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

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

#141

Post by thrden »

n00bdude wrote: post #91
mxstbr wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is fascinating, can you share more of your experience? How does living on the streets work, how did you end up in this situation?

It started w/ an Aladdin story & dream-chasing .. but to cut to it, @ present, I basically operate in / out of a storage unit. The routine basically goes: Wake up, run / shower @ gym (some days, meditate in tanning booth), go to cafe & write for ~3-4 hours, Citi Bike to day-job, work it & once finished, go to sleep on soho-streets @ night. I ended up in this situation because I put myself into it so as to be in New Y…

do you have any public writing? I'd be interested in reading what you've written.

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

#142

Post by Simon_says »

cheesymuffin wrote: post #79
georgemcbay wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We hate the constant reminder that we're two missed paychecks away from joining them. So get'em outta here!

Seriously, man! I'm broke as hell!

Serious question: this is what an emergency fund is for, no?

You can earn the same income and spend the same dollar amount over your life, but if you build up a buffer of 6 month's expenses, you are no longer chronically broke.

This is what I was taught at an early age. Why is this advice not more commonly followed? It's not about being rich or poor or having a high or low income. The advice is truly agnostic to those issues. It's about shifting consumption over the course of your life so that you always have a buffer.

Edit: I guess truth hurts.

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

#143

Post by seppin »

trimbo wrote: post #70
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…

> But that relatively small number is still enough to dominate the economy of a major metropolitan area... So the rise in visible homelessness is perhaps the expected result I'd imagine the expected result is that prices increase to support higher wages for service workers... which they actually have. Just one example: a take-out salad for lunch now costs $15 in San Francisco. The place I'm thinking of has huge line…

> ps - Firefighters get down-payment assistance in San Francisco. I personally know a couple who live near me, thanks to this. https://sfmohcd.org/resources-first-responders

Another way big tech actually COSTS taxpayers money

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

#144

Post by scruple »

B-Con wrote: post #126
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…

Not severe, but every so often I am reminded of the big picture of life. So many industries, economies, societies, nations, etc, have been upended throughout, leaving large numbers of well-meaning relatively prepared people in ruin. I'm happy that the money is flowing into tech. But on the same token, maaaaybe it's a bubble? My brain won't dismiss that thought. I think the fundamental lesson is that we can't take any…

> Netflix has a new season of $popularShow. That and a refreshing beverage sound like a good way to spend the evening.

And that's a good way to spend a Saturday evening. It's also also not an excuse to not prepare for the future.

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

#145

Post by pyrrhotech »

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 agree with the post, but firefighters in the Bay Area are probably not the best example. There are many millionaire, early retired FF in California. Some in my old neighborhood that I knew personally even that were much wealthier than I am as a SE (I have since relocated to the southeast). Compensation is quite high, especially when considering total pay, often 250k+ and as high as 500k+ is possible.

Source: https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?q=fire&y=

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

#146

Post by mcguire »

mynameishere wrote: post #98
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…

the people we rely on to extinguish our flames cannot afford What a strange example for you to use. First, firefighters in most urban areas make muchos , muchos dollars. Second, firefighter jobs are extremely desirable, for that reason and many others ("heroism", firefighter groupies, extreme lengths of downtime, early pensions, etc) Third, in poorer areas, volunteers are all-too happy to be firefighters. As I said,…

California (https://www.businessinsider.com/firefighter-salary-every-us-...):

Firefighters

Median annual salary: $35,440

10th percentile salary: $20,520

90th percentile salary: $57,060

First-Line Supervisors of Fire Fighting and Prevention Workers

Median annual salary: $53,180

10th percentile salary: $28,270

90th percentile salary: $78,740

(Firefighters in Alabama make more than in California?!?!)

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

#147

Post by dgzl »

sodiumjoe wrote: post #117
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 inst…

I wouldn't be surprised if this was a scam, but I'm not convinced. Between my own experiences interacting with the homeless and scammers, seeing his fresh physical wounds (including staples in his head), and the weird amount of knowledge he had about physics and obscure computer operating systems, I just don't see it. If anything, he deserves my help just for being so thorough.

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

#148

Post by fiblye »

dgzl wrote: post #112
robocat wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

The distance between Portland and Las Vegas is roughly the same as the distance between Atlanta and Boston.

Not very close, and the ones sending homeless out of Las Vegas know that.

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

#149

Post by kakarot »

robocat wrote: post #119
closeparen wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 elder…

> 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.

You have different goals in life than other people.

Please try to be aware that the path you've chosen is not the only right one. Some people have different goals.

Some people even have the cognitive ability to regard the goal of fulfillment in life and creativity as more important than the run-of-the-mill goal of survival that most people are seemingly satisfied with reaching towards.

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

#150

Post by rosser »

sodiumjoe wrote: post #117
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 inst…

Years ago, and in a town that isn't Portland, I met a street dude with a similar story, including a broken finger supposedly incurred during the assault. His story seemed a little too "just-so", so I didn't stick around, nor give him any money.

Talking later with a local from that town, it turns out dude has been running that line for years, and regularly re-breaks the finger to give it that little touch of verisimilitude.

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