The Homeless and their courage

[tabycat]

I might also say that society allowing children to become homeless is a crime of child neglect committed by society and whoever else has the means to help but turns their heads away.

LOVE!

If a family (with children) is homeless, maybe taking the children away from the perents and puting the children in a ‘home’ and the perents in jail. Hhhhmmmm . . . I don’t think that would work because the state has already has messed up with children’s services.

 

[mikekle]

Hmmm…That may vary from state to state. If a person is successful at occupying a home for longer than a certain period of time they may end up with squatter’s rights. There have been higher instances of squatting with the higher number of foreclosed homes (and presumably a higher number of people looking for places to live). If a person squat’s long enough getting the person out may require that an owner go through an eviction process. If a person is able to stay in a house enough years than he or she can claim the deed to the property.

I would not have a problem with any of that, better someone living in a house than for it to sit empty after all.

Plus, its not entirely free for a squatter to just move in, they have to turn on the electric, gas, water, sewage, etc. all these require deposits in cash, they also must pay taxes each year on the property, or the city will take it, so there is more costs involved than we think to squat in a house, and IMO, if they are able to do all these, then it would be fine with me, if they got the deed after so many years.

 

[ThinkingSapien]

I would not have a problem with any of that, better someone living in a house than for it to sit empty after all.

Now that I think about it, to some degree isn’t this what Section 8 housing is about? It’s not exactly the the same, but similar in that it provides housing to people that could otherwise not afford it.

 

[WilT]

Section 8 housing has been closed for over 12 years in our area. Sometimes it opens up briefly and has places to live but in areas uninhabitable like the lower and high deserts where temperatures can reach 110-120`

 

[ThinkingSapien]

Section 8 housing has been closed for over 12 years in our area. Sometimes it opens up briefly and has places to live but in areas uninhabitable like the lower and high deserts where temperatures can reach 110-120`

I did some other searching and I found that there are areas that have gone as far as to use legal fights to discourage house owners from renting their houses to Section 8. Which reminds me, a foreclosed or abandoned home isn’t necessarily without an owner. There may be banks or other entities that have ownership of such a home that would probably make decisions to the advantage of their financial interest more often than from charity. So such homes might not be available for the purpose of housing tenants in need for free.

 

[SuperLuigi]

Most of the homeless people I encounter have mental disorders.

@ R. Sock:

I would believe that.

 

[SuperLuigi]

Just wait until the mass media says that homelessness reflects a disgraceful and immoral society. Then you will see just how fast a truly effective plan is developed and proper funding is found.

LOVE! :health:

It really is more complicated than that.

 

[mikekle]

I did some other searching and I found that there are areas that have gone as far as to use legal fights to discourage house owners from renting their houses to Section 8. Which reminds me, a foreclosed or abandoned home isn’t necessarily without an owner. There may be banks or other entities that have ownership of such a home that would probably make decisions to the advantage of their financial interest more often than from charity. So such homes might not be available for the purpose of housing tenants in need for free.

Well, if a house already has an owner like that, how can homeless or squatters get the utilities turned on and in their names in the first place? I know after a certain period of time, they can get the legal deed, but in order to do that, they must maintain the property, pay the taxes, keep it looking good,etc…all this takes money, not sure how a homeless person could even afford to do any of this, but it probably would be best since many banks or other investment type owners dont do any maintaining of these homes, so Id imagine cities would prefer someone, anyone to live there, as long as they keep it looking good, keeping the taxes paid up to date, etc. so its win win for the homeless and the cities.

Plus, alot of these homes are used and taken over by drug dealers to operate from…no one seems to bother them, but when it comes to a homeless person just looking for a roof over their heads, suddenly there is a HUGE problem?? Ive never understood that LOL

I think with alot of these abandoned, foreclosed homes, who actually owns them is up in the air, as usually they package up 100s or even 1000s of these homes as part of investments, so it may be difficult to find the actual owner, and a particular investor may not even know they own a certain house, depends on how its packaged and how many they have though.

Id imagine alot of these homes slip thru the cracks, where no one claims ownership, I bought a car about 8 years ago and had that happen, after paying the monthly payment for 6 months, the bank with the loan stopped accepting the payments, told me they didnt hold the lien on it, I tried and tried to resolve it, but they claimed they didnt have it, so nothing I could do, eventually I had to go to the courthouse and get the lien removed, it worked out good, as I got the truck for the price of 6 monthly payments, but someone, somewhere lost money on that, but probably so many of these, they cant keep track of them all!! I joked with my wife at the time, I should have bought a Ferrari thru that company!!!

 

[the_phoenix]

A video shared by a Facebook friend of mine on this very topic:

wimp.com/lookedcloser/

Scroll down to watch the video, have your audio on, and your kleenex ready.

…

 

[WilT]

A video shared by a Facebook friend of mine on this very topic:

wimp.com/lookedcloser/

Scroll down to watch the video, have your audio on, and your kleenex ready.

…

great video thanks for sharing:thumbsup:

 

[ThinkingSapien]

Well, if a house already has an owner like that, how can homeless or squatters get the utilities turned on and in their names in the first place?

I think you may be conflating “owner” with “resident.” If I owned a second house and I lost my renter but after several months found a new person to rent the house it is possible that in the time I wasn’t keeping a close eye on the house that some one had moved in. Even though the person is not a tenant of mine I may have to hire a lawyer to get the person evicted so that I rent the house out for money (which I may need to do to prevent the second house from going into foreclosure unless I can afford to pay two mortgages for a longer period of time).

so Id imagine cities would prefer someone, anyone to live there, as long as they keep it looking good, keeping the taxes paid up to date, etc. so its win win for the homeless and the cities.

Squatters don’t necessarily contribute to up keep or pay taxes. Some are transient and stay in a property until evicted and then find a new property. Not to say that they never do contribute to the property. But a squatter that stays in the house long enough can’t necessarily be instantly removed by police. The rules on this vary by state.

Plus, alot of these homes are used and taken over by drug dealers to operate from…no one seems to bother them, but when it comes to a homeless person just looking for a roof over their heads, suddenly there is a HUGE problem?? Ive never understood that LOL

That may also vary from one area to another. I haven’t heard or seen much about drug problems in otherwise vacant houses in my areas. Other areas probably have different frequencies of such occurences.

To restate my previous point, a *vacant * house is not necessarily a house without an owner. That owner might not agree to some one being awarded the owned property for residence without compensation. Whether that owner is a commercial or financial entity or an individual there is often a goal to at least break even if not make a profit off of the property. To give the property away would be tantamount to financially taking money away from another entity possibly further driving some one into deeper debt.

There do exist economies based in the idea of taking from those that seem to be able to bear it for those that seem to have less. There are also scenarios where entities in USA government can take ownership of a property. But I am not confident that either of these is a suction to homelessness.

A question I think to be worth considering: what factors ed to someone becoming homeless? Are these factors that can be addressed to reduce future risk of homelessness?

Pardon my mistakes. Sent from my mobile device.

 

[WilT]

What a blessing. I was eating some lunch outside when one of my army vet. friends approached me and asked me to join him in playing some pool. I got up and followed him. We entered a community center for those over 60 and I kept my fingers crossed that I wouldn’t be asked out. The tables were in great condition and the few men were cordial. As we played my friend was swift and cleaned the table up with me. I upped my game but he won 6 of our 10 games. He is most likely an old school pool shark or something! Anyways the last game on the last ball. The eight ball and the white ball were the only balls on the table. My vet. friend had a hard shot but it sat at the door of the hole. My next shot seemed an easy long distant shot. I lined up and took the shot. Since there wasn’t any powder in the room, my fingers stuck slightly on the stick and the ball slid across the table barely tapping the 8 ball and refusing to fall in. Fun time I had and I’m glad he invited me over to play. Next time I’ll bring my own hand chalk:whackadoo::doh2::crying:

 

[WilT]

I ran into a gentleman that I had seen at one of the free dinner nights at the nearby protestant churches He said something to me that really bothered me. He said that on several occasions the police had, while holding a clipboard, asked the homeless to fill out a survey, 1. Why and what made you homeless. 2. What is keeping you in this city. 3. What is preventing you from leaving.
This he had said is the jest of the survey. As I asked further he said that this most likely came from the cities council members. He told me a story on how a woman council member came up and down the city picking up trash and along the way she saw a man asleep on the sidewalk. She immediately called the police and had him taken away to the police station. He was fined for sleeping on the sidewalk and he ended having to walk back several miles to his area. This made my blood boil because instead of her worrying about this homeless and his difficult life she makes it still more difficult for him by sending the police after him. Unfortunately, the homeless go through many difficulties such as this.:yukonjoe::winter:

 

[3DOCTORS]

And once again we conveniently overlook the facts because in our opinion, we know what is best for them and our sympathy has blinded us to them as human persons!

Have you personally talked with the homeless? I have. Have you observed their behavior and characteristics? I have. Have you actually listened to what they say and take note of their own opinions and desires and what they do not care for?

Can you recognize the fact that the majority (at least the ones I’ve come into contact with) do not hold to our standards of living? Can you understand that for many of them being homeless, despite it’s obvious hardships, is a principle of freedom without restraint and one they are not willing to give up?

To us they are in the worst possible circumstance. But to them it is their own free choice so what would you do to prevent their free will? Are you going to force them into shelters (which would be tantamount to them as being imprisoned?) Some of them would consider that the very worst possible scenario which would take away the last vestiges of their dignity. So please tell us …what would you have us do to forcibly improve their condition?

I understood you right off the bat. Excellent observations. A couple of decades ago I was still hoping to navigate the world (and find really effective treatment for my anxiety disorders that wouldn’t create other problems with side effects, obesity, etc.). For 6 months I even attempted a job as an administrative assistant at a non-profit that was for the purpose of helping the mentally ill in the era after state hospitals had been closed, but there weren’t resources to fill the gaps in care for people who couldn’t navigate the world.

I really had my eyes opened there. Moreover, I worked for the department that ran the independent living and the group homes. As I typed leases and incident reports for these, I began to feel sorry for someone who would have to live in one. Rules, restrictions, co-ed issues (men hitting on the women, for example, and conflicts breaking out). No pets - I don’t know how I’d survive without my animals’ unconditional love. Okay, yes, these people had a roof over their heads, and food, and a bed. But not even that for the whole day - no, the group homes were locked up during business hours and the residents had to be in some kind of a day program. Woe to, say, the woman having menstrual cramps or the guy having a bad day and maybe just wanting to come home and chill for awhile.

With my own issues being unresolved, I started to have dire imaginings - suppose I never did get it together enough and ended up in one of these places? I would probably feel suicidal.

Don’t think I don’t understand these places and temporary shelters aren’t trying, and I know they have to have rules to protect worse problems from happening - still, many homeless are that way in part because they are square pegs who don’t fit into society’s round holes. May God have mercy on them, and may those of us who want to solve this complex issue be granted wisdom and new insights.

 

[epan]

No matter what some righteous people may be doing, I do not think that homelessness will be successfully dealt with until the mass media tells people what a disgrace it is for our society to allow such meaningless pain and suffering to be inflicted upon our fellow citizens. Look at how fast gay rights was promoted in our world largely because of the mass media who radically changed people’s beliefs and attitudes. Homelessness too will someday grow into a mighty social issue that will result in people becoming truly empathic towards them, and then the ball will start rolling so that the problem is solved.

LOVE!

The beginning of the worsening for homeless people was the falsehood spread by President Reagan, that the government is the enemy of the people. His success at this lay the groundwork for the undermining of the various social service programs.

I have no problem with the rich getting richer. It is obvious that will happen. The problem is that when the gains are so out of proportion with the rest of society, and that the middle classes and lower classes suffer, as their standard of living declines. We need to find a solution in which increasing prosperity benefits all of us, and not just the 0.1%.

 

[WilT]

Recently one of my homeless Vet. friend lost his pet Chihuahua and has been missing her dearly. She was not only his best friend but his moneymaker. He would have her hold the sign (at times) requesting for some help. Her name is Sombrita. Please pray for him because he seems very quiet and sad. Thanks.

 

[WilT]

Recently, a police did a homeless sweep of the downtown area and threatened a homeless gentleman with incarceration. He was just “I was eating a burrito when 10 police cars came at me from all directions” eating and warned with jail time. He left the downtown area perturbed. There may be doing a homeless removal sweep in my area. Let’s pray that the poor be protected from all threats and punishments from our city employees.