CDZ Homelessness in the United States

[RodISHI]

This has been on my mind a lot lately as it was a problem before but with covid it will be increasing substantially.

It is not just a matter of people unable to pay rents but a range of cost that even landlords face today. A friend is losing her home due to the cost of repairs and insurance her landlord is facing so its been on my mind all day; what are cities and states going to do with all of the misplaced people? A person who is disabled or on limited Social Security only gets about $800.00 a month to live off of. My friend's rent is $500.00 a month and that is cheap when compared to rent in her SC area and would be even if she were here in this poverty stricken area of Iowa. I know some may think just move into some subsidized housing but most of those do not allow pets and she has two well trained dogs that are her constant companions. I know I would not give up my dog if we had a landlord letting us know he was kicking us out after we just paid the rent. Thankfully we own our own place even if it is a shithole tin shed with a leaky roof; it is ours as long as we can keep the property taxes paid.

Why can't cities and counties provide some of their land in areas not in use for people in need to have a tiny house? A place people can call her own while they get through the days here not clumped together like sardines. There are many like her who do not want to live like robots in apartment type complexes and who can blame them. They'd rather live in and fix up a piece at a time a place where they can just be their own person without a lot of hassle without a neighbor within a 100 feet of them. Lots of undeveloped land out there in the states throughout that could house retirees and even a family if they want to live out of the city interiors. Instead our government is spending trillions to develop what??? Vaccines and shit the average human doesn't want and needs no part of???

 

[RodISHI]

My friend's husband also committed suicide several years back. She says her city has a really nice facility for meth heads to stay in. What happens to those who are not druggies but have never just given themselves over to the only money matters scheme? She's the type of person that is always there to lend a helping hand to those in need. When everything was flooding she was working to help match people with animals in flooded areas with people who could care for them until their home were flood free; babysitting for others out helping flood victims and anything else she could do; always helping with meals to people in need and such too. Does the new age peeps out tearing crap down think she doesn't count.

Many retirees are living in small vans or rv's and they stayed in parks so they could survive on their meager pensions. Where are they now as they could not afford homes or apartments either.

 

[bluzman61]

This has been on my mind a lot lately as it was a problem before but with covid it will be increasing substantially.

It is not just a matter of people unable to pay rents but a range of cost that even landlords face today. A friend is losing her home due to the cost of repairs and insurance her landlord is facing so its been on my mind all day; what are cities and states going to do with all of the misplaced people? A person who is disabled or on limited Social Security only gets about $800.00 a month to live off of. My friend's rent is $500.00 a month and that is cheap when compared to rent in her SC area and would be even if she were here in this poverty stricken area of Iowa. I know some may think just move into some subsidized housing but most of those do not allow pets and she has two well trained dogs that are her constant companions. I know I would not give up my dog if we had a landlord letting us know he was kicking us out after we just paid the rent. Thankfully we own our own place even if it is a shithole tin shed with a leaky roof; it is ours as long as we can keep the property taxes paid.

Why can't cities and counties provide some of their land in areas not in use for people in need to have a tiny house? A place people can call her own while they get through the days here not clumped together like sardines. There are many like her who do not want to live like robots in apartment type complexes and who can blame them. They'd rather live in and fix up a piece at a time a place where they can just be their own person without a lot of hassle without a neighbor within a 100 feet of them. Lots of undeveloped land out there in the states throughout that could house retirees and even a family if they want to live out of the city interiors. Instead our government is spending trillions to develop what??? Vaccines and shit the average human wants and needs no part of???

Thanks very much for your thoughtful post. Nicely done.

 

[bluzman61]

My friend's husband also committed suicide several years back. She says her city has a really nice facility for meth heads to stay in. What happens to those who are not druggies but have never just given themselves over to the only money matters scheme? She's the type of person that is always there to lend a helping hand to those in need. When everything was flooding she was working to help match people with animals in flooded areas with people who could care for them until their home were flood free; babysitting for others out helping flood victims and anything else she could do; always helping with meals to people in need and such too. Does the new age peeps out tearing crap down think she doesn't count.

Many retirees are living in small vans or rv's and they stayed in parks so they could survive on their meager pensions. Where are they now as they could not afford homes or apartments either.

This makes me SO thankful I have a roof over my head, and plenty of food to eat. I feel for the people who don't have this. I can't donate much to the needy because I live on a fixed income, but I do donate when I can, to a low-income apartment complex very close to where I live. They have an office on the premises, and they post items that are needed most by the people who live there, on a sign out front. I've donated food and paper towels quite a few times. I know it's not much, but I feel better about myself each time I donate, knowing that I'm helping out someone who needs that help.

 

[RodISHI]

My friend's husband also committed suicide several years back. She says her city has a really nice facility for meth heads to stay in. What happens to those who are not druggies but have never just given themselves over to the only money matters scheme? She's the type of person that is always there to lend a helping hand to those in need. When everything was flooding she was working to help match people with animals in flooded areas with people who could care for them until their home were flood free; babysitting for others out helping flood victims and anything else she could do; always helping with meals to people in need and such too. Does the new age peeps out tearing crap down think she doesn't count.

Many retirees are living in small vans or rv's and they stayed in parks so they could survive on their meager pensions. Where are they now as they could not afford homes or apartments either.

This makes me SO thankful I have a roof over my head, and plenty of food to eat. I feel for the people who don't have this. I can't donate much to the needy because I live on a fixed income, but I do donate when I can, to a low-income apartment complex very close to where I live. They have an office on the premises, and they post items that are needed most by the people who live there, on a sign out front. I've donated food and paper towels quite a few times. I know it's not much, but I feel better about myself each time I donate, knowing that I'm helping out someone who needs that help.

We used to see a lot of homeless people on the road trying to get from one spot to another for various reasons. Lost jobs, sick parent, etc... We also saw a lot of druggies panhandling, etc... While there are good charitable organization out there in the same note there are those who make a damn good profit under the color of charity (I'm pretty sure most will know the ones I speak of) and then claim we are the most charitable nation in the world.

Anyhow's some people just need a little boost in the right direction. Not big block grants developers can skim the top off of for they can party, live like royals and drive new cars that rust out in the first year but real small grants and areas out of city centers where people can buy a small slice of security to know they have a home they can call their own that they can afford.

 

[Tijn Von Ingersleben]

There is one thing about all of this that no one recognizes. Many homeless are mentally ill. The bad part is that this country has closed the vast majority of facilities that could treat them.
This country has a great big hangup about mental illness.
People with mental illness are no different than a person with any other type of physical illness.
This country needs to get the fuck over its hangup with the mentally ill.
Instead, these sick, homeless people often treat their illness with street drugs, and alcohol. This exacerbates symptoms, and they end up in jails that lack the infrastructure to house, or treat them.
This cycle continues for years. Nobody gives a shit...nobody cares.
It's fuckin disgusting to be honest.

 

[Gracie]

When it happened to me and MrGracie 4 years ago, we lived in my van. He had a truck with a camper shell on it and thats where we kept our stuff. Our bed was in the van. No back seats. Just a small bed. He slept in the passenger seat, reclined. Illegal to sleep in your car (another stupid law that fucks homeless people), nor can you park on the street in an RV, so....we parked in our neighbors empty lot a few nights a week, and our veterinarian let us park at his animal hospital a coupel of time a week. Then we were offered the RV parked in the lot of our neighbors and we stayed there 4 months until we moved to Paradise to a real room in a real house. And we all know what happened to that, now dont we? Sigh.

 

[Gracie]

Oh...and not one NOT ONE local church...any denomination, offered help. Wouldnt let us park there at night. Catholic church flat out said NO WAY. Finally, an espicopal church said ok, but wanted us as slave labor. I did what I could but my hands wouldnt work half the time. I felt uncomfortable there. So we went to our vet we had for my dog and he said OF CCOURSE. Even gave us an extension cord to use a small heater on cold nights.

 

[Gracie]

Many retirees are living in small vans or rv's and they stayed in parks so they could survive on their meager pensions. Where are they now as they could not afford homes or apartments either.

Right now, as I write this, I am in a small apt. I could not afford to live here if it were just me and MrG. Our SS just isn't enough for rent plus utilities plus food, etc. The ONLY reason we are here is because the lady that we were renting from in Paradise said she woudl help, because if not for us, she would have burned up. And she would have. 86 people died in Paradise. She would have been number 87. Of course we took her with us. Never crossed our minds not to. And it galls me to accept her generosity, but we will be getting low income housing soon..I hope. Its been a 5 year wait. Finally getting a bit of action on that now. And when we die.....Anne gets all we own. I have collected since the fire, and some good stuff, too. Its all Anne's. Both cars, furniture, the scarves I collected that she loves, any money we may have left in the bank, jewelry, food....ALL of it. Its hers. Its the only way we can repay her.

 

[bluzman61]

Many retirees are living in small vans or rv's and they stayed in parks so they could survive on their meager pensions. Where are they now as they could not afford homes or apartments either.

Right now, as I write this, I am in a small apt. I could not afford to live here if it were just me and MrG. Our SS just isn't enough for rent plus utilities plus food, etc. The ONLY reason we are here is because the lady that we were renting from in Paradise said she woudl help, because if not for us, she would have burned up. And she would have. 86 people died in Paradise. She would have been number 87. Of course we took her with us. Never crossed our minds not to. And it galls me to accept her generosity, but we will be getting low income housing soon..I hope. Its been a 5 year wait. Finally getting a bit of action on that now. And when we die.....Anne gets all we own. I have collected since the fire, and some good stuff, too. Its all Anne's. Both cars, furniture, the scarves I collected that she loves, any money we may have left in the bank, jewelry, food....ALL of it. Its hers. Its the only way we can repay her.

Thank you for this post, Gracie. You and your husband sound like you're very generous, kind people.

 

[RodISHI]

Many retirees are living in small vans or rv's and they stayed in parks so they could survive on their meager pensions. Where are they now as they could not afford homes or apartments either.

Right now, as I write this, I am in a small apt. I could not afford to live here if it were just me and MrG. Our SS just isn't enough for rent plus utilities plus food, etc. The ONLY reason we are here is because the lady that we were renting from in Paradise said she woudl help, because if not for us, she would have burned up. And she would have. 86 people died in Paradise. She would have been number 87. Of course we took her with us. Never crossed our minds not to. And it galls me to accept her generosity, but we will be getting low income housing soon..I hope. Its been a 5 year wait. Finally getting a bit of action on that now. And when we die.....Anne gets all we own. I have collected since the fire, and some good stuff, too. Its all Anne's. Both cars, furniture, the scarves I collected that she loves, any money we may have left in the bank, jewelry, food....ALL of it. Its hers. Its the only way we can repay her.

There was an older lady that since I can recall as a child that lived with my grandparents. She was like family and until I was an adult I never knew she wasn't family but a lady my grandparents took in when she needed a place.

 

[bluzman61]

Many retirees are living in small vans or rv's and they stayed in parks so they could survive on their meager pensions. Where are they now as they could not afford homes or apartments either.

Right now, as I write this, I am in a small apt. I could not afford to live here if it were just me and MrG. Our SS just isn't enough for rent plus utilities plus food, etc. The ONLY reason we are here is because the lady that we were renting from in Paradise said she woudl help, because if not for us, she would have burned up. And she would have. 86 people died in Paradise. She would have been number 87. Of course we took her with us. Never crossed our minds not to. And it galls me to accept her generosity, but we will be getting low income housing soon..I hope. Its been a 5 year wait. Finally getting a bit of action on that now. And when we die.....Anne gets all we own. I have collected since the fire, and some good stuff, too. Its all Anne's. Both cars, furniture, the scarves I collected that she loves, any money we may have left in the bank, jewelry, food....ALL of it. Its hers. Its the only way we can repay her.

There was an older lady that since I can recall as a child that lived with my grandparents. She was like family and until I was an adult I never knew she wasn't family but a lady my grandparents took in when she needed a place.

Your grandparents sound like they were very kind people. We obviously need more people like them in these somewhat horrific times.

 

[RodISHI]

There is one thing about all of this that no one recognizes. Many homeless are mentally ill. The bad part is that this country has closed the vast majority of facilities that could treat them.
This country has a great big hangup about mental illness.
People with mental illness are no different than a person with any other type of physical illness.
This country needs to get the fuck over its hangup with the mentally ill.
Instead, these sick, homeless people often treat their illness with street drugs, and alcohol. This exacerbates symptoms, and they end up in jails that lack the infrastructure to house, or treat them.
This cycle continues for years. Nobody gives a shit...nobody cares.
It's fuckin disgusting to be honest.

A friend went up to Norwalk yesterday to help cut trees that went over from the storm that went through Iowa a few days ago. On his way home he pulled over and PM'd me about a person along side the road because it was bothering him. He said thought the guy may need a ride but he only wanted water. The guy had several layers of clothes on and a heavy coat. It was miserably hot yesterday; so much I just couldn't do much. I can't imagine what it would have been like with several layers of clothes and a coat on. My friend said he kept asking him "are you sure you don't need a ride?" and the only response from the guy was that he was waiting for his mom to come pick him up.

As far as druggies go there are a lot of factors in each case. Some can be helped; for some it may take them several tries; and for others they won't be trying until they are too far gone. Also locally here if you help anyone that is trying to get their shit together you can become a target of true asshats. We bought some project steel off of a couple that cleaned off a lot where a trailer house had been burnt down last week. When I learned she was trying to get her baby back after she described the whole situation to me and how she was staying clean for her baby's sake and trying to get their house (rental) cleaned up; I offered to help with some very cheap carpet that was still new but had been stored for years. It appears that I may have pissed off some locals; we'll see how that goes. Years ago I had a rental that I let a quadriplegic rent from us and that pissed off locals that didn't like the guy because of his wild youth. I mean damn the guy wrecked his car back then and ended up the rest of his life in a wheel chair but some local asshats didn't even want him to have a decent place to live. That rental house was in town and they had the local cop harass the poor crippled guy continually. Thank goodness that cop and a few of the locals that were on that trip are gone. My son was also very young back then and he was bitching one day about the quads pothead friends and cig burns on the carpet. I asked son, "How do you propose he gets something picked up if he drops it?" and then, "Don't worry about the carpet. I paid a dollar a yard for it and anticipated it would have to be changed with each new renter." I then asked him, "Are you willing to be ******'s friend? How many people do you think will be friends with him?" Son quickly retracted his claws and his thought process.

 

[RodISHI]

Many retirees are living in small vans or rv's and they stayed in parks so they could survive on their meager pensions. Where are they now as they could not afford homes or apartments either.

Right now, as I write this, I am in a small apt. I could not afford to live here if it were just me and MrG. Our SS just isn't enough for rent plus utilities plus food, etc. The ONLY reason we are here is because the lady that we were renting from in Paradise said she woudl help, because if not for us, she would have burned up. And she would have. 86 people died in Paradise. She would have been number 87. Of course we took her with us. Never crossed our minds not to. And it galls me to accept her generosity, but we will be getting low income housing soon..I hope. Its been a 5 year wait. Finally getting a bit of action on that now. And when we die.....Anne gets all we own. I have collected since the fire, and some good stuff, too. Its all Anne's. Both cars, furniture, the scarves I collected that she loves, any money we may have left in the bank, jewelry, food....ALL of it. Its hers. Its the only way we can repay her.

There was an older lady that since I can recall as a child that lived with my grandparents. She was like family and until I was an adult I never knew she wasn't family but a lady my grandparents took in when she needed a place.

Your grandparents sound like they were very kind people. We obviously need more people like them in these somewhat horrific times.

I think there are a lot of kind people out there still. Yet a lot of not so kind ones too.

 

[CarlinAnnArbor]

Many retirees are living in small vans or rv's and they stayed in parks so they could survive on their meager pensions. Where are they now as they could not afford homes or apartments either.

Right now, as I write this, I am in a small apt. I could not afford to live here if it were just me and MrG. Our SS just isn't enough for rent plus utilities plus food, etc. The ONLY reason we are here is because the lady that we were renting from in Paradise said she woudl help, because if not for us, she would have burned up. And she would have. 86 people died in Paradise. She would have been number 87. Of course we took her with us. Never crossed our minds not to. And it galls me to accept her generosity, but we will be getting low income housing soon..I hope. Its been a 5 year wait. Finally getting a bit of action on that now. And when we die.....Anne gets all we own. I have collected since the fire, and some good stuff, too. Its all Anne's. Both cars, furniture, the scarves I collected that she loves, any money we may have left in the bank, jewelry, food....ALL of it. Its hers. Its the only way we can repay her.

"One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." -- God

People like to think they have many friends. Youre lucky if you find one or two in this life

 

[RodISHI]

"One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." -- God

People like to think they have many friends. Youre lucky if you find one or two in this life

Very true.

 

[martybegan]

The problem with how to deal with homelessness in the US is a problem we have with anything we try to "fix". We want a nice one size fits all solution to a given problem that is really a mix of different problems with the same symptom.

Homeless people can be

1. Mentally Ill people
2. Drug Addicts
3. People that figure panhandling is better than working
4. People down on their luck with no families to help them
5. People from 4 who don't want to be part of the existing shelter and recovery systems
6. People who choose to live outside societal norms

So trying one set of fixes for the above sometimes vastly different underlying causes is doomed for failure, because you are trying to address a symptom, not a cause.

 

[RodISHI]

The problem with how to deal with homelessness in the US is a problem we have with anything we try to "fix". We want a nice one size fits all solution to a given problem that is really a mix of different problems with the same symptom.

Homeless people can be

1. Mentally Ill people
2. Drug Addicts
3. People that figure panhandling is better than working
4. People down on their luck with no families to help them
5. People from 4 who don't want to be part of the existing shelter and recovery systems
6. People who choose to live outside societal norms

So trying one set of fixes for the above sometimes vastly different underlying causes is doomed for failure, because you are trying to address a symptom, not a cause.

I agree with you Marty various issues but that is why local areas should be equipped or prepared to deal with such issues. From what I have seen in recorded videos if I were homeless I'd prefer the car to a homeless shelter. Also I am trying to address the cause for many that are homeless and that is affordability for a place they can live in or at. Many will be losing and have lost their homes due to the inability to pay the extreme property taxes. Last year some people I knew got a house for the taxes of a veteran who couldn't keep up on the property taxes even though he owned the old house free and clear. It was a little dump he was fixing a piece and portion at a time on his own but hell the taxes were more than he could afford.

Who decides what social norms are?

 

[martybegan]

The problem with how to deal with homelessness in the US is a problem we have with anything we try to "fix". We want a nice one size fits all solution to a given problem that is really a mix of different problems with the same symptom.

Homeless people can be

1. Mentally Ill people
2. Drug Addicts
3. People that figure panhandling is better than working
4. People down on their luck with no families to help them
5. People from 4 who don't want to be part of the existing shelter and recovery systems
6. People who choose to live outside societal norms

So trying one set of fixes for the above sometimes vastly different underlying causes is doomed for failure, because you are trying to address a symptom, not a cause.

I agree with you Marty various issues but that is why local areas should be equipped or prepared to deal with such issues. From what I have seen in recorded videos if I were homeless I'd prefer the car to a homeless shelter. Also I am trying to address the cause for many that are homeless and that is affordability for a place they can live in or at. Many will be losing and have lost their homes due to the inability to pay the extreme property taxes. Last year some people I knew got a house for the taxes of a veteran who couldn't keep up on the property taxes even though he owned the old house free and clear. It was a little dump he was fixing a piece and portion at a time on his own but hell the taxes were more than he could afford.

Who decides what social norms are?

Society does, but right now "society" isn't some broad consensus that just appears and influences, it's the loudest people with the most access to social media.

To me, the current homeless "fix" system isn't designed to fix anything, it's just a band-aid there so people can pretend they are doing something.

The whole process is missing the main motivator for people to get out of the process. Shame. We can't judge people anymore for their screw ups, or for other's screw ups that have put people into a given situation.

Shame doesn't mean not helping, shame means helping while still judging, and hoping this will motivate the person to get out of the situation in question.

 

[SassyIrishLass]

A huge problem is federal and state governments throw literally millions into the problem...but to agencies where the funds don't reach the intended target.

A local one is a prime example, the admins live in high end neighborhoods, drive past their facility and the employee lot is filled with high end vehicles.

There is no accountabity and these people are profiting off the backs of the vulnerable.