In the words of Tupac Amaru Shakur "They got money for wars but can't feed the poor.". Says it all. Nobody in this country in this day and age should be homeless unless it is their choice.

the ever growing number of homeless will be between a rock & a hard place when the Obama healthcare option takes effect...

it's like this.... persons, including families not having healthcare
or not joining into the healthcare option proposed by Obama
will face a $1,500. fine for not having either a company sponsered
health care--- a medicaid card --- or have opted for the public option.


just where are they going to house or fine all these homeless/indigents

? throw them in what ammounts to a 'debtors prison'
because they broke the law by not being covered with health insurance ?

There's enough abandoned buildings, and its not over hard to get basic utilities up and running , ower, water, or rig them up.

went 'homeless' for a year right after high school, squatted in an old abandoned highschool, got the power running enough for lights, water was still on, and clean, got the toilets going even, survived a new york winter fairly comfortable, eventually went back home, and went to college, my goal was pretty much a year of this, but main point, it doesn't take too much effort

Originally posted by Doc Tesla
I think homeless people are just lazy or stupid. in either case it is their own fault. No one forced them to become homeless. They chose it.

My friend fell upon some hard times and is currently living with friends or occasionally with me. So if your homeless what kind of piece of dirt must you have been that not even friends or family are willing to take care of you?

Like jd said. if they want jobs they can get them

The community, I am originally from,it's main employer is the auto
industry.They have had serious cutbacks and layoffs.In summer 2008,
three levees broke and flooded a large portion of the town.A lot of the
businesses went belly up after this.A lot of homes were flood damaged,
including my own house.I rented my house out and was glad it was empty
when the levees broke.With the loss of jobs and a housing shortage,more people will become homeless.
FEMA IS A JOKE.I had to fill out paperwork,but I knew I was wasting my time.I remember what happened after Katrina,no help from FEMA.

Some posters are forgetting a simple but crucial fact - there are people who can rely on family and friends to tide them over.

Adults whose parents own their own home and would let them move back in until they could get over the bad financial circumstances that saw them go from bad to worse. Friends who can supply information and connections. These don't have to be the connections of the upper middle and wealthy etc. Just someone who can give you a paycheck doing a job that you might not want to do permanently but which will get you over the rough times.

Not all but many people who end up doing it really rough don't have social capital. They don't have the networks to gain info about employment opps etc. When I was in college I envied classmates who were doing part time mail sorting jobs. Easy job, easy money. The jobs weren't ever advertised. You knew somebody, you got in.

By contrast I was working crap jobs like burger chains, and one of em was just dangerous. I got that job because very few people wanted to work those hours in that part of town. I didn't have alternatives then.

In times like this what chance do a lot of people have if they don't have that social capital? The route from down on your luck to homeless is much shorter now. Yeah, bad life decisions can be made but sometimes bad luck hits you like a torrent and it happens at once. In these times when thousands are lining up for crap jobs that once few wanted to do or when college graduates are trying for jobs that they are way over qualified for, that's a warning sign right there.

Some people lost their jobs because their company just can't afford all their employees. Are these people irresponsible because they were told they had job security and went out and got themselves a mortgage because they wanted the security of eventually owning? Credit's a fact of life and cars are one thing that most people need credit to buy.

As for the comment about there's something wrong with you if you don't have family or friends you can move in with etc - you're making a lot of assumptions about people's financial ability and living conditions to have another person or two or more in your home. Some people don't want to impose especially if the family or friends themselves are struggling.

Re the lady who posted above me - Katrina showed just what priorities are when govts set the agenda. Katrina didn't have to happen, bulwarks against the problematic weather around there should have been in place, proper use of resources for maximum protection etc. Instead what we got in the aftermath was spin about how people shouldn't have lived there, how they should have just got in their cars (great if you own one) and driven away.

All about shifting the blame on to the people and absolving the powers responsible.





[edit on 15-10-2009 by dontbelievehype]

[edit on 15-10-2009 by dontbelievehype]