Homeless people

[The Lag]

I have a similar story to Ed's.

I moved out of my home state to a town i had never been to, with my girlfriend...
I came home from work one night and all of my girlfriend's stuff was gone. She literally disappeared with no warning. The place we had was extremely expensive and i wasn't able to afford it on my own, so i had the rest of the month to find a place and get out.
Then my father got very sick and my car "died" and i lost my job.
Long story short, i ended up selling a lot of belongings, dumping some in a storage unit i put 3 months on, and putting the rest in my car (which ended up disappearing too) while i was mostly homeless attempting to find my way back to my previous state where i at least had friends i could crash with. This took a few months.
It was a pretty exhilerating experience, but also pretty dismal.
Finally got back to home and crashed on a friend's couch until i managed to find a job, he even gave me money to pay for the storage unit for another couple months, which saved at least some of my stuff (including all of my music gear -- well, except for a few pieces that had died in there.)
Eventually, i flew out to colorado (where i had moved with my GF) and recovered the stuff from the storage unit...my car and whatever was in it was unrecoverable.

Yep...shit happens.

[Csonicgo]

No one cares about homeless people because there's no money in it.

[SyntherAugustus]

Sodaholic said:

Can you please take a picture?

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/855/img0238mp.jpg/

I havent seen him lately, but I found these pictures right outside the deli.

[Technician]

OK, I'm going to be racist and admit seeing the crazed hobo as a burly blackman wearing a paper crown is even more funnier than I previously imagined.

[DoomUK]

It can't be very nice getting urinated on while you're trying to sleep in a shop doorway. Yet some people choose to live like that apparently.

[Technician]

I think people fail to realize it's very easy to loose it all, and it is very hard to get it all back again. Not everyone has people they can fall back on in times of need.

[geo]

Bums have always harassed me since I'm a clean shaven white guy. Harassed as in followed, heckled, demanded, tried mugging me, walked around saying I'm their best friend stuff like that. In fact I dated a girl who told me no that's just Chicago bums how about you go to a local shelter and help out there and it will give you a different perspective.

So I helped out, the bums were asking where I lived. I told them what town they said no what's your address. What's your name? You got a last name? wtf? I told the guy in charge of the shelter and he didn't believe me. I was left with an even worse opinion of bums.

Let's see what else... I was a beach bum for 2 months in California living on an island due to a vacation gone extremely bad. It might sound glamorous, but I was shivering to death for 2 months with no food, no phone, 2 sets of clothes (2 shirts 2 swimsuits) and a tent before I left the island. My weight went from 160 lbs to 140. It was scorching in the day, 90 - 105 degrees and freezing down to 40 at night because its an island. There was no real society, just fishing surfers in the same situation. I had no money for the $65 ferry ride home or the $20 bus ride back to port. Luckily my gf was with me who had dumped me 1 day before that shitty trip.

Now every Thanksgiving I fast to remind me I'm lucky that I have food and a home and I'm not shivvering to death each night.

[Clonehunter]

I met a homeless guy once. I told him while eating an ice cream cone in the snow that I had no money, so he walked away. Later, I met another one, and gave him some coins. The first guy said he had a daughter. Second guy didn't say shit.


Lol.

[40oz]

Technician said:

it's very easy to loose it all

It may be easy but keeping it all isn't very hard.

[Aliotroph?]

Not necessarily. Society, and American society more than most western ones, is built such that your life can easily implode and just screw you without it being any fault of your own.

<spelling nazi> "Lose" has ONE FUCKING O! Get it right! </spelling nazi>

[40oz]

doubt it.

[Technician]

40oz said:

doubt it.

Get cancer. You couldn't afford the chemo and facilities with an average job.

[Maes]

FUN FACT: 40oz is a pointy-haired boss to some poor devil, perfectly emboding the American Dream (well, "perfectly" until something goes just a bit awry and shit starts to come apart).

[40oz]

Technician said:

Get cancer.

I would if I could but it's really hard. Isn't this thread about homeless people?

[The Lag]

you are acting like a spoiled brat.

[jute]

At my job I work with newly homeless, never-before-homeless people (including families with children) every day. Often these people no longer have access to medication that they REALLY need to have any hope of improving their situation, or even to remain stable enough not to be kicked out of the homeless shelter in the middle of winter. 40oz, I would love to see you explain your short-sighted social Darwinism to these people, especially the children.

[Mr. T]

The only people who "want" to be homeless are usually dudes fucked up from Iraq (used to Nam but most of them are dead now)

Anyone else deserves a hand up. We're a civilized society, and they are people too. You fucking tard 40oz

[geo]

I don't understand why people don't pool their money. Like do you really need an apartment by yourself when you can have one with 4 people? Like a dorm. There are even people that rent out their guest rooms in their houses.

But other times there are other issues. Mental illness, problems with the cops, giant debts, injury and so on.

The news just did a piece on pan handlers working an 8 hour shift can make $400 - $600 per day and there are pro pan handlers that treat it like a job. If someone gives a dollar or even a quarter... that's 1 person. How many people pass by you in an hour in a major city? A few hundred?

[40oz]

I have an average job. I make $10 an hour working full time at a gas station. I have no college education. I've been saving 60% or more of my paychecks for the last 4 years. I cook my own food, usually rice, spaghetti, ramen noodles, occasionally I'll treat myself to the McDonald's dollar menu (unless, of course, I'm taking my fiance out on a date) I've saved $32,000 within that time frame, which I'm using to put a down payment on a house for my fiance and I to live in. (which reminds me, I need to speak to my real estate agent today before something horribly unexpected happens and makes me homeless for some reason) Over the past two months I've invested 50% of my paycheck in a 401k plan, which means I'm making about $140 a week, and with that I'm still able to save $50 of it each week.

I'm 21 years old, I've been using the same computer for five years, playing the same game for 17 years. I don't smoke ciggarettes, I don't buy a coffee or energy drinks every morning, I rarely use my one car for anything other than the commute to work and visiting my fiance at her grandmas house (19 mpg) I don't watch TV, I don't eat at restaurants, I drink water, not soda. I've been wearing the same hoodies, band t-shirts and jeans since high school, I don't gamble or splurge my paychecks on drinks at a bar or the latest smart phone or ipod or student loans for classes I choose to skip because I have a hangover all the time like most kids my age do. My cell phone has shitty coverage. No data plan, just talk and text, which I rarely use because I have a house phone. I don't have medical bills to pay because I was fed health foods when I was young and took my vitamins. I don't have ridiculous car insurance rates because I don't get in accidents. I don't have fines to pay because I don't commit crimes.

I suppose I'm blessed with this much self-control. Also I do have a working shower, a bed to sleep on, a room, a playstation 2 handed down to me by my older brother, wireless internet, a working refrigerator, microwave, stove top, a kitchen table to eat on, a couch to sit on, cans of tuna, sliced bread and vermicelli noodles provided to me from the parents I live with. Jeez I really am a spoiled brat.

[dannebubinga]

40oz said:

I don't have medical bills to pay because I was fed health foods when I was young and took my vitamins. I don't have ridiculous car insurance rates because I don't get in accidents.

Getting sick or crashing your car could happen to anyone. It's not about self control.

[Guest DILDOMASTER666]

40oz said:

Jeez I really am a spoiled brat.

40oz said:

I suppose I'm blessed with this much self-control.

You bet your ass you're a high-and-mighty spoiled brat

[Snakes]

It appears 40oz played his trap card again.

[Sharessa]

THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS

[hex11]

Housing is the biggest savings killer. You would not have been able to save 60% of your pay had you not been provided a free room and associated facilities. Not when only making $10/hr, no way. You would have needed to rent a place with several roommates to even stand a chance to save very much at all. That's relatively easy when you're young and single, but once you get married and the babies come, everything changes. It is much easier when you're living with people you trust, and that's why so many other cultures live in extended family households. But that's not how things work in mainstream USA and instead you see the opposite: very high rates of divorce, and the death of the family unit.

[Technician]

Snakes said:

It appears 40oz played his trap card again.

I'm thinking we're getting trolled at this point.

[geo]

I'll always rent. My parents own several houses. I think I'd rather rent a house at $1000 - $1500 than buy a house for $200,000 in this area. I guess when you do the math, it would take you 16 years in rent to get up to that value of a house. Then with a house you need to pay taxes and when something goes wrong its your problem. That costs money too. When you rent it is the landlord's problem.

If things get bad I'd just move back to Clinton Iowa where a 3 bedroom tiny house was $150 a month.

Oh and I went house hunting with my friend last October in a low rent area of Racine Wisconsin and we visited 6 houses for $10,000. 1 house was a disaster completely gutted in the inside. The other 5 houses were good, but there were tons of kids on the road. I've been to playgrounds and classrooms and never seen so many kids.

[qoncept]

Looking at your own life, 40oz, and trying to apply that to other people is asinine. Just ask yourself one question: what if you didn't play Doom?

[Mr. T]

hex11 said:

Housing is the biggest savings killer. You would not have been able to save 60% of your pay had you not been provided a free room and associated facilities. Not when only making $10/hr, no way. You would have needed to rent a place with several roommates to even stand a chance to save very much at all. That's relatively easy when you're young and single, but once you get married and the babies come, everything changes. It is much easier when you're living with people you trust, and that's why so many other cultures live in extended family households. But that's not how things work in mainstream USA and instead you see the opposite: very high rates of divorce, and the death of the family unit.

This post is so true. I was able to save a lot more money on way less pay when I didn't have a wife and kid and all the associated bullshit that comes with them that you don't think about until they keep hitting you up for cash. Things like clothes, diapers, doctor visits.

[Use]

jute said:

Often these people no longer have access to medication that they REALLY need to have any hope of improving their situation, or even to remain stable enough not to be kicked out of the homeless shelter in the middle of winter. 40oz, I would love to see you explain your short-sighted social Darwinism to these people, especially the children.

They obviously didn't have their vitamins.

[40oz]

oh yeah I totally forgot to consider that homeless people are homeless because housing costs.