Is homelessness a visible problem where you are?

Not at all. We Iive in a very rural area where most houses are kilometres away from each other . There are no sidewalks plus the most houses are far way from the road. Our area isn’t homelessness friendly at all.
 

GPTom said:
I used to be GP44 on here but when I was forced to login I couldn’t because Outlook gobbled up my Hotmail account so I couldn’t reset my password.
I am GPTom now! I would like to go back to being GP44 if there were some way to.
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Replaced GP44's email with your Gmail account, you can now reset your password.
 

I never thought so but a few months ago I took my mom shopping in a nearby town where we went to a shopping plaza off a highway and there was a homeless man with a sign going up to cars stuck at the lights in a huge 4 way intersection asking for money for him and his family who were all homeless according to the sign. It was the first time something in your face like this has happened and it made me sad.
 
The homeless have no chance at the Panhandler Corners. ... :eek: ...


They usually are rural area located and in a tent with a
shopping cart turned over so as not to notice it.

The Street corner with high traffic is organized and is a job for Cash.
They walk in from cars, in new shoes clothes and con ya.
Sometimes, especially on high volume exits they have 2 or 3 kids on weekends.

Its a job thought here. No taxes just Cash. It's ruining our Digital economy, all those millions in only cash needed.
 
Anyone who thinks that most of the homeless are immigrants, let alone illegal immigrants, simply isn't paying attention.

We are watching long ignored problems in our society begin to fester and poison our streets. This isn't simply an economic issue. A casual acceptance of drugs for entertainment is driving people into shop doorways. And now, even if they could get off the drugs, they can't afford housing, some even if they can work, since minimum wage is so ridiculous.

You can't simply incarcerate these people. We clearly can't stop drugs coming into the country (which has been a problem from the 1960's onward, the only difference today being the strength of the drugs brought in). Mental illness, lack of safe places, and a general arrogance of those fortunate enough to be doing okay is coming together to accelerate the issue.

I've no idea what the answer is, people seem to prefer getting angry at these people rather than try to picture a solution. It's easier to hate on the homeless than it is to give a damn, I guess.
 
Funny you should ask. Since moving to this tiny town, I have never seen any homeless people. I asked my hairdresser and she said.. we do not have any,and if one shows up the sheriff takes them to another town.o_O Whoa..must do the same thing with black people as there are none here. My family is bi racial... when one of my daughters, grand daughter talked about coming here to visit- she said we cant go there,,, they do not have any black people. Yikes never realized until she mentioned it. If there are any they do not come to town often. I have never ever heard and racial comments though in the 2.5 years we have been here.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if I did see homeless people but never do in my neighborhood. The very few I did see went away when Covid came.
 
Homeless or maybe just professional panhandlers are plentiful here, but law enforcement keeps them from camping in city parks and on private property. The county has a large out of town shelter and camping place for them. It is depressing to see. They use a free transit to get into town where they constantly ask for money and bother folks. The ones that ride their bikes into town with their trailers, block sidewalks until the cops make them move. Since several charities keep them fed, they want only cash for cigarettes or to buy cell phone minutes.

The common line is, "I am a dollar short can you help me out?"

My response is, "Just a dollar? I am $10 short and was hoping you could help me."
 
Mike said:
Yes it is, they sleep everywhere, some even have tents!

During the day, they sit beside ATMs, or outside shops,
even large supermarkets, don't move them on, these
supermarkets, used to charge 10% of anything that the
charities received from their customers, this was back in
the 80s, I don't know if the same applies today.

Mike.
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When I was homeless I stayed away from people. I never put myself on display and I never begged.
I had a tent in the bush a long way from anybody. I used St Patricks for a feed once a day, breakfast.
It saddens me when I see all these vagrants begging and intimidating shoppers.
 
Kadee said:
Wonder how many beggars are missing out on a few $$$ due to so many people in general using credit cards now days …..I suppose
we may see beggars in the future with portable ATM machines

Haven't seen that as yet in Australia @seadoug ….give them time I’m sure it will happen
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I have seen buskers in Rundle Mall, for example, and they have the portable square thing that can take card payments - same thing as used by street cafes

Busking is not begging, one plays music or does some sort of presentation (clowns, magic tricks etc) and needs a busking approval from the council - and people contribute money if they want to. Some are very entertaining - If I stop to listen or watch I usually contribute small amount
 
Bretrick said:
When I was homeless I stayed away from people. I never put myself on display and I never begged.
I had a tent in the bush a long way from anybody. I used St Patricks for a feed once a day, breakfast.
It saddens me when I see all these vagrants begging and intimidating shoppers.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear you went through that, and happy to see you're apparently doing better now.

For every real problem, there will be those looking to exploit the situation. That's why you get professional panhandlers. Sadly, for some people, pretending to be homeless is an acceptable gig if you can get paid doing it.

That said, it detracts from the real problem. The intractable issue seems to be that there is a segment of society that is lost to all the norms, Be they suffering mental illness, drug addiction, or the consequences of living on the street, there is little to no point on simply insisting they start following normal societal ways. Telling them to "get a job" is ridiculous, telling them to "get a place to stay" is pointless, and suggesting they might want to try staying away from their addiction in isolation is just fanciful.

So what can we do? I think it's intractable because there isn't any one thing that solves the issue. Shelter, adequate healthcare, and proper policing of the drug trade are obvious parts of the solution, but they all have to work together (and be paid for). Even then, there are no guarantees. As I've mentioned previously, I personally knew a drug addict who managed to get off the drugs, but he still died in his 40's due to the damage he'd done to his body.

Probably the least of it is the offense on our eyes. These are people like you and I, and they're damaged in many different ways.
 

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