowing children to suffer through this.
GoneFishin
Well-known Member
- Location
- Canada 🏠⛺🚤
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/seniors-rent-canada-1.7257034
A 'hopeless' feeling: Struggling seniors face sky-high rents and few, if any, options
Slightly more than 1/5th of Canada's seniors who live in private dwellings are renters
There are approximately 7.6 million people aged 65 and over living in Canada. Many of them rent. When circumstances change, like a rent increase or renoviction, older adults are less likely to be able to weather significant financial shocks because they're on a fixed income.
Ron Sept is getting desperate.
He can't afford a car, his prescription medications, eyeglasses or new clothes, he said. He's stopped eating meat to save on groceries, which he can only buy with the money his son living overseas sometimes sends him. If you visit him in his one-bedroom apartment in Nanaimo, B.C., you'd have to sit on the floor, because he has one chair and no table.
Sept, 70, said he's depressed, especially since giving up the antidepressant he can't afford without insurance coverage. He's also anxious, lonely and said his health is suffering.
Why? Because 95 per cent of his pension goes to his $1,650 rent, leaving him with about $100 in his bank account each month for all other expenses. The amount, he said, is "ridiculously inadequate."
"Having to go crawling to family members on my hands and knees ... it puts people in such a difficult situation. And I think people who have lots of money don't really have any clue of what it's like to live without," Sept told CBC News.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/seniors-rent-canada-1.7257034
A 'hopeless' feeling: Struggling seniors face sky-high rents and few, if any, options
Slightly more than 1/5th of Canada's seniors who live in private dwellings are renters
There are approximately 7.6 million people aged 65 and over living in Canada. Many of them rent. When circumstances change, like a rent increase or renoviction, older adults are less likely to be able to weather significant financial shocks because they're on a fixed income.
Ron Sept is getting desperate.
He can't afford a car, his prescription medications, eyeglasses or new clothes, he said. He's stopped eating meat to save on groceries, which he can only buy with the money his son living overseas sometimes sends him. If you visit him in his one-bedroom apartment in Nanaimo, B.C., you'd have to sit on the floor, because he has one chair and no table.
Sept, 70, said he's depressed, especially since giving up the antidepressant he can't afford without insurance coverage. He's also anxious, lonely and said his health is suffering.
Why? Because 95 per cent of his pension goes to his $1,650 rent, leaving him with about $100 in his bank account each month for all other expenses. The amount, he said, is "ridiculously inadequate."
"Having to go crawling to family members on my hands and knees ... it puts people in such a difficult situation. And I think people who have lots of money don't really have any clue of what it's like to live without," Sept told CBC News.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/seniors-rent-canada-1.7257034
I agree that separating these people is a horrible choice to make. Unfortunately there is a severe housing shortage in this country leaving thousands of people homeless (for many through no fault of their own).
I would hate to be in their situation and am fully aware of how easily it could happen. The thing with this situation in my opinion is their age. Winter is not far off and winter in Canada is not when you want to live in a tent at any stage of life but especially when you are older.
There is very little housing available and what housing there is available is very expensive and out of reach for many people. These two people have been offered temporary shelter and I can understand them being very reluctant due to not wanting to be separated but their current situation and concerns for their safety (not all people living in tent cities are nice people) I think they should move into the temporary shelter separately until other arrangements can be made.
I’m not really sure what has caused such a shortage of housing but I do believe it’s due to opening the flood gates to immigration and temporary foreign workers.
It seems some people blame COVID. This to me is ludicrous COVID did not create people. Our government has finally put limits on foreign temporary workers (who have to live somewhere when here) and are talking of limiting immigration. I think this will eventually lessen the problem of homelessness.
My blood pressure rose when a person has the audacity to hint that a persons choice to spoil themselves or their pets is in anyway is a cause or as stated a sin (give me a break). I just find it very interesting that a person could make assumptions of how a person contributes to society or has a right to shame them for the choices they make.
rgp
Well-known Member
- Location
- Milford,OH
OK, but before I do as you suggest ...... tell me what you have done ?
rgp
Well-known Member
- Location
- Milford,OH
We need to reopen the asylums . I know that sounds cruel , and often they are cruel places but. The street folks are quite often in need of mental care and they would [should] get it there. Not to mention that at least it is a warm/cool place to sleep/live, with some decent food as well.
rgp
Well-known Member
- Location
- Milford,OH
Not at all, but you sure are quick to suggest what I should do, so I just thought maybe I could follow your lead.