On November 17 2011 15:01 Boblhead wrote: About 4 years ago, my mom took me to do some community service @ the food shelter, They all usually just sleep on the shelters lawn. They are homeless because they don't like to work. Sure there are the some that lost their jobs/ house and are still "Working class" worthy people. But most of the homeless are either drunks/ junkies/ drifters. Trust me "Downtown Phoenix Arizona" they usually beg for the money, go buy liquor or drugs. Unless they want help, theres nothing they can do. The ones that seek help I applaud them. Bought a hamburger for a homeless guy in downtown once, he cussed me out saying how is he supposed to buy beer with a hamburger. I literally snatched the burger back.
Ninja Edit:
i agree
but you gotta remember, living on the streets sucks. and once you fall into a whole where you have zero credit, probably some criminal background because you were homeless and your bound to run into police, you have no friends and really no way make money legally. your health starts to suffer and your miserable 24/7. if you can get a few bucks for some beer or smack then thats at least something. something to forget about it all.
thats how they look at it, what else can they do with their money that ppl give em? save it up? towards what? they have no where to safe to put any valuables.
once your in the hole its near impossible to get out. im not sying that they should be doing drugs, but it just goes hand n hand with poverty. not to mention that people of all financial status's abuse drugs.
Hm... We don't have a homeless problem. I guess throwing money at it works just fine (and i doubt it is much more expensive than having to deal with all the problems homeless people create)...
There is no reason at all anyone should be homeless here in Holland. There are places for them to stay and there are systems in order wich even provide you with money whilst you are looking for a job. Yet still we have homeless people.
It's not a problem that will ever get fixed. Some people are just mentally unable to even make use of the help that is out there. Some people just don't want to live anywhere other then on the street.
It's kind of like crime. You will never "solve crime" you can only pay attention to it when the problem gets out of hand and get it back into "reasonable" numbers.
Sure. there will always be "some" that 100% chose that lifestyle.
But i doubt thats the thing the OP is speaking about.There are just not enough people that live on the streets on their own free will to be a real problem?
Please educate yourselves before you make incorrect statements about the homeless situation. Not every homeless person is a useless drunk or have a mental problem (I believe only 50% suffer from mental illness). These numbers aren't exact because I don't have the data with me, but 37% or so of homeless people are CHILDREN.
Won't somebody think of the children? (I'm doing a program on the homeless on Saturday, when I get my data collected I'll come back here and have some better points)
On November 17 2011 14:56 CoolSea wrote: You could also try jumping over the homeless. I heard this works in some circumstances.
User was warned for this post
This guy should be given a medal for awesome reference :/ Also i don't think anything can be done about it, with the recession you can't afford to give them home/place them in some social-help center.We just need to... live with it.
On November 17 2011 18:15 MethodSC wrote: We refuse to kill murderers and rapists, but a homeless person? Sure, get rid of em, why not? What a silly "solution".
More than that, everybody accept to pay their taxes for food, healthcare and sweet heating during winter to murderers and rapists in jails, but not the few bucks homeless people need to feed themself legaly?
There are somethings i dont get in the logic of some posters right here...
On November 17 2011 15:25 TadH wrote: Take it from me, someone who has been actually physically and literally homeless for over 2 years, living in shelters etc, in Canada anyway there are a SHIT TON of options and help available. Daily free meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Free places to stay, for as long as you need to. Job placement agencies and government programs for free clothes for interviews. Fuck the government even paid for my security deposit and first months rent after I had established myself at a job for 3 months.
This is why it pisses me the fuck off when I see homeless people begging for my hard earned money. I've literally been there, now I own a 2011 benz. I came from a pretty fucked up situation and I got through it with hard work and dedication. In Canada ANYONE can get a fucking job and a place to stay if they want one.
Most of the homeless people are a fucking waste of space and taxes, lazy assholes.
I was just about to say. Canada has sooo many safety nets in place to prevent homeless suffering. I honestly can't understand how it can be a problem here. I'm in Ottawa, and a few years back we had a homeless women who got in trouble because she was able to buy a big-ass house with her panhandling money. Honestly at this point, I think if they won't take the help offered, then we've done our due diligence and need to move on to the next needy person.
But seriously, there's not much the average person can do about this. A lot (not all, but a portion) of the homeless ended up the way they are because of decisions they made, be it drugs, or dropping out of school and running away, or what have you. Unless you interview each homeless person and figure out which ones are going to clean up their act and which ones are going to end up right where they are now, throwing money at the problem is a bad idea.
I am of the opinion every person can be used to be useful to society. Homeless people are not just a bothersome problem but a waste of human resources, and the best way of dealing with them is reintegration.
On November 18 2011 00:33 Requizen wrote: I hate the homless
...ness problem that's sweeping our city.
But seriously, there's not much the average person can do about this. A lot (not all, but a portion) of the homeless ended up the way they are because of decisions they made, be it drugs, or dropping out of school and running away, or what have you. Unless you interview each homeless person and figure out which ones are going to clean up their act and which ones are going to end up right where they are now, throwing money at the problem is a bad idea.
Everyone's a hero in their own way...you and you and mostly me and you.
I think one thing that a lot of papers and people forget is that a lot of homeless people are also mentally/physically ill which severely limits some of their options for fixes. In highschool we were required to do volunteer work (50 hours a year if i remember correctly, maybe 25?) and I did a lot of mine at homeless shelters and talked to a lot of them. It was usually pretty easy to figure out who were the "down on their luck" homeless vs mentally ill/uneducated (sometimes difficult to differentiate) and the reality is I never saw much help for the 2nd type of homeless person turning their situation
Edit: Realized I didn't address the OP directly: I support desicion # 3 mostly because I try to worry about myself first and then a few other select people as a distant 2nd... As long as the homeless people dont bother me I'm fine with them sleeping on anything public...just don't harass me directly please and you can do what you want. Typing this makes me realize I'm a bad human....
I like the idea of #1, but short of private efforts to provide food, blankets, etc to the homeless, I haven't seen much in the way of initiatives that are both feasible and effective.
On November 17 2011 15:04 Meta wrote: 4. Ignore them and don't give them money. Let them sleep where they want and urinate on plants to fertilize them. You can't ignore the fact that some people are homeless because they want to be. So I say, let them.
I have heard (whether true or not) that people from Calgary Alberta (where i am from) paid for bus rides for homeless people to go to vancouver. That may be one way of temporarily dealing with the problem in one area. Send them somewhere warmer so they dont need as much support.
But this is not practical nor does it really help anyone. It seems like we really need to try and help the people that want to be helped and leave the others the way they are. If someone is putting forward an effort and asking for assistance and willing to try then they deserve our help.
If it is someone who is going to throw the money away then we should give the money to the other people and try to focus our energy/resources on people that need it.
But really the important thing is to try and help people who are about to become homeless, help solve some of the causes of homelessness. Try and find families where parents are pushing out there children and try and find people who are mentally unstable and help them transition before homelessness. I am sure it is much harder to find someone a home than it is to help them keep one they have.