Why are homeless people homeless?

[Peggy_in_Burien]

Sometimes, despite all of our will and effort and prayers, sometimes the dragon wins.

 

[TimeEntrance]

All anyone needs to do is beg for a job, then ask the boss 5 times every day “What can I do better? What can I do better?” Then go and do it exactly as the boss wishes. Bosses love people like this. It’s so refreshing. Bosses can’t find enough people like this. Fortunately, we live in princessy individualistic, selfish, egomaniacal times where more and more people are not willing to humble themselves to make a buck, so it is easier than ever if you follow this advice.

That’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard. I think that would get a person’s teeth punched out in Milwaukee.

No one needs you for menial labor. There are enough imported Mexicans that don’t speak English for that.

It also goes against basic economic principle that all employers reach a point where an additional (name removed by moderator)ut of labor actually reduces productivity and cuts into the profits of the company.

Employers are loving the abundant pool of applicants today. Principles of economics supports this. And when you have 5 openings at your company and 5,000 applicants you have your set of 5 that are your first choice, another set of 5 that are your second, and another set of 5 that are your third and so on.

The longer you stay unemployed the less likely your are to be hired. In fact some jobs and temp. services refuse to hire anyone that has been out of work for more than 6 months. One reason is its an employers paradise.

And if an employer can’t find good workers then maybe he or she is too incompetent at hiring or as a boss over all.

And if I’m a boss I don’t want anyone licking my boots. I also don’t want anyone my company can’t do without. If I absolutely need him or her it’s time for me to fire him or her. Unless I’m a very tiny company dependent on a very, very specialized skill few people like that person has. Other than that that person is withholding information, not team oriented, and trying to create more boot lickers around him or her rather than developing future capable leaders within the company or employees that can perform more than one task.

 

[Robert_Sock]

Much of the menial labor is slavery in disguise with capitalism. Who wants to be a slave? Such low morale in the environment of these types of jobs.

 

[CopticChristian]

Much of the menial labor is slavery in disguise with capitalism. Who wants to be a slave? Such low morale in the environment of these types of jobs.

Robert,

This is why your Psychiatrist and you may not undrstand each other and they say…

My psychiatrist says my fears are irrational.

You are also unable to recall a question I asked…

Do you have a job?

Are you paying rent?

Do you own a home?

Is it possible that you may be homeless…

You may find that the dissociative thoughts you expressed here lend credence to your fears being irriational…

Tell me…

 

[Robert_Sock]

Robert,

This is why your Psychiatrist and you may not undrstand each other and they say…

You are also unable to recall a question I asked…

Do you have a job?

Are you paying rent?

Do you own a home?

Is it possible that you may be homeless…

You may find that the dissociative thoughts you expressed here lend credence to your fears being irriational…

Tell me…

Not sure where you’re going with this, but I pay rent and do not have that much cash. I do not have a job, and I’m on disability payments to keep me afloat. Yes, my psychiatrist believed my fear of becoming homeless is irrational; take my disability payments away, and in a few months I’m homeless.

 

[Spider42]

The above help to account for a burgeoning homeless population since around 1985, changing the “face” of homelessness to include all kinds of non-mentally-ill and very skilled people. I personally have met plenty of these.

I work with them every day. It’s probably worth noting that the very concept of the OP is a bit at odds with Catholicism and Christianity.

At the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry, it was common to blame the sick, poor, homeless, etc. for their own plight. They were being obviously ‘punished’ by God. But in the synoptic Gospels, Jesus directly rejects this thinking. He goes so far as to identify the weakest among us as being specially blessed.

As you note so well, the plight of the homeless is often the result of sins of people in positions of greater power, not the homeless themselves.

Pax Christi

 

[TimeEntrance]

Not sure where you’re going with this, but I pay rent and do not have that much cash. I do not have a job, and I’m on disability payments to keep me afloat. Yes, my psychiatrist believed my fear of becoming homeless is irrational; take my disability payments away, and in a few months I’m homeless.

I just started reading this book. Just in 40 pages I learned some things I literally never knew. If what the author claims and the research backs is true… then the era of biological determinism and the all holy gene has sucked the life of potential out of people without them being aware. But this seems to back the notion organized sports has claimed for eons: Champions aren’t born but made.

The book might interest you. amazon.com/Talent-Overrated-World-Class-Performers-EverybodyElse/dp/1591842948

Of course… I’m going to hazard a guess you need a good start with proper nutrition during early development. But that’s my own guess. The human body and brain can’t operate and properly develop off of oxygen and water alone.

 

[cheezey]

As you note so well, the plight of the homeless is often the result of sins of people in positions of greater power, not the homeless themselves.
Pax Christi

I would agree with this, having experienced it myself.

 

[Elizabeth502]

As you note so well, the plight of the homeless is often the result of sins of people in positions of greater power, not the homeless themselves.

Pax Christi

Amen. God Bless You.

I will note as a postscript to your comment:

The Gospel of Matthew (later chapters) “hasn’t seen nothin’.” If Jesus were on earth today and were witnessing this, I would not like to be standing next to Him, feeling His anger, while He condemned those very people in positions of great power.

The homeless are not one category of people, or from one walk of life. There have, in the last 7 years, been CEOs of companies and other people with 6-figure salaries, as well as many middle-class people with previously normal lives, who have experienced homelessness, sometimes precipitously, sometimes after several years of unemployment, during which they had lived on savings they had responsibly accumulated.

I would really like to do some small thing about this during Lent, but I’m not sure of where to start: there are so many areas to tackle. For a long time I have had my own fantasy about what could/should be done. In addition to regulation of inhuman employment policies, I think a responsible government should offer subsidies and tax incentives to the private sector and private individuals to provide loans/subsidies to the employable, previously employed homeless. The fact is, many of the homeless are working. However, they may not have enough for First+Last, and often their credit is shot (especially if they have been foreclosed on or evicted). Thus, it can be a low-risk loan to provide them with first+last. There would have to be arrangements/exceptions to the credit checks demanded by so many landlords, as well. I think I’ll open a new thread in social justice about possible proactive solutions.

Before I do that, I want to leave everyone reading this with this thought, and this especially is directed toward the extreme-free-enterprise fans: Homelessness is a huge negative on a capitalist economy. Huge. It has both local and national effects. The local effects are that businesses are directly affected, both by having fewer customers and by discouraging potential wealthy customers from encountering the nearby “homeless problem.” It creates social unrest, which has never been good for any nation, any time, anywhere. If you’re wealthy, it doesn’t “not affect you.” It’s also unpleasant, aesthetically, because there are the clean and sanitary homeless, and the ones much less so. There is one area not too far from me which resembles parts of eighteenth century England and France. To say that this is shameful is embarrassingly insufficient. It’s an abomination.

 

[CopticChristian]

Not sure where you’re going with this, but I pay rent and do not have that much cash. I do not have a job, and I’m on disability payments to keep me afloat. Yes, my psychiatrist believed my fear of becoming homeless is irrational; take my disability payments away, and in a few months I’m homeless.

Robert,

Is there any way you would not have disability payments if you are disabled?

Is it possible you can work despite your disability?

My sister is disabled, she got an education and she works. She owns a home, has limited income, works limited amount and we speak often. She, as a disabled person, has never mentioned her disability being stopped. She does on occasion speak of the work she does being diminished, dissolved, dismissed.

So, is your diability permanent or temporary?

 

[cheezey]

Amen. God Bless You.

I will note as a postscript to your comment:

The Gospel of Matthew (later chapters) “hasn’t seen nothin’.” If Jesus were on earth today and were witnessing this, I would not like to be standing next to Him, feeling His anger, while He condemned those very people in positions of great power.

The homeless are not one category of people, or from one walk of life. There have, in the last 7 years, been CEOs of companies and other people with 6-figure salaries, as well as many middle-class people with previously normal lives, who have experienced homelessness, sometimes precipitously, sometimes after several years of unemployment, during which they had lived on savings they had responsibly accumulated.

I would really like to do some small thing about this during Lent, but I’m not sure of where to start: there are so many areas to tackle. For a long time I have had my own fantasy about what could/should be done. In addition to regulation of inhuman employment policies, I think a responsible government should offer subsidies and tax incentives to the private sector and private individuals to provide loans/subsidies to the employable, previously employed homeless. The fact is, many of the homeless are working. However, they may not have enough for First+Last, and often their credit is shot (especially if they have been foreclosed on or evicted). Thus, it can be a low-risk loan to provide them with first+last. There would have to be arrangements/exceptions to the credit checks demanded by so many landlords, as well. I think I’ll open a new thread in social justice about possible proactive solutions.

Before I do that, I want to leave everyone reading this with this thought, and this especially is directed toward the extreme-free-enterprise fans: Homelessness is a huge negative on a capitalist economy. Huge. It has both local and national effects. The local effects are that businesses are directly affected, both by having fewer customers and by discouraging potential wealthy customers from encountering the nearby “homeless problem.” It creates social unrest, which has never been good for any nation, any time, anywhere. If you’re wealthy, it doesn’t “not affect you.” It’s also unpleasant, aesthetically, because there are the clean and sanitary homeless, and the ones much less so. There is one area not too far from me which resembles parts of eighteenth century England and France. To say that this is shameful is embarrassingly insufficient. It’s an abomination.

good post. I wish there was something I could do. But I am one trying diligently, with help, to avoid homelessness. Believe, me I cannot wait to help the economy by shopping again one day!! Winter clothing, toiletries, simple household items, ya know, silly fun things like that…

 

[grotto]

A response can be made to this question; but a real answer is beyond me. To imagine oneself in this predicament is downright scary! I imagine I would try to see it coming but if that didn’t happen and no home/shelter caught me outside in the rain then I would probably imitate what others have done in the past. Find a relatively safe and remote place and build a shelter. Build from there - survival and better survival with all your strength. You can ask for some soup or sandwich from charitable people but that’s only for the moment. Discover some skill or ability you can do, that other people can use, and build your resource pot.
First and Last pray to Our Lord and trust in Him.

 

[Robert_Sock]

Robert,

Is there any way you would not have disability payments if you are disabled?

Is it possible you can work despite your disability?

My sister is disabled, she got an education and she works. She owns a home, has limited income, works limited amount and we speak often. She, as a disabled person, has never mentioned her disability being stopped. She does on occasion speak of the work she does being diminished, dissolved, dismissed.

So, is your diability permanent or temporary?

I just jumped another hurdle that should insure my disability until I’m 65 (I’m now 58). No, it’s doubtful that can work with without my disability. When I’m 65 I retire and my payments stop, but I’ll receive retirement. When I’m retired I be living with a deficit, and my limited savings will start to diminish.

 

[CopticChristian]

I just jumped another hurdle that should insure my disability until I’m 65 (I’m now 58). No, it’s doubtful that can work with without my disability. When I’m 65 I retire and my payments stop, but I’ll receive retirement. When I’m retired I be living with a deficit, and my limited savings will start to diminish.

Robert,

So you have 7 years to figure out how to insure your status.

You can find cheaper living quarters.

You can look for something that might provide you some limited income.

Your fears of being homeless are based on future thinking. Is it rational? Only you know.

Fear is a catalyst for change.

While you fear, you need to act and ask yourself what is it I can do to allay this fear? What does this fear mean to me? Is this fear outside yourself or in your head and will I let this fear drive my behavior?

I believe that you know what to do.

 

[Elizabeth502]

good post. I wish there was something I could do. But I am one trying diligently, with help, to avoid homelessness. Believe, me I cannot wait to help the economy by shopping again one day!! Winter clothing, toiletries, simple household items, ya know, silly fun things like that…

Not to be disrespectful or dismissive, cheezey, but I have higher ambitions than that. This keeps being recommended by one of my local parishes (“toiletries, winter clothing”). There’s nothing wrong with that, but those are current survival needs. They are not more permanent housing needs. I want to see them housed. I think it’s demeaning and tokenism for Catholic parishes to absolve their parishioners of further involvement than mere “items.”

Again, as with St. Boniface thread I was previously on, I think the responsibility of religious institutions is not to provide tokenism and call it ‘charity,’ but to combine with like-minded religious institutions to provide a pressure/lobby group on local governments, suggesting more structural and permanent solutions. Truth is a cleanser. That’s why we go to confession: to bring into the light what has been hidden in secret, so that we can be healed. A problem cannot be addressed unless it is aired and revealed. Pastors and rabbis and imams should be on City boards and be at least an adjunct part of city councils to witness to the problem and to cooperate and pressure governments with greater budgets than they have, to form an alliance with religions not just to minister to the homeless but to liberate them from homelessness.

So call it a Homeless Agency or a Homeless Board. Shameful that in the richest nation on earth, in the 21st century, the problem is big enough that there should have to be such, but in many metropolitan areas in this country, it is warranted. Let’s call the truth what it is and not just expose it during holiday times or Lenten seasons.

 

[cheezey]

Not to be disrespectful or dismissive, cheezey, but I have higher ambitions than that.

I am glad, and so do I. I am wrting from a bed due to some difficulties and it’s difficult to type, so my posts are not as in depth as I’d prefer. I aim to get far beyond just shopping, but when one has been using a spring coat for 20 degree weather, it’s really quite all right to look forward to shopping for the basic needs. It will seem like a shopping spree just to be warm.
Sometimes the little things are grand.
I cannot wait to be able to wash my hair. That’s an okay ambition, too. It is not the be all end all, either, but it will do wonders for my sense of feeling human, without which my ambitions would falter.

 

[cheezey]

.

Fear is a catalyst for change.

Yes, it is. For some, however, fear is paralyzing.

While you fear, you need to act and ask yourself what is it I can do to allay this fear? What does this fear mean to me? Is this fear outside yourself or in your head and will I let this fear drive my behavior?

There are too few answers, abilities, resources. Which perpetuates the fear til it becomes so buried that it becomes a way of life that is hated and profoundly difficult to change because it has been going on too long and without answers, abilities, resources, and you see where I am going with this.
I don’t know what it means to me except that it is NOT good.
It is probably inside and outside my head.
I don’t want it to drive my behavior but it does. I cannot do this without greater help, either.

I DON"T WANT THIS!!!

sorry. I vented. my apologies…
I apologise to the OP as well, since this is not my thread.

 

[cheezey]

Not to be disrespectful or dismissive, cheezey, but I have higher ambitions than that. This keeps being recommended by one of my local parishes (“toiletries, winter clothing”). There’s nothing wrong with that, but those are current survival needs. They are not more permanent housing needs. I want to see them housed. I think it’s demeaning and tokenism for Catholic parishes to absolve their parishioners of further involvement than mere “items.”

Again, as with St. Boniface thread I was previously on, I think the responsibility of religious institutions is not to provide tokenism and call it ‘charity,’ but to combine with like-minded religious institutions to provide a pressure/lobby group on local governments, suggesting more structural and permanent solutions. Truth is a cleanser. That’s why we go to confession: to bring into the light what has been hidden in secret, so that we can be healed. A problem cannot be addressed unless it is aired and revealed. Pastors and rabbis and imams should be on City boards and be at least an adjunct part of city councils to witness to the problem and to cooperate and pressure governments with greater budgets than they have, to form an alliance with religions not just to minister to the homeless but to liberate them from homelessness.

So call it a Homeless Agency or a Homeless Board. Shameful that in the richest nation on earth, in the 21st century, the problem is big enough that there should have to be such, but in many metropolitan areas in this country, it is warranted. Let’s call the truth what it is and not just expose it during holiday times or Lenten seasons.

Believe me, I want help to survive as well as help to avoid this again.
I understand and agree with you. But when it is long in the coming, sometimes all you can think of is that warm coat. Get warm, you think better. Think better, you might be able to find a way to make sure you have a warm coat every winter, not just currently.

 

[Elizabeth502]

Believe me, I want help to survive as well as help to avoid this again.
I understand and agree with you. But when it is long in the coming, sometimes all you can think of is that warm coat. Get warm, you think better. Think better, you might be able to find a way to make sure you have a warm coat every winter, not just currently.

I will grant you that that may be true in selective cases, but it has not worked where I live. The same people who received winter coats 5 years ago are still homeless today, and no closer to being housed. That’s the point I’m trying to make here.

I recently had a conversation with a student of mine on the “endlessness” of piecemeal charity. He was talking about the country of his national origin, although he lives here. He discovered that providing “social services” on a seasonal basis had limited value. It meant a constant infusion of cash, but produced no long-term differences in the quality of life for the most desperately poor in that part of the world. There was no end to need for “charity” for the very same people, perpetually. All it did was assuage the consciences of those better off, providing that charity.

So, slightly older and wiser now, he and his sister contacted the government to get them involved in participating in an effort to convert the desperately poor to the status of merely low-income (but independent). It involved initiatives on several fronts, and especially oversight against corruption on the part of the gov’t officials. (Recall that I posted on a diff. thread about the lack of accountability in the St. Boniface neighborhood, with regard to funds that had been specifically earmarked for the homeless and collected for that purpose, and now have “disappeared.”) A similar thing was happening in the student’'s own country, and now it is not happening, because of how enterprising he was. If, in a nation with far less watchdogs than we have, a 17-year-old can succeed in doing that, we much older adults, in a country with more safeguards, should be able to achieve at least as much.

 

[cheezey]

I will grant you that that may be true in selective cases, but it has not worked where I live. The same people who received winter coats 5 years ago are still homeless today, and no closer to being housed. That’s the point I’m trying to make here.

I recently had a conversation with a student of mine on the “endlessness” of piecemeal charity. He was talking about the country of his national origin, although he lives here. He discovered that providing “social services” on a seasonal basis had limited value. It meant a constant infusion of cash, but produced no long-term differences in the quality of life for the most desperately poor in that part of the world. There was no end to need for “charity” for the very same people, perpetually. All it did was assuage the consciences of those better off, providing that charity.

So, slightly older and wiser now, he and his sister contacted the government to get them involved in participating in an effort to convert the desperately poor to the status of merely low-income (but independent). It involved initiatives on several fronts, and especially oversight against corruption on the part of the gov’t officials. (Recall that I posted on a diff. thread about the lack of accountability in the St. Boniface neighborhood, with regard to funds that had been specifically earmarked for the homeless and collected for that purpose, and now have “disappeared.”) A similar thing was happening in the student’'s own country, and now it is not happening, because of how enterprising he was. If, in a nation with far less watchdogs than we have, a 17-year-old can succeed in doing that, we much older adults, in a country with more safeguards, should be able to achieve at least as much.

Again, I agree with you. I lack the ability to be well versed with my thoughts right now. In fact, I am panicking tonight. I am using CAF to calm down.
If I may, I am a strong person, yet I am overwhelmed with my situation. I need to progress beyond to the ‘cure’ for my life. I cannot help it if all I can do is use bandages meanwhile. Especially if that is all I have the strength to do. I am grateful for my spring coat, but I am cold and anxious to be able to procure my own coats every season for the rest of my seasons. If my bones are chattering, I will not at all be thinking of the cure. It’s a double edged sword and I’d rather it not be…