Homeless People Each Share One Thing About Themselves That Will Surprise You

[one_voice]

**This is almost a year old**

Still I think it's worth looking at.

For a simple but profound project, Rethink Homelessness invited several of Orlando’s homeless residents to tell the rest of us one fact from their lives that, if we walked past them, we would never expect. As you can imagine, the results are poignantly humanizing


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more at link: http://twentytwowords.com/homeless-people-each-share-one-thing-about-themselves-that-will-surprise-you/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=partner&utm_campaign=TWSS

https://twitter.com/RethinkHomeless

[a kennedy]

1. If this doesn't make you feel sick about the income inequality in this country.....

Nothing will. This just breaks my heart.

[whathehell]

18. It does make me feel sick..

Sad and appalling.

[calimary]

37. No kidding.

This is horrendous. SHAMEFUL.

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. kick

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. I am amazed, and appalled that these people are homeless.

How can you have a job and be homeless? That is so wrong.

None of them should be in this situation.

I am sickened.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

11. You would be surprised how many out there have jobs.

And are well educated. Every Homeless person has their own story on how they got to that point. Some by wrong choices, some by broken promises, and some because they played by the rules and in doing so still lost it all.

It is one reason I get upset at many groups that are supposed to be about helping the homeless. They use a pigeonhole way of doing things. One homeless person is NOT the same as another. And neither of them is like a third, and so on.

[totodeinhere]

12. Nobody with a job should ever be homeless. Any job should provide a living wage,

period. Of course for that matter unemployed people shouldn't have to be homeless either but especially employed people should not be.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

13. True, but many have really bad credit.

That does block many from getting into housing, even being employed. That is why many are out there. Some get motels to stay in, but that makes it hard to save and get the credit issue fixed, then there is an issue with if you ever were evicted. Many take that into consideration. Such as how long ago that was.

I was lucky. I was able to get on HUD for a while and had no evictions on my record. That gave me the ability to straiten out my credit again and get a job. But that program is getting a longer and longer waiting list.

[jwirr]

22. I have a bedroom in my grandson's home that is allowing me to do the same. It is very hard and

it takes a long time. Maybe someday I will be able to have some place to live where I can have my life back. My dream is to remodel a garage and live in it. HUD housing is a possibility but I am afraid that like the place I am living in now I will not be able to have my great grandchildren visit me whenever I/they want.

[Liberty Belle]

16. When people are old and have a lot of medication expenses, Social Security is not enough.

A friend is one step from homelessness; he has no money for rent after buying his medicines. He had open heart surgery and must take heart medicine to stay alive, and also has lymphoma cancer. His meds are over $600 a month. In this city even a studio apartment is about a thousand a month, not counting utilities. Car insurance, car payment, gas....nobody can make ends meet anymore even if you're not on life-saving meds. He gets a whopping $100 a month in food stamps and maybe $700 a month in SSI - and at 67 years old with a heart condition and cancer, he can't find a job; nobody will hire him.

He is living in the basement of a friend, trading rent for work around his ranch. but now the friend may lose his home to foreclosure, and where is my friend supposed to go?

This month he skipped meds until he was really sick, just so he could get money to renew his car insurance, and now the fines for late registration are up to $450....there seems to be no way for a poor person to dig out of such a hole. I've loaned him money a few times but the bills should get worse and worse. America is totally f*cked up when a senior citizen with open heart surgery and cancer can't be safe from homelessness and starvation!

[jwirr]

23. I don't understand. At 67 he should be getting SSA not SSI unless he is getting minimum SSA. And

with that he should be getting Medicare and have the supplement that pays for meds. He needs help to get on these programs.

[Scarsdale]

30. Supplement

My Medicare supplement costs $187 a month and does NOT cover medicine. Thankfully I only take a blood pressure med, that is $10 for 3 months supply. No hearing aids, no dental coverage either.

[jwirr]

31. I think sometimes that I must live in a different country. I am on Medicare which pays for all of my

needs and the Part D (?) which was passed in bushes administration does not cost anything and pays for all of my medications. I do not buy a supplement. I guess I am just lucky. The drug supplement passed by bush is the supplement I was suggesting for him. I have diabetes so I have a lot of meds.

[Dont call me Shirley]

32. What plan are you on?! My thyroid meds just doubled. Copays for every doc except pcp is $50.00.

Plus I still have a 20% copay for medical procedures.

[jwirr]

34. I have Medicare with the government medication plan. Also I would suggest that if all of you who

are having trouble are not getting a lot of Social Security that you try to see if you are eligible for Medicaid. You might be surprised. And yes the cost for Medicaid will be taken out of your estate. And that is why so many are rejecting it. I for one would rather have good medical health than an estate.

[Dont call me Shirley]

35. The 20% on straight Medicare I still owe on breast cancer treatment is over $6,000.

Medicaid I don't qualify by a small window.

[jwirr]

36. Medicaid has something that is called a spend down. Ask them about that and tell them about the

$6,000. They can only say no.

Apparently Medicare is not what I thought it was.

[Dont call me Shirley]

38. Already have. Thanks for the advice though.

[jwirr]

39. Sorry I could not be of any help.

[grilled onions]

4. For Those Who Think All Homeless Are Just Taking Up Space..

We have career people,career wanna be's,those seeking spousal abuse protection,dealing with severe diseases when healthcare probably leaves them in the dust. They are not all addicts, just out of prison,6th grade drop outs. Many are probably smarter than what has been residing on Capitol Hill! SOme could, no doubt, be hired tomorrow but instead we spend more time getting more H1B's rushed over here!

[redruddyred]

14. yes, dealing with this attitude here, it take patient communication to help them see my side

I have an illness which no one believes exists, and all the years negotiating with doctors has put me at a distinct advantage here.

not everyone has a talent which is 'marketable', and some people have terrible, chronic health issues which leave them entirely unemployable... at least by our usual standards of who we allow in the workplace. as I've mentioned before, I am 'disabled' but various community groups and nonprofit organizations have been happy to put me to work for them and don't complain about the quality of what I produce (which is always very good btw) or my frequent absences. if they can put up with me, what's holding a regular employer back?

I just don't understand why we let the ill go without shelter or medical care. it's so little off our back, and means so much to them. and if when they get their health needs met, they can come back to being a contributing member or society again. everyone wins. of course paul ryan is on kochaine, but what about all the people who believe him? what's their hangup? I just don't get it.

no need for homelessness in a country as wealthy as ours.

[Dont call me Shirley]

40. +1,000,000,000...

The disease management industrial complex just jeeps getting bigger and richer. What is their incentive to reduce chronic disease? Zero.

While those who have chronic diseases are struggling to hang on to their shelter, medication, healthy food, transportation and dignity.

Rich people suck (the life from everyone), so they can have more and more. The rich blame the disabled, working poor, poor and homeless for causing their own trauma so the rich don't have to look at their own responsibility for causing this problem. All the time they keep stealing and stealing from those they blame.

[redruddyred]

45. so well said

thank you very much sir or madam

[Scuba]

5. Lloyd and Jamie must be thrilled.

[LeftishBrit]

6. Heartbreaking

[SammyWinstonJack]

7. Listen Up you rotten republican congresscritters.....

Employed and HOMELESS!...............

See a problem there, do ya?


How many of these people do you figure are homeless by choice you entitled a$$holes!

Wonder how many of those teabagger republicans speak 4 languages?

[mountain grammy]

8. Heartbreaking and so unnecessary which makes it even worse.

thanks for posting, even if it is a year old. Things really aren't any better, I imagine.

[daredtowork]

9. Fantastic Project!

This should be done in every major city!

[tiptonic]

10. I wonder

I wonder if the 1%, ever look down from their private jet.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

15. sure they do - white, fluffy clouds - everywhere they look.

[ND-Dem]

17. K&R

[BlancheSplanchnik]

19. ...

[mylye2222]

20. In pur "industrialized" nations...

Homlessness is nothing but in fine... a "soft" genocide and often citizen abuse from the authorities.

[Dont call me Shirley]

33. Bingo! Soft genocide, what a heinous practice. To cause long term suffering intentionally is evil.

[JEB]

21. Linh Dinh has done a lot of work that corresponds.

Spend some time looking at his photos and reading a few of his essays.

http://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/

[StarzGuy]

24. I'm sick...

...literally sick (100% disabled) and one months benefit payday away from being homeless. When the 20% reduction in my SSDI goes into effect, I will be homeless as I won't be able to afford my rent where I currently live.

[pinto]

27. A likely scenario is the SSA will transfer some of the overall funds from retirement to disability.

It's been done before, iirc, as a stop gap to insure solvency. What really has to happen long term is a gradual increase in wage withholding paid in by employers and employees (currently at 12.7%, each) to cover both projected retirement and disability payments. I see it as a COLA adjustment, in a way, which is fairly common in the private and public sectors.

I can't see Congress sitting back and letting the SSDI slide into a 20% cut in benefits, though they are surely sitting back in this new Congress. The Republicans seem to place solution-based approaches at the back of the line in favor of purely partisan politics.

Hang in there.

[imthevicar]

25. What care do we have for the Cow, The Pig, or the Sheep!?

Because this is how the Moneyed Elite see us. our Labor is nothing more than a marketable Idem. and when we out live our usefulness. Slaughter them, sell the flesh. What a sick world. It's run by Sociopaths!

[Rex]

28. Why would I be shocked to find out homeless people at one time had homes and jobs?

Until some sleaseball from the bank took their home away from them, many homeless were just normal working people. Then Wall Street decided to fuck their families over and got away with it. I find that more shocking.

[LongTomH]

29. I'm saddened beyond belief; but, the courage and resilience I see in these people's faces.......

.........gives me hope for humanity. It's hard to find anything in our leaders and big rich that gives me such hope.

[lark]

41. The last one just breaks my heart.

No mom should be forced to give up their children, just so the kids can eat and have shelter.

[dbackjon]

42. I saw this on facebook - very moving

[JDPriestly]

43. I worked for a homeless projecgt for years.

A tiny minority of homeless people are homeless because they are afraid of being indoors or with other people.

Most homeless people just need and would love to have a decent place to live.

But the wealthy and the foolish Republicans don't want to pay taxes to provide enough public housing for the poor. That's the truth about it.

And then some rich people think that the rest of us are envious of them. Maybe they are just callous toward the very poor.

They have no heart.

[calimary]

44. No worries that this is a year old, one_voice.

It's a worthy repeat.

It just hurts my heart to see this. "I surrendered my kids to save them from homelessness." DAMN. NOBODY should have to do that! NOBODY should find themselves forced to do that!!!! NOBODY should EVER be that close to out-of-options. "I'm homeless and I DO have a job." Feels like a punch in the gut. Unbelievable! What a disgrace. The 1% should be deeply ashamed - they have SO obscenely much, and these people have almost literally nothing.

Oh yes, and I'm sure these folks are lazy moochers, aren't they.

This is America? Seriously?

What a disgrace.

[NuttyFluffers]

46. kick for raising humanity.

there is alway a new opportunity to open your heart & mind.