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I hate seeing this, nobody seems to care any more. In San Diego, the downtown area is swarming with homeless. Their shopping carts are covered with blue tarps and on all the streets surrounding the county buildings. They surround the post office right after it closes and turn the sidewalks into a homeless encampment. When people hold signs on the corner asking for change, nobody driving in the cars looks at them, nobody makes eye contact. One time, I held a cardboard sign at a corner saying "Elvis Lives!" for about 10 minutes, just for fun, and nobody dared to look at it or look at me. I was invisible, and that's what these people are: invisible. Society doesn't want to deal with them or acknowledge they exist in any way. It's shameful and despicable. Where I live now, we are building conestoga huts for the homeless. Somebody designed a low cost shelter to be erected in church parking lots or anywhere that can host them, it can also be locked and is insulated from the cold and rain.
In DC's city proper (downtown to be more specifically, not far from The Capitol Building) just outside lobbyist offices, corporate HQ's, and etc there's this road literally filled with homeless people in the AM, I can't help but to think 'how does this happen?' I try to give when I can rather its a few quarters or as stated above a gift card, sometimes I try not to make eye-contact solely because I'm really not use to seeing homeless people as I just moved up here from NC not too long ago. I mean, they really are the invisible citizens of our society; I never even thought of it that way before but they are. I'm glad to hear there are efforts to build shelters for them, that's some of the best news I've heard all day. This nation needs more wealth in the hands of average citizens because they have people like myself, that if we we're wealthy we'd do more to help the lower-class.
More poor smoke cigarettes than the rich. Yet the poor spend their little money on tobacco products which a pack of cigarettes are $6-$10 a pack.. Some let their kids go hungry as they buy cigarettes instead of cereal. Tax the poor.
Which applies to the vast majority of homeless, as much as we'd like to think otherwise. Unfortunately, it's impossible to force someone into treatment unless they've committed a crime (and even then the "treatment" often consists merely of being locked up in jail for 30 days or whatever).
San Francisco has the country's worst homeless situation by far, because homeless "advocates" refuse to acknowledge that some people are homeless by choice, and most of the rest have substance-abuse issues. The enormous amount of money we throw at the problem goes straight into the tills of the predatory corner liquor stores. And, I'm sorry to say, so do the quarters and dollar bills you give them out of compassion.
I realize that there are indeed some people who truly do deserve help, but the moochers and grifters who outnumber them have pretty killed the part of me that used to care.
(and here y'all thought I was some kind of bleeding-heart liberal.)
Thanks BMOREBOY, for embedding that image of the hut! When you see it, it looks so much better than hearing me describe it. I have heard that the final design plans will be available free for anyone who wants to build them in their local communities.
We all need to get off our butts and start building these things and thumb our noses at the gov't and the majority of people who won't do a damn thing about the problem.
Your solution to the homeless problem is 3D printers?
No; my solution is to have 3D-Printers build low-cost homing (meaning, it costs myself or those building them a low-cost, not the homeless) for the homeless. I originally got the idea of building 3D-homes from a TED video that will be posted below. Of course if built, I'd have to work with local governments on making sure this helps the process of homeless people getting into the real world and work. But obviously, I don't have the funds to build these developments myself, its just a idea on lowering homelessness. Its a start.
More poor smoke cigarettes than the rich. Yet the poor spend their little money on tobacco products which a pack of cigarettes are $6-$10 a pack.. Some let their kids go hungry as they buy cigarettes instead of cereal. Tax the poor.
Tobacco is already taxed, they are ALREADY paying a high tax.
Many, many people with mental health problems/additions refuse help. If those people went to any church, shelter, or soup kitchen they would receive help. Many people simply do not make the choice to make use of the help that exists.
A good example of this is a homeless person I talked to about a year ago. I was walking home and a homeless person asked me for money. Now, I live two blocks away from a church where the pastor lives in the house next door. They regularly take collections to have the funds to help people. I told the guy where the pastor lived, and told him to go to the pastor's house and he could have a bed for the night, a full meal and a shower. The guy cursed me out for not giving him anything, and probably slept on the street that night.
I don't know if he had substance abuse issues that caused him to not seek help, but it is hardly the fault of capitalism when people point blank refuse to take advantage of the help that is out there.
Many, many people with mental health problems/additions refuse help. If those people went to any church, shelter, or soup kitchen they would receive help. Many people simply do not make the choice to make use of the help that exists.
A good example of this is a homeless person I talked to about a year ago. I was walking home and a homeless person asked me for money. Now, I live two blocks away from a church where the pastor lives in the house next door. They regularly take collections to have the funds to help people. I told the guy where the pastor lived, and told him to go to the pastor's house and he could have a bed for the night, a full meal and a shower. The guy cursed me out for not giving him anything, and probably slept on the street that night.
I don't know if he had substance abuse issues that caused him to not seek help, but it is hardly the fault of capitalism when people point blank refuse to take advantage of the help that is out there.
Maybe, that person is refusing help due to their mental health problems?
Many, many people with mental health problems/additions refuse help. If those people went to any church, shelter, or soup kitchen they would receive help. Many people simply do not make the choice to make use of the help that exists.
A good example of this is a homeless person I talked to about a year ago. I was walking home and a homeless person asked me for money. Now, I live two blocks away from a church where the pastor lives in the house next door. They regularly take collections to have the funds to help people. I told the guy where the pastor lived, and told him to go to the pastor's house and he could have a bed for the night, a full meal and a shower. The guy cursed me out for not giving him anything, and probably slept on the street that night.
I don't know if he had substance abuse issues that caused him to not seek help, but it is hardly the fault of capitalism when people point blank refuse to take advantage of the help that is out there.
I can agree with this, but what about those who want help? If I don't want help with something, in this case finding shelter, then leave me alone but those who want help should be able to have it. In some cases churches have a limit to how many homeless they can take, so where do they go after that? I remember late last year, this guy and his pregnant girlfriend came up to me and my old girlfriend asking for $20 which caught my by surprise but they stated the reason they needed so much is because the shelter they were going to stay at was $20. Of course I didn't believe that nonsense but I still gave them $5 and my girlfriend gave them $2 or $3 and we went our way. If what they said was indeed true, then I believe thats wrong. I'd rather have a periodic withdraw of my paycheck to go towards the shelters operations, rather than having the homeless cough up money to sleep there. But as I said above, I'm not sure how true it was. My girlfriend said some shelters do charge, but I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to that topic.
I always said if I was ever homeless, I'd go to a buffet everyday and live in Walmart, while cutting grass or just doing chores outside people homes rather than sleeping in a box. Of course a little begging would have to happen, but I'd try to be independent as much as possible. Walmart probably would kick me out after a while though. I know when I use to live in MD, our local library would be filled with homeless people during the day, I don't know where they went after it closed.
I don't see this as an "inequality" problem. I see this as a "he/she made huge mistakes somewhere along the way" problem. A person doesn't end up perpetually living on the streets without some level of personal irresponsibility along the way. There are far too many social organizations out there to help people who have simply had a short string of bad luck. To find themselves without groceries for the week or money for the electric bill is usually just temporary thing. But taking up residency on the streets such as the OP's example is the culmination of bad decisions, pride, selfishness, and probably mental illness.
I don't consider this "inequality" because this person had the same basic opportunities that everyone else had, and there's no shortage of social organizations to help people along before they find themselves living behind a grocery cart.
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