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This is Real, That's Not

streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com

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Re: This is Real, That's Not

#101

Post by lisper »

Flimm wrote: post #92
lisper wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If actually interacting with with homeless people takes you too far outside your comfort zone, I spent two years trying to get a homeless person off the street and made a movie about it: http://graceofgodmovie.com/ So you can just watch that.

Is it possible to watch this movie outside of the USA?

Depends on where. It should be available in the UK and Canada. It's not available in Germany because of some weird requirement that I was not able to meet (closed captions in German or something like that). Where are you trying to access it from?

Re: This is Real, That's Not

#102

Post by pksebben »

jlawson wrote: post #88
eat_veggies wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's exactly right. The existence of homelessness is a policy decision, not a law of nature. We have enough space to house everyone, and we have enough money to run social programs to help people with addictions or mental illnesses. But our cult of individualism says that your successes belong to your boss, and your failures are your own damn fault. So you can die in the gutter and you'll deserve it.

San Francisco spends over $40,000 per year on each homeless person in the city.

if this is true, why on earth wouldn't they just use that money to, I dunno, rent them an apartment?

Re: This is Real, That's Not

#103

Post by a4444f »

The author has experienced switching perspectives, therefore concludes that what has remained unchanged is reality. But it is possible to switch realities (timelines) as well, though writing about that kind of experiences is kind of pointless, because the new "reality" may not include old writings, and if switching realities is possible, than humans beings are not what they are commonly considered to be. (and one may as well write something on the surface of a lake, and expect permanency). How many downvotes for this comment?

Re: This is Real, That's Not

#104

Post by tomcam »

alisonkisk wrote: post #42
frutiger wrote: post #6

As I read the post, especially the references to Metafilter in combination with a lesson about homelessness, I thought to myself, “This sounds like DoreenMichele.” I press the back button and, see it is submitted by them. I press the forward button and scroll to the top and it was written by them. It’s a small world.

The small world here is the one that has 1000 soundalike coder guys and only voice that resemble's Doreen's.

As a “soundalike coder guy” as you so dismissively call us, I really need to point out that... ah... yeah, you’re right. I recognized her voice immediately but man, you just dropped a big fat truth bomb. I have some re-evaluating to do.

Re: This is Real, That's Not

#105

Post by ggm »

Under the medically justified urgency of covid, Victoria took a significant number of homeless rough sleeping people (as they are called here in australia) into some kind of housing. Queensland did the same using surplus student purpose built dense housing.

I'm not going to pretend this "solved the problems" but I am told a number of the less intractable cases got put into a better situation,simply having secure shelter helped get them off drug dependency, or back into medication for treatable problems, or away from self harm situations.

Now covid is closing out, the "experiment" is partially unwinding again and this makes me very sad. People will be put back into considerably less suitable housing. People will return to a life led off the rails.

Sure, some want something rough sleeping provides (I really suspect few do but let's not pretend everyone can handle housing up front) and some will continue to be drug affected and crazy will break out.

But for nine months we reduced homelessness and structural health problems to single digit or less and it almost certainly saved money.

That's the truly amazing thing: the net budget effect on federal and state funded interventions was probably better, and they STILL unwound the programmes.

Collective failure of imagination.

Homelessness exists because we let it.

Re: This is Real, That's Not

#106

Post by andi999 »

timeeater wrote: post #95
vecinu wrote: post #78

I hope my comment doesn't sound tone-deaf or ignorant but this is something I have thought about for a while. As I was watching @lisper's movie "grace of god"[1] and heard the phrase "convince myself that it could never happen to me" (becoming homeless), I started thinking, is this a more American-centric problem? What I mean by that is, can the lack of a social safety net in the US cause a much higher rate of homele…

Here in Germany we have homeless people, and Romania wouldn't come to mind as a place where they don't. More likely I would expect people from Romania to be homeless in Germany. I think some homeless here are (possibly illegal) immigrants who don't have access to the same social security measures. But there are also homeless Germans, despite of safety nets existing in theory. I think it is often associated with menta…

At least the homelessness you see on the street in Romania is much much less. I went a few times for business there and I saw zero. (More old people peddling stuff at the street though than germany)

Re: This is Real, That's Not

#107

Post by jacobush »

timeeater wrote: post #95
vecinu wrote: post #78

I hope my comment doesn't sound tone-deaf or ignorant but this is something I have thought about for a while. As I was watching @lisper's movie "grace of god"[1] and heard the phrase "convince myself that it could never happen to me" (becoming homeless), I started thinking, is this a more American-centric problem? What I mean by that is, can the lack of a social safety net in the US cause a much higher rate of homele…

Here in Germany we have homeless people, and Romania wouldn't come to mind as a place where they don't. More likely I would expect people from Romania to be homeless in Germany. I think some homeless here are (possibly illegal) immigrants who don't have access to the same social security measures. But there are also homeless Germans, despite of safety nets existing in theory. I think it is often associated with menta…

In Sweden the homeless increased when a lot of dedicated mental health institutions were closed.

Re: This is Real, That's Not

#108

Post by mapgrep »

twblalock wrote: post #91
Iv wrote: post #75

> She tried to insist that my offer to point her in the direction of gig work was unhelpful as she had some minimum income requirements to pay her student loans etc. Someone who is homeless and has no possession is poor. Someone who has nothing and debts is poorer than that. Don't get into debts as an individual. Just don't. Debt can be a tool for businesses, countries, can be part of an investment plan, you take ins…

> But that whole "I'll get a loan to get a degree" is a tool for servitude. US really needs to get out of that. You might be surprised to learn that the average student loan balance on graduation in the US is about $30k. That is actually a bit less than the average price of a new car sold last year, which is about $37k. That is not a life-crushing amount of debt. It represents 4 years of college education for the pri…

You have argued that the average student loan debt is not “life crushing”. This is a bit absurd. No one would argue that buying a brand new car for $30k fresh out of school is wise financially for the typical college graduate. Whether it crushes your life or not, it is very ill advised.

You have also not addressed the half of debtors who owe more than the average. If the average is so high just think of the figures in the most indebted quarter which is necessarily one million persons per year approximately in the U.S.

There is a reason student debt cannot be discharged through normal bankruptcy. It is for many a horrific and crushing burden.

Re: This is Real, That's Not

#109

Post by DoreenMichele »

henrikschroder wrote: post #100
dnt404-1 wrote: post #86

What does homelessness mean in an US context? Is it a state where you cannot even afford rent and actually sleep on the streets? I have read quite a few posts in HN referring to homelessness. For someone from a much much poorer nation, posts/comments from here suggest it is so so easy to be homeless in US than ours which brings disbelief to me. And secondly, the author points she is "upper class"? How can upper class…

> And secondly, the author points she is "upper class"? How can upper class family or individual ever need to borrow loans and also not have assets? In the US, economic class and social class are often used interchangeably, which is wrong. Social classes are cultures, and while ever-increasing amounts of money are needed to perform the rites and shibboleths of the classes, you can still be upper class while being dir…

In the US, economic class and social class are often used interchangeably, which is wrong. Social classes are cultures

Thank you for saying that.

While my late father had more money at one time than I really understood as a child, my mother's "upper class expectations" referenced in this piece are mostly not about money per se. They are rooted in the fact that her mother came from a low level noble family (my mother is a German immigrant).

They sold the title when the family fell on hard times financially, thus I'm not actually nobility myself. But I believe my grandmother was (or perhaps her parents were -- I'm not sure where the cut off is there).

My mother sewed a lot of my clothes when I was growing up. It was a cost effective means to dress me "properly" and it's only recently that I realized that my mother's ideas of "proper" attire are somewhat like the dress codes of British Royalty that you read about in gossip rags. (Not too much skin showing, no cleavage on display, don't let your bra straps show, etc.)

She didn't spend a lot of money on sewing for me, but I can't sew and I can't afford to buy the style of clothing to which I was accustomed growing up. In fact, I mostly can't even find it in the US at any price and I am so frustrated by that fact that I toy with the idea of creating my own clothing line so I can dress "properly."

Re: This is Real, That's Not

#110

Post by andi999 »

pksebben wrote: post #102
jlawson wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

San Francisco spends over $40,000 per year on each homeless person in the city.

if this is true, why on earth wouldn't they just use that money to, I dunno, rent them an apartment?

Probably the money is spend on admin. So if you take that to the homeless, admin would be unenployed. Unsolvable.
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