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Homeless alone

homelessalone.blogspot.com

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Re: Homeless alone

#211

Post by rubidium »

abalashov wrote: post #102
rubidium wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are three legs to that stool: stable living situation, stable job, stable transportation. Without all three you can't get better. There's a guy I know who runs a business employing homeless. His rule is he never fires anyone. He understands that without a home/transportation, it can be impossible to make it to work. That gives them one stable leg to try and build the rest of their life from.

> His rule is he never fires anyone. Just out of curiosity: what about reasons unrelated to absenteeism, like some sort of gross misconduct, drug or alcohol abuse on the job, untenable behavioural or psychiatric issues stemming from that, etc?

He requires that they go through professional treatment for whatever the issue is before they return to work. They're not fired, just required to do something before they can return.

For example, one guy had HUGE anger management issues. When it came to blows for the xth time, the manager pulled him aside, and said "I'm not going to fire you. I don't fire people. But you can only come back here when I've gotten a call from a counseling professional (he gave a number of one) and they tell me you've been through a successful treatment." It took six months, but he got the call and the guy came back to working. Apparently been one of the best employees ever since.

Re: Homeless alone

#212

Post by peter303 »

There a gradation between intermittent homelessness and chronic homelessness. Intermittent is not that rare - I even experienced a bit of that my self at one time. Chronic may be due to more deep seated issues and hard to get out of. It sounds like you have the drive to eventually escape it.

Re: Homeless alone

#213

Post by lowglow »

lighttower wrote: post #205
lowglow wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me I've noticed a huge difference in creativity and authenticity in my products when I've devoted 100% of myself to it. There is a major problem in the industry. There is no one path to a successful business. I find my time is more valuable than my comfort. To each their own.

What did you build during that time?

I built a community crowdfunding platform to help inventors, makers, developers, etc to find the community, resources, and feedback needed to build and share quality products, and transparent companies. Check it: Baqqer - (https://baqqer.com)

Our plans are to also turn this into equity crowdfunding, and eventually have a fund to contribute to and support popular/promising projects.

I'm building this to build some other projects down the line like Playa (http://getplaya.com)

Re: Homeless alone

#214

Post by jessaustin »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #14
thesimon wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheers. Probably makes sense considering the "freedom" mentality in the US where everyone has to work for himself compared to the welfare state mentality in Europe. Actually makes me feel a bit good for paying my taxes :)

Kudos. I like your style. I paid $42K in federal taxes last year, I'd pay more to get universal healthcare and real social safety nets here.

If you'd pay more taxes, would you also simply donate more toward such efforts? If not, would you donate under some Kickstarter-like scheme in which pledges of donation were only enforced in the event that some threshold were met?

Congratulations on your income!

Re: Homeless alone

#215

Post by jacalata »

joeevans1000 wrote: post #160

It's a bit stunning to some of the philosophical waxing in here, ruminations and curiosity about what bad choices were made. The guy had a stroke, which he states. It's so stunning that this isn't enough explanation for some, who wonder if he didn't save enough. Our culture is so far gone that a stroke isn't enough explanation for homelessness. To hell with needing reasons... he shouldn't have to provide them. I thin…

I think a better sign of being "so far gone" is when you find it totally blasé that a stroke can lead to homelessness.

Re: Homeless alone

#216

Post by capote »

mgkimsal wrote: post #146
windowshopping wrote: post #57

I find this pretty fascinating. Firstly because I'm overwhelmed with sympathy for this guy, and I stopped to ask why. I live in Chicago and I see the homeless every day, and I know it's a problem and I wish I could fix it but I don't know how, and giving a dollar to every person I pass would actually start to have a hefty toll ($20+/day or more, easily. ) So since moving to the city I made it a blanket rule not to gi…

I don't know Neil well, but he did speak twice at my conference several years ago (2010 and 2012). In 2012, he was walking with a cane, and had had a stroke between those two times I met him. Still in good spirits, but was definitely a little physically slower. I'm pretty sure there's more to the back story that led up to this, and I've encouraged him to write more about this at some point when he's more stable. If I…

I always have to wonder why people don't work at least minimum wage jobs, to solve the base problems like hunger.

I apologize if I'm missing something or if I seem really ignorant. Actually, I realize I am totally ignorant in this respect. I've never worked a job outside of programming, so I don't know—is it very difficult for some people to get 'normal' jobs? Is it mostly people with some kind of issue or disability that affects their ability to get a job who wind up like this? Are there not as many minimum-wage, or non-professional (or something) jobs out there as I think there are?

I realize once you get to a certain level it becomes really tough to recover, but when you're on your way, and savings are going, shouldn't you be looking around for any way to earn some cash?

Re: Homeless alone

#217

Post by e12e »

lowglow wrote: post #61
padmanabhan01 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't you hijacking the topic of homelessness here then? When people say homeless they don't mean someone who is homeless out of choice and can get out of it whenever they want to?

I'm just relaying my experiences and what I've seen.

I think your comment was informative. It kind of reminds me of "There, but for Fortune", by Phil Ochs:

  Show me an alley, show me a train
  Show me a hobo who sleeps out in the rain
  And I'll show you a young man with many reasons why
  And there but for fortune, may go you or I
Especially in countries with (dare I say) primitive social security, going intentionally homeless could quickly become a permanent thing. A broken down car and a medical emergency, a family tragedy -- and coming back might suddenly become an insurmountable obstacle. Difficult to get a job without a place to stay, difficult to get a place to stay without money, difficult to get money without a job...

Re: Homeless alone

#218

Post by the_ancient »

capote wrote: post #216
mgkimsal wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know Neil well, but he did speak twice at my conference several years ago (2010 and 2012). In 2012, he was walking with a cane, and had had a stroke between those two times I met him. Still in good spirits, but was definitely a little physically slower. I'm pretty sure there's more to the back story that led up to this, and I've encouraged him to write more about this at some point when he's more stable. If I…

I always have to wonder why people don't work at least minimum wage jobs, to solve the base problems like hunger. I apologize if I'm missing something or if I seem really ignorant. Actually, I realize I am totally ignorant in this respect. I've never worked a job outside of programming, so I don't know—is it very difficult for some people to get 'normal' jobs? Is it mostly people with some kind of issue or disability…

For the Homeless... Yes. Employers, even min wage, want an address, and generally want someone that has some kind of stability.

There are very few employers that will hire homeless people. Of the ones that do some want to help, often they have been or know someone how has been homeless personally. These employers are VERY VERY VERY VERY rare... the other want to take advantage of their situation to get them to work for cash for next to nothing... the "Come work 8 hours for lunch and $20" jobs...

Further most of the legitimate min wage jobs are for entry level position and employers while never saying out out right do practice ageism... They want young workers that are less likely to understand employment law, and are easier to manipulate that older workers. This is true for older homeless and non-homeless alike so this would play a factor in your "when you're on your way shouldn't you be looking around for any way to earn some cash?"

While people may think the economy has improved and in some regions it has, for the most part is it a buyers market for labor, meaning employers can be very selective as they still have 100's or 1000's of applicant's for entry level positions... Young Adult unemployment is still very very very high.

Re: Homeless alone

#219

Post by SolaceQuantum »

capote wrote: post #216
mgkimsal wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know Neil well, but he did speak twice at my conference several years ago (2010 and 2012). In 2012, he was walking with a cane, and had had a stroke between those two times I met him. Still in good spirits, but was definitely a little physically slower. I'm pretty sure there's more to the back story that led up to this, and I've encouraged him to write more about this at some point when he's more stable. If I…

I always have to wonder why people don't work at least minimum wage jobs, to solve the base problems like hunger. I apologize if I'm missing something or if I seem really ignorant. Actually, I realize I am totally ignorant in this respect. I've never worked a job outside of programming, so I don't know—is it very difficult for some people to get 'normal' jobs? Is it mostly people with some kind of issue or disability…

Being homeless and getting a job makes it very difficult, almost impossible. Where are you gonna keep a nice suit? Where are you going to get shaving materials? Make-up? Do your hair? Even if you got the job, where will they send your checks? What if you don't have official documentation (birth certidicate, social security, etc) because you're homeless? How would you get around if public transport is unreliable?

And even if you could request them, where would the gov't send the documentation? Where would you do your taxes or anything?

Where are you going to get enough time on the internet to submit hundreds of applications? Or where are you going to print resumes to hand them out?

Being homeless makes the basics of getting a minimum wage job a near insurmountable task for many.

Re: Homeless alone

#220

Post by the_ancient »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #14
thesimon wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheers. Probably makes sense considering the "freedom" mentality in the US where everyone has to work for himself compared to the welfare state mentality in Europe. Actually makes me feel a bit good for paying my taxes :)

Kudos. I like your style. I paid $42K in federal taxes last year, I'd pay more to get universal healthcare and real social safety nets here.

I find it shocking that anyone wants to trust the American Government with their health..

That seems to be extremely idiotic given the record the American Government has when dealing with Health Care, pick either Medicaid, Medicare or the VA system.... You want that on a National "Universal" Scale... are you a sadist or something?

Most of the current problems with Health care costs in this nation are directly attributable to government policies dating back to the 40's

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