I Used to Be Homeless • Hacker News Board

Re: I Used to Be Homeless

#41

Post by tarboreus » Wed, Nov 14, 2018, 5:44 PM UTC

wjossey wrote: post #25

I live in Central LA (near LACMA / La Brea Tar Pits), and share my neighborhood with dozens of homeless. Most of the homeless in my area are what I would deem "regulars", as they tend to sleep / hang out in the same spots day in and day out. I can't tell you how they landed in the situation they are in, but I can safely say that 9/10 appear (and I'm not a doctor, so I can't obviously say for certain) to have at minim…

I'd read a little about the problems caused by involuntary commitment. Even a novel like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest or Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman or Woman on the Edge of Time might give you a different perspective. I understand where you're coming from, but making it possible for people to get others committed against their will has historically not worked out.

Re: I Used to Be Homeless

#42

Post by ravenstine » Wed, Nov 14, 2018, 5:44 PM UTC

ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #5

This man escaped homelessness by winning $50,000 on Wheel Of Fortune. It seems like he might have an even more interesting story to tell than what's in this article.

I wonder where he is now, though? $50k these days will only get a person so far.

Re: I Used to Be Homeless

#43

Post by david-gpu » Wed, Nov 14, 2018, 5:44 PM UTC

wjossey wrote: post #25

I live in Central LA (near LACMA / La Brea Tar Pits), and share my neighborhood with dozens of homeless. Most of the homeless in my area are what I would deem "regulars", as they tend to sleep / hang out in the same spots day in and day out. I can't tell you how they landed in the situation they are in, but I can safely say that 9/10 appear (and I'm not a doctor, so I can't obviously say for certain) to have at minim…

Sorry for your loss and thank you for sharing your story.

Re: I Used to Be Homeless

#44

Post by nyghtly » Wed, Nov 14, 2018, 5:46 PM UTC

yters wrote: post #28

WhompingWindows wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read the article and the links he provided, he touches a little upon why people are homeless. There are numerous causes, including mental illness like schizophrenia, financial woes, losing your housing unexpectedly, losing your job unexpectedly, as well as the scourge of drug addiction. Suffice to say, there are MANY reasons, and your pointing to the "high minimum wage" (you call 7.25 per hour high??) is not sensible…

It would certainly be interesting to see exactly the state of homeless people. If they cannot afford housing individually, yet have jobs, why not band together and rent an apartment?

Toxic relationships with other homeless people. Desire to avoid the substance use of peers. Inability to gather enough money for the first, last and security deposit. Lack of large apartments that are affordable. Inability to coordinate a group of people who have strict shelter schedules. Discrimination by landlords.

(I worked in a shelter clinic for 2 years--these examples come from conversation and experience working with homeless people.)

Re: I Used to Be Homeless

#45

Post by michaelt » Wed, Nov 14, 2018, 5:47 PM UTC

yters wrote: post #3

I wonder if the high minimum wage makes it harder to employ people who tend to be homeless. I ask because I see many young people homeless these days, and it isn't clear why they are homeless.

Do you believe a person can have negative productivity after their employer takes into account costs of supervision, losses arising from poorly done work, and suchlike?

Seems to me you might get some rough sleepers into work by lowering the minimum wage, but so long as there are rough sleepers with untreated mental health and/or addiction problems, you're never going to get them all into work even if there was no minimum wage whatsoever.

Re: I Used to Be Homeless

#46

Post by tarboreus » Wed, Nov 14, 2018, 5:47 PM UTC

yters wrote: post #28

WhompingWindows wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read the article and the links he provided, he touches a little upon why people are homeless. There are numerous causes, including mental illness like schizophrenia, financial woes, losing your housing unexpectedly, losing your job unexpectedly, as well as the scourge of drug addiction. Suffice to say, there are MANY reasons, and your pointing to the "high minimum wage" (you call 7.25 per hour high??) is not sensible…

It would certainly be interesting to see exactly the state of homeless people. If they cannot afford housing individually, yet have jobs, why not band together and rent an apartment?

Because the economics frequently don't work out? Because you need a lot of documentation to rent an apartment, and saying you want to move in with a bunch of other homeless people isn't going to make a prospective landlord jump up and down with excitement?

Re: I Used to Be Homeless

#47

Post by perfmode » Wed, Nov 14, 2018, 5:47 PM UTC

dumbfoundded wrote: post #37

In San Francisco, nearly $40K is spent per homeless person. How much money do we need to spend and how should we spend it?

does it not dawn on you that perhaps this is the wrong way to think about solving the problem?

Re: I Used to Be Homeless

#48

Post by megaman8 » Wed, Nov 14, 2018, 5:47 PM UTC

To live in, In SF. your choices are a 1.5 million dollar condo or a 50$ dollar tent. Seriously people, we need to allow for more choices than that. I'm sure builders and entrepreneurs would line up around the block to build solutions that are cheaper and more cost effective, but you first have to make it legal (get rid of the mountains of regulations and zoning headaches that make this problem so insurmountable), without that, will never make any progress on this problem.

Why do you think the internet took off as quickly as it did? or the facebook app store in 2008, etc. It's because there were no regulations (or almost none). This allowed thinks to take off very quickly.

Let's designate a section of several cities, say a 1 square mile section as regulation free, with an absolute minimum of zoning requirements, and almost 0 regulations. Then let the market have at it, see what gets built. Sure, maybe you don't like what happens in version 1. But, if we never iterate on this problem, we'll never make progress on it and in a 100 years we'll still be talking about this same self imposed problem which is completely solvable.

Re: I Used to Be Homeless

#49

Post by wolfgang42 » Wed, Nov 14, 2018, 5:49 PM UTC

dumbfoundded wrote: post #37

In San Francisco, nearly $40K is spent per homeless person. How much money do we need to spend and how should we spend it?

Measuring "dollars per homeless person" is, IMO, worse than useless. The problem is that the better you do the job, the worse the number looks. If you manage to house all but 1 person, suddenly it rockets into millions of dollars per remaining homeless person!

Re: I Used to Be Homeless

#50

Post by harias » Wed, Nov 14, 2018, 5:50 PM UTC

closeparen wrote: post #32

athenot wrote: post #4

> People often ask me what they can do to help the homeless and I always say, "Just look around you!" When someone has so little, it doesn't take much to help. You can start by not judging the homeless. This indeed where it all starts. There are so many voices telling us that these people aren't human, but deep down these rationalizations are just trying to cover the uncomfortable emotion we feel when we see a fellow…

This may work when the concentration is low. I’d estimate 15-20 homeless people on the daily walk between my front door in SOMA and the Muni Metro. Often in relatively dense tent encampments. I’d feel pretty weird giving to one and not the others on the same block. Especially since it’s probably the same people day in and day out. It’d take some serious preparation before going out the door to pack enough for everyon…

Charities? Some waste too much money on administration, but I think the smaller ones are pretty good.