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And it's not just the homeless! I worry about some of my neighbors, elderly singles living in old drafty houses, keeping the thermostat really low so that they don't need too much heating oil. Every winter and summer, someone in this area inside a dwelling passes away from hypothermia in winter and heatstroke in summer during heat waves (not wanting to run A/C or not having any). I had to buy another space heater this year because every time I hear of someone like this, I give mine away.
One of the things I learned about these psych patients was that the general rule is, that if they have been in a facility for 2 years, they will never learn to be able to be self sufficient and manage their life, and earn money the way most "normal people do.
What I can't understand is why the govt. can't set up some kind of housing for these folks. Kind of like an old style very basic college dorm. Gang showers and bathrooms. Women in one building, men in another. No visitors in their room or on the floor. Each person gets a small room to themselves, like the size of a jail cell, so that they can have a very small place, a dorm size fridge, small TV, and that's home. You'd have to have rules, and if they broke the rules, they get thrown out for 30 days. Something like that wouldn't necessarily have to be wildly expensive. Any welfare or SSDI would go first to pay their rent. I don't know if it would work? Anyone know of something like this for the homeless other than a shelter where they throw them out every morning?
They used to have them on the skid rows of the cities. Called them flop houses. The cities considered them nuisances and urban renewal (we have cool-sounding names for everything) wiped them out.
Today the liability would be enormous. Just trying to run mental health institutions has become a nearly unsolvable problem because providing the maximum amount of freedom for the mentally ill or maladjusted is incompatible with their safety and the safety of others.
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Originally Posted by RomaniGypsy
Chances are, the only people who do freeze to death will be the non-criminals. The criminals will do something that gets them incarcerated so that they get three hots and a cot.
The moral of the story is - if you think you'll be homeless this winter, research crimes that'll get you a few months in the pokey and keep on committing them until you get locked up.
I used to know someone who was on the verge of getting kicked out and had no place to go other than the streets so he committed crimes until he got busted. Sad but people do it to a avoid being homeless
One of the things I learned about these psych patients was that the general rule is, that if they have been in a facility for 2 years, they will never learn to be able to be self sufficient and manage their life, and earn money the way most "normal people do.
What I can't understand is why the govt. can't set up some kind of housing for these folks. Kind of like an old style very basic college dorm. Gang showers and bathrooms. Women in one building, men in another. No visitors in their room or on the floor. Each person gets a small room to themselves, like the size of a jail cell, so that they can have a very small place, a dorm size fridge, small TV, and that's home. You'd have to have rules, and if they broke the rules, they get thrown out for 30 days. Something like that wouldn't necessarily have to be wildly expensive. Any welfare or SSDI would go first to pay their rent. I don't know if it would work? Anyone know of something like this for the homeless other than a shelter where they throw them out every morning?
I agree that the government should establish some type of asylum - in the true sense of the word - for the mentally ill.
Post institutionalized people do not understand money. They are frequent targets for thugs.
Many former foster and group homed children and young adults face a similar fate.
"Religion that God accepts as pure and faultless - it is religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless as this - to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep one's self pure and undefiled"
Here in eastern Pennsylvania, we occasionally hear of someone dying of exposure during an extreme cold snap, but the victim is usually a recluse, often an elderly person in a house the own or occupy, but to which the utilities have been shut off after several attempts to contact and negotiate with the occupant. And in some cases, multiple victims have been encountered -- two or more elderly siblings or a mentally-unstable adult in the care of a struggling parent or grandparent.
The problem is seldom, if ever, the result of a "hard line" taken by the utility, or the lack of a safety net in the from of an available shelter. Too often elderly or dysfunctional people who live alone simply refuse to listen to any voices other than the ones in their own minds. And the impractical "do-gooder" attitude which is embraced by too many people who don't understand what goes on beyond their sanitized viewpoint, sometimes allows the victims to escape the oversight that might have prevented the tragedy.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 11-24-2014 at 04:11 AM..
The modern rail industry is a lot less hospitable to the homeless than was the case a generation ago, and it's not because of the strengthening of security. Rail industry employment is about one-sixth of what it was in 1945, and both the "yard bulls" and the lineside "operators" are vastly reduced in numbers. The day when a major railroad maintained a 24-hour point of contact in most communities is long over.
In addition, the custom of leaving side doors unsealed on empty cars has been strongly discouraged by liability concerns; and a much smaller amount of freight moves in the traditional "boxcar" -- the use of which has been curtailed in favor of bulk covered hopper cars in which a tramp ,if he or she could get in to begin with, might suffocate or be buried in the event of a derailment.
The stereotype of the "hobo" has been distorted and glamorized both by Hollywood, and "potboiler" journalists who don't always research their subject in the light of recent changes. And once in a while, we hear of vagrants, or worse still, young people of "mainstream" upbringing with a misguided desire for adventure freezing, crushed by shifting freight, or falling from the end space of an "open" car.
These old hotels that rent by the week with bathrooms down the hall were a godsend for those with limited income. But they often aren't able to meet current codes and are often on prime real estate so are being replaced by more upscale housing, Where else are you going to find a place to iive for $100/week?
11 people freezing to death is the spread. You bet (pick) if it'll be over or under 11 people. The OP asked the question as the thread title.
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