Understanding The Homeless Mentality (Chandler: renting, crimes, how much)

[MountainGuy74]

I've never been homeless and I don't know anyone who has ever become homeless so I'm hoping that someone can chime in with their first hand experience on the why and the how of being homeless.

Question 1: Why is it that almost every homeless encampment I've seen is on a sidewalk or adjacent to a busy street? Why not find a place to camp off to the side somewhere like an empty lot or even behind vacant buildings? Seems like sleeping in a tent right on a busy street wouldn't be ideal.

Question 2: How does one suddenly become homeless? If you are renting a place, for example, and you lose your job, wouldn't you want to do everything in your power to make sure you can pay for the roof over your head? Perhaps works multiple jobs to make rent? Make payment arrangements? I understand that some situations can fall out of control but there are just so many opportunities to prevent being out on the street that I can't seem to comprehend how one gets to be out on the street.

Again I'm just trying to understand

[Sno0909]

Originally Posted by MountainGuy74

I've never been homeless and I don't know anyone who has ever become homeless so I'm hoping that someone can chime in with their first hand experience on the why and the how of being homeless.

Question 1: Why is it that almost every homeless encampment I've seen is on a sidewalk or adjacent to a busy street? Why not find a place to camp off to the side somewhere like an empty lot or even behind vacant buildings? Seems like sleeping in a tent right on a busy street wouldn't be ideal.

Question 2: How does one suddenly become homeless? If you are renting a place, for example, and you lose your job, wouldn't you want to do everything in your power to make sure you can pay for the roof over your head? Perhaps works multiple jobs to make rent? Make payment arrangements? I understand that some situations can fall out of control but there are just so many opportunities to prevent being out on the street that I can't seem to comprehend how one gets to be out on the street.

Again I'm just trying to understand

Despite what many will try and tell you, most homeless people are addicted to drugs. So, no, you wouldn't do everything in your power to keep a roof over your head - you do everything in your power to get more drugs.

[considerforamoment]

Originally Posted by Sno0909

Despite what many will try and tell you, most homeless people are addicted to drugs. So, no, you wouldn't do everything in your power to keep a roof over your head - you do everything in your power to get more drugs.

Why would anyone choose to be on drugs and live on the street?

I also don't get it.

People use drugs to feel good.

It would not feel good to live on the street. I also don't get why, if they want to camp, they don't camp in campgrounds or in the mountains or something. Why would anyone want to live on the sidewalk? It's just weird.

I personally don't think the people are too bright.

[asufan]

I think a majority of them are mentally ill, so they aren't thinking with the same types of brains we are. I've seen some in Chandler that are here year round, even when it's 115 out. I'm wondering why they don't go to San Diego somehow or go downtown to one of the shelters.

[Igor Blevin]

I think "homeless mentality" is generally an oxymoron. It would be more accurate generally to say "homeless lack of mentality".

I know that some of the homeless have satisfactory mental capacity but the vast majority are severely mentally impaired in some way. Most homeless are not rational and have no mental capacity to function in a way that they can maintain a dwelling.

That is why they need to be institutionalized. Some temporarily. Some permanently. This modern politically correct idea that it serves the mentally ill the best to abondon them on the street and simply shovel them drugs and minimal food stocks is simply crazy.

We should never have closed the mental institutions. They needed serious reform but we should never have closed them.

As far as why can't anybody just work more and afford a home, there are some mentally capable people who suffered a money wipeout situation from which they cannot rise. A severe medical bankruptcy. Some kind of back pay judgment that would take every cent they earned. If you can't afford a lawyer to declare bankruptcy and such, then how to you deal with that. So probably a very small number of homeless simply are there from extreme financial circumstances.

Then you have people who are so cripplingly physically disabled, they simply can't work and earn money for shelter. You would think the mentally apt in this case would be able to reside cheaply in a low-cost apartmebnt somewhere in America on disabillity.

Overall, it is "homeless lack of mentality". They can't care for themselves in anyway. It is not possible. They need external care.

[Igor Blevin]

Originally Posted by considerforamoment

Why would anyone choose to be on drugs and live on the street?

I also don't get it.

People use drugs to feel good.

It would not feel good to live on the street. I also don't get why, if they want to camp, they don't camp in campgrounds or in the mountains or something. Why would anyone want to live on the sidewalk? It's just weird.

I personally don't think the people are too bright.

Once on the street, drugs insulate the homeless from feeling the effects of being on the street. Drugs make the world fantasyland and that is preferable to harsh, painful, stressful, depressing reality.

Then it becomes a vicious circle.

[Sno0909]

Originally Posted by considerforamoment

Why would anyone choose to be on drugs and live on the street?

I also don't get it.

People use drugs to feel good.

It would not feel good to live on the street. I also don't get why, if they want to camp, they don't camp in campgrounds or in the mountains or something. Why would anyone want to live on the sidewalk? It's just weird.

I personally don't think the people are too bright.

A lot of people got addicted to opioids that were, at one time, prescribed by a doctor. Once they can no longer get a RX, heroin is the next best thing. Then the addiction train really gets rolling.

I don't think anyone willfully chooses to get addicted to drugs.

[ExNooYawk2]

It's probably true that people don't set out to get addicted to drugs but when it happens it would be good if they can be removed from the streets and given a choice - treatment or jail. We can't allow these lost souls to take over our society. Every city and state seems to have hundreds of them on the sidelines committing crimes to pay for drugs, committing violence against citizens and each other and living in dangerous squalor. It's not fair to them and those of us who don't live like that.

Well meaning people fought for their right to be homeless but it doesn't look like it has helped them. In fact, I'd categorize the "live and let live" approach as a disaster.

[heavymind]

Originally Posted by Igor Blevin

Once on the street, drugs insulate the homeless from feeling the effects of being on the street. Drugs make the world fantasyland and that is preferable to harsh, painful, stressful, depressing reality.

I think for many, using drugs comes into play before homelessness even occurs. For some people, everyday normal life is a "harsh, painful, stressful, depressing reality" and drugs might help to lighten that load. If things get bad enough, use becomes abuse, and the situation spirals downward from there. Others just give up on trying to participate in this mess we call 'society'. Some of us are simply in this world, not of it.

Personally, I often wonder how much more of modern life I can tolerate, and envision myself dropping out and becoming homeless on purpose, not into a sidewalk tent but rather straight into nature and far away from people, drugs, and everything else.

Why is this in the Phx forum? The mentality is nationwide.

[gemstone1]

I don't mean to be judgmental, but a simple web search would have answered your questions, why come to this forum and get opinions.....

Why it’s so hard to end homelessness in America

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/sto...ss-in-america/

"Though homelessness has roots in poverty and a lack of affordable housing, it also can be traced to early life issues, Koh said. The journey to the streets often starts in childhood, when neglect and abuse leave their marks, interfering with education, acquisition of work skills, and the ability to maintain healthy relationships."

“A major unaddressed pathway to homelessness, from my vantage point, is childhood trauma. It can ravage people’s lives and minds, until old age,” Koh said. “For example, some of my patients in their 70s still talk about the trauma that their parents inflicted on them. The lack of affordable housing is a key factor, though there are other drivers of homelessness we must also tackle.”

4 Charts That Explain How People Slide Into Homelessness


7 Major Causes of Homelessness