Street kids in Portland (apartment, lawyer, Home Depot)

[oregonwoodsmoke]

I can remember back in high school a certain segment of students who were wishing they could get to Amsterdam because drugs were legal there. I suspect that now that Oregon has made hard drugs legal, the unintended consequence will be herds of runaway teens, homeless by choice, moving to Portland.

Portland is already touted as a good place to be homeless on the message boards for other areas.

[CAjerseychick]

Being on the streets is a hard, hard life-
decriminalizing drugs does not mean ' making them legal' (Lordy let the hand-wringing begin)...

long term street kids are not their because their home lives are easy, or like Frillypaws mentioned, they have mental health issues.

[magicturtle]

Originally Posted by CAjerseychick

Being on the streets is a hard, hard life-
decriminalizing drugs does not mean ' making them legal' (Lordy let the hand-wringing begin)...

long term street kids are not their because their home lives are easy, or like Frillypaws mentioned, they have mental health issues.

Most people's lives are hard.
Especially older people.
In the 70s people regularly knocked the **** out of their kids and no one cared.
Children didn't have rights; women didn't have rights, in a family.
Cities got rid of vagrant laws and people heard a couple of sob stories that made
them vote for things that brought in the rest of the trash.
Some people are naturally lazy.
Before technology, they would lie around their parents' house and every once in a while,
go get a job at a factory, farm, or slaughterhouse.
And then illegal aliens came in and took those jobs and no one really complained
because the illegal aliens were actually more reliable than the other people, but that
still doesn't make it right to hire them.
So fast forward 20 years or so and those permanent welfare/disability/hard life people have been reproducing
and collecting benefits and raising future benefit collectors.
Every year they say they need more money and every year technology makes
life easier for pretty much everyone so it should actually be easier now, for them to be productive,
(and there is a deficit in hiring for the trades
but a lot of the homeless people are junkies/drug addicts and would never
be able to pass a drug test).
I let go of my sympathy for bums right around 1993.
I saw enough years of hand out and hand out and hand out without responsibility
and all it leads to is the expectation of more handouts.

[CAjerseychick]

Originally Posted by magicturtle

Most people's lives are hard.
Especially older people.
In the 70s people regularly knocked the **** out of their kids and no one cared.
Children didn't have rights; women didn't have rights, in a family.
Cities got rid of vagrant laws and people heard a couple of sob stories that made
them vote for things that brought in the rest of the trash.
Some people are naturally lazy.
Before technology, they would lie around their parents' house and every once in a while,
go get a job at a factory, farm, or slaughterhouse.
And then illegal aliens came in and took those jobs and no one really complained
because the illegal aliens were actually more reliable than the other people, but that
still doesn't make it right to hire them.
So fast forward 20 years or so and those permanent welfare/disability/hard life people have been reproducing
and collecting benefits and raising future benefit collectors.
Every year they say they need more money and every year technology makes
life easier for pretty much everyone so it should actually be easier now, for them to be productive,
(and there is a deficit in hiring for the trades
but a lot of the homeless people are junkies/drug addicts and would never
be able to pass a drug test).
I let go of my sympathy for bums right around 1993.
I saw enough years of hand out and hand out and hand out without responsibility
and all it leads to is the expectation of more handouts.

topic is street kids right? not "bums".. although if you are on the streets long enough prognosis is not good.
Kids who end up on the street have often been raped, sexually abused and Starved by family or their caretakers. Its not the same thing at all. Your ignorance is underwhelming.

Save your rant for some other space...

[Minervah]

Then there's the street kids down from the 'burbs who liked to panhandle in neighborhoods like those along Hawthorne blvd. When I lived there they liked to menace old ladies like me for money for kicks. First pleading then threatening. Only with me they pick the wrong old lady because I would tell them to go home and quit playing games. They would scowl and swear but they would back off. My elderly friend who still lives in the area says she sees them from time to time. The cops chase them away if you call them.

Downtown it can be a different story. I've bought food for homeless kids whom I could tell really needed it. After being around this for many years you can tell who really needs help and who's pulling a scam. But never I wouldn't give anyone money.

Although there was one exception. There was a time when street musicians played for money and some people did artwork and sold it on the streets. I'd sometimes buy a painting or put cash in someone's guitar or violin case. Portland had some good street musicians.

[ny789987]

Originally Posted by elcapitan

Portland should definitely address this issue...it makes the city feel much less family friendly than it is. It's also kind of depressing.

Well, Trump is mean and we can't expect people to take care of themselves and appear to be intolerant, can we?

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Appearing to be intolerant can be considered a major crime in Portland.

[ccjarider]

Originally Posted by CAjerseychick

topic is street kids right? not "bums".. although if you are on the streets long enough prognosis is not good.
Kids who end up on the street have often been raped, sexually abused and Starved by family or their caretakers. Its not the same thing at all. Your ignorance is underwhelming.

Save your rant for some other space...

Actually your naive ignorance is showing. You want to think every kid on the street is there because life threw them some tough scenario. Certainly that is the cases for some, but even then, it needs to be stated that majority of people who have same tough scenarios tossed there way DO NOT cop out on life and head to a silly city like Portland Oregon.

Most people have some tough spots in life and still make do and even thrive. Most of the young adult bums in PDX CHOOSE to be this way.

Life is about choices and if being a street bum seems to be an easier road than the other options; some will take it. It is up to Society to make sure it is not perceived as an easy road. Portland's mistake is it makes it easy to be a young adult street bum.

[ny789987]

Putting a needle in an arm is always a conscious choice and the easy way out.

[Minervah]

Sorry for the typos on my previous post; typing too fast on my Iphone. So, regarding the street kids situation. There is neither one easy definition nor one easy solution to fixing the problem. Some of these kids are good scammers who can fool anybody, usually the most naive and newest transplants into giving them cash. Others are really kids on the run from some pretty horrible living conditions.

There is help available for those who need help and are willing to try to get off the streets. When I was in my fifties back in 2005, after my umpteenth layoff because a company I was working for closed, I went back to school to learn a new career that would better help me get a job. Many of my classmates were former street kids; runaways, some of whom had done time. They weren't asking for anyone to sing Kumbya, just a chance to make a better life for themselves out of jail and off the streets.