How come we didn't hear about the homeless before the '80's?

[raccoon]

I’m sure some existed. But I don’t remember hearing about them hanging out in libraries, in parks, etc.

[MineralMan]

1. Who didn't hear about the homeless? I did.

In fact, I volunteered as a cook in a homeless shelter in California in the 70s. The problem existed and was recognized then, too.

Learn about the history of homelessness here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness

[angstlessk]

5. Back then were there enough homeless shelters?

Or were there tent cities etc, like now?

[MineralMan]

15. There have never been enough homeless shelters.

In the 60s and 70s, camps existed made up of homeless people in many places, including the central coast of California, where I lived at that time. Others lived, as they do now, in the cities, finding places to sleep, just as they do now. The homeless shelter where I volunteered was quite a way from town, but a city bus transported people to and from it in the afternoon and morning. It was in an industrial area, and was not a wonderful facility, but it was there.

Most of the residents were mentally ill and had been dumped out of state mental hospitals by Ronald Reagan. The county had no system set up at that time, so it was either the county jail or the homeless shelter for those who couldn't make their own way in various camps.

But homelessness has always been a problem. The homeless have always been a part of civilization and have needed assistance, which has been provided in various ways. In Old Testament times, alms were given to the poor and homeless, but there were no shelters, per se.

The homeless have, through most of history, lived rough and on their own, or they died, as they still do today, outdoors. In Europe, gypsies or the Roma, as they are more properly called, lived in caravans that traveled around the countryside. Sort of like living in your car, today.

[nolabear]

2. Really? Hoovervilles? Squatters? Hoboes?

They were there.

[Backseat Driver]

3. Perhaps the terms were just different -

I seem to remember the term "flophouses," barely habitable rooms where sleepers without means came and went.

[C_U_L8R]

4. Hoovervilles

Homelessness has always been a problem when disparity between rich and poor becomes untenable.

[sweetloukillbot]

6. Reagan closed government mental hospitals and turned the patients out onto the streets

That led to an explosion of homeless people.

[The Figment]

8. What this person said,no question nt

[htuttle]

10. +1

That's exactly what happened

[moondust]

11. +1

That was my guess as well. Too many to ignore due to the cruel policies of Reagan.

[crickets]

12. *ding!* We have a winner!

Homelessness has always been a problem, but Ronnie found a way to magnify the misery for many more people than ever before.

[2naSalit]

14. Not that they weren't houses of torture and

ill treatment, it was a bad way to go. A family member of mine was caught up in the transition and it was horrible and made her life hell.

[crickets]

18. This is also very true. I am so sorry to hear about your family member.

But instead of addressing the situation humanely with reform, Reagan pretty much just dumped the people out of the doors and called the problem solved. It was a tragedy no matter how you look at it.

[The Figment]

31. A family member of mine

Was in Kalamazoo State Hospital in the early 70's it was a horrible place to put anybody.
Built in the 1870"s it was rundown, dark,dank and really creepy, but as opposed to have folk sleeping in the Streets with no treatment...

[The Blue Flower]

27. This is the correct answer

Thank Reagan.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. I did. There have been homeless people since forever.

I remember homeless people hanging out in the public library back in the '60s.

[unitedwethrive]

9. Reagan

https://shelterforce.org/2004/05/01/reagans-legacy-homelessness-in-america/

“Reagan came to office in 1981 with a mandate to reduce federal spending. In reality, he increased it through the escalating military budget, all the while slashing funds for domestic programs that assisted working class Americans, particularly the poor.”

[dalton99a]

17. +1. And then the problem became very public

[SWBTATTReg]

13. Because cities buried or hid them away...as long as they stayed away under the bridge ...

supports or along the industrial river bottom areas in their card board villages, and not in the downtown city proper, no one saw or spotted them, thus they weren't seen and not a problem. Downtown churches sometimes saw them, but they had them come in via the basement steps and not through the front doors.

Sad. At least now-a-days, cities are becoming more proactive (like in STLMO) about actually helping and dealing w/ the homeless, try to find places for them to live/jobs/treatments, etc., instead of pushing them off onto church organizations, vet organizations, etc.

[Merlot]

19. I think there are more now than before

A "few" homeless people was easier to overlook. regan exploded the problem by closing the mental institutions and now the income disparity and housing shortage has exacerbated the problem.

[SWBTATTReg]

23. Absolutely. I look at California and the beach towns that have popped up. What a tragedy. NT

[spanone]

16. ronald reagan

[maxsolomon]

20. Because there were very cheap housing options called SROs in cities.

Not to joke too much, but 2 hours of pushing broom bought an 8x12 4-bit room.

Those are gone, and the number of people falling into homelessness has skyrocketed.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

21. In 5th grade in the 60s we had a bus tour of the local skid row for Social Studies class.

That's admittedly a pretty specific angle on homelessness but the topic did come up.

[WhiteTara]

22. Ronald Raygun and trickle down economics

that pissed on the people and made the rich richer. He also closed public hospitals for mentally ill.

[abqtommy]

24. When I was living in Spokane, WA, as a pre-teen through adulthood, (from 1957 on)

I used to get my haircuts at the Moler Barber College (15 cents) that was located in the part of the city that was known in the 50s and 60s as Skid Row. My Mom prepared me for my travels there by
warning me about the dangers of being around desperate, mentally ill, alcoholic people. I took her warning to heart to the extent that when I went for a haircut (by myself) I always opened the largest blade in my pocketknife so I had it handy in case of some problem. (I never had a problem)

The Salvation Army kept busy on Skid Row, providing shelter and meals in exchange for people who would sit through religious services. The city police ran a full time de-lousing service for the "bums"
as they were called then. Things were bad on the street, to say the least.

In the 70s the city cleaned up Skid Row and turned the area into Riverside Park, a real benefit to the people of the city. Where do the "bums"/homeless go in such a case? I'm not sure, but I know it's
someplace else. They don't just disappear.

For many years there have been "bums", "hobos" and social misfits. I think there's a big need for mental health and physical health care. There are reforms that can be made that keep people from
financial ruin due to excessive costs for medical care. Charities can make a difference but it's apparent not much is being accomplished.

Yes, "bums", "hobos" and the homeless have been around for a long time. Some people know that. Now what are we going to do about it?

[snowybirdie]

25. That's about the time

Reagan closed all the mental institutions and turned people out on the street.

[lapucelle]

26. Reagn cut federal funding. N/T

[Newest Reality]

28. Like has been said...

It has been around since forever. Capitalism, especially, requires that kind of inequity IMHO, so it is built-in. Prior to that, it was about just plain lack and bad conditions for many people. Things are better in some ways for some poor people, but not when you contrast it with the lives those who have live now. Kings of yore would be envious.

For several years, I have been domestically challenged, myself. In the Winter, libraries are a sanctuary, a haven. A tent with two sleeping bags is home. Food is a challenge and nutrition is sparse. When you are older, you actually need more calories and protein, so it is a shorter trip to the grave, (that you don't get). I often laugh at how you don't get a funeral or anything at the end when you are destitute. It is befitting.

Yet, one can manage despite the way people react. There is a strong prejudice even if you are clean. The backpack, (maybe your shoes and clothing) gives it away For us elders, it is rather rugged living with no future at all and you acquire a penchant for it to just end already. Ah! Resting in peace. In Zen it is referred to as dragging a corpse around. But look, what wealth and wonders are all around! Unprecedented wealth flowing overhead like a wind of silk and gold and glimmering jewels.

In some ways, there is a caste system here, but the untouchables are unmentionables. The upper castes would rather sweep them away. Class is a dirty word in the mainstream and you don't hear it mentioned much except for the rather laughable and deprecated references to being "middle-class" in order to not identify as poverty stricken--it's just maintenance of pride.

As long as those that have always get more, things are fine, no? Send not for whom the economy booms...

[hunter]

29. Many communities violently excluded homeless people...

... just as they did people who were gay or not white.

Police would do nothing when homeless people were assaulted.

In some places it was the police themselves who were assaulting homeless people.

Homeless people learned how to be invisible or they fled to places that were not so dangerous.

[CountAllVotes]

30. Got a quarter?

There was an elderly woman that used to be a frequent person to see on the corner of 1st and Montgomery every morning on the way to work in downtown San Francisco in the 1970's. She had nothing to say except, "Got a quarter?".

The same people gave her a quarter every day as she was homeless.

There were others too, but there weren't as many as there are today.

I recall many homeless were called "bums" many years ago.

All I knew is I didn't want to end up like that.

Grim reality no doubt.

[Stuart G]

32. "The Other America" by Micheal Harrington published in 1962. I read it then, and it is worth

reading now. One point that he makes is because decent clothes are dirt cheap, the poor are almost invisible to the rest of us. A person can be living in on a street or in a homeless shelter and still look decent. It doesn't take a lot of clothes to look clean. There are far more homeless and really poor people than most know. That may not look like the truth, but that is the point. It is the truth. We hear about it now, and see it because we look for it. Some didn't exist before, millions have always existed in the U.S.A. Many millions

[I_UndergroundPanther]

33. Reagan closed the mental hospitals

And the people suddenly discharged were unequipped to deal with starting a new life. Some couldn't so the homeless population grew rapidly after that. Reagan was a fuckfaced pig.

[csziggy]

34. 1970 - the first protest I went to was for the homeless and for retirees

St. Petersburg Florida had passed an ordinance saying that any person could be stopped by the police and if they didn't have at least $20 (it might have been as much as $40) in their pocket, they could be arrested for being indigent. Many retirees hung out in a park downtown and the police were using that location to target people. They assumed many were homeless or didn't have enough money to afford a place to stay - and that was true if they were arrested, had to pay bail, or had to pay fines. Retirees could end up on the streets if they had any extra expenses at all.

Back then Social Security wasn't very much and a lot of those retirees were living hand to mouth. There were rumors that some ate cat food to survive. $20 was a LOT of money back then and most of the retirees never had that much pocket money unless it was the day their check had arrived and they had just cashed it.

Then Pat Nixon came to town. It was "known" that she never carried cash and her staff paid for everything, so she would have met the definition of being indigent they way the law was being enforced. A protest was organized to object to this selective enforcement of the law.

It didn't come to much, but the law was challenged and was thrown out eventually.