How does your city treat the homeless?

[open mind]

anchorage has had around 20 homeless people die living on the streets in the past year so we're finally getting around to building public housing that doesn't require inebriates to stop drinking to live in.

[NEWFOUNDMATT]

i hate bums

[Formatfun]

I live in this city called Anchorage , Alaska... I guess we treat them alright. Some of us use them to test our poisons and stuff when we're planning on murdering someone. GOTTA MAKE SURE IT'S POTENT! Some of us play games with them and make them do dangerous things for money, alcohol, or drugs.
Last year we started a contest to see who could kill off more homeless people by the end of they year... my team got 13, they got 7. Good times.
I heard they're building a public house for them or something? No fun.

[the seventeenth]

We pee on them and kick dirt in their eyes.

It helps sober them up...

[Clockwork00]

Our one homeless guy hangs out at the gas station with a "Looking for Work" sign. My friend's mom hired him to dig out her driveway. That's the only act of kindness I've heard of so far.

[open mind]

i hate bums
and?
I live in this city called Anchorage , Alaska... I guess we treat them alright. Some of us use them to test our poisons and stuff when we're planning on murdering someone. GOTTA MAKE SURE IT'S POTENT! Some of us play games with them and make them do dangerous things for money, alcohol, or drugs.
Last year we started a contest to see who could kill off more homeless people by the end of they year... my team got 13, they got 7. Good times.
I heard they're building a public house for them or something? No fun.
trying to hard and failing miserably.
We pee on them and kick dirt in their eyes.

It helps sober them up...
so wrong. still kind of funny.

[lauren1234]

In my English class we had to do a "making a difference" project and a couple of my friends made sack lunches and went to downtown and handed them out to the homeless. Other than that I have no idea how the homeless are treated here but I would think not so well. Whenever I go to a show at House of Blues there are always so many hanging out around there asking for money.

[the seventeenth]

so wrong, but I still shit my pants laughing.
fixed, bro. you're welcome.

[loveisdead]

New York City is pretty self explanatory, no?

[open mind]

New York City is pretty self explanatory, no?

not really.

i'm wondering what sort of programs cities have. is there public housing, rehab, educational programs to help people find work, experimental programs, etc. in your city?

up until very recently the general populace here has thought a couple shelters, and jail was enough.

[loveisdead]

not really.

i'm wondering what sort of programs cities have. is there public housing, rehab, educational programs to help people find work, experimental programs, etc. in your city?

up until very recently the general populace here has thought a couple shelters, and jail was enough.

I'm embarrassingly unaware. Sean will have plenty of info for you though.

[saveferris]

We actually don't have that many in Wilson. They're all downtown and nobody really bothers them. They come to the church my mom works at a lot looking for food and stuff, but she can't let them in and has to send them to this shelter type place.

[mattmatumbo]

We let them use the trains for free.

[Scrandon]

Wow I wouldn't have thought it would be too much to require someone to stop drinking in order to receive free housing.

[x togepi x]

Wow I wouldn't have thought it would be too much to require someone to stop drinking in order to receive free housing.

yeah but you're a dumb sheltered white kid that doesn't really understand how the world works.

[Scrandon]

yeah but you're a dumb sheltered white kid that doesn't really understand how the world works.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, and you guessed it, wrong.

[caveBEAR]

Wrong, wrong, wrong, and you guessed it, wrong.

So you're a street tough Ecuadorian genius?

[open mind]

Wow I wouldn't have thought it would be too much to require someone to stop drinking in order to receive free housing.

even with the continued drinking it's cheaper to house them as they aren't continually using up expensive emergency services.

[caveBEAR]

even with the continued drinking it's cheaper to house them as they aren't continually using up expensive emergency services.

:appl:

[x togepi x]

Wrong, wrong, wrong, and you guessed it, wrong.

What, did you lie on your profile about your ethnicity then?

You're fucking dumb because of all your ignorant posts on immigration, as well as your ignorance on this topic. Anyone with a brain could realize that a significant portion of the homeless suffer from undiagnosed mental illnesses while another significant portion suffer from untreated mental illness stemming from their inability to have access to health care (thank Reagan for that one). Because of this fact, they turn to alcohol to self medicate as a way of coping (which is common in all segments in the population, not just homeless people). So yeah, it's actually quite hard to get someone to stop drinking booze when it's their way of dealing with a debilitating problem in their life when they have no other way of dealing with this problem.

besides, being homeless fucking sucks, so even if one lacked a mental illness, i could see why one would want to drink a lot. have you ever been dirt poor? i grew up in poverty. tell me that's easy.

[saysmydoctor]

not really.

i'm wondering what sort of programs cities have. is there public housing, rehab, educational programs to help people find work, experimental programs, etc. in your city?

up until very recently the general populace here has thought a couple shelters, and jail was enough.
I know New York City has a pretty vast network but it doesn't come close to tackling the problem. As for experiments, I couldn't really tell you.

[caveBEAR]

As for experiments, I couldn't really tell you.

Doing experiments on the homeless? I'm in.

[Smash Adams]

So you're a street tough Ecuadorian genius?
JmUr8seeCTI

[caveBEAR]

JmUr8seeCTI

:lol:

Well played, sir.

[Max_123]

there's this really sweet homeless guy that hangs out outside this venue in Denver and he sings you songs and stuff on this really old, shitty guitar and he's hilarious

/doesn't have anything to do with thread

[Scrandon]

What, did you lie on your profile about your ethnicity then?

You're fucking dumb because of all your ignorant posts on immigration, as well as your ignorance on this topic. Anyone with a brain could realize that a significant portion of the homeless suffer from undiagnosed mental illnesses while another significant portion suffer from untreated mental illness stemming from their inability to have access to health care (thank Reagan for that one). Because of this fact, they turn to alcohol to self medicate as a way of coping (which is common in all segments in the population, not just homeless people). So yeah, it's actually quite hard to get someone to stop drinking booze when it's their way of dealing with a debilitating problem in their life when they have no other way of dealing with this problem.

besides, being homeless fucking sucks, so even if one lacked a mental illness, i could see why one would want to drink a lot. have you ever been dirt poor? i grew up in poverty. tell me that's easy.

Okay, i'll give you one out of five then. Asshole

[caveBEAR]

Okay, i'll give you one out of five then. Asshole

One out of five what?

[Scrandon]

One out of five what?

referring to his original quote of mine.

[open mind]

Okay, i'll give you one out of five then. Asshole

since he only used 4 descriptors for you and you count 5 you can't be that intelligent.
i've got no idea how sheltered you are so i'll give you that one.
you are white.
while legally an adult at 18 i'd say a 19 year old is almost always still a kid in essence.

that makes 3 out of 4 with the fourth one being to difficult to properly measure.





don't take this post to personally, i'm just bored.

[Scrandon]

well I would count the "doesn't really know how the world works" as one too... not that it matters AT ALL.

[open mind]

well I would count the "doesn't really know how the world works" as one to... not that it matters AT ALL.

initially you said wrong 4 times and you seemed to only take issue with 4 categorizations.
please do a better job of making what you're arguing about clearer in the future.

[Scrandon]

initially you said wrong 4 times and you seemed to only take issue with 4 categorizations.
please do a better job of making what you're arguing about clearer in the future.

Duly noted good sir

[<*)))><]

Apparently it is possible to make 70,000 a year being a beggar according to manswers.

[x togepi x]

Okay, i'll give you one out of five then. Asshole

the fact that you never actually have a response for anything I say is rather telling.

You're dumb because of the inane views you hold and your inability to articulate them.
You're sheltered because it's obvious you have no real world experience or you'd understand why it isn't so simple as to just get homeless people to stop drinking for a place to stay.
You're white apparently because of your profile and xenophobic views on immigration.
You're a kid because you're 19, dumb, sheltered and lack real world experience.
and you clearly don't know anything about how the world works, which is obvious from the fact that you can't see how that's relevant.

so yeah, you're a failure.

[introduction]

like kings.

[zion the lion]

I was about to say we treat our homeless horribly but then I saw who the op was...there's a reason I clicked on this thread I guess.

[zachff]

like kings.
That was exactly what I was going to say!

Also, these:
http://files.sharenator.com/9_Homeless_People_with_funny_Signs-s300x400-11034-580.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1283/770656208_eb9ce07c58.jpg
http://bellyshirts.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/homeless_man_in_anchorage1.jpg

[DrStrong]

I live in San Bernardino, CA, we have a lot of bums out there. Pretty much every offramp off the freeway, and a bunch at least one hanging out in every grocery store parking lot. I dont normally give them any change because most of them are junkies/alcoholics.

[Kozzy333]

We have a good amount of homeless people, mostly living downtown but you do see the occasional one up on the mountain. Walking downtown for five minutes on friday I saw 4 homeless/beggars.

[Scrandon]

the fact that you never actually have a response for anything I say is rather telling.

You're dumb because of the inane views you hold and your inability to articulate them.
You're sheltered because it's obvious you have no real world experience or you'd understand why it isn't so simple as to just get homeless people to stop drinking for a place to stay.
You're white apparently because of your profile and xenophobic views on immigration.
You're a kid because you're 19, dumb, sheltered and lack real world experience.
and you clearly don't know anything about how the world works, which is obvious from the fact that you can't see how that's relevant.

so yeah, you're a failure.

Actually, I'm being short with you because you're such a fucking douchebag, and I tend to avoid you people.

As for my views, if a homeless person was required to stop drinking before entering public housing, maybe that would lead to a better treatment of one's mental illness, if it existed. Any abnormal behavior noticed by the people running the shelter could be attributed to mental illness rather than alcohol. Then the patient could be diagnosed and treated in a scientific manner, and possibly become a productive member of society.

Maybe that's pretty optimistic, but I'd surely take it over paying people to sit around and get wasted all day, which seems to be something that you're fine with.

[Scrandon]

So you're a street tough Ecuadorian genius?

You cannot even fathom how Ecuadorian I am.

[Yellowcard2006]

Califor-na-na super cool to da homeless

[sjb2k1]

i know in this area (raleigh/durham/chapel hill) they give them bright orange vests to wear. no idea beyond that. but nearly every exit off I-40 and every median near there has at least one homeless guy/girl sitting there with a sign. i'm always curious as to how the one guy with the motorized chair thing makes it out there.

[saysmydoctor]

Washington D.C.'s homeless are the most saddening bunch, if there were such metrics.

[thursday727]

i don't really know how they treat them. But the majority can be found in downtown clearwater and clearwater beach (beach bums). Some are generally nice down on their luck people , but alot of them are manipulative shifty pieces of shit that have no intention of ever becoming non homeless and just want your money. A bum went into my friend's work one time and asked her for a packet of butter , he then went into the bathroom with it , she checked it after he left and all the walls and floor were covered in butter... disturbing but hilarious.

[atticus18244fss]

You cannot even fathom how Ecuadorian I am.

Haha Yes

[spiffa0]

All the homeless people in Pittsburgh decide to beg on Pitt's campus. Interesting strategy: ask people who are anywhere from 10-80K in debt for money they don't have. We are, in fact, more poor than the people who beg for money. What really pisses me off is when you walk by and they ask for money, you say no and move on. Five minutes later you walk by again, and they ask again. I have no sympathy for homeless people. I am an asshole.

[sjb2k1]

All the homeless people in Pittsburgh decide to beg on Pitt's campus. Interesting strategy: ask people who are anywhere from 10-80K in debt for money they don't have. We are, in fact, more poor than the people who beg for money. What really pisses me off is when you walk by and they ask for money, you say no and move on. Five minutes later you walk by again, and they ask again. I have no sympathy for homeless people. I am an asshole.
when i was bitterly unemployed last year, and i saw people giving homeless people money, i would get so pissed because they just made more money that day than i did.

[Americanism]

I have no sympathy for homeless people. I am an asshole.

I agree 100%. Our downtown is littered with homeless people. I actually had a rough time when I was nineteen and ended up displaced myself, granted I have no mental disorders so I was able to get back on my feet very quickly. We shelter and feed them here so we get even more. Last year my cousin was actually murdered by a group of drunk hobos, I say let the disease cleanse itself. If you do nothing for the homeless your homeless problem won't be bad at all. And yes I finally agree with libertarians. Crazy world.

[Kassie09]

thats cause pitt is in a shitty part of town so all of the homeless people congregate there

the homeless people always hang out outside of the sporting events and ask for money

one guy plays the saxaphone for money though and he's kickass, he deserves all the money he gets. he just chills on the clemete bridge and plays.

TBH though, maybe I just don't go into the right(or wrong) areas but I don't see THAT many homeless people here

[Nick Le]

I go to school in Irvine, CA and I've never seen any homeless around here. I've been told that the city puts them all on buses and takes them to the not-so-nice parts of Orange County.

[sjb2k1]

What, did you lie on your profile about your ethnicity then?

You're fucking dumb because of all your ignorant posts on immigration, as well as your ignorance on this topic. Anyone with a brain could realize that a significant portion of the homeless suffer from undiagnosed mental illnesses while another significant portion suffer from untreated mental illness stemming from their inability to have access to health care (thank Reagan for that one). Because of this fact, they turn to alcohol to self medicate as a way of coping (which is common in all segments in the population, not just homeless people). So yeah, it's actually quite hard to get someone to stop drinking booze when it's their way of dealing with a debilitating problem in their life when they have no other way of dealing with this problem.

besides, being homeless fucking sucks, so even if one lacked a mental illness, i could see why one would want to drink a lot. have you ever been dirt poor? i grew up in poverty. tell me that's easy.
i say this with all seriousness. please never stop posting here. this site needs posters like you, desperately.

[x togepi x]

Actually, I'm being short with you because you're such a fucking douchebag, and I tend to avoid you people.

I'm an asshole to people who hold asshole views. Become a decent human being and then I'll treat you like one.

As for my views, if a homeless person was required to stop drinking before entering public housing, maybe that would lead to a better treatment of one's mental illness, if it existed.

As for your views, they're completely ignorant to the many many factors making this impossible in the current socioeconomic system. This is why I called you ignorant. Here's a nice easy list

1) Because of the current shift to the right, many government programs that deal with mental illness are insanely underfunded. The idea that this underfunded program would be at all effective in treatment of said mental illnesses is ridiculous.
2) Ask anyone who's an alcoholic, it isn't exactly easy to just stop drinking. You'd need some sort of detox/rehab program in public housing which, given the problem i pointed out in number 1, is probably not going to happen.
3) Even when you have the money to afford treatment, mental illness is insanely hard to deal with. Psychiatry often plays a trial and error game that's hard for the patients to deal with. The side effects often have patients do crazy things that they wouldn't necessarily do. ie: even the treatment itself could drive a homeless person to drinking.
4) Many homeless are going to see no drinking rules as restrictions on their personal freedom. In public housing or privately run shelters, there's always a fear that the housing/shelter is going to come off as insanely paternalistic, which alienates many homeless people who don't want those types of restrictions on their behavior
5)The current system, partially because of cuts but also conservative and so-called moderate views on welfare, only provides benefits for short amounts of time or based on fulfilling certain requirements (such as attempting to get a job). These requirements, while seeming common sense to someone who's middle class or above, are often insanely hard to meet for someone in abject poverty.
6) Your model of "just stop drinking to get a place to stay" assumes a type of rational decision making that isn't necessarily found in the real world. Tons of groups of people commonly make decisions that are against their interests. For example, the extreme level of desperation a homeless person feels daily because of their economic status could easily make such rational decision making irrelevant because it could lead to psychological factors and stresses were drinking is seen as necessary to cope.

Any abnormal behavior noticed by the people running the shelter could be attributed to mental illness rather than alcohol.

You're ignoring the fact that because of budget cuts, it will be unlikely that pubic housing would be staffed by professionals who are able to understand and diagnose mental illness in a professional manner. Even then, alcohol use doesn't preclude diagnosis. In fact, chronic alcohol use is actually a great indicator that something is wrong. So your logic would preclude many of the people who need treatment the most from accessing it.

Then the patient could be diagnosed and treated in a scientific manner, and possibly become a productive member of society.

This is incredibly misguided and shows you don't understand the socio economic barriers that our capitalist society has preventing people from being a so-called productive member of society.

Maybe that's pretty optimistic, but I'd surely take it over paying people to sit around and get wasted all day, which seems to be something that you're fine with.

The straw man here is cute because I've never advocated "paying people to sit around and get wasted all day". That isn't how welfare works and me saying that people use drugs and alcohol as a way to self medicate is not saying that's what people should do. I was pointing out how complicated the issue is and why, given the state of our healthcare system and government programs on poverty, the idea that people can "just stop drinking" is ridiculous.

if you actually paid attention to homeless people, you'd see that the ones who "sit around and get wasted all day" aren't accessing government programs for various reasons. Those people aren't on welfare because they can't access it for some reason. They often drink because living on the street fucking sucks.

[Charles777]

I try to be nice. Others try not to be though.

[spiffa0]

thats cause pitt is in a shitty part of town so all of the homeless people congregate there

the homeless people always hang out outside of the sporting events and ask for money

one guy plays the saxaphone for money though and he's kickass, he deserves all the money he gets. he just chills on the clemete bridge and plays.

TBH though, maybe I just don't go into the right(or wrong) areas but I don't see THAT many homeless people here

I like Oakland?

[samsara]

I go to school in Irvine, CA and I've never seen any homeless around here. I've been told that the city puts them all on buses and takes them to the not-so-nice parts of Orange County.

Thats what people do in a town an hour away from here. They ship all of their homeless here or other cities nearby.



But in Roswell some guys recently opened a mental health/homeless shelter all privately funded complete with facilities to help the people get clean or diagnosed.

[GuitarR0cker1]

There's a few homeless kids who go to my school. It's depressing.

[Theseventhson]

I'm an asshole to people who hold asshole views. Become a decent human being and then I'll treat you like one.



As for your views, they're completely ignorant to the many many factors making this impossible in the current socioeconomic system. This is why I called you ignorant. Here's a nice easy list

1) Because of the current shift to the right, many government programs that deal with mental illness are insanely underfunded. The idea that this underfunded program would be at all effective in treatment of said mental illnesses is ridiculous.
2) Ask anyone who's an alcoholic, it isn't exactly easy to just stop drinking. You'd need some sort of detox/rehab program in public housing which, given the problem i pointed out in number 1, is probably not going to happen.
3) Even when you have the money to afford treatment, mental illness is insanely hard to deal with. Psychiatry often plays a trial and error game that's hard for the patients to deal with. The side effects often have patients do crazy things that they wouldn't necessarily do. ie: even the treatment itself could drive a homeless person to drinking.
4) Many homeless are going to see no drinking rules as restrictions on their personal freedom. In public housing or privately run shelters, there's always a fear that the housing/shelter is going to come off as insanely paternalistic, which alienates many homeless people who don't want those types of restrictions on their behavior
5)The current system, partially because of cuts but also conservative and so-called moderate views on welfare, only provides benefits for short amounts of time or based on fulfilling certain requirements (such as attempting to get a job). These requirements, while seeming common sense to someone who's middle class or above, are often insanely hard to meet for someone in abject poverty.
6) Your model of "just stop drinking to get a place to stay" assumes a type of rational decision making that isn't necessarily found in the real world. Tons of groups of people commonly make decisions that are against their interests. For example, the extreme level of desperation a homeless person feels daily because of their economic status could easily make such rational decision making irrelevant because it could lead to psychological factors and stresses were drinking is seen as necessary to cope.



You're ignoring the fact that because of budget cuts, it will be unlikely that pubic housing would be staffed by professionals who are able to understand and diagnose mental illness in a professional manner. Even then, alcohol use doesn't preclude diagnosis. In fact, chronic alcohol use is actually a great indicator that something is wrong. So your logic would preclude many of the people who need treatment the most from accessing it.



This is incredibly misguided and shows you don't understand the socio economic barriers that our capitalist society has preventing people from being a so-called productive member of society.



The straw man here is cute because I've never advocated "paying people to sit around and get wasted all day". That isn't how welfare works and me saying that people use drugs and alcohol as a way to self medicate is not saying that's what people should do. I was pointing out how complicated the issue is and why, given the state of our healthcare system and government programs on poverty, the idea that people can "just stop drinking" is ridiculous.

if you actually paid attention to homeless people, you'd see that the ones who "sit around and get wasted all day" aren't accessing government programs for various reasons. Those people aren't on welfare because they can't access it for some reason. They often drink because living on the street fucking sucks.
:appl:

[bandnamexmyname]

In seattle, 10-year-olds sneak out of their houses at night and draw penises on their local hobo's cardboard signs.

that's not the norm, but it's happened.

[Formatfun]

and?

trying to hard and failing miserably.

so wrong. still kind of funny.
You're just the judge of comedy, aren't you?

[open mind]

You're just the judge of comedy aren't you, douchebag?

judging by the lack of appreciation shown for your moronic post i must be a good one right?

[Formatfun]

judging by the lack of appreciation shown for your moronic post i must be a good one right?
lol whatever you say.

EDIT to add: I was just being satirical with your post, not necessarily trying to be funny.

[caveBEAR]

You cannot even fathom how Ecuadorian I am.

Ha ha ha ha ha. That gave me a hearty guffaw.

[Kassie09]

I like Oakland?

ew i hate oakland.

[spiffa0]

ew i hate oakland.

Well I hate you. But not really

[zion the lion]

That was exactly what I was going to say!

Also, these:


http://bellyshirts.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/homeless_man_in_anchorage1.jpg

Either homeless bill is in Anchorage or there's more than one homeless bill.