Homeless people, what are your thoughts?

[X]

Actually, I heard that it's better to give homeless women feminine products instead of money, so I rushed off to buy some, put it in a paper bag (for privacy and dignity) and gave it to this homeless woman I saw in a shop doorway.

She gratefully took the bag and looked into it. There was a long pause and she looked into my eyes ...

"What the fuck am I going to do with an iron?"

[Freedom]

There are more homeless people here in Vancouver than ever before. Most of them are older men. I usually give them a little money and offer to buy them food.

There are a few younger people here who are professional panhandlers - I don't give to them.

[Alpha]

I think for many it's a lifestyle they choose. Obviously there are some truly sad stories but many I have known have screwed over everyone who cared or tried to help them, leaving them no one else to turn to or care. Some don't wish to work, want to drink and do drugs (I wish I could as well) but you need to step up and take some responsibility.

[brocktonblockbust]

2016 statistics for New York City just in we have 167,500 homeless people in New York City. The total number of beds in homeless shelters in New York City is 72,000.

That means there are 95,000 homeless people on the street who cannot get any beds in homeless shelters.

I step over literally 20 or 30 homeless people every day whether it's on the sidewalk or on the subway platforms or going up and down the stairs in the tunnels I literally step over 20 or 30 homeless people per day. Any of you people want to live a couple of years in New York City I do not believe you will give a rat's ass any longer about any homeless person.

@Beanz

[TitoFan]

You know Brock, you're bound to get criticized for this... but you make a good point. A person subjected to the same thing day in and day out... and in quantities... tend to get desensitized. Example: Here in P.R. we have stray dog issues. As is to be expected, you routinely see dead dogs on the road, victims of the obvious traffic that uses the roads. I've seen people from other places without stray dog issues be completely horrified at their first sight of a dead dog on the street. But years of living with these conditions tend to become immune to that. Same goes for crime-ridden neighbors anywhere in the world with high murder rates. Pretty sure at some point people accept it as part of daily life, and just keep on going about their business.

[brocktonblockbust]

[QUOTE=brocktonblockbust;1458742]

You know Brock, you're bound to get criticized for this... but you make a good point. A person subjected to the same thing day in and day out... and in quantities... tend to get desensitized. Example: Here in P.R. we have stray dog issues. As is to be expected, you routinely see dead dogs on the road, victims of the obvious traffic that uses the roads. I've seen people from other places without stray dog issues be completely horrified at their first sight of a dead dog on the street. But years of living with these conditions tend to become immune to that. Same goes for crime-ridden neighbors anywhere in the world with high murder rates. Pretty sure at some point people accept it as part of daily life, and just keep on going about their business.

You hit the nail on the head Tito. I have found that people who lead sheltered lives in little towns which are secluded from high population areas ...little towns in which there are absolutely no dangers or threats or challenges..... become very delicate and find things like homelessness Etc such a shocking thing. Unfortunately these are the people who are dictating public policy in the world ....people who live in Ivory Towers far away from everybody are the ones to tell the inner cities what they should do and what's horrifying and what's not horrifying. It's almost a passive-aggressive version of Let them eat cake. I personally have found nothing more grotesque than white rich people's horror at quite normal everyday things

[Beanz]

[QUOTE=brocktonblockbust;1458743]

You know Brock, you're bound to get criticized for this... but you make a good point. A person subjected to the same thing day in and day out... and in quantities... tend to get desensitized. Example: Here in P.R. we have stray dog issues. As is to be expected, you routinely see dead dogs on the road, victims of the obvious traffic that uses the roads. I've seen people from other places without stray dog issues be completely horrified at their first sight of a dead dog on the street. But years of living with these conditions tend to become immune to that. Same goes for crime-ridden neighbors anywhere in the world with high murder rates. Pretty sure at some point people accept it as part of daily life, and just keep on going about their business.

You hit the nail on the head Tito. I have found that people who lead sheltered lives in little towns which are secluded from high population areas ...little towns in which there are absolutely no dangers or threats or challenges..... become very delicate and find things like homelessness Etc such a shocking thing. Unfortunately these are the people who are dictating public policy in the world ....people who live in Ivory Towers far away from everybody are the ones to tell the inner cities what they should do and what's horrifying and what's not horrifying. It's almost a passive-aggressive version of Let them eat cake. I personally have found nothing more grotesque than white rich people's horror at quite normal everyday things

Have a shit Christmas Brockton you clueless assuming arrogant little cunt

[X]

[QUOTE=brocktonblockbust;1458743]

You know Brock, you're bound to get criticized for this... but you make a good point. A person subjected to the same thing day in and day out... and in quantities... tend to get desensitized. Example: Here in P.R. we have stray dog issues. As is to be expected, you routinely see dead dogs on the road, victims of the obvious traffic that uses the roads. I've seen people from other places without stray dog issues be completely horrified at their first sight of a dead dog on the street. But years of living with these conditions tend to become immune to that. Same goes for crime-ridden neighbors anywhere in the world with high murder rates. Pretty sure at some point people accept it as part of daily life, and just keep on going about their business.

You hit the nail on the head Tito. I have found that people who lead sheltered lives in little towns which are secluded from high population areas ...little towns in which there are absolutely no dangers or threats or challenges..... become very delicate and find things like homelessness Etc such a shocking thing. Unfortunately these are the people who are dictating public policy in the world ....people who live in Ivory Towers far away from everybody are the ones to tell the inner cities what they should do and what's horrifying and what's not horrifying. It's almost a passive-aggressive version of Let them eat cake. I personally have found nothing more grotesque than white rich people's horror at quite normal everyday things

I definitely agree that people get inured to and used to things they see regularly. It's much harder to survive in a small town if you're homeless, so there's are more homeless people in big cities. There is more crime, more opportunity and more diversity in cities, so city-livers are more used to those things.

I don't agree that there are never dangers, threats or challenges in small towns though. Everywhere has its positives and negatives. Also, just because someone is horrified at the number of homeless people it doesn't make them wrong. In an ideal world, nobody would be homeless would they?

I'm not sure about the situation in America, but in the UK it is not the people in little towns and villages who influence public policy. The population density in the country is much much less than in our big cities, so they have less Members of Parliament than those people who are in big urban areas. In Britain it is the urban metropolitan city dwellers who really drove public policy and many laws.

It's possible that the Brexit vote was largely driven by rural voters who felt 'left behind' by the metropolitan elite (though there are many conflicting theories about that admittedly)

[Spicoli]

I think for many it's a lifestyle they choose. Obviously there are some truly sad stories but many I have known have screwed over everyone who cared or tried to help them, leaving them no one else to turn to or care. Some don't wish to work, want to drink and do drugs (I wish I could as well) but you need to step up and take some responsibility.

Yeh everyone's circumstances are different as is environment. I definitely have an age bias when it comes to homelessness. And there are tons of working people who drink and drug regularly working the fingers to the bone.

and wth did Walmart stop allowing Salvation army kettles? Might be a local thing but none to be seen yesterday, meanwhile 2 old gals roaming the gas station and parking lot for 'something to eat', not 'got any money'. Makes sense . I cannot walk away from someone asking for a meal.