16 views
Homelessness Pt 2
Here's another myth that always seems to come up when people want to justify why they should not care about the homeless, that homelessness for most is a choice. That if you really wanted off the streets you would simply work you butt off not to be there. Very few people in that situation are there by choice. Here's the reality of it there are a million ways to become homeless. Yes, some made bad decisions that landed them there but for many things out of their control caused their housing issues. Some are running from an abusive relationship and have no means of support when they flea, some may have been laid off and have run out of benefits, some may have been fired, others may have had an illness or a family member with one that made it impossible to keep up with rent, others may have had their lease come up and not had it renewed and could not find another place, many just can't afford rent because it's just not feasible with their income. Many are mentally ill and have a very difficult time maintaining a residence, some are kicked out by their parents for reasons like turning eighteen or their sexual orientation, others still may have aged out of foster care. The list could go on forever. Of all the reasons one finds one's self homeless choice is rarely a factor. And once you lose your home it can be very very difficult to procure a new one. There are very few programs that will directly help you find housing and if you have no income fewer yet to help with that. There are vouchers like section 8 but those do not guarantee housing and it is very difficult to find a place that fits the requirement for the voucher, and many landlords will not accept the voucher because of the high standards that must be maintained to receive the funding. There are grant programs, but they are highly selective and very limited on funding. There is no program I am aware of in my county that will directly help anyone especially those without a steady income get off the streets. Once homeless if is very difficult to pull yourself out of it. Irregular rental history, bad credit, and no co-signer or an eviction can wreak havoc on any attempt to get a new place. When you're homeless for a significate amount of time the lack of rental references can be brutal. And then there are the rental requirements which can be impossible to overcome. Many rental companies demand that you have great credit and make three times the rent to acquire an apartment, so for a one-bedroom at say 800 you'd have to have a monthly income of 2400 just to be considered and that's not including deposit. If you're on a fixed income forget it. Many places do criminal background checks so if you have anything major on your record you're out. Low-income accommodations have multiple-year waiting lists and demand decent credit as well. To even get a room you must take over a lease which means if you have any kind of barriers that's not an option either. We recently had a fire in our area which destroyed an entire town, housing was dire before that now it's just about impossible. Many private rental properties were being sold because of the great profit that could be made off the fire victims flush with insurance cash and desperate for a home. This situation caused many renters to be kicked out so that the house could quickly be sold, but it also removed many landlords that one could negotiate with about deposit and requirements.
I hear many complaints about groups of homeless people congregating in various areas. They complain about them hanging around parks or vacant lots, outside certain convenience stores, abandon buildings or resource centers, or cheap motels. Many stay under bridges or in dry channels or river beds. The reason you see so many vagrants in one area is there is literally nowhere else for them to go. They can't hang out in restaurants or coffee shops because they have little money, they can't hang in front of businesses, the library gets weary of them quickly, Barns and Noble will bar your entry once they catch on you never buy anything. The shelters empty during the day with no real recommendation on where to go while you're waiting to reenter. If you try to set up shop elsewhere the police will likely show up and move you along. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen a circle of cops standing around a homeless man unceremoniously dumping out his bags looking for contraband. They sweep the bridges, channels, and river beds every summer where I live and round up as many homeless as they can because many have warrants, they display the arrest totals on the news acting as if they've done some great service to lower the crime rate while in actuality all they've done was lengthen the criminal records of people just trying to find a place to exist. Yes, the homeless leave messes but why bother to pick up your garbage when the rest of society treats you like it. When you treat are person like they are worthless for so long they come to believe it themselves, and why would you bother caring about litter in a community that lets you know time and time again that they definitely don't care about you. You're aghast when a homeless person defecates or urinates in an alleyway how dare they, you think to yourself, no better than animals. Well, the reality of that circumstance is that no one would let them use the restroom, all the public restrooms have been locked until there's a special event and grocery store clerks run you out of the store because you might steal something when all you wanted was to use the restroom. There are an overabundance of restrooms are for customers only signs prominently displayed in almost every store. Many stores have taken to keeping keys or codes for the restroom to cut down on shoplifting, but they also use this opportunity to deny someone that appears homeless use of the facilities.
It's dangerous to be homeless, while many people see the homeless as a danger the truth is that the homeless are much more likely to be victims. Homeless women are always at risk for rape and assault, few will seek treatment or inform law enforcement because of the stigma attached to their position. Young homeless girls are often prostituted out for money and drugs. Homeless men and women have been beaten or murdered simply because they are an easy victim and there is little reprisal to the perpetrator of such crimes. It takes a lot more dead homeless people to get the cops' attention than other classes of people, we just don't pay attention when they just disappear because that's what we want them to do in the first place, just go away. The untreated mentally ill homeless are 16 times more likely to be killed by officers when they encounter each other. The homeless prey on each other, pointless altercations over territory and street cred are common. Bikes are constantly stolen, exchanged and stolen back. They rip each other off in drug deals which creates more violence. There were instances of college students paying them to fight each other and filming it for entertainment. They are exploited at every level of society. I've seen adds on Craig's list offering shelter to "open-minded" homeless women the exact result of answering such an add is unknown to me but I can make a pretty good guess about what's going on.
Finally, we've all seen this at one time a homeless person standing in the street screaming at something only he seems to be aware of and then the cops show up and aggressively remove the individual from the area. While not all chronically homeless are mentally ill, they are greatly overrepresented in the homeless population. Mental illness is hard enough to deal with in the best of situations but add it to homelessness and it is a recipe for disaster for the individual involved. Most mentally ill homeless receive little or no treatment, a few lucky ones have disability benefits at their disposal but it's not enough to get themselves off the streets. Those with incomes will hole up for a few days in a motel, spend it on booze, drugs or scratchers. When the money runs out, they do back to the streets and the cycle repeats endlessly. Those without benefits will most likely wind up in jail which is no better than being on the streets. While there are programs that try to help these people get off the streets, they are few and far between. Many who are lucky enough to get in one have difficulty following the rules and get kicked out for drug use or allowing other homeless to stay with them. Then they find themselves back where they started. It's hard to get off the streets when you are in complete control of your faculties, those with mental health issues have things extra hard.
In conclusion, I hope my recount of some of the stark truths about the homeless will cause you to pause next time you encounter a homeless person on the street. Remember everyone has a story as unique as they are. Don't just assume you know everything about their situation simply by looking at them. While few started out homeless it is where they have ended up. Some could have started out as teachers, military officers, mothers, even doctors. So many of us live paycheck to paycheck with little in our savings, no nest egg, and the social safety net is becoming weaker and weaker. It would not take much to find yourself easily in a similar predicament, at no fault of your own. Too many live in precarious circumstances where one misstep could start them down the same path that led many to homelessness. Don't hold your nose up and think that it could never happen to you because it can, faster and easier than one could ever imagine. So, confront your own prejudices, and dismiss your assumptions about the people you see living on the streets. No matter how you come to think about them just remember they are human beings just as worthy of respect and dignity as you are, they have simply fallen where no one will take the time to pick them up. They all have a story and I'm pretty sure many would tell it to you if you just bothered to listen. They only want what we all want, peace, a place to be, a purpose beyond the wreck their lives have become. The only way to uplift this forgotten and disparaged part of society is to lend them our voices, our compassion, and our want for change. Helping them goes way beyond the individual, if we could summon the power to uplift the most vulnerable, it would uplift society as a whole. The true measure of a great society is not how it treats its elite but how it reaches out and protects and nurtures it's most vulnerable. We used to think of ourselves as a great society but now we fall greatly short of anything resembling one. You want to make America great again you start from the bottom up. Lets once again show the world that we can still get things done. A movement that starts as a trickle can multiply, grow and gather strength in such a way that it can become a river of hope for all the world to see. Start working in your community, lend your voice to the call for positive change. If we could put a man on the moon, explore other worlds, what could we accomplish if we directed such energies at one of the major problems plaguing us today. In history will we be remembered as the country that let an entire segment of its self fall to the wayside or will we be remembered as a nation that saw a problem and solved it to the betterment of all.
I hear many complaints about groups of homeless people congregating in various areas. They complain about them hanging around parks or vacant lots, outside certain convenience stores, abandon buildings or resource centers, or cheap motels. Many stay under bridges or in dry channels or river beds. The reason you see so many vagrants in one area is there is literally nowhere else for them to go. They can't hang out in restaurants or coffee shops because they have little money, they can't hang in front of businesses, the library gets weary of them quickly, Barns and Noble will bar your entry once they catch on you never buy anything. The shelters empty during the day with no real recommendation on where to go while you're waiting to reenter. If you try to set up shop elsewhere the police will likely show up and move you along. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen a circle of cops standing around a homeless man unceremoniously dumping out his bags looking for contraband. They sweep the bridges, channels, and river beds every summer where I live and round up as many homeless as they can because many have warrants, they display the arrest totals on the news acting as if they've done some great service to lower the crime rate while in actuality all they've done was lengthen the criminal records of people just trying to find a place to exist. Yes, the homeless leave messes but why bother to pick up your garbage when the rest of society treats you like it. When you treat are person like they are worthless for so long they come to believe it themselves, and why would you bother caring about litter in a community that lets you know time and time again that they definitely don't care about you. You're aghast when a homeless person defecates or urinates in an alleyway how dare they, you think to yourself, no better than animals. Well, the reality of that circumstance is that no one would let them use the restroom, all the public restrooms have been locked until there's a special event and grocery store clerks run you out of the store because you might steal something when all you wanted was to use the restroom. There are an overabundance of restrooms are for customers only signs prominently displayed in almost every store. Many stores have taken to keeping keys or codes for the restroom to cut down on shoplifting, but they also use this opportunity to deny someone that appears homeless use of the facilities.
It's dangerous to be homeless, while many people see the homeless as a danger the truth is that the homeless are much more likely to be victims. Homeless women are always at risk for rape and assault, few will seek treatment or inform law enforcement because of the stigma attached to their position. Young homeless girls are often prostituted out for money and drugs. Homeless men and women have been beaten or murdered simply because they are an easy victim and there is little reprisal to the perpetrator of such crimes. It takes a lot more dead homeless people to get the cops' attention than other classes of people, we just don't pay attention when they just disappear because that's what we want them to do in the first place, just go away. The untreated mentally ill homeless are 16 times more likely to be killed by officers when they encounter each other. The homeless prey on each other, pointless altercations over territory and street cred are common. Bikes are constantly stolen, exchanged and stolen back. They rip each other off in drug deals which creates more violence. There were instances of college students paying them to fight each other and filming it for entertainment. They are exploited at every level of society. I've seen adds on Craig's list offering shelter to "open-minded" homeless women the exact result of answering such an add is unknown to me but I can make a pretty good guess about what's going on.
Finally, we've all seen this at one time a homeless person standing in the street screaming at something only he seems to be aware of and then the cops show up and aggressively remove the individual from the area. While not all chronically homeless are mentally ill, they are greatly overrepresented in the homeless population. Mental illness is hard enough to deal with in the best of situations but add it to homelessness and it is a recipe for disaster for the individual involved. Most mentally ill homeless receive little or no treatment, a few lucky ones have disability benefits at their disposal but it's not enough to get themselves off the streets. Those with incomes will hole up for a few days in a motel, spend it on booze, drugs or scratchers. When the money runs out, they do back to the streets and the cycle repeats endlessly. Those without benefits will most likely wind up in jail which is no better than being on the streets. While there are programs that try to help these people get off the streets, they are few and far between. Many who are lucky enough to get in one have difficulty following the rules and get kicked out for drug use or allowing other homeless to stay with them. Then they find themselves back where they started. It's hard to get off the streets when you are in complete control of your faculties, those with mental health issues have things extra hard.
In conclusion, I hope my recount of some of the stark truths about the homeless will cause you to pause next time you encounter a homeless person on the street. Remember everyone has a story as unique as they are. Don't just assume you know everything about their situation simply by looking at them. While few started out homeless it is where they have ended up. Some could have started out as teachers, military officers, mothers, even doctors. So many of us live paycheck to paycheck with little in our savings, no nest egg, and the social safety net is becoming weaker and weaker. It would not take much to find yourself easily in a similar predicament, at no fault of your own. Too many live in precarious circumstances where one misstep could start them down the same path that led many to homelessness. Don't hold your nose up and think that it could never happen to you because it can, faster and easier than one could ever imagine. So, confront your own prejudices, and dismiss your assumptions about the people you see living on the streets. No matter how you come to think about them just remember they are human beings just as worthy of respect and dignity as you are, they have simply fallen where no one will take the time to pick them up. They all have a story and I'm pretty sure many would tell it to you if you just bothered to listen. They only want what we all want, peace, a place to be, a purpose beyond the wreck their lives have become. The only way to uplift this forgotten and disparaged part of society is to lend them our voices, our compassion, and our want for change. Helping them goes way beyond the individual, if we could summon the power to uplift the most vulnerable, it would uplift society as a whole. The true measure of a great society is not how it treats its elite but how it reaches out and protects and nurtures it's most vulnerable. We used to think of ourselves as a great society but now we fall greatly short of anything resembling one. You want to make America great again you start from the bottom up. Lets once again show the world that we can still get things done. A movement that starts as a trickle can multiply, grow and gather strength in such a way that it can become a river of hope for all the world to see. Start working in your community, lend your voice to the call for positive change. If we could put a man on the moon, explore other worlds, what could we accomplish if we directed such energies at one of the major problems plaguing us today. In history will we be remembered as the country that let an entire segment of its self fall to the wayside or will we be remembered as a nation that saw a problem and solved it to the betterment of all.
