2d ago

Faces of Homelessness

36 comments

If you are in the position to do so. Go buy a tent and give it to a homeless without one.
- Do not give tents directly to people in Fremont, near San Francisco. Give them to the charitable organizations, or you may face fines and arrest. The Fremont City Council has decided that homeless people aren't people, don't deserve help, and it is a crime to try to help them with any camping supplies.
  https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/fremont-homeless-ban-controversy-20163355.php
  
  I dropped my tent. No idea what happened to it. Maybe it was stolen. I won't be pressing charges.
  
  Or do it anyway while knowing the risks, and publicize any consequences you face as much as possible. Civil disobedience is highly effective.
- Tents are super cheap these days. Chances are if they wanted a tent they could scrounge up enough cash in a day for one. Probably should just give them the cash.
  
  The police keep taking their tents and ripping them up.
- If you're in a cold area, most tents are just 3 seasons, so not suitable for winter. Ice fishing tents and the like are better options when it's really cold out.
  
  Better than nothing, though.

Not having an address is a huge hurdle to get a job. There should be laws against it or else it just creates a downward cycle.
- Imagine what happens to foster kids who age out. Imagine applying for jobs at 17, knowing that you’ll need to support yourself, and then trying to figure out whether putting down the group home as your “permanent address” is a smart idea or not. (About a third of girls who age out end up pregnant quickly, another third will end up in sex work.)
  Something like half of homeless people were in the foster care system. The foster care system in the United States is disgusting - group home positions are poorly paid and unpleasant, which incentivizes the wrong kind of people to want to work in them. “Troubled teens” are vulnerable to all kinds of extra abuse - look up what was happening with cops and kids at the Tulsa juvie last year.
  These are people who have never been loved. People who were put through the meat grinder of the human soul that is DHS care, were thrown out on the street and told to figure it out.
  
  When I wrote my statement, I wasn't even thinking about foster care kids.
  Horrifying.
  Thank you for the information.
- In my country it is illegal too. A place of residency is required to get bank accounts and jobs. But we also have some sort of vanity addresses which the social net provides to those without a home. These address are used to receive correspondence and allows homeless people to be official citizens of a town.
- Absolutely agree with you, but, unpopular opinion probably, I also don't want a lazy ass who can't or doesn't want to get a job to be homeless. Like, I don't care how much of an asshole you are and how many drugs you take and that you don't care to hold a job, I still want you to have shelter, food, and basic necessities. Let alone kids of these people.
  
  Remember how in the 90s "The Dude" Big Lebowski, the laziest man in Los Angeles County, was still able to afford his rent. That wasn't even considered unrealistic back then either, like a few mid-20 year olds could afford a loft in Manhatten off a coffeeshop salary (FRIENDS) the only complaint of realism was their loft was too big.
- Laws against not having an address? That just (further) criminalizes poverty.
  
  I think they’re saying laws against discrimination for not having an address.
  
  No, reread what they said. Laws against employers requiring an address. Don't be so quick to assume.
  
  I believe it’s the other way around: laws against the discrimination of people who do not have an address.
  
  No, you see it's illegal for anyone to sleep under a bridge, not just the poors.
  
  Sadly there are some people who believe that.

36 comments