The Homeless

I

imp

Senior Member
I was horrified by the numbers presented for Chicago. Posted it. Thus far, many "views', no opinions. So I looked further.
This gives insight into the depth of the situation: http://www.lpcsonline.org/homelessness

Search by "number homeless by city" provided better understanding of the ever-changing demographics. Numbers shown were lower. Still, quite frankly, most frightening.

Chicago is said to often lead with the highest percentage homeless. Living in Phoenix, we encountered homeless population which "migrated" by season, wintering there and summering north and Midwest. How they funded excursions we did not determine.

This is a frightening and serious socio-economic thing as far as I am concerned. imp
 

And those are just the "official" numbers - they don't include the homeless that never make it to a shelter or food bank.

It's a huge problem in this country, yes - but we occupy our time and spend our money taking in refugees instead of caring for our own. Homeless shelters and other charities are going begging.
 
There will be a lot of media coverage of soup kitchens at this time of year with some helpers wearing Santa caps and then not much after the holidays...
 

Exactly. "Be of good cheer" and forget the rest of the year.

I was just looking at PA stats - supposedly we have had an increase in homeless populations of 1.6% but the number of homeless supposedly dropped 2.3% nationwide.

Again, the government got these numbers by doing an annul head-count, much like estimating the number of bucks and does during hunting season - not exactly precise numbers.
 
In looking at your link Don, one thing I noticed was that the young fellow given as an example, explained that he didn't want to go on pharmaceuticals for his seizures. That made me wonder than, how many people are homeless because of debilitating depression or chronic anxiety issues. People dealing with things like that might not be wandering the streets and mumbling up into the sky, but instead they are withdrawing from a world that they feel unable to deal with. I've heard that many people prefer smoking pot to taking those drugs that doctors prescribe, because it helps them feel 'normal'. So if there are more homeless in Colorado, maybe there are also more people there who are dealing with their depression and anxiety through non-pharmaceutical means.

I came across the following video which is a pretty good depiction of what it's like to live with depression.

[video]http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/12/08/living-with-depression_n_8752710.html[/video]

Seems to me that if every day felt like the woman in the video and smoking a joint helped minimize that, moving to Colorado might be a solution.
 
SifuPhil said:
And those are just the "official" numbers - they don't include the homeless that never make it to a shelter or food bank.

It's a huge problem in this country, yes - but we occupy our time and spend our money taking in refugees instead of caring for our own. Homeless shelters and other charities are going begging.
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Exactly. With 90 some odd million people not working or working a "real" job this where a lot of focus should be. Throw in real estate now being used/treated as a commodity & investment many are screwed for life.

Not a big issue yet but I'm starting to see not just an acceptance of homelessness or people with true problems but an acceptance of homelessness as actual tool to survive, save money etc-not big yet but I starting to see a "misuse" or "mis identifying" as being homeless themselves which dilutes or takes away from those who really really need assistance.
 
...we could cut the budget of the military by a third and feed and house every homeless person in the country.

If anyone looks at Christie's lavish spending on himself, and he's not the only one. He could keep the weight off by sending half of his food consumption to say Newark. But I'm not surprised by the list at all. Mental health services are hard to come by as are medications that would allow people to function. Treating addiction as a crime instead of an illness. Affordable safe housing and more outreach programs. Around here they spend more building luxury condos than on social services...and you know there are homeless people tucked all over.
 
I remember as a young person there were then many mental care homes in the US. But somewhere back in the fifties or sixties it became something that the politicians determined to be cheapening for too many folks and so many of those mental health places were closed. Somehow, those people were distributed and protected from the shame. Now we are hearing that maybe those were not such good ideas and we need to have better holding places for the mental patients.

A while back I posted of one person that was living as a homeless person. He had no problems with holding two jobs and sleeping in the cab of his small pickup truck, summer and winter. He had a long term goal of paying off his Wyoming land so he could retire there one day and have a home and some animals. Not all homeless are needing mental health care nor are they just crazed and needing help.
 
Budget cuts literally obliterated our Mental Health system closing many State facilities.. These people had little choice but to turn to the streets.
 
QS: Your post with rates is significant because it makes more sense than stating total numbers of homeless. I think that's why a few smaller cities are included, such as Detroit, with around 700,000 or so pop.

I might try to come up with percents. I simply cannot believe 5% for Chicago. Seems impossible. imp
 
imp said:
QS: Your post with rates is significant because it makes more sense than stating total numbers of homeless. I think that's why a few smaller cities are included, such as Detroit, with around 700,000 or so pop.

I might try to come up with percents. I simply cannot believe 5% for Chicago. Seems impossible. imp
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If you notice.. Chicago is NOT on that list..
 
Something else to think about when you see the Home Depot icon all over the place. Big corporate doesn't care about it's worker ants. Back in the day of private industry if someone was in a bad way financially maybe the boss could give the person a shot at more hours, additional assignments for a raise...something, anything. I remember when I worked there, a sign in the break room one day. " One of your co-workers is about to become homeless, any help would be appreciated". So instead of the machine helping this person they were asking co-workers to pass the hat. Decent hours and decent wages...you shouldn't have to become homeless and employed. Plus I could just see them firing him eventually anyway. Yes we know you're living in your car, but we have a business to run and you have to be here on time...the individual's situation has no meaning to them.
 
Don M. said:
Yes, Denver is seeing a major rise in Homeless people. Many are blaming the legalization of Marijuana for the increased numbers. We were there this past Spring, visiting relatives, and there was an ongoing situation with these people setting up their "encampments" all over the various city parks, etc.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_26216037/legal-pot-blamed-some-influx-homeless-this-summer
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That's interesting, Don - I wondered if that had anything to do with it.

That wouldn't apply to Boston, though - they've decriminalized it to a degree but it's still illegal.
 
SifuPhil said:
That's interesting, Don - I wondered if that had anything to do with it.

That wouldn't apply to Boston, though - they've decriminalized it to a degree but it's still illegal.
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It's seems like some cities are ignoring by making the penalties so minimal it's not worth it. What was an arrest or high dollar fine is probably like a parking ticket. Keeps both sides of the fence happy.

But in Denver one must wonder if people are admitting coming to Colorado for pot tourism that could become a problem. They might not be in jail a preferred activity but now the problem is fund and live with it.
 
WhatInThe said:
It's seems like some cities are ignoring by making the penalties so minimal it's not worth it. What was an arrest or high dollar fine is probably like a parking ticket. Keeps both sides of the fence happy.
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Well, from the NORML site on Massachusetts it seems the fines are still pretty stiff for anything over an ounce.

But in Denver one must wonder if people are admitting coming to Colorado for pot tourism that could become a problem. They might not be in jail a preferred activity but now the problem is fund and live with it.
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Pot tourism was I believe always on the minds of the people pushing for legalization. It's a big part of what brings in those tax dollars - in the last fiscal year pot taxes brought in $70 million, more even than alcohol sales. Why can't they use some of that money for the homeless?
 
fureverywhere said:
...we could cut the budget of the military by a third and feed and house every homeless person in the country.

If anyone looks at Christie's lavish spending on himself, and he's not the only one. He could keep the weight off by sending half of his food consumption to say Newark. But I'm not surprised by the list at all. Mental health services are hard to come by as are medications that would allow people to function. Treating addiction as a crime instead of an illness. Affordable safe housing and more outreach programs. Around here they spend more building luxury condos than on social services...and you know there are homeless people tucked all over.
Click to expand...

You are not pleased with Chris Christie, too much? Perhaps a better "position" for him would be as President! :rolleyes:
imp
 
QuickSilver said:
If you notice.. Chicago is NOT on that list..
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Of course I noticed. That's why it came to mind that smaller cities with lower pop. but higher RATES of homelessness means those cities exceed 5%...........Incredible for any city, in my book. My wife & I were made homeless bythe Reagan Recession, in 1982, my employer laid me off on her birthday! A nice present I brought her home at 11:00AM that day. She, too, had been laid off previously. Job search, several months, zip. Dumped our nice house, traded my 1966 Mustang for a big yellow school bus, which we lived out of up in the woods of Northern AZ. How cold it was in that thing, they had no insulation at all.

Applied for food stamps, unemployment benefits ran out, we were up in Indian Country, Navajo County, a nice Mr. Sandoval, Supervisor of the Social Services there explained two reasons for no benefits, with a snicker: we had raised dough to live on selling personal belongings, AND "your skin is the wrong color". Not Native American. Would have been no questions asked benefit-eligible had I been.

Wonder at all why I question that big prejudice pendulum swinging to excess in both directions? imp
 

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