Why did you live in the open scorpio and not squat ?
Coming from Melbourne it doesn't take too long before you realise you need to go find an empty house ....... Real fast .
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Why did you live in the open scorpio and not squat ?
Coming from Melbourne it doesn't take too long before you realise you need to go find an empty house ....... Real fast .
I have been homeless three times.
Once from an ugly break up/divorce, once from depression, once from being scammed and robbed on darn near everything.
Being homeless does suck.
However I would like to point out that there is a lot of abuse.
My ex-wife for instance was on section 8. She worked a part time job on purpose to maximize her section 8, unemployment, and her income. She was playing the system.
I am however promoting a Not for Profit known as 'Bridges to Change' which, unlike most other programs, has a time limit as well as other tools designed to get you out successfully, or out on your own.
When I was scammed I was introduced to that program I had no money left, and only work clothes. They bought a interview suit and a bus pass. In two weeks I had a job.
They have requirements to make contact wiith at least four employers a day. They keep track. When employed you pay $50 a month as rent and give half your pay to be kept secured in a safe (to be returned to you when you leave).
You have three months to. Find a job, six months total if you get employed. You share a room with another person, there are six rooms total, and a volunteer lives on sight and supervises. Drug tests are required at the start and randomly throughout your stay. Alcohol tests as well.
You had house chores to do and were required to attend two meetings a week (work was an exception).
The program has an amazing success rate, yet Liberals in the United States are horrified at this sort of expiring time, drug/alcohol testing program even with its success rate.
I left that program near a month an d a half early... and I was late (to me) leaving because I had to buy a car as well.
Portland on the other hand has HUD, Section 8, Housing Authority of Portland, and a program run by Central City Concern. All of these programs are weakly administered, have weak requirements, have even weaker punishments, and are not geared for success. They are designed to keep people in the system. The City of Portland further restricts the number of people allowed in a homeless shelter. All of this is a recipe for continued broken dreams.
Additionally the shelters are prohibited from focusing on those trying to get jobs but must take all comers (with a lottery if to many that day). This means those who are homeless due to choice are interfering with the recovery of those homeless due to circumstance.
well I suppose Norway is by default the next country I'm gooing to live in since I grew up in Denmark, went to Iceland to study and are now on my first job in Sweeden, plus it hold some advantages not beeing a part of the european union and likely to never end up as a part of it.
Isn't the point to avoid becoming homeless in the first place? This program you speak of is probably excellent, but it only helps a marginal percentage and it shouldn't be needed in the first place.Quote:
Originally Posted by CREinstein
The US middle class is crumbling.
I think he brings up a good point. Due to drug abuse and other things a large percentage of the homeless population essentially chooses homelessness over having to work. I do not know many people who have been unable to find a job when actively looking. I know only 1 guy from my high school class who is actually homeless and he says some days suck but he likes it more then he liked working... but yea Unemployment in canada is around 7%, homelessness is listed as .5%. The same as the USA. I bet based on what I see on the streets here. 90% of the homeless fall into 2 groups:
1) substance abuse prevents finding a job
2) choose to be homeless
Why do people turn to substance abuse? Most of them are from poorer backgrounds. They don't have the education or connections to get nice jobs and get stuck in poorly paid crappy jobs. At some point they just can't take it anymore and try drugs to get away from it all and that's when a new junky is born.Quote:
Originally Posted by goodz
The long term solution is to offer better education to ALL citizens so that everybody has a chance to be part of the american dream. The reality is that promising to put more people in jail is what gets politicians the most votes (criminals aren't allowed to vote) so that ends up being the policy. America, f*ck yeah!
The American Dream is the cause of much of Americans' suffering.
Most people don't want to admit just what a ****hole this world is, and how much is based on bull****.
This society only works is a substantial portion of the population is placed in abject poverty - not for any real reason except that it is believed that such suffering is necessary by nature. Trying to argue with that logic is a waste of time and energy.
I don't blame anyone for using drugs to numb the pain. I only object to drug culture jackasses who are smug bastards and murderers, who would be smug bastards and murderers if there were no drugs. Nor do I blame anyone for being homeless... it is what it is.
In all of this, the simple and logical solution to provide cheap housing is inevitably ****ed up by profit motives and a desire among the world's elite to force the homeless into further starvation. Again, not something that can be argued with. Also, the worst part of homelessness is by far social stigma, which is never going to change because of centuries of social engineering and humans naturally finding someone weak to blame for all of society's problems.
Poverty perpetuates itself :<
just give them a bunch of credit and then let them drop dead when they don't pay it back. well, that probably won't work because if i lent them money and they didn't pay it back, i might be required to kill them for being thieving bastages, at the least chop off their hands. btw, i heard that around 25% of the homeless were US Veterans. HooooRaaaah!Quote:
Originally Posted by stoffi
the real question is why do you want to force me to pay for them? i should be doing it because of the charity in my blessed heart and because i'm a bloody compassionate person who wants to be rewarded with an eternity of bliss... well, that's what i would want to do if i wasn't too busy paying for old people who had their entire life to plan ahead for their retirement.
how much do i owe another person simply because they exist, and if i owe it to them, why don't they owe it to me?
european goverments have social economic safety nets. if they d not have them. the amount of homeless ppl d be simular to the US. I think the europeans have the most civilised system in which whealth is most evenly distributed then anywhere in the world.