The face of homelessness.

[Savannahmann]

I know, homelessness is not a topic we discuss here since we have the White House. But I maintain it is a subject we should be discussing, no matter who is the President. It is a subject we must address especially when our party is the ones in the White House.

The Face of Homelessness.

It's easy and common to presume that the people living in boxes on the streets are a product of their own poor decisions.

Sometimes its also true.

But a new campaign is attempting to breakdown the stereotypes usually associated with the homeless and show that, in a post-recession economy, losing your home happens to everyday people.

Another link for more information.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/16/rethink-homelessness-campaign-video_n_5592163.html

The video is heartbreaking. These are all purportedly people in one city. Orlando. One city out of thousands in this nation.

[riderinthestorm]

1. LOVE this! BIG K and R!!!

I believe that anything that allows people to "see' the homeless as part of our human experience, means we are more willing to help them.

[TBF]

2. There'a a facebook page "Humans of New York"

that has the stories of all sorts of people. Some of them are homeless as well. I'm glad folks are doing this. Everyone has a story and often it is really different than what you would expect from just looking at them or knowing a little bit about them. It makes us all more human to both share and hear the stories.

[Warpy]

3. I never saw homeless women and children until Reagan got in

The only money to be made under Reagan was yuppie money, wasted money, gentrification money. With rooming houses (rooms with a bed, hot plate, dorm fridge, bathroom down the hall) being turned back into mansions in which two yuppies and their rug rat were rattling around like three peas in a barrel, marginal workers had no choice but to hit the bricks.

Before Reagan, homeless people were mostly male alcoholics. People tried extra hard to get the female alcoholics off the street. I did know a few of those.

I rethought homelessness a long time ago. I had to live in my car for a while. It was bad enough that I've gone hungry just to keep a roof over my head and a stable address.

Most people are an auto accident, a bad diagnosis, a series of job losses due to offshoring, or fleeing a violent marriage away from homelessness. There is a lot of denial out there but that is the truth and people who should care about that often don't.

I have to laugh at the "survivalist" shows. If those people wanted to know how to survive a total socioeconomic meltdown, they'd be talking to homeless people Homeless people are a great resource on hacks and kludges to survive disaster.

Some have been friends over the years, refusing to take "charity" if I offered to help them when I was working and had money. I know they all have stories but don't owe it to anyone to tell them. And every day they stay homeless is an indictment of how this country spends its money.

[lunasun]

8. +1

[Savannahmann]

10. There were homeless before then. We just didn't speak of them.

We called them Hobo's, Drifters, Bums, Drunks, and we forgot about them. During the Reagan years the annual tradition started. The feeding of the Homeless by politicians and civic minded on Thanksgiving. Perhaps on Christmas, but otherwise, nobody noticed, and they didn't care. There used to be the annual stories, the first Homeless to freeze to death, or die from exposure. We would all feel bad for a bit, and then we would forget them again.

When I saw we, I mean society. When I say we forgot them, I mean we as a society for the large part forgot our fellow citizens.

Perhaps it's something I've trained myself to do, or perhaps it's some sort of perverse miswiring in my brain. But I always think of them whenever we have a report about how awesome the economy is. I always think of the homeless when I hear about the great unemployment numbers. I think about them when I hear the phrase new normal to describe the mess we are in. We as a society have set the bar low, and we still need a ladder to get near it because all too often, we are much lower.

Yes, I donate every month to the local shelter. But even that doesn't feel like half enough. Houses sit empty around this nation, and these folks have no where to call home, and even if we gave them a house, they couldn't afford utilities because they can't get a job.

Perhaps its because only the kindness of my parents that I was saved from such a fate. I know I was lucky, both to have parents when fate kicked me to the curb and my home went the way of the Dodo, and to be fortunate enough to get a job that allowed me to get where I am.

There is an old saying. I hope you'll forgive me if I reference it now. There but for the grace of God, go I. Because that could have been me, on the street, homeless, and hopeless. Forgotten, and treated like garbage.

I hope I never forget the feeling of despair that I experienced. Because I could have been them.

[WillyT]

4. K & R !!!

[jwirr]

5. K&R Homelessness as we know it started with the raygun administration. I am old enough that I

remember the hobos. I do not remember then in the Great Depression era but in the 1950s I was at my grandmothers setting on the front porch one night when an older gentleman walked up carrying a bag over his shoulder and asked if grandma was around. When she came out she welcomed him and asked him to stay for supper. He ate out on the porch refusing to come in and set with the family. Later my grandmother brought all the knives our to him and in return for his supper he sharpened all the knives. He slept in the barn up in the hay loft and the next morning he was gone. He was the last hobo I saw.

Today it is different because it is not men traveling their routes - it is encampments and women and children. I understand that in the Depression there were women who were homeless also but not as many and they seldom had children unless they were moving the family in search of a job.

[Drew Richards]

6. Great post Savannahmann where you been? Havent seen you much.

[CurtEastPoint]

7. This is just...at once... sad and infuriating... and enlightening.

[L0oniX]

9. K & R