Guest sith lord Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 We're talking about America, the land of plenty. Do you feel sorry for these individuals or do you say "they made their own bed". Are these people just lazy or are there other circumstances to consider? IMO, this country has way too many resourses to have anyone living on the streets or under bridges. What's your take on this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoony Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Mental illness of some sort. The only logical explanation in this country, imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PleaseBlitz Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 I think lots of them are lazy, im sure most of them have other circumstances at work, and im sure quite a few have serious mental illnesses. I also think that anyone in America that is homeless chooses to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GibbsFactor Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Some people I feel for, the ones that have obvious problems. Other's are just lazy or weigh their freedom more then their shelter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeesburgSkinFan Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 The only time I think about them is when they come up to me and ask for money in DC, at which time I keep walking. I just ignore them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toe Jam Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 I think it depends on the circumstance. Some things can't be helped. Take Katrina for instance. I couldn't imagine trying to pick up the pieces after that fiasco. I'd probably just let myself go too. To be honest, though, there are too many resources out there for somebody to not take advantage of them and give it at least some effort. I don't feel sorry for someone who drowns in their sorrow and expects someone else to help them out all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stophovr6 Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 I have to go with mental illness. I'm not talking about the fakers. I'm talking about real homeless people. The ones muttering nonsensical statements to themselves. Our country doesn't provide these people with the proper facilities and most of them don't want to be helped. They need a psychiatric ward of sorts where the patient would be given therapy and medication. They exist, but they cost money, and unless your family cares about you or has the means to help($$$), you're probably out of luck and on the streets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destino Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Being homeless and staying homeless are different things. Being homeless can happen fast. Most americans don't have a lot of reserves and losing their job can easily make their mortgage/rent more than they can afford. Suddenly you have lates on your credit and are getting evicted from your home. Not easy to find a rental with a 500 score showing you failed to pay rent or mortgage. Boom you're homeless. Now I think most people would recover. Find a place that will take them, hopefully get some help from friends and family, and get back on their feet. But what if you get hit with depression (not exactly far fetched when you consider losing your career and home in the same time period)? Suddenly you don't want to get up in the morning and think about killing yourself. This is dangerous and can definately send you in the wrong direction. You can find yourself drinking for no reason and an addiction can leave you bummin in the street. This is why it's important to plan financially and have a strong family. My parents, sister, or myself will never be homeless. We'd have to all lose our homes at the same time for that to happen. We have found jobs for eachother in the past too. A strong family safety net makes things a lot easier in tough times. If you have a strong safety net and plan financially this should never be an issue. If you are a hard headed individual taking risk and isolated from family and friends.... you're a bad day away from the street. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chomerics Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Mental illness of some sort. The only logical explanation in this country, imo. I take it you have never worked at a homeless shelter, and have never seen families who are homeless. . .why does that not surprise me. There are any number of factors as to why people go homeless. Many are bad luck, lack of work, lack of family support etc. Yes, there is a lot of mental illness in the homeless population, but there are also a lot of people who actually work and are homeless. They live in cars, and try to do the best for their families, but sometimes the money just doesn't allow them to work. Many are too proud to go on welfare, and would rather "ride out the storm" then allow government assistance. I work at a local soup kitchen at least once a month, and there are a lot of people who are able to work and have jobs, but stay in the shelter because they have not enough money to get an apartment. They are the transient homeless hoping to make a better life in the future, but refuse to go on government funds because of pride. People like to look the other way, but sometimes, you just need to talk to the people and get to know their stories. One thing I do is take pictures of homeless people, because a lot of times, a picture tells a story. You can see the stress of life on their faces. A lot of them are not homeless by choice, but by circumstances, and in our country, we ignore the less fortunate and downtrodden. It is the way the country has become, and it is not a good thing. There is an old saying, how good a country is can be determined by how they treat their underprivileged, and unfortunately we are not one of the better ones when it comes to the poor and underclasses in society. It is one of the downfalls of a Capitalistic society, it is great at the top, but often the bottom is ignored. It can be good or bad depending on where you are in the ladder of society. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoony Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 I take it you have never worked at a homeless shelter, and have never seen families who are homeless. . .why does that not surprise me. Please explain what you mean by this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sith lord Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 I think it depends on the circumstance.Some things can't be helped. Take Katrina for instance. I couldn't imagine trying to pick up the pieces after that fiasco. I'd probably just let myself go too. To be honest, though, there are too many resources out there for somebody to not take advantage of them and give it at least some effort. I don't feel sorry for someone who drowns in their sorrow and expects someone else to help them out all the time. I'm not including Katrina victims. But I agree 100% with your second point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toe Jam Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 I'd also recommend checking out The Pursuit Of Happyness. It's a good movie and it's interesting how his circumstances came about. It's even more interesting to see how he got out of his situation and why. If I was homeless and I had a kid, I'd be doing everything possible to get back on my feet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Special K Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 We're talking about America, the land of plenty. Do you feel sorry for these individuals or do you say "they made their own bed". Are these people just lazy or are there other circumstances to consider? IMO, this country has way too many resourses to have anyone living on the streets or under bridges. What's your take on this? I have been working with the HIV+ homeless population here in San Bernardino for the past 6 months. What I have observed is that a lot of these people have serious mental issues...at least the people who were involved in our study. Sure, there are a few who I thought should not be in the transitional living facility we were working at, but I would say the majority of the people had severe mental problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chomerics Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Being homeless and staying homeless are different things. Being homeless can happen fast. Most americans don't have a lot of reserves and losing their job can easily make their mortgage/rent more than they can afford. Suddenly you have lates on your credit and are getting evicted from your home. Not easy to find a rental with a 500 score showing you failed to pay rent or mortgage. Boom you're homeless. Now I think most people would recover. Find a place that will take them, hopefully get some help from friends and family, and get back on their feet. But what if you get hit with depression (not exactly far fetched when you consider losing your career and home in the same time period)? Suddenly you don't want to get up in the morning and think about killing yourself. This is dangerous and can definately send you in the wrong direction. You can find yourself drinking for no reason and an addiction can leave you bummin in the street. This is why it's important to plan financially and have a strong family. My parents, sister, or myself will never be homeless. We'd have to all lose our homes at the same time for that to happen. We have found jobs for eachother in the past too. A strong family safety net makes things a lot easier in tough times. If you have a strong safety net and plan financially this should never be an issue. If you are a hard headed individual taking risk and isolated from family and friends.... you're a bad day away from the street. Pretty spot on analysis from my experience. The problem arises when there is no family around, and this is unfortunately all too common today. There are also times when the individual's family has given up on him/her and they can't turn to family. You would be surprised at how many homeless people have a relative who is living in a nice $500K house yet they don't want to be bothered with their brother because of past drug issues. There is also a lot of mentally retarded people who live alone. These are people who's families put them up for adoption because they didn't want to deal with a retarded baby. They grow up in orphanages, or foster care and don't have families. My sister works with these people on a daily basis, and the amount of money they have is a joke. She makes a whopping $27K/year with a masters in psychology and a BS in nursing, but she is helping people out and it makes her feel good about her job. Bottom line is that you are right, it is easy to become homeless, especially without a family structure. There just isn't any exposure to it on the national level because the powers at be don't want to focus on it. Just go to a local homeless shelter and volunteer for a day, what you see may astonish you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sith lord Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 I'd also recommend checking out The Pursuit Of Happyness. It's a good movie and it's interesting how his circumstances came about. It's even more interesting to see how he got out of his situation and why. If I was homeless and I had a kid, I'd be doing everything possible to get back on my feet. We talked about this movie the other day. I really don't know how I feel about it. Sure, there was a happy ending, but to me, I thought he was being kind of selfish and his son was made to suffer for his "persuit to get rich". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoony Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 I have been working with the HIV+ homeless population here in San Bernardino for the past 6 months. What I have observed is that a lot of these people have serious mental issues...at least the people who were involved in our study. Sure, there are a few who I thought should not be in the transitional living facility we were working at, but I would say the majority of the people had severe mental problems. Interesting. Google also returned some good info on mental illness among the homeless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chomerics Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 I have been working with the HIV+ homeless population here in San Bernardino for the past 6 months. What I have observed is that a lot of these people have serious mental issues...at least the people who were involved in our study. HIV+ and homeless is a problem with drug users, especially heroin. I don't doubt they have mental disorders, that drug does wonders to destroy lives and ruin minds. BTW, do you have a copy of the study you worked on? I'd like to read it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Tater Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 For years I've worked with homeless individuals and unlike most, actually talked to them. Here's my observations, mental illness or diminished capacity (sometimes even just slight) is huge. Many had abusive spouses/parents and had finally left. Some had made bad decisions in the past and/or continued to make them. Some were just temporarily homeless. While some were homeless because they were just plain lazy, most were homeless due either to bad choices, exogenous factors or suffering the downside results of taking risks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pjfootballer Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Most of it is cicumstances. Some lost their jobs and home and can't get out of the rut. Some do suffer from mental illnesses. And some just simply choose the carefree life of not working, paying taxes or worrying about day to day life. I would think that the majority of them, if they had the choice would choose not to be homeless. I see patients at my hospital who aren't homeless, but middle aged men and women who are capable of working, but they wallow in their own sorrow, are too proud to take a menial job (and they are out there- I say $6/hr is better than 0$/hr) and expect the government or someone else to prop them up and bail them out. But it all depends on each and what their story is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoony Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 For years I've worked with homeless individuals and unlike most, actually talked to them. Here's my observations, mental illness or diminished capacity (sometimes even just slight) is huge. My experience is the same Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoony Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 HIV+ and homeless is a problem with drug users, especially heroin. I don't doubt they have mental disorders, that drug does wonders to destroy lives and ruin minds. BTW, do you have a copy of the study you worked on? I'd like to read it. If you are responding to that post, you might have missed mine. Still waiting. I hope you're working on an appropriate response Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sith lord Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Most of it is cicumstances. Some lost their jobs and home and can't get out of the rut. Some do suffer from mental illnesses. And some just simply choose the carefree life of not working, paying taxes or worrying about day to day life. I would think that the majority of them, if they had the choice would choose not to be homeless. I see patients at my hospital who aren't homeless, but middle aged men and women who are capable of working, but they wallow in their own sarrow, are too proud to take a menial job (and they are out there- I say $6/hr is better than 0$/hr) and expect the government or someone else to prop them up and bail them out. But it all depends on each and what their story is. That's what I'm saying. I always wonder why some of these people can't work at McDonalds or some factory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Special K Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 HIV+ and homeless is a problem with drug users, especially heroin. I don't doubt they have mental disorders, that drug does wonders to destroy lives and ruin minds. BTW, do you have a copy of the study you worked on? I'd like to read it. Chomerics - We took their medical history and were privy to their psychiatric disorders. Furthermore, patients in who lived in the transitional living facility (the patients who made up our study population) are drug tested and have to be "clean" to remain in the program. Our study dealt with nutrition and exercise intervention on CD4 levels, not so much the social aspects of the population. It is a lengthy report, but if you are interested in reading it you can PM me your email and I'll send you the PDF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeanCollins Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Wow no mention of alcoholism or drug addiction. I realize that there are many reasons for people (many have mentioned- lost job, illness, lost home...) but most of the people that I see on the street are alcoholics, mentally ill or both. After all alcoholism is a mental disorder. We have a lot of panhandlers here, regulars that you see day after day. I've seen most of the regulars later sitting behind the drup store brown bagging. I would say that a good percentage of these are war vets and predominently vietnam era. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoony Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 Wow no mention of alcoholism or drug addiction. I consider that a form of mental illness (whether scientifically correct or not, I don't know). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.