Giving to Homeless (unemployed, minimum wage, ethic, health care system)
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Until we make a concentrated consistent effort towards the mentally ill, we are not going to get anywhere. However, we currently have entire families living in homeless shelters. I think we have a real good mix of the homeless population at the moment.
However, I firmly believe that we are going to have a huge influx of vets that are going to be on the streets and in jail and prison. This society is not ready to face PTSD. As a rule, I will do what I can to help someone that needs it. I won't give cash to a homeless shelter. I will give to someone directly and what they do with it beyond that point is on them. My preference is to give needed items. That is where I am at currently.
Unfortunately i think giving money to homeless people is more or less like flushing it down a toilet. The homeless person is likely to go to a liquor store and buy some thunderbird with that money you gave him or her!
Giving to the Salvation Army or your churches is like giving to the homeless. They are there to help and make sure that the money is properly used for food, medicine and cleanliness.
Giving money directly to a homeless person or a panhandler is like giving a child a bag of candy--nothing good can come of it.
If they were not veterans, would you have the same sympathy for them? Why not?
What are you telling your congressmen about the homeless men of the future, who are still in Iraq and Afghanistan?
I would like to see the actual statistics on how many people are homeless, how many of them are veterans, and what is the methodology of arriving at those statistics.
But, I already donated to the Salvation Army via my taxes. They, nor any church, will receive another dime from me.
It isn't that hard to know the homeless if you live in an area where they travel to or from or attempt to live in whatever makeshift way that they do.
I believe that as a nation we have become to reliant on some other organization taking care of the problem. It creates a distance that too many are comfortable with. Its not like the problem gets solved. Its not like the medication is taken on a daily basis. And if we do have a facility that is willing to take in someone that is mentally ill, a psych ward: they stabilize them and release them. Or my favorite trick are psychwards or treatment facilities that take 'em in and when they act out, they have them arrested.
I think people like to think that there is something out there taking care of business and, truthfully, there is not. That is my .02.
I have one simple criteria for giving money to the homeless. If their sign says "god bless", they get nothing.
LOL. My criteria for not giving is when it's a teenager or young adult with a sign that says "I need $XX for a bus ticket home." Another variation is "a room for the night". Another twist is when they claim "all my stuff was stolen". Sometimes they have a dog. Sometimes I see a different person with the same dog on another block the next day (the dog helps with the sympathy factor.)
These people are heroin addicts. I know some people have sympathy for heroin addicts as well. I do not, and I will not give them money.
Most of the homeless I see on a day-to-day basis besides the junkies are the mentally ill. There's the guy who screeches unintelligibly at everyone on the corner and sometimes plays the harmonica--I call him Gabby Johnson because he looks and sounds like the character of that name from Blazing Saddles. There's also the woman who babbles away and pees on herself who is on the park bench across the street. She was gone for months--I think she must have been institutionalized because she looked clean when she first reappeared and seems to have gained weight.
I give regularly to food pantries and soup kitchens. I believe in feeding our homeless people, but I'm not giving any of them drug money.
But, I already donated to the Salvation Army via my taxes. They, nor any church, will receive another dime from me.
It isn't that hard to know the homeless if you live in an area where they travel to or from or attempt to live in whatever makeshift way that they do.
I believe that as a nation we have become to reliant on some other organization taking care of the problem. It creates a distance that too many are comfortable with. Its not like the problem gets solved. Its not like the medication is taken on a daily basis. And if we do have a facility that is willing to take in someone that is mentally ill, a psych ward: they stabilize them and release them. Or my favorite trick are psychwards or treatment facilities that take 'em in and when they act out, they have them arrested.
I think people like to think that there is something out there taking care of business and, truthfully, there is not. That is my .02.
I agree with you to a point, but most homeless people (the addicted ones) will not help themselves and you can not force someone to help themselves, but when they are ready the establishments are there for them.
As for the mentally ill, Yes that is a big problem. If someone is diagnosed with a mental illness there should be government/taxpayer help.
Why has our judicial system stopped helping these people that usually are a danger to themselves and others?
I agree with you to a point, but most homeless people (the addicted ones) will not help themselves and you can not force someone to help themselves, but when they are ready the establishments are there for them.
As for the mentally ill, Yes that is a big problem. If someone is diagnosed with a mental illness there should be government/taxpayer help.
Why has our judicial system stopped helping these people that usually are a danger to themselves and others?
Because it costs money.
Don't know how old you are, but to cut down on costs, in the 1980's under the Reagan administration a lot of non-violent hospitalized mental patients were released into the streets with the notion that all they had to do was take their medication and they'd be just dandy on their own.
Those of us who work and/or live in New York City noticed the increase in homeless people on the streets and in public places almost immediately. It has never gone down. There are schizophrenic people out there who cannot distinguish reality from their delusions, but there is no room (read no money to pay for it) in institutions for them.
I've talked to one man who works at a drop-in center downtown where they feed people, let them take a shower and give them clothing, and have a computer system tied into city and state agency services to try to help them. He said one man came in one day for a meal for the first time and they talked to him and checked him out. Turns out he was out of touch with reality, but was a Vietnam vet who had eight years worth of benefits coming to him. No one knew where he was for eight years to get him his checks or check up on his health--he'd run out of his medication, went back into his fantasy zone, and had just been wandering through the city.
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