What is the deal with all the "young" homeless/beggers? (Denver: sales, 2014)

[Julesunder]

I was visiting Denver this past weekend, love the city! We were wandering around DT and noticed a lot of homeless, kind of like San Diego, normal for a larger city.

But we were surprised to see how many young, I mean young 20's somethings begging for money. These are young, able bodied adults...what gives? Almost every big city has its fair share of homeless, but this seemed off.

We were crossing the street when a young couple pushing a baby in a stroller (an expensive looking stroller), came up to my husband and say" Sir we are not going to ask you for money, but will you buy her, pointing at the girl (early 20s) and him, the kid, something to eat?"

We honestly thought they were going to ask for directions or something. He had tats and smoked Marlboros, obviously wasn't a war vet or anything. I was shocked and actually kinda laughed, which he didn't like very much. We crossed the street and he yelled at us for a bit and then kept moving.


In Houston we have are fair share of peddlers/meth heads....but I've never seen a early 20's able bodied person begging, what gives?


just wondering

[davidv]

Many have moved here for the marijuana.

Legal pot blamed for some of influx of homeless in Denver this year.

[Timmyy]

Originally Posted by davidv

Many have moved here for the marijuana.

Legal pot blamed for some of influx of homeless in Denver this year.

Beat me to it. Hopefully this part of legalization will change after a year or two.

[jwiley]

It is a combination of things that are driving the homeless population in Denver.

1st is the cost of housing compared to the wages paid in the Denver metro area, the average rental in Denver is considerably higher than the average household can afford. While it hurts the standard of living for more established families the lower income families (often younger families) can be destroyed with just a minor emergency or job loss. Look at it this way for a young person that is making $9 an hour (which seems to be entry level wages without a degree) they make too much to qualify for a single person to get help, but with the average rent being almost $1300 a month even the cheap places cost nearly $1000 a month, they are spending more than 1.4 weeks pay on rent. Meaning even living in a crappy apartment with a roommate they are left with somewhere between $900-1000 a month for all their utilities, food, transportation, and entertainment, which means they have enough to survive on, but not enough to really get ahead to far. Throw in a job loss, an hour cut, or a medical emergency putting them out of work for 2 or 3 weeks even and they are on the verge of homelessness. If they do not have friends or family to stay with and do not get back on track immediately they can easily end up homeless.

2. The influx of people who want to move to Colorado. On this board we often see people post about moving to Colorado, without a job, no friends or family here, and a couple of thousand saved up. Colorado is 1 of the hottest places in the country when it comes to people wanting to move here, and people from 18-65 are coming. the problem is that there are not the jobs for those people, people with experience and good education are taking entry level positions, leaving young in-experienced graduates to compete with the high school grads for entry level type work, combined it drives the wages that companies have to pay way down, and makes it very hard on young people. The other side effect is it is much harder to hang onto a job, when car sales jobs are getting 300 resumes for a commission only sales job than you know many employers hiring entry level candidates can run someone off for the slightest issue as it is not hard to find a replacement immediately.

3. the pot misconception. Many people think they can move to Colorado, go to work in a dispensary, and than within a year open their own dispensary or grow operation. The problem is that the dispensaries only need so many employees, and the costs of operations and licensing makes it hard to make the money they were hoping for so they do not pay all that well either, and having several clients trying to raise money to start one, I can tell you the costs to get into the business at this point are prohibitive to the point of making it damn near impossible to get involved.

4. Certain municipalities love to put their homeless on a bus and send them out of town, for whatever reason Denver seems to be a popular destination.

Overall I feel sorry for anybody trying to get their start in Colorado right now, the wages are screwed up, the rent is to high and has already jumped up 18% in just the 1st quarter this year since it is still going up 7% or so, and seemingly everybody in the country wants to compete with you for that entry level job you are looking at. Especially the kids that grow up here, as it was most likely not their choice to live in Colorado and have to deal with it, for those that moved here after school, I feel less sorry for as they should have found out more info about it than they do, but even still they do not deserve to be on the street hustling for food for their kids (although if he had a cigarette on him he needs a reality check as his kids should come 1st)

[robertgoodman]

Originally Posted by davidv

Many have moved here for the marijuana.

Legal pot blamed for some of influx of homeless in Denver this year.

We don't really know that

[Indigo Cardinal]

To sideline just a little bit--has anybody else besides me noticed that panhandlers are getting....'bolder', for lack of a better word? They used to stick mostly to street corners or parking lots before, but lately it seems the last couple of times I came across one, they were right in the doorway of an establishment, in one case, practically *in* the establishment itself. Walgreens seem to be popular--they'll stand right outside the doorway (as in, within five feet of it) to ask for money. The last case I came across was a family at a Safeway--they were so far in the entryway of the store that they were pretty much in the store. (Just as I was passing by, a store employee came along and told them he was sorry, but he had to ask them to leave.)

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by Indigo Cardinal

To sideline just a little bit--has anybody else besides me noticed that panhandlers are getting....'bolder', for lack of a better word? They used to stick mostly to street corners or parking lots before, but lately it seems the last couple of times I came across one, they were right in the doorway of an establishment, in one case, practically *in* the establishment itself. Walgreens seem to be popular--they'll stand right outside the doorway (as in, within five feet of it) to ask for money. The last case I came across was a family at a Safeway--they were so far in the entryway of the store that they were pretty much in the store. (Just as I was passing by, a store employee came along and told them he was sorry, but he had to ask them to leave.)

Denver PD isn't allowed to crack heads anymore.

[Mach50]

Yes in my 4 years here I have seen a transformation from old to young beggars.

I help some people out from time to time with spare change and I seriously wonder why they are begging when they seem to be able to work just fine.

[Rubi3]

Maybe some have learned they can make a reasonable living by begging.

[Count David]

It is easier than working.