Are there more spare bedrooms than homeless people in developed countries?

I can't find an answer to this. My guess is that this is true: there are more spare bedrooms in developed societies than there are homeless people living in these societies. Does anybody know how or where to get this information? Does anybody have an idea at a guess?

I would start with the census bearueas (sp?) every developed country has this service and they are usually pretty detailed with info.

i did a quick google and found this

www.lib.ipfw.edu..." target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow"> www.lib.ipfw.edu...
i didnt dig through it very well but they might have the info you are looking for.

cheers

IB

I don't know. That just doesn't sound right to me.

It sounds like a manufactured statistic thought up by some politician to further his agenda.

Where exactly did you get this from?

I came up with it myself, probably to further my own reasoning, but I haven't had time to look at the facts. I don't know where I'm going to find out how many spare bedrooms there are.

I think this is an interesting concept, and one I would like to look into a little further.

Do spare bedrooms out number homeless people in our own neighborhood, community, city, country, etc.?

How many beds remain empty, while people sleep out in the cold?

I may look into this and see if I can not find some results for my own locality. I've volunteered for a few non-profit organizations where temporary safe houses are provided for people on the street, and it wasn't really until then that I realized my own small community had a vast number of homeless individuals.

I think we program ourselves to overlook these poor souls. That is until one of them come panhandling.

Very interesting.

Excellent thread!

reply to post by chissler

surely chissler you're not implying that we offer up our spare bedroom to one of these homeless persons???
tell you what, you do it first and let me know how it works out for you and then i will consider it.
(holding my breath)

Where in any of my post did I imply that anybody should welcome a complete stranger into their home? Homeless or not, I would strongly oppose anybody allowing any stranger into their home, let alone settling into their spare room.

Please do indicate where I have implied this.

What I did say is that this is an interesting concept. The notion that empty beds out number homeless individuals in a given locality. Whatever your concern, I find this to be interesting.

To get some numbers on this issue, we could do so very easily.

Simply ask a set number of people. 100, 200, 500, whatever. Take that percentage and use it as an average for your population. Then take a moment and research the possible numbers for homeless individuals in your locality. With a minimal effort, one would be able to have a rough estimate if empty beds out number homeless individuals.

And in case I wasn't clear before, I am not advocating that we allow strangers into our homes.

I look forward to hearing how anyone took that from my post.

reply to post by chissler

oh puhleeeze! your entire post leans toward that assumption! liberals are always trying to get everyone else to do all these goodly things but wont do them themselves...what a joke.

Originally posted by icybreeze
oh puhleeeze! your entire post leans toward that assumption!

What?

I'm clearly stating that allowing a complete stranger into your home is a bad idea. But somehow that has been confused for advocating to allow it? ...What?

Originally posted by icybreeze
liberals are always trying to get everyone else to do all these goodly things but wont do them themselves...what a joke.

And how have you come to determine my political affiliation?

It would appear that what I have to say is irrelevant. If my words are ignored, and baseless assumptions are uncovered, what is the point?

Rather than jumping to conclusions, let's actually discuss the issue at hand.

sure ok, lets break down your post in question shall we...

I think this is an interesting concept, and one I would like to look into a little further.

meaning you want to see if there is any truth to it so that you may pass it around to make others feel guilty, more white guilt to distribute right?

How many beds remain empty, while people sleep out in the cold?

headline of the propoganda pamphlet to spread the white guilt theme...

I've volunteered for a few non-profit organizations where temporary safe houses are provided for people on the street, and it wasn't really until then that I realized my own small community had a vast number of homeless individuals.

"look at me i'm in the trenches with the poor folk, there is so many of them and not enough temporary housing boohoo." don't purposefully ignore the fact that most of these homeless people are self made and ended up that way due to alcohol or drug use...

I think we program ourselves to overlook these poor souls. That is until one of them come panhandling.

wmeaning that we must due something to remember the homeless and we have all these bedrooms blah blah blah..

Very interesting.

very interesting indeed..i can just hear those liberal wheels spinning...

Excellent thread!

Originally posted by icybreeze
meaning you want to see if there is any truth to it so that you may pass it around to make others feel guilty, more white guilt to distribute right?

Make others feel guilty for what? I don't think we are on the same wave length here. It's as if I'm walking into our conversation half way through it.

What am I making others feel guilty for?

Originally posted by icybreeze
headline of the propoganda pamphlet to spread the white guilt theme...

What?

White guilt theme?

Are you that bold to say that homelessness is not a white problem? Only minorities fall victim, or in your case; choose to, be homeless? Only white people feel guilt for this?

Originally posted by icybreeze
"look at me i'm in the trenches with the poor folk, there is so many of them and not enough temporary housing boohoo." don't purposefully ignore the fact that most of these homeless people are self made and ended up that way due to alcohol or drug use...

First of all, look at your own text. "Most" of these individuals. MOST. So by your own admission, a percentage of these people are victims, and they do need our help. I'm not going to engage you on the numbers of homelessness, and who is to blame, as that is a completely different subject matter. But by your own admission, a percentage of homeless individuals are victims.

Originally posted by icybreeze
wmeaning that we must due something to remember the homeless and we
--
very interesting indeed..i can just hear those liberal wheels spinning...

In all honesty here, are you reading the posts of other members? Or just finding what you need in order to suit your own agenda? The manner in which you have perceived my post, none of which was intended. So I need to ask myself, why is he perceiving these posts in this manner?

Your "Hey, Look at me" assumption of my character is your opinion, and you are entitled to it. Personally, I don't care what you think of me. But my reference of this experience was merely to legitimize my statement. I have worked with homeless individuals, so I can base some of my opinions of of first hand experience. So you see, "Hey, Look at me!".. and I see a validated statement.

Now icybreeze, we can disagree until the cows come home. I don't care. I'm more than happy to discuss this endlessly, even if we disagree on every point. But can we please lose some of the sarcasm and unnecessary jabs?

I don't see how it furthers the discussion.

reply to post by chissler

i didnt mean to jump on you personnally but i just saw which way this thread was going and i jumped on you. sorry
i am trying to think before i type and not get emotional about it, bear with me....


[edit on 8-11-2007 by icybreeze]

More pertinently, if there are more spaces, why aren't we using them, if there are less spaces, why do we not build more? Markets can deal with the rest.