Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I Used to Be Homeless

yahoo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 320 posts

Re: I Used to Be Homeless

#221

Post by Nomentatus »

toasterlovin wrote: post #82
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.

> I ask because I see many young people homeless these days, and it isn't clear why they are homeless. The people you see on the street have drug abuse and mental health issues.

Wow. Sources needed. You're right in some instances. But the U.N. says a third of young people are raised in abusive homes, and escaping that is the main source of youth homelessness according to what I've read.

Re: I Used to Be Homeless

#222

Post by RobertRoberts »

marnett wrote: post #216
RobertRoberts wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was homeless as a teen for a short time. I guarantee you that there are moral/ethical homeless people that don't steal or attack people. (even when high) So, I can say wholeheartedly it's not discriminatory against homeless or the disaffected, it's discriminates based on behaviour. Period. If law breaking behaviour (theft, assault, etc...) exists most prominently in addicted homeless people, that shouldn't be surpr…

It's discriminatory against the poor, not the homeless

I've been poor most of my life. It's not discriminatory against the poor at all.

I lived in a van with my wife, and we didn't steal. There were people in the parks that would steal, and the police would come after them, not us. I speak from life experience.

You are helping spread a deadly lie.

I challenge anyone to prove me wrong. Go be genuinely poor, it's really easy to do. Just use a tiny amount of money to live off of. And see if it causes you to commit crimes.

Move to a single room apartment, or be homeless. It does not make you immoral or unethical or cause you to mug people or steal.

Re: I Used to Be Homeless

#223

Post by clairity »

smileysteve wrote: post #211
post_break wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry I don't understand your comment?

The purpose of a fine for doing something illegal is supposed to be corrective. If a person can not pay the fine, if they're not further inconvenienced by being arrested and sent to hours until jail; the effective corrective action is being applied to the judge, police; They can arrest the same homeless, mentally ill, drug addicted person each day; or put them in prison where they don't belong -- or they can fine/arr…

> "The purpose of a fine for doing something illegal is supposed to be corrective."

that's almost certainly not true. a fine is primarily a deterrent, and failing that, is punitive. it's not corrective (or restorative), because it doesn't "correct" anything.

an example of corrective action is a burglar being required to return/replace stolen items.

Re: I Used to Be Homeless

#224

Post by wjossey »

Nomentatus wrote: post #215
wjossey wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The reality is that people want to receive treatment--if they don't, it is because they encounter a barrier to treatment. While I agree that there are huge barriers to treatment, I'll respectfully disagree that people with substances abuse regularly want to receive treatment. Getting someone to just admit they have a substance abuse problem is remarkably challenging (the story of my father is just one of many in my…

Certainly, where I am, far, far more people want treatment than can get it. So much so it's impossible to guess how many don't want it (yet.) How effective current treatment is - other than naltrexone perhaps, is another story. I'm pessimistic there, too.

I don't think our two statements are at odds with one another. There is absolutely a resource shortage to deal with these issues. In addition, there's the pernicious side effect of the disease in that it keeps you from wanting to seek treatment.

Re: I Used to Be Homeless

#225

Post by TallGuyShort »

technobabble wrote: post #134
nyghtly wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you say that they won't accept help, what do you mean? What did you try to offer that they didn't accept?

I can't speek for the parent poster. I don't feel comfortable giving money, so instead I offer to get them something at a local restaraunt, or try to give them some of my food if I have it on me. In some (but not all) circumstances, I've been told to "f!ck off" and "suck a c!ck" becaue they want money, presumably for drugs/alcohol/etc. Again this is my experience. Your mileage may vary.

One thing I did for a while (I no longer live in a place with many panhandlers) was restaurant gift cards. It can't be spent on drugs or alcohol (at least not directly), and most cheap restaurants aren't going to kick out a homeless person very quickly on a cold night. I don't think I ever gave out double-digits of those, but I never got a bad reaction...

Re: I Used to Be Homeless

#226

Post by RobertRoberts »

milesvp wrote: post #145

This article reminded me of a childhood experience of mine. At some point when I was in high school my dad brought home a homeless man to live in our house. At first it seemed weird, but I understood that we were in a position to help so I got over the feeling that our family was different for helping someone from the street. Then it started to feel weird that this guy completely bunkered down in his room. The few ti…

My Dad joined the "big brother" program (back when it was for teens without Dad's, not government spying).

We had a kid live with us for maybe half a year. My Dad said the kid just didn't want to change anything, but I think you have to be patient like your parents were to actually help anyone. (So thanks for sharing that story.)

We learned how to drink raw eggs from this guy. And he didn't do anything bad that I ever saw. But my Dad didn't bring anyone else home after this.

Re: I Used to Be Homeless

#227

Post by rbanffy »

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…

> distribute it equitably.

You communist

I was having a discussion a couple minutes ago about the situation of Cuban doctors in Brazil and the simplistic solution some supporters of the far-right government proposed - to give citizenship to the ones who take a test to validate their degrees.

Unsurprisingly, not that many would be attracted by the moving from a country with nearly zero crime, assured retirement and free education and healthcare from cradle to grave to one that's violent and just elected a xenophobic, homophobic and racist president. Life is much more complicated than that.

Re: I Used to Be Homeless

#228

Post by Nomentatus »

toasterlovin wrote: post #209
Nomentatus wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now try your sentence with "what black people do" or any other group, and see how it make you feel. You forgot to put in "a minority of." The street people you see (many of which aren't homeless) are a minority compared to the homeless (some of whom pick up litter) who stay mostly out of sight, sleep out of sight, aren't practiced beggars.

> Now try your sentence with "what black people do" or any other group, and see how it make you feel. So if I have a problem with people who drive drunk, my concerns are invalid because, if I replaced the category “drunk drivers” with “black people” in statements I make about the societal harms caused by drunk drivers, it would come across as racist? Also, nice try on the “not all homeless” trick, but I’m already hip…

Any classification that's actually defined by behavior, such as "drive drunk" as opposed to "streetpeople" is perfectly fine by me, as I think would be obvious. Both streetpeople and homeless are highly heterogeneous groups, so I don't think this affects my point. Which is that your one-to-one mapping is literally stereotyping. Just back off a little, so that you're only complaining about those you're really angry at, please. That's all I'm asking. If you want to say "a majority of" and have proper sources for that, I won't object to such a statement and I would genuinely be interested in the sources.

Re: I Used to Be Homeless

#229

Post by nickff »

Nomentatus wrote: post #206
jaredklewis wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have friends in Tokyo renting 1 bedrooms in the city center for $500 ~ $900 month. Those buildings were not built as affordable housing. They became affordable housing when other developers built newer, nicer buildings somewhere else in Tokyo. Older buildings had to lower prices to keep tenants coming. Unless there is a literally infinite supply of rich people, I don’t see how increasing supply cannot create more a…

In S.F and Vancouver, the city can't expand in most directions thanks to salt water. Therefore, the old buildings tend to be razed, in order to make room for a new buildings. This is a stark contrast to say, Houston or Calgary.

Up until this year, Vancouver had one of the highest proportions of single-family-housing zoning (over 60%). Vancouver is one of the worst cases of restricted (low-density) development in North America. Vancouver's housing problems are political, not geographical.

Re: I Used to Be Homeless

#230

Post by rbanffy »

pentae wrote: post #120
megaman8 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SF just passed 300 million/year measure that's supposed to help the homeless and that's in addition to the 240 million/year of funding that's already there. Both of those combined exceeds the budgets of most cities. First I would say, let's figure out how to use that money so that it's actually working. 540 million/year is enough to give the 7000 homeless in SF 77,000$ per year. Let's put that to good use and make su…

Considering the annual cost of a taxpayer for a prison inmate is $31k a year, surely thats a problem that can be solved with that budget.

A fair amount of resources spent in prison inmates is dedicated to keeping them inside the prison.
Post reply on HN