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Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#111

Post by robocat »

dgzl wrote: post #67

I'm from a small town in Oregon that sees a lot of nomadic traveling folk, either homeless or lifestyle (the PCT comes through the area, for instance), and the town is generally pretty receptive of these people. Growing up I would hang out and spend time with them, just chatting and playing music and enjoying the area. I carried that to adulthood and I now live in Portland, where the homeless problem is quite severe.…

> Las Vegas was apparently giving free bus tickets to the homeless to come to Oregon, because our homeless services are top-tier.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2017/dec/...

If you send someone half way across the country, it will be difficult to return. They also mention Key West contractually bans anyone who returns from using their homeless services.

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#112

Post by dgzl »

robocat wrote: post #111
dgzl wrote: post #67

I'm from a small town in Oregon that sees a lot of nomadic traveling folk, either homeless or lifestyle (the PCT comes through the area, for instance), and the town is generally pretty receptive of these people. Growing up I would hang out and spend time with them, just chatting and playing music and enjoying the area. I carried that to adulthood and I now live in Portland, where the homeless problem is quite severe.…

> Las Vegas was apparently giving free bus tickets to the homeless to come to Oregon, because our homeless services are top-tier. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2017/dec/... If you send someone half way across the country, it will be difficult to return. They also mention Key West contractually bans anyone who returns from using their homeless services.

> If you send someone half way across the country, it will be difficult to return.

Nevada is actually very close to Oregon, and transportation to LV is quite cheap.

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#113

Post by paganel »

stagger87 wrote: post #104
paganel wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the social safety net in the US is almost totally absent. As an European that is one of the main things that keeps me away from ever wanting to work in the States, down there it looks like you're either a successful person, meaning you have a house on which you can afford to pay mortgage, which in turn means that you have a successful job which allows you to navigate the inevitable recessions, or you're alway…

I'm not sure what you're on about. The US does have social safety nets, and most people in America work okay'ish jobs and live okay'ish lives without constant nightmares.

Half of the homeless people in that Seattle video someone linked above should have had a roof over their heads provided by the State, either some mental-health institution or an elderly care house.

I've heard of way too many US ok-ish jobs that don't provide adequate health-insurance (just to give an example). Maybe I'm a little paranoid but I'd have constant nightmares thinking that a couple of days of hospitalization for a benign medical intervention could set me tens of thousands of dollars in debt (or worse).

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#114

Post by PopeDotNinja »

dgzl wrote: post #67

I'm from a small town in Oregon that sees a lot of nomadic traveling folk, either homeless or lifestyle (the PCT comes through the area, for instance), and the town is generally pretty receptive of these people. Growing up I would hang out and spend time with them, just chatting and playing music and enjoying the area. I carried that to adulthood and I now live in Portland, where the homeless problem is quite severe.…

When I was homeless in San Francisco and applying for services, they made sure to mention I could get a one way bus ticket to pretty much anywhere I wanted to go.

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#116

Post by throwaway713 »

A little bit unrelated, but does anyone else get severe anxiety reading articles like this? I’m currently employed in a well-paying tech job, but it always seems like I’m just one giant disaster away from this kind of thing. Granted, I have a family “safety net” to fall back on in a worst case scenario, which I realize a lot of people don’t have, but it’s always in the back of my mind that the economy could crash, that my skills are suddenly not in demand, or some weird health insurance disaster wipes out my retirement savings. I constantly feel like I need to save up as much money as possible to reach financial independence as quickly as I can so that I’m prepared for some kind of unforeseen catastrophe.

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#117

Post by sodiumjoe »

dgzl wrote: post #67

I'm from a small town in Oregon that sees a lot of nomadic traveling folk, either homeless or lifestyle (the PCT comes through the area, for instance), and the town is generally pretty receptive of these people. Growing up I would hang out and spend time with them, just chatting and playing music and enjoying the area. I carried that to adulthood and I now live in Portland, where the homeless problem is quite severe.…

Portlander here, I used to work right by the food carts downtown on 10th and Alder. The hospital bracelet guy is one of regulars, he's been running that schtick for literally years. There's a cast off characters like him who are fixtures there. I'm not against compassion for the homeless, but after running into a few of these repeatedly, I tend to refrain from supporting them directly and give to local charities instead. I'm not even arguing that you made a bad decision, just sharing my own experience.

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#118

Post by z3t4 »

i_am_proteus wrote: post #28

These are my personal observations: When I first moved to the SF Bay area, I was surprised by the amount of visible homelessness and by the number of service economy workers who drove nearly two hours to and from work. I also had my first experiences with the "campuses" of major technology companies, where money was made hand-over-fist. I think the recent widening income gap is a natural consequence of the technology…

I don't think a society can work if there are large inequalities. The winners have to pay for the losers. At least enough to get them off the streets.

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#119

Post by robocat »

closeparen wrote: post #60
baq wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or we don’t and the rich suddenly notice that dollar notes can’t provide nourishment and don’t do laundry.

The rich got by for thousands of years without cooking, doing laundry, or running affordable housing programs. The service sector lived on its customers’ estates, often as part of their households. I expect this is where we’re headed. Several people I know who work on poverty wages in the arts industry here pay their room and board in elder- or child-care for a homeowner. We often hear that terms like “feudalism” and…

> Several people I know who work on poverty wages in the arts industry

I don't have much sympathy for anyone who chooses to work in the arts... One must see the risks taken, and that the rewards are unpredictable.

> elder- or child-care for a homeowner

Are you talking about the very wealthy here? The upper income? The middle or even low income earners that made good financial choices? Looking after children and elderly is honest work.

Are these art workers tied to the Bay Area by anything apart from their choices?

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#120

Post by [deleted] »

throwaway713 wrote: post #116

A little bit unrelated, but does anyone else get severe anxiety reading articles like this? I’m currently employed in a well-paying tech job, but it always seems like I’m just one giant disaster away from this kind of thing. Granted, I have a family “safety net” to fall back on in a worst case scenario, which I realize a lot of people don’t have, but it’s always in the back of my mind that the economy could crash, th…

[deleted]
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