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Your last two paragraphs seem a bit contradictory. They seem average/normal, but they're all a little off? In a way I guess I could grant you this, given that I do in fact find the average non-homeless person to be a bit off, heh.
For what it's worth, just yesterday at the Syracuse bus station, I talked to a guy who'd been living on the streets for the past month or two. Catholic Charities hooked him up with a bus ticket to his hometown of Pittsburgh, and I was trying to encourage him in his move back to that familiar place. The route he was going to take was ridiculous, as he was going from Syracuse to Newark NJ to Pittsburgh, but even as I questioned the circuitousness of that route, I tried not to be too negative, as this dude had assuredly had it quite rough of late. Then we spent a few minutes talking about the Steelers' recent acquisitions of Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. Nice guy, but he definitely seemed weirdly intense and perhaps potentially volatile. I like talking to people on the street, but you do also have to he careful.
What I mean by average... is that they can easily be somebody you knew in high school or your neighbour, etc.
But yeah most of homeless I've spoken to are mentally "off" kilter to a certain degree.
I suspect many of them are like that because of their life on the streets - constant anxiety, constant pain, constant on edge.
But listening to some of their "life stories" they are quite colourful to say to least. Some of it does seem genuine, but some of it are obviously fabricated. Hence the mentally "off" aspect.
The one thing that I can say, is that most of them that are friendly enough to talk have good intellect and very interesting life stories.
One guy bought some pork chops from a grocery store nearby and actually built a campfire to cook it and offered me a piece. I politely declined but he actually insisted, saying that it's wrong not to offer me a piece. So yeah I took it.
What I mean by average... is that they can easily be somebody you knew in high school or your neighbour, etc.
But yeah most of homeless I've spoken to are mentally "off" kilter to a certain degree.
I suspect many of them are like that because of their life on the streets - constant anxiety, constant pain, constant on edge.
But listening to some of their "life stories" they are quite colourful to say to least. Some of it does seem genuine, but some of it are obviously fabricated. Hence the mentally "off" aspect.
The one thing that I can say, is that most of them that are friendly enough to talk have good intellect and very interesting life stories.
One guy bought some pork chops from a grocery store nearby and actually built a campfire to cook it and offered me a piece. I politely declined but he actually insisted, saying that it's wrong not to offer me a piece. So yeah I took it.
Several months ago, as I was walking a few blocks from a cafe I frequent to a nearby bar, a guy who regularly panhandles and is quite obviously a drug addict approached me. This particular guy is a person I look to avoid, as he's both aggressive and difficult to understand, so interacting with him can be pretty stressful, as you're never quite sure if *this* is going to be the time he loses it and flies off the handle. He also will ask for money, and upon receiving a buck or two from the likes of me, he'll increase his demand to 5 or 10 bucks (this much I can comprehend, despite his poor enunciation). So, I sighed and said a reluctant hello. In this instance, he asked me if I could go into the convenience store across the street and buy him a cheap cigar. Upon fulfilling his request, he handed me a large bag full of assorted items (shampoo and socks were near the top of the bag) and told me, forcefully, to take the bag. I said, 'no thanks, man, I have nowhere to put this stuff.' 'TAKE THE BAG!', he screamed at me. I tried protesting one more time, saying that I was going into a bar and couldn't hold an IPA and the world's worst Woolworth purchase at the same time. But he screamed it again, so I thanked him, walked off with the bag, and left it on the bar patio for some lucky patron to eventually discover.
Several months ago, as I was walking a few blocks from a cafe I frequent to a nearby bar, a guy who regularly panhandles and is quite obviously a drug addict approached me. This particular guy is a person I look to avoid, as he's both aggressive and difficult to understand, so interacting with him can be pretty stressful, as you're never quite sure if *this* is going to be the time he loses it and flies off the handle. He also will ask for money, and upon receiving a buck or two from the likes of me, he'll increase his demand to 5 or 10 bucks (this much I can comprehend, despite his poor enunciation). So, I sighed and said a reluctant hello. In this instance, he asked me if I could go into the convenience store across the street and buy him a cheap cigar. Upon fulfilling his request, he handed me a large bag full of assorted items (shampoo and socks were near the top of the bag) and told me, forcefully, to take the bag. I said, 'no thanks, man, I have nowhere to put this stuff.' 'TAKE THE BAG!', he screamed at me. I tried protesting one more time, saying that I was going into a bar and couldn't hold an IPA and the world's worst Woolworth purchase at the same time. But he screamed it again, so I thanked him, walked off with the bag, and left it on the bar patio for some lucky patron to eventually discover.
Pork chops would've been much more appreciated.
Lol... sorry I know that wasn't funny, but it was.
The pork chop was actually decent, cooked on an open fire with nice crispy edges.
Definitely better than used socks and half a bottle of old crusty head and shoulders
Worked a lot with homeless folks in the state mental hospital.
And while I'm sure there are examples of people with solid upbringings who end up on the streets...
That certainly wasn't generally the case with our "clients". Obviously they were all diagnosed with mental illness and in many cases a dual diagnosis of mental illness and substance abuse...
But most of them came from very destitute, dysfunctional situations and it wasn't a far fall to homelessness from where they were to begin with. Generally, that was the only life they knew besides being institutionalized with us or some other government program.
Plus one! I also worked as a nurse in a state hospital. As eddie gein wrote, the homeless folks come from less than stellar, dysfunctional and sometimes abusive families.
They do not usually know how to navigate the normal system. They usually have mental health issues. They may have been raised in a combination of Foster Homes - which are often less than ideal. Group homes, which are never idea, and their families of origin are mostly problematic.
They hit the streets ill equipped to handle life there. They are usually unemployable, if only by appearance. If you can't bathe and shave, and you are dressed like a bum, not even Walmart, which gives everyone a chance, will hire you.
I can't solve homelessness here. All I can say is that "they are a bunch of dru addicts" is a cruel and ignorant judgement. Drug addiction is secondary to their main problem MENTAL ILLNESS.
Homelessness becomes its OWN self-perpetuating problem. People fear and hate the homeless. THAT is a PROBLEM.
We have closed so many state hospitals and not made plans for the people who are discharged. They may have grown up on the streets or in institutions. AND suffer from mental illness.
There were some terrible abuses in State Hospitals. No one is denying that. Especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries. That is true.
However, there were some GOOD things about state hospitals. I worked in two of them for a total of 12 years. They were NOT abusive. They were sheltered, fed and medicated. There were activities for them to do - dances, bingo, cards, art therapy, holiday celebrations, church services, even plays.
In the one's in NY, until the 1960s. many functioned as self-sustaining farms. They grew, tended and harvested their own food.
The fact that they were working farms, located in rural areas, gave them the unfortunate name of "Funny Farms".
Because there was abuse at one time, does not mean the solution is to CLOSE THEM. Stop the abuse! Some people just can't take care of themselves. EVER.
Every one of the 48 contiguous states is littered with empty or half empty, turn of the century - early 20th century buildings that can be rehabilitated and used again to house the homeless.
Some may eventually be able to function on their own. Many more, will not.
Reopening these structures as a sanctuary for the mentally ill also has the benefit of providing jobs and employment to the communities where they are located.
Everything from asbestos remediation, construction work to rehab these buildings. updating kitchens and bathrooms and generally, making the buildings habitable again.
Once they open, there are a plethora of jobs for local people that helps these mostly rural and suburban communities where they were built.
Jobs are not only for Psychiatrists and Nurses, although they most certainly will be needed. Others will be needed in everything from cooking, cleaning, maintenance, psych aids, occupational assistants and therapists, physical therapists, counselors, people with farm experience, electricians and plumbers, vocational rehabilitation specialist security guards and computer techs.
One of these hospitals could not only help the mentally ill, but free cities, town and villages of homeless encampments and the very real problems caused by the homeless.
Think of all of the jobs that these homeless asylums would create, and how it would help people, in terms of employment.
So our modern day solution is to dump mentally disfunctioning people on the street to rot and suffer, while they inadvertently destroy civilization everywhere around them.
We never should have closed the asylums. It is not an improvement by and large.
At least their victims were generally safe when they were locked up and treated. We took a small but serious problem and turned it into two horrific problems by closing the asylums and dumping them all on the streets.
Plus one! I also worked as a nurse in a state hospital. As eddie gein wrote, the homeless folks come from less than stellar, dysfunctional and sometimes abusive families.
They do not usually know how to navigate the normal system. They usually have mental health issues. They may have been raised in a combination of Foster Homes - which are often less than ideal. Group homes, which are never idea, and their families of origin are mostly problematic.
They hit the streets ill equipped to handle life there. They are usually unemployable, if only by appearance. If you can't bathe and shave, and you are dressed like a bum, not even Walmart, which gives everyone a chance, will hire you.
I can't solve homelessness here. All I can say is that "they are a bunch of dru addicts" is a cruel and ignorant judgement. Drug addiction is secondary to their main problem MENTAL ILLNESS.
Homelessness becomes its OWN self-perpetuating problem. People fear and hate the homeless. THAT is a PROBLEM.
We have closed so many state hospitals and not made plans for the people who are discharged. They may have grown up on the streets or in institutions. AND suffer from mental illness.
There were some terrible abuses in State Hospitals. No one is denying that. Especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries. That is true.
However, there were some GOOD things about state hospitals. I worked in two of them for a total of 12 years. They were NOT abusive. They were sheltered, fed and medicated. There were activities for them to do - dances, bingo, cards, art therapy, holiday celebrations, church services, even plays.
In the one's in NY, until the 1960s. many functioned as self-sustaining farms. They grew, tended and harvested their own food.
The fact that they were working farms, located in rural areas, gave them the unfortunate name of "Funny Farms".
Because there was abuse at one time, does not mean the solution is to CLOSE THEM. Stop the abuse! Some people just can't take care of themselves. EVER.
Every one of the 48 contiguous states is littered with empty or half empty, turn of the century - early 20th century buildings that can be rehabilitated and used again to house the homeless.
Some may eventually be able to function on their own. Many more, will not.
Reopening these structures as a sanctuary for the mentally ill also has the benefit of providing jobs and employment to the communities where they are located.
Everything from asbestos remediation, construction work to rehab these buildings. updating kitchens and bathrooms and generally, making the buildings habitable again.
Once they open, there are a plethora of jobs for local people that helps these mostly rural and suburban communities where they were built.
Jobs are not only for Psychiatrists and Nurses, although they most certainly will be needed. Others will be needed in everything from cooking, cleaning, maintenance, psych aids, occupational assistants and therapists, physical therapists, counselors, people with farm experience, electricians and plumbers, vocational rehabilitation specialist security guards and computer techs.
One of these hospitals could not only help the mentally ill, but free cities, town and villages of homeless encampments and the very real problems caused by the homeless.
Think of all of the jobs that these homeless asylums would create, and how it would help people, in terms of employment.
This was the point I tried to make. I was a social worker. For decades. I started my career as the mental hospitals were being closed, so this huge population hit the streets & social workers & other mental health workers were supposed to figure out what to do with them with few resources, kind of like pulling a white rabbit out of a hat.
I don't know how social workers cope today, with even fewer resources, because those are the people who are on the streets today, who in the past would have been in the state hospitals.
This may be an unpopular opinion (it wouldn't be my first), but I think for at least some of them, it's a lifestyle and maybe even a preferred one. At least in my small town, they seem reasonably happy. They socialize with each other, have their places to spend the day - like the library - and the night (in the shelter, if they choose; others camp out), get free meals and lots of handouts/donations, sit on the benches in the sunshine on sunny days, ride their free bikes wherever they want to go, talk on their free cell phones, etc. Everyone's nice to them, too.
Granted, being homeless in Chicago or NYC may not be such a walk in the park, so to speak.
This may be an unpopular opinion (it wouldn't be my first), but I think for at least some of them, it's a lifestyle and maybe even a preferred one. At least in my small town, they seem reasonably happy. They socialize with each other, have their places to spend the day - like the library - and the night (in the shelter, if they choose; others camp out), get free meals and lots of handouts/donations, sit on the benches in the sunshine on sunny days, ride their free bikes wherever they want to go, talk on their free cell phones, etc. Everyone's nice to them, too.
Granted, being homeless in Chicago or NYC may not be such a walk in the park, so to speak.
Did you ever read Jeannette Walls's book The Glass Castle? She was an MSNBC anchor, living on Park Avenue in NYC, on her way to a party, when she saw a woman rifling through a garbage can and realized it was her mother. She turned around and went home, and then contacted her mother, met her for lunch and said, "What am I supposed to tell people when they ask about my family?"
Her mother said, "Stop worrying about what other people think, and tell the truth."
So she wrote the book, about growing up leaving towns in the dead of night because they didn't pay rent, living in the desert in an encampment, and finally in West Virginia in a cabin with no running water. She went to college and got a job in Manhattan, as did her siblings, and eventually, her parents came there, too. In the book, her mother says, "It's so easy to be homeless in New York City."
Her parents lived in an abandoned building, got food and clothes from soup kitchens and churches and other organizations, and refused any help from their children. There is danger, I am sure, but you won't go hungry in the city. Soup kitchens, food pantries, City Harvest, which "rescues" food from restaurants and grocery stores and distributes it to the poor.
Last edited by Mightyqueen801; 03-27-2024 at 11:15 AM..
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