Slashdot Mirror
How American Homeless Stay Wired
theodp writes "San Franciscan Charles Pitts has accounts on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. He runs a Yahoo forum, reads news online and keeps in touch with friends via email. Nothing unusual, right? Except Pitts has been homeless for two years and manages this digital lifestyle from his residence under a highway bridge. Thanks to cheap computers, free Internet access and sheer determination, the WSJ reports that being homeless isn't stopping some from staying wired. 'You don't need a TV. You don't need a radio. You don't even need a newspaper,' says Pitts. 'But you need the Internet.'"
they can't seem to find a job.
That which does not kill me only postpones the inevitable.
in a brown paper-bag?
Except Pitts has been homeless for two years and manages this digital lifestyle from his residence under a highway bridge.
That's some sick battery life right there!
Any relation to his internet addiction?
this guy ??
... if they can't even find a job with access to the all-mighty power of the Internet.
feel sorry for him and actually want to help the guy out if he is homeless for 2 years and is fine with it. For some reason this article makes me angry. Its been ten months for me and I can't find a job either, but if I was laid off 2 years ago, it would have been alot easier.
If you can reach friends and family, can't you ask for help? Maybe I grew up in an environment where homelessness was not an option because I'm sure that I could chill on someone's couch until I worked my way back into an apartment. If you can't reach anybody on the internet who is willing or able to help you out while you're living under a bridge, perhaps you should re-evaluate your ongoing communications with those people. I realize that not everybody will be able to work up a western-union order for bus fair in a week or a cross-country plane ticket in a month to help their friend, you'd have to be pretty low on my list of acquaintances for me to not help you out, and I make sure I hang out with people that would do the same for me. This is really sad, while yes, its good that they can stay in contact, this is a case of communication without value.
Is it sad that I am more likely to recognize you and your posts by your sig than your name or UID?
I get like zero bars in my dumpster.
I want to live in a van down by the river.
...from his residence under a highway bridge.
Sometimes you just gotta hand it to a troll for sheer dedication. (+1, troll?)
I'm self-unemployed after a real hard season of playing Blade Runner for a year. I don't have too much money to spend but...
I have a 24 hour permanent link to Internet
I can load tens of Gigabytes per month.
Have several different channels to reach Internet, from wherever I am, in several possible means.
And have a miriad of places to go for info and communication.
At home I have also three different ways to reach Internet from several systems around the house. I can freely move with a Internet link
And all this usually costs me some. Let's see... Some 40 dollars per month? Uh!
And to think I paid a 100 dollars for some piece of junky channel just four years ago. Hey and I could load only 2 Gigs! I was robbed!
It's a great world.
Before the Dalai Lama visited a soup kitchen here a month ago, Mr. Pitts researched the Buddhist leader on Wikipedia and copied the text onto his iPod, to read in bed under the bridge.
..and it's kinda weird..
Aw, that's really cool.
But now I have the mental image of the corresponding silhouette ad..
Is how he posts through the roar of highway noise. Then again, his parents will never force him to turn of the computer and go outside.
#Computers do not appreciate sarcasm
That's nothing, I used to stay connected, downloading movies and Linux distros, following all the news, exchanging emails with a journalist friend, using a Commodore 64 that had been buried for years - in a war ravaged country with no communications infrastructure worth speaking of. Kids these days have it easy.
Juno
To summarise the summary of the summary: people are a problem. ~ h2g2
Hey homeless, try looking up a fucking job board instead of blogging and updating your Twitter page.
I'm gonna make a TV star out of you. Just like Archie Bunker. You gonna be a household word.
It's called, "Homeless Got Talent"
Simon: So Steven, what are you going to do for us?
Stevie: I'm gonna stink
Simon: You're already our winner. You can go home proud...Ooops I made a Faux Pas...
I was homeless between Aug-2003 to July-2004. One day I had no money to buy two rice cakes which used to cost less than .25 cents. I just drank a water and I made a promise to myself to avoid such a bad condition. It was bad, cold and at one point I thought I'm just gonna die out. At the end of 2004, I brought old P5 with 64MB RAM and 10GB hard disk with mono monitor loaded with Window 95. I used the same computer to write students CS assignments and complete their projects in the night time for the money. I had a small job at the Internet cafe. I learned about SEO, forums, creating website and making money by selling ads and doing aff marketing. Today, I make my living by running over 80+ websites and forums. Even, in this bad economy, I doing good. So if you in a bad time, just hold on a while. May be think out of box and you may survive to see another beautiful day. I learnt a lot from my bad days and it made me a better person.
Hope this helps and cheers someone out there seating in cold night and wondering about the life...
PS: English is not my first language and I've only 10th grade school education.
Is anyone else surprised he's in San Francisco, the all-welcoming liberal home for the homeless?
slow news day is it?
In Japan, they move into internet cafes
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
The old saying of "when the going gets tough, the tough get going" applies perfectly to the parent post.
Congratulations for pulling yourself out of a bad situation!
I knew those bums were buying computers will all that money they were begging for! I just knew it!
I just remembered an episode that occurred not so long ago.
This comes from third persons but I know the guy who was trying to get the job. An average sysadmin but systematic and hardworking.
When he was about to be layed off, people tried to find him a job on a business partner. The partner was having some pretty bad time with its networks. They are highly critical and shall run non-stop (something related to medicine btw). Now, lately, for several times the servers went down. There was even a hangup that lasted nearly half a day, a catasthrophe in their way of working. Things were so bad that, for some time, it was the company where this guy was working that was supporting their servers.
They naturally "offered" to their partner this guy. The partner refused. The guy went to the street. The problems kept creeping on.
Now, on that company, they were keeping four jerks. They didn't create these servers, they didn't support them and they even didn't know what was running there. Their job? "System Administrator".
I ain't talking about a little company. And this case is not the craziest I have been told of. But that what is happening. Good and average specialists are being sent to the streets while companies burn down departments or keep God knows who doing administration.
So, during this crisis, high-tech geeky homeless and unemployed is pretty natural to occur. More, with management going nuts in some companies, there is a good chance that some of the top experts find themselves on the street.
Allegorical anecdotal astroturfing advocating alignment a la angelesia.
Would were! Should is! Could be! And live a hundred times three.
The guy living in the tent with a gas-powered laptop was pretty sad and striking.
Huge wakeup call for internet being required for everyone these days.
You're a Conservative, filthy rich, and working hard all your life when this homeless bozo is enjoying a fine life.
Sorry but some middle-aged man getting free cartoons/movies off bit-torrent while living inside a tent is nothing close to them having a roof over their head.
Until You've been homeless. I know. I've been there. With all my progressive thinking, I knew nothing about it.
In 2000-01 I was making 6 figures working as a Senior Developer in Los Angeles. I lost my job after Bush and 911. I sent out over 300 resumes in a 3 month period - not one single response. I had 6 months income saved . By month 7 I was sleeping on friends couches. Previously I had been able to get a new contract within 2 weeks tops. I borrowed several thousand from friends to keep me in monthly hotels - I was good for it. I always had been working right?
By month 12 I was sleeping in my car. I took temp jobs driving buses and I took temp IT jobs doing data entry at 10 bucks an hour. You know how well you can live on 10 bucks an hour in CA when you have no more money? Not very well. Get an apartment ? With what? 10 bucks an hour?
By month 22 I was starting to live in shelters. And I saw things. Things I would rather not ever have seen. I saw people in bloody bandages, terrible dirty and out of their mind being laughed at and made fun of by city shelter workers. I saw it took over an hour to get in line to take a shower. I drug addiction, mental illness and hopelessness standing right next to me every single day. I saw my self confidence die along with my job prospects. Most importantly I saw that nobody really cared.
You think there are State run programs to help people out there. I am here to tell you you are so so wrong. It;s all a sham. There are a very few. Very few. Most are fronts just to make it seem like something is being done. Nothing is. I've seen it. I've been there.
You haven't seen it. You don't know.
There are very few programs out there and by using the library internet I found one for Women Vets. I got small IT jobs and was able to keep them now that I had food shelter and safety. I worked my way back up the ladder again. Now I make about half of whay I used to - but we all are now - unless you're a banker.
Friends, Family?? I left home at 19 and an Ivy League University - joined the military to continue college. My family were bad people. Rich, but very bad. How Bad? I begged to sleep on a couch with one of them. I told them I slept behind a church last night - in the open. My family refused. Good luck. Don't assume all families are like yours. I assure you they are not.
There's a lot more I could say. More that needs to be said. But I've said enough. It's the rich greedy sons and daughters of bitches who think nothing of others and thing only how to get more to themselves that post about how homeless people bring it all on themselves. Well some do. And some are just broken down by the process. Those people need help. Where is their help?
----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...
If you look in to it you'll find that it is rather rare to see someone who is homeless 100% by circumstance....
How would you "look into" this kind of thing? Would you trade your clothes for rags and go live on the street to observe? If you did, would you keep things to yourself or write a book so that others did not have to? That would be cool, but you know it's easier to read the last book and the overflowing literature written since about life on the street. When you do, you will drop your judgment like the turd it is. Here's a reasonable opinion by someone who did all of the above:
What you do from here is up to you, but recognize yourself in those less fortunate. RMS genreally buys people on the street food if they ask him for money. You have to walk them into the place and buy it because only a fool would trust food they did not see made like that. The world is full of people who ignorantly cast blame and would harm them for sport. Such are the extremes of behavior people with means chose.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
i would just like to say the internet is necessary. i am employed but currently on partial unemployment it really helps filling my claims since payphones are basically extinct at this point. i usually hit up the local coffee shop 2-3 times a day to use the electricity to charge my 8 yr old laptop (the one possession i got back after jail). i am camped out out in the woods, close enough to a subway that offers wi-fi , with a tent and the basics to get by. i plan on having a small place before the fall but in the mean time i find the internet really helps to keep me connected to the world from reading the news to daily chit-chat. if anyone else is in a similar spot i would recommend coming up with the cash to get a YMCA membership the exercise and free showers has done a lot for my mental and physical health.
best of luck to anyone in my position
Just wanted to say thank you for this post. I hope it hits everyone like it hit me.
"Sitting in a Whole Foods store with free wireless access, Mr. Weston searches for work and writes a computer program he hopes to sell eventually."
Well if P2P doesn't get him, free software will.
Now the thing that comes to me reading this story is that smart phones which are essentially computers would work better for someone homeless.
Could have gone back to the military once you were destitute...fine living, good pay and great health benefits. Decent retirement after 20.
"Another glorious day in the Corps! A day in the Marine Corps is like a day on the farm. Every meal's a banquet! Every paycheck a fortune! Every formation a parade! I LOVE the Corps! "
I made nowhere near a six-figure income, worked not-quite-2-years before being laid off, and it's my sixth month of being unemployed now... and I still have plenty of food, clothing, and shelter. What on Earth's name did you do, spend all your money on booze and whores?
Smoking crack is a job to those who need to stay wired 24-7.
How American Homeless Stay Wired
The same way they get their manicures.
3,304 pounds of food per second. 263,013,699 pounds of food every day. 1.5 tons of food per year for every person in America.
A couple of decades ago, Harry Chapin said something like "In a country where we produce enough food to feed the entire planet 6 times over, it's unthinkable that anybody shouldn't have enough to eat". Not much has changed in the interim.
Yeah, because everything else in the world is so efficient, so the US for distribution network should be too.
Here's a tip, nothing is 100% efficient, so give it up.
Most engines are about 20% efficient. Solar panels are about 15% efficient. The US congress is about -10% efficient and yet people expect that ALL the food generated in the US should be utilized with 100% percent efficiency.
And that is not considering the fact that in our capitalist economy, there is insufficient incentive to actually make sure everyone gets enough food.
Think I am wrong? How much food did you throw into the trash this week?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/31/BAPB1227KF.DTL Tom Sepa would rather not be called homeless. "That word is loaded," he said. "I prefer 'urban outdoorsman.' " It is true that Sepa has a lot of things that aren't generally associated with the stereotypical San Francisco homeless person - like a full-time job.
HR just want to cover their arses and keep costs down.
While I completely agree with your post, this line got me thinking.
The function of HR in a company is just like IT, except they deal with people instead of machines. Then I realize that for HR, hiring someone is just like installing a new program for the IT department.
Would a competent IT support allow any manager to install just about any program they find useful on their PC? Probably not, there will be some kind of screening and checking before it is allowed. In many cases, IT support will counter suggest some "standard" programs instead. In larger companies, all programs must first be approved by IT before you can use them. While this create some inconvenience and inefficiency for the users, IT believed it was for the better on the whole.
The same with HR. If the same manager wish to hiring someone they find helpful, HR will conduct some screening and checking, and sometimes, HR will hire someone else instead. In large companies, you cannot hire someone without HR approval. This creates some inefficiency for the company, but I suppose HR also believed this was better on the whole.
Put in this light, HR is not as evil as we used to believe.
Oliver.
made up imo
...Why can't homeless Americans?
This American Life is one of the best public radio shows out there.
Ira Glass and the quirky insightful topics and stories always pleasantly surprise.
This interview with the homeless poets was one of my favorite episodes (it really put my life, with all of my problems, in perspective)... along with the woman who changed sexes, and the girl who did tarot readings on the commuter rail.
They also had a very interesting stories on the housing and economic crises (don't remember which episodes).
I donate to my local NPR station because of this show.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
My wife worked for the chief of the psychiatric department at the Brentwood VA in California during the early 80s. From the mid-70s to mid-80s there was a strong 'patients rights' movement generated by the mental health advocate community. Although there were many facets to this movement, one of the primary elements was a re-examination of the criteria for institutionalizing patients. The point of contention revolved around interpretations of what it meant for a patient to be able to 'take care of himself.' Prior to this the interpretation was rather strict; if a patient could not earn an income and provide shelter and food for himself (and if there were no family members able to care for him), then he would normally be institutionalized. Begining in the late 70s, the advocacy groups began to demand a lower standard. As long as a patient could merely wash and dress himself, and could perform the mechanical tasks of shovelling food into his mouth, then every effort was made to force the institutions to release them. My wife's boss spent many months both in court and testifying before the state assembly trying to stop this lowering of standards. Unsuccessfully. Predictably, most of the newly discharged patients were unable to take care of themselves in any meaningful sense of the word, and became the homeless people on the street. It's no coincidence that the decline in California's mental health insitution population closely matched the sharp increase of homeless (in California, at least) during the same period. In fact, for about two years, my wife literally was on a first name basis with every homeless person we ran across in the Westwood/Santa Monica area. They were all former patients who had been 'sprung' from the VA by well meaning advocate groups who then simply walked away and left these guys hanging. Reagan was not involved in this movement, nor was he a symptom or symbolic of it. Quite the contrary. The people who 'liberated' the inmates tended to be on the opposite end of the political spectum. In fact, it was the ACLU who provided legal representation to force the VA to release these patients.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
I would like to believe your post, in fact I would have believed it were it not for the fact that it was cut and pasted verbatum from a 2006 post on this page from someone called "GI Joe:
http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=37;t=001063;p=1
(do a find on " Brentwood VA in California" when you get to the page)
Same Exact Post
You astroturfed a meme.
Parent is NSFW
You tell it! My family came all too close to where you're at, and anyone who thinks that you go homeless simply from drugs or no will to work is clueless. A bad job market or bad home situation can do all kinds of things. Kudos to you for surviving all that, and I hope it never happens to you again.
One of every four homeless people in the USA is a veteran. However, given what the world knows about what the US military does in places like Abu Ghraib, I'd salute anyone who didn't go back.
>>in 2000-01 I was making 6 figures working as a Senior Developer in Los Angeles. I lost my job after Bush and 911. I sent out over
>>300 resumes in a 3 month period - not one single response. I had 6 months income saved . By month 7 I was sleeping on friends
>>couches.
You blew thru 50,000 bucks. (or more) in 6 months?
I dont care where the fuck you were at... You were living WAY beyond your means at that point. Jesus christ. So many people dont make 50k an entire year (pre-tax) for their whole family! And still don't end up homeless.
wtf...
What I don't know id why the hell having saved enough cash for 6 months in CA you hadn't just moved to a cheaper state??
US-UK-Israel: The real Axis of Evil
Wow, you managed to eat up all your savings from a 6 figure income in 7 months! That takes talent, even in California! But I can see how quickly that money can go down the drain when you're accustomed to an expensive apartment and expensive food. Or perhaps you were still living a "progressive" lifestyle and giving to charity long after you lost your source of regular income! Seems to me that must be the case, what with all those poor unfortunate people you've taken notice of! As for myself, the best I've done is make a five figure salary, eat out almost constantly, give a few bob to the salvation army now and then, and yet save almost quarter of a million dollars. Oh, and Bush is responsible for you losing your six figure job! Makes sense! Your family are all evil, too? Convenient. You mean they lack that infinite reservoir of compassion for someone with your lousy judgement and fucked up personality?
Having 6 months living expenses at the time was about 12K saved (at the time my 1 bdrm apt was $1200 a month) That an 6 mos unemployment kept me off the street for almost a year.
----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...
Comment above:
I left home at 19 and an Ivy League University - joined the military to continue college.
Article:
Mr. Ross figures he has been homeless for about 15 years, surviving on his Army pension
What is it about this correlation between being in the military in the past and being homeless later? Forgive my ignorance, I am not from the US and I have not been in the army (any army). What does army do to people that they have problems living "normal" lives later? Or, were these people "different" from the very beginning and army was an interesting option for them (unlike "regular" jobs & lifestyle)?
I actually moved out of CA and went to NV and AZ for a while.
I drove buses in Reno and in AZ.
When apartments cost 1200 or more to get into (yes even with a roommate) and you are making ten dollars an hour gross - well the math is obvious.
There are no simple reasons why this happens.
----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...
I spent the following 17 years after leaving the military living a very normal life. I increased my career from working at Radio Shack, shortly after I got out - to being a contract software developer and making 6 figures for a while.
The military was great to me and gave me the interpersonal and management skills to really suceed afterwords.
In 2001 I found myself jobless shortly before 911. After 911 I was over 40 and there were NO jobs available.
Over 40, female, Bubble Burst, nobody hiring - George Bush economy - things were not well on 01.
My other friends who had been doing very well were now jobless as well.
My story was not unique in Silicon Valley.
I survived it - not everyone did.
And I was still a lot better off then the mentally ill or addicted or other homeless people I saw in shelters who had just given up.
It's a transformative experience - but not one you would like to have had.
----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...
I need to answer your question in another way as well.
You asked: What is it about the military that leads to homelessness and not having a normal life.
I'll tell you what that is and you will not like the answer.
Me, I worked in a combat medical field unit as an Operating Room Technician and a Field Medic. It was the only thing I was comfortable doing in the Army. Helping people - saving lives. I did a lot of both and although I am NOT a military supporter I am proud of what I did.
Most people in the military , especially men, go into jobs that involve killing people.
Let me say that again - Killing people. Killing people is Job #1. Even in the Medical Corps we were told again and again "You are soldiers first and medics second" ( we gave the people telling us that the finger behind their backs of course)
We are all brought up to believe that killing people is wrong. Thou shall not murder.
The military has a way around this by creating a culture of dehumanizing the enemy du jour - and other ways.
Killing is a part and parcel of Army culture.
You ever see the shirts that say "Join the Army , Travel to interesting places meet interesting people and Kill them"
You might think that's an interesting snarky comment on military culture.
It is not. The infantry people I saw who wore those shirts were 100% percent serious about the message.
Not Snark. A way of life
That's what it's like being in the Army.
And God forbid you actually end up in a war and have to go meet interesting men women and children and kill them - you are in a culture that tells you that you did nothing wrong. In fact it rewards you - Hooo Aaa!
And all that is well and good until you return to civilian life, laws and the Ten Commandments again and it hits you:
"My God, what have I done!"
And you can tell no one because no one outside of the military could possibly understand. And you can't wear your T-shirt anymore either.
So you turn to alcohol or drugs and you can't sleep at night and you go slowly crazy. And you can't hold your job and you realize that you were not the person that you used to think you were. And you never will be again.
That didn't happen to me.
But I saw it happen over and over again to people that I knew. People who shot other people. Who killed interesting people. How can you go into Church ever again you wonder?
Oh and by the way - That war. It was all about the oil anyway.
So that's the problem - that's why so many American military people end up the way that they do.
----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...
Are you arguing that we shouldn't try to improve the efficiency of engines and solar panels?
Thank you .
I hope that neither you nor your family ever come close to that again.
I suspect that over the next few years we will be seeing so very much more of this .
Eight Years of ruining the economy will have consequences and a price - I fear we haven't even come close to paying that price as yet.
----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...
Quite a bit actually. We found things moving in the pasta. Meal bugs. They don't like lasagna noodles. At least the pantry is clean and we can see all the labels on the cans.
"There are good ships, and there are wood ships, the ships that sail the sea. But the best ships are friendships, and ma
I just got back from a 3rd world country... now that's real fucking homeless people. I could barely get wifi in my hotel room, yet this homeless faggot steals it from under a bridge using a laptop?
What is beyond the scope of the article and this story is that it has become so much easier to obtain luxuries in this world than it is to obtain the basics of life. The easiest thing in the world to obtain should be what you need not what you want. But we all know that's not going to change. In my eyes. It's just sad. But what do I matter?
This has nothing to do with scapegoating, everything to do with reality. Most people who are homeless are that way for a reason. The most common reason is addiction. I'd actually say that alcohol addiction is more common than any other drug. Their addiction is to the point that it totally rules their life and it is all they care about.
Either way, not sure why you think I should feel bad about myself. Even if the reality was different, I still don't feel bad. I don't feel sorry or evil or whatever for having happiness and success in my life. I would hope that everyone else does as well, but I don't feel bad about myself because many don't.
So if you think I should feel guilty, well sorry I don't and I won't. If you choose to guilt yourself over what you have in your life, I can't stop you, but I don't feel it is productive and I don't do it. I enjoy my life.
The thing is, it is a very hard situation. While it seems easy on the surface to say "Well if a person can't get a job and take care of themselves, then put them in an institution," it brings up problematic issues. There are two real, related, issues with a broad standard for institutionalizing people:
1) You take away freedom. When you start saying that people have to be able to do a minimum of X, Y and Z to be allowed to live out in the world, you are taking away their freedom. Freedom means the freedom to fail, it means the freedom to choose not to work, to live on the streets, etc. I'm not saying these are good choices, but when you take them away you are taking away people's freedom. I'm not a zealot who advocates freedom over everything else, there is a necessity to protect society against people and people against themselves, but you have to be very careful with the balance. In general, I think the balance needs to come down on the side of freedom. You don't want to start making many rules of what people have to be to be allowed to be free because it leads too...
2) Abuse. The wider a standard is, the easier it is for people to abuse. Most of us do something that at least one other person would find "crazy". The more of those sorts of things that can be used as reasons to institutionalize someone, the more it can be abused. You make someone powerful angry and they get you declared incompetent and locked away. You also can get racist/general types of abuse. If you look in to the history of eugenics you find things like this went on right here in America. "Undesirables" and "mental defectives" were institutionalized, sterilized, etc all because it was "for the better."
So this isn't an easy issue. On the one hand there are people who clearly need help, but on the other hand they often don't WANT help. So what do you do? Who gets to decide that someone MUST be helped, against their own will? It isn't an easy decision.
good that you managed to get out of that mess. So many don't. I expect that some of the 'blame the victim' types around here are going to be ones that don't when that don't when the 'recession' bites them personally in the ass.
Tech Public Policy stuff
Has it changed your political views at all? If so, in what ways?
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
Astroturfing is when a company does it for profit. FAIL
None at all. But then I'm not American.
Most people in the military , especially men, go into jobs that involve killing people.
Well, yes, this is what I expect you can tell about a significant part of army employees (?) -- they like shooting, they don't mind killing (it's "patriotic", and plenty of other excuses). I mean, I imagine it works this way, given that guns, army, etc play a big role in the American culture. And, there are not that many jobs you can do with this kind of mindset after you leave army.
However, I suspect there's another group of people that simply don't have any better idea on what to do with their lives. They like that fact that army gives them a job, that they don' t need to think about minor daily problems most other people have. And as soon as they quit army, they are in trouble: they don't like what they see, and they are accustomed to being cared for (in every aspect of their lives) by the army. But that's just my suspicion.
We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,
..........While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind,"
..........But it's "Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the wind -
..........There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,
..........O it's "Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the wind.
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
...in our company we had some internal dumpsters, full of electronic 'waste'. The stuff we got from there is beyond comprehension. Yet, even though we were in suit, we were dumpster diving I guess :=)
Also I'd presume a lot of homeless are like most of us in that they don't want to be preached at. And I'm sure perspectives regarding belief or religion isn't going to change just because the money is gone. The problem with this is that the majority of charitable services are ran by organized religions. The thinking among some homeless is, "I'd appreciate the food/shelter, but I'd just wish that you STFU already!". So instead of putting up with that all day, they'd just rather stike it out on their own while enjoying (relative) peace and quiet.
Maybe if there were more charities that were secular in nature instead of pushing some religious aspect or another, the inclination to stay on the street and dumpster dive would be much less. And who says philanthropy has to be tied to some religion?
Fair point, but it's a fine line; how many people who are in fact capable of a meaningful existance in the outside world do you mistakenly institutionalize?
Have you been outside lately? It's freaking tremendous... curtailing your life to an institution is (at least by standard cognizance) painful slash distressing as survival on the streets. I think what's worse perhaps is the terminal feeling of institutionalization - the spontinaity / diversity of life (both good and bad) is replaced with regimen. Of course what you say is true - there are those who may lead a happier life while institutionalized. This really is a profound course of action (either way) and warrants close attention by those who are involved, not the sort of people who will walk away or archive patients in a filing cabinet.
Most worrying today is the general tendency to distance charity and care from the individual (not being a savior, just acting human), instead frittering away such cares through the pachinko grid of government and publicly funded private institutions. Put your tax money in the slot and beureaucrats will take care of things... man, if the trauma I endured while renewing my automobile license the other day is any indication, I wonder how anyone could condemn a potentially viable person to institutional surrogacy, let alone subsidise it? I'm really only looking at the head and tail of the issue here; hopefully that's enough to outline the gist of the matter though.
Being homeless and not mentally ill? The perspective it affords you is like a new lease on life, both for the worst and the best. You don't go looking for it, but make the best when and if the hard times come.
Do you really think that someone would PREFER to live under a bridge,
A-ha! I spy a TROLLL!!!!!!
I cite various fairy tales as that is where trolls like to live. Under bridges.
I get like zero bars in my dumpster.
That's because it acts like a Faraday cage. Open up the top and try again.
Not from the US, but know a few ex-military folks. Life in the army is a very organised, regimented (hah) existence. If you go straight out of school, from living with your parents, into your 15-year tour - and many people do - then you never experience having to live for yourself - first your parents and then the army provide your housing, clothes, everything.
Now, 15 years down the line, you're out on your own; your parents might well be dead by this point, and if not then they're probably in their 60s, in need of care themselves more than they can care for you. You're too old (45-ish) to be easily employable, what friends you have are either back wherever you were last stationed, or in the same situation as you are (and quite possibly at the other end of the country). And you have absolutely no idea how to live by yourself - one of my ex-military friends told me it took him a week to figure out where to buy cutlery - not only had he never bought any before, he'd never even thought of it as something you have to buy.
Most people adjust well - many end up starting their own businesses (no-one will employ you for decent wages, and the pension is good enough that you can afford to be unprofitable for a while). But it takes quite a lot of learning, at an age where you're nowhere near as mentally flexible as you once were, and all too many just can't adapt.
I am trolling
I've seen several examples of what you describe in your second paragraph. Guys I hoped would learn some responsibility while in the military (because they hadn't gotten it anywhere else) but instead experienced what you said. "Big Brother" may be harsh but he takes care of their basic physical needs. It's been a different, and in some ways even harsher, world for them once they got out.
10 FILL MUG WITH COFFEE
20 DRINK COFFEE
30 GOTO 10
[citation needed]
Sorry you had a tough time but I fail to see why Bush and 9/11 were mentioned.
Er... I was following you with the homeless rant, but not on this.
No duh you're a soldier first and medic second... it's the ARMY! Killing is kinda implied by the NAME OF YOUR EMPLOYER! The ARMY!
You joined the Army, seriously what did you expect?
You are misinformed about the type of people who join the Army, Most of them are NOT gung-ho types who like guns and the idea of shooting up people.
Most of them just need a job. Most of them just want to go to college. Most of then are very poor and/or come from urban places that make the Army seem mild . Most of them saw the nifty multi-million dollar ad campaigns that tell them how they can be all that they can be or how in 6 weeks they can be a computer programmer too!
But the ads don't show war. They don't show you killing women and little children because you have been put into a place where you honestly have come to believe that you need to do that in order to stay alive - or to keep your buddies alive. The ads don't show you that.
Me, I was 2 years into an Ivy League education with a family that would make Dick Cheney's look warm and fuzzy by comparison. And I had enough and I left. And after my money ran out and I had no experience as a 19 year old in the world - I joined the military not because I liked guns but because I wanted to continue my college.
The Army does not take care of every aspect of your life as I've seen some people say here. You only think that if you haven't been in the military. Being in the military is a lot like being in any other job - you work 8 to 5 and you get weekends if you're not in combat. True, you don't have to worry about health care, or becoming homeless if you're laid off or even paying for food or housing (if you're single) but in most civilized Western countries (save the U.S.) . In many ways the peace-time Army is a lot like Sweden. But you still have to pay your bills, plan your financial future and buy your housewares just like everyone else.
----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...
> You think there are State run programs to help people out there. I am here
> to tell you you are so so wrong. It;s all a sham. There are a very few.
> Very few. Most are fronts just to make it seem like something is being
> done. Nothing is. I've seen it. I've been there.
>
> You haven't seen it. You don't know.
What are you talking about? I work with these programs every day. You're going on like there was nowhere you could turn. How about talking about specifics? Why were you denied unemployment compensation? Why were you denied food stamps? Why were you denied medicaid? Why were you denied federal and state cash assistance? Why were you denied help from your church and local charities?
Sorry, but I have to call bullshit unless you can explain why "it's all a sham". If it's all a sham, I think there are a lot of people who would like their tax dollars back, so please share your insight.
I think If I became homeless (or even the months leading up to becoming homeless) I'd probably resort to joining one of the branches of the military. Sure getting yelled at all day might suck, but at least I'd have 3 hots and a cot.
"During My Service In The United States Congress, I Took The Initiative In Creating The Internet." -Al Gore
You asked why I say it is all a sham. Here is my answer from what I have seen in California and Arizona:
1. There are extremely few (if any) programs that will actually help someone who wants to get back to work - get back to work.
2. Food and shelter take hours of yoru time to acquire. Typically, in California (SF and LA) there is a several hour wait in line to see if there will be room in a shelter. No room - come back and wait tomorrow. Food can take a trip across town to acquire - you need bus fare and and hour or two to get there. You will be spending 3-4 hours a day in lines waiting for food or a cot for the night . Try to get a job when 4 hours or more a day (job hours) are going to be spent in line.
3. If you have no money , a single person will receive about 45 bucks a week food stamps and about $110 a month cash for all other expenses. For the $110 a month you will have to spend about 5-10 hours a week working for the welfare dept. Not looking for a job $180 a month food stamps sound like a lot? You have no stove- no refrigerator. Everything you eat has to be prepackaged. You know what that costs? I do. It's a lot more then $180 a month
4. Just getting a shower took me a one hour wait in line.
5. Shelters are not safe. Women are regularly raped and beaten and robbed in them. They are understaffed bu the lowest quality of people imaginable. People who do not only care about you but will go out of their way to make fun of you.
6. Job and housing programs are basically a sham. When you go there you are told it will take 18 months to get housing and no job training money is currently available - come back next month. LOTS of staff there. No actual jobs or training being given out.
I could go on and on and on... so easy to criticize - so hard to empathize - unless you've been there.
With that said , there are programs out there that will feed and house you and help you get a job. They are FEW and FAR between. The only way that I found on was by the help of a nun in a woman's shelter I was staying at in Los Angeles. If you don't network or push your agenda - you get nothing.
Now , I've been in business and I know how to search for jobs, use the internet effectively and how to network (hence the Nun). But by far the vast VAST majority of people on the streets are not blessed as I am - so they are intentionally forgotten by understaffed and overworked govt workers of agencies who have their hands full filling out paperwork and documenting what they do so that they can justify next years budget.
It;s not about getting people off the streets nearly as much as it is about having everyone in the "assistance" agency keep their own jobs.
And that's the short version of what I mean by "it's a sham"
----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...
> 1. There are extremely few (if any) programs that will actually
> help someone who wants to get back to work - get back to work.
Again, I don't know what you're talking about. Every state has programs to give you free training and help you find work. It is in their best interest to do so because it reduces their unemployment compensation spend.
> 2. Food and shelter take hours of yoru time to acquire. Typically,
> in California (SF and LA) there is a several hour wait in line to
> see if there will be room in a shelter. No room - come back and
> wait tomorrow. Food can take a trip across town to acquire - you
> need bus fare and and hour or two to get there. You will be
> spending 3-4 hours a day in lines waiting for food or a cot for
> the night . Try to get a job when 4 hours or more a day (job hours)
> are going to be spent in line.
Seriously? Look, resources are scarce and when the price is zero there will be shortages and long waits. It is not possible for government to fix this problem. This is a reality of an economy (any economy). You're essentially complaining that free food and free shelter is a pain to obtain. There is not a fix for this.
> 3. If you have no money , a single person will receive about 45
> bucks a week food stamps and about $110 a month cash for all other
> expenses. For the $110 a month you will have to spend about 5-10
> hours a week working for the welfare dept. Not looking for a job
> $180 a month food stamps sound like a lot? You have no stove- no
> refrigerator. Everything you eat has to be prepackaged. You know
> what that costs? I do. It's a lot more then $180 a month
Yes, beans aren't the most tasty things in the world. They are free and they will keep you alive.
> 4. Just getting a shower took me a one hour wait in line.
It was free.
> 5. Shelters are not safe. Women are regularly raped and
> beaten and robbed in them. They are understaffed bu the
> lowest quality of people imaginable. People who do not
> only care about you but will go out of their way to make
> fun of you.
I can't speak to this one personally, so I will take your word for it. I know I certainly would not feel safe in a shelter, but I would feel safer than being on the streets.
> 6. Job and housing programs are basically a sham. When you
> go there you are told it will take 18 months to get
> housing and no job training money is currently available -
> come back next month. LOTS of staff there. No actual jobs or
> training being given out.
This is not at all my experience, and I'm not sure what you're referring to. Again, training programs are in the state's best interest because it reduces their UC spend. By housing programs, are you referring to section 8? There is plenty of section 8 housing, because landlords make a killing off of the portion paid by the government (the tenant portion is almost never paid) and almost never have to pay eviction costs for nonpayment (not true for normal tenants).
> And that's the short version of what I mean by "it's a sham"
You didn't address why you were denied for all the programs I listed.
I've never been homeless, but I had some experience with state job programs during the Carter depression, when I was a dumb HS grad with no skills or job experience. They involved "teaching" people how to pack boxes in warehouses, and they did jackshit about helping us find work outside "sheltered warehouses". And that was under a "liberal" administration that was supposed to be for the "little people". I seriously doubt that the government "job assistance" is any better now than it was back then.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
You think there are State run programs to help people out there.
I saw people ... made fun of by city shelter workers.
So there are state run programs? But they are (in your opinion) inadequate? Or the low wage ($10/hour?) shelter workers putting up with crazies and junkies all day are not sympathetic enough for you?
I had 6 months income saved . By month 7 I was sleeping on friends couches. Previously I had been able to get a new contract within 2 weeks tops.
Wow. So when you sent out hundreds of resumes with no response, it didn't occur to you at all to cut your expenses? And maybe you even spent more? (seems probable since you had enough income before to save up some money, but still managed to have the eviction process -- normally at least 30 days -- started within six months) That seems like really bad planning. I mean, if you were making 6 figures, as you say, 6 months income is more than 50 grand.
I got small IT jobs and was able to keep them now that I had food shelter and safety.
Shelter and safety where? One of those sham shelters you mention?
My family were bad people. Rich, but very bad. How Bad? I begged to sleep on a couch with one of them. I told them I slept behind a church last night - in the open. My family refused.
I really can't relate to that. Sounds like there is a lot more there that just "they're not nice", but ok.
...post about how homeless people bring it all on themselves. Well some do. And some are just broken down by the process.
And given the story you've told (which I'm not sure I buy. If you went through all that, sorry to hear it), which end of the spectrum are you closer to? The median household income in LA was only $39K per year in 2002.
Charles is pretty cool He even uses firefox