Anyone else live very close to a large homeless camp?

[u/Unusual-Horse-7709]

I hope this post doesn't get too controversial, but it's getting to a point where I no longer want to work in my garden when I'm home alone. More people have been approaching our home lately. Me, my partner, and even his mom on separate occasions have been asked for things. We've had multiple things stolen, mostly small, but with kids things get left outside.

Do you have a homeless camp within a block or two of your home, and if so, how do you deal with it?

[u/Optimal-Raspberry-24]

It IS crazy. Unfortunately, in my experiences, there are a lot of people who actually WANT to live like that. I spent a few years trying to run a small parking lot management company along Glenwood South. Approached hundreds of times and I got to know many of the "homeless". There was a wide variety of people: some with mental health issues, some with addiction issues, many were not homeless but pretended to be because they could make more panhandling than at a low wage job. Then there are those that panhandle as part of an organized group: they have "handlers" they have to pay to work certain areas. Then there was that one guy that asked my for my "story": when I told him I was working 3 jobs and raising 2 special needs kids, he pulled a big wad of cash out of his pocket and gave ME $20. Turns out, he just wanted to live this way and travelled a lot on foot or hitchhiking around the country. I stopped giving money to anyone after all those experiences; mainly because the vast majority of the paople I come across were NOT ACTUALLY HOMELESS/IN NEED.

[u/Grisward → u/Optimal-Raspberry-24]

This can’t be a real take, that the vast majority of homeless people want to be that way…

Where were you in January with the long string of days below freezing, when a number of downtown shelters and churches opened up beds to get people out of the dangerously freezing cold? The vast majority of them were just out there for the experience? That is not my observation.

[u/IllTakeACupOfTea → u/Grisward]

I have family that work in social services in a modern, developed country and this arguement does not exist there because their government understands that people need homes. Here, we say things like "they want to be homeless" so that billionaires and millionaires can be a little bit richer.

[u/fe-and-wine → u/IllTakeACupOfTea]

The whole "they want to be homeless" is just a veiled justification for the same "they deserve it" mentality that so many people have towards the underprivileged.

No homeless people want that to be their situation. That's just not a thing that occurs. What does happen is sometimes people get sucked into a tragic cycle of addiction and, when given a small sum of money, make the decision that staving off their withdrawals with another hit is worth more than putting that $20 into a nice shirt to maybe get a job interview to maybe get a job to maybe make enough to maybe solve their homelessness. Eventually.

It's sad, but it's not a crazy calculation to make - especially if you have any first-hand knowledge of how addiction can feel when you're struggling with it.

But rather than seeing this as the tragic 'between a rock and a hard place' situation it is, people like the original commenter above choose to believe it's a reflection of some kind of true meritocracy. "Well they had some money and instead of using it to have a chance at improving their situation, they bought more drugs, so they must want to be homeless. And even if they don't, they deserve it, because they made the wrong choices."

It's something that really frustrates me whenever I think too hard about it - I know plenty of people with this mindset who are otherwise very empathetic and caring individuals. It's not a mindset that is solely motivated by hate (like so many...other prevailing trends in society currently...), I feel like it's almost a subconscious need to make the world 'make sense'. Like it would be too much to accept that we live in a random, cruel, and unfair society where sometimes people just get sucked into the riptide and never break free.

To accept that is to accept that something similar could happen to you - we all make mistakes, so it's scary to believe that one unlucky mistake could land you in the same dismal place. So instead they make themselves believe it's some kind of character flaw or lack of willpower.

Ugh. Didn't mean to type out a novel here but this whole back and forth just put such a fine point on it that it got me thinking. Now I'm sad.

[u/IllTakeACupOfTea → u/fe-and-wine]

The lack of empathy is at the root of so many human problems!

[u/Cutemama14 → u/IllTakeACupOfTea]

What country is this with no homelessness? I’ve traveled a lot and I can’t think of a modern developed country I’ve been to where I haven’t seen homeless people, so I’m curious.

[u/IllTakeACupOfTea → u/Cutemama14]

I never said there was no homelessness, I just said the arguement was not part of the discussion of homelessness. I think that the US is a country that uniquely blames the poor solely for their poverty without taking any look at the way that our society as a whole works only for a limited spectrum of people. We do not function as a modern, developed country in many aspects and this one of them.

[u/mxrider108 → u/Grisward]

Man, you should try going to LA. I lived in Venice for years, and yes many of the homeless there absolutely WANT to live that kind of lifestyle (or, at least, have zero interest in working a job or becoming a productive member of society. I'm sure they'd take a free home if you gave them one).

To be clear: I'm not saying there isn't a societal issue, or that there aren't good people who are homeless, people who are down on their luck and need a hand, etc. But to act like a lot of these people aren't just lazy/love drugs, hate being told what to do, or have severe mental health issues, is also ignoring the reality.

[u/Grisward → u/mxrider108]

I don’t deny some people are disconnected from society to the point that they don’t see a way back, or a motivator to get back.

I commented elsewhere, maybe warm weather changes the dynamic, makes it more visible when there are people cosplaying as a homeless person. A lot of people “choosing” (apparently to some) to be homeless are actually avoiding something else more difficult. Aren’t there people living in cars, or worse, while they have a job?

Mental health I feel like doesn’t deserve to be added to the same category. Mental health problems warrant proper mental health care. Idk how, but it seems we can do something better than homelessness.

Anyway, I’m not denying there are people who may choose for some reason to be homeless, I’m questioning to you and myself what fraction of homeless fit this category. My observation, granted it was in freezing winter weather, was that none of them “chose” that, or very very few.

[u/Optimal-Raspberry-24 → u/Grisward]

It's a real take. As I said in the beginning, " in my experiences". And at the end "the vast majority of the paople I come across". If you have different experience, then great. But don't put my years of direct contact experience down. Nobody likes a troll.

[u/bandalooper → u/Optimal-Raspberry-24]

Making the most of the situation you’re in and wanting to be in that situation are two entirely different things.

[u/mxrider108 → u/bandalooper]

Yes, and there are indeed many who want to be in that situation (maybe not "poor and without a house", but "would rather live outside and steal to get high instead of work a job or be a productive member of society")

[u/FungiMagi → u/bandalooper]

Definitely not saying it’s the majority of people but I have known people who have places to stay but choose to live unhoused in order to travel and not live conventionally. I also have friends who are social workers that work with people on the street and there are folks who don’t want housing assistance. It’s certainly not everyone but for some people I think having the ability to just get up and leave with little effort when a spot is no longer to their liking is preferred to the host of obligations that come with being in a house/apartment.

[u/WynterStorm94 → u/FungiMagi]

People don't want "housing assistance" because the housing offered is almost always comes with laundry list of rules like 100% sobriety, no pets, must be in by 10pm, mandatory room inspections, and stuff like that. They don't just offer people paid for apartments.

[u/Grisward → u/Optimal-Raspberry-24]

I’m not denying you observed this. I’m asking you to question the conclusions a little bit more. Maybe I’m missing something too? Maybe it’s partly to do with where you encounter homeless people.

At a freeway off ramp stoplight, someone asking for money, that’s not the same as someone hopping from shelter to shelter in January 20 degree weather because they don’t stay open all day. Overnight shelter makes them leave by 9am (some by 7am). Lunch shelters open 11:30am, till 1-2pm. Evening shelter rotates each night, usually opens 7pm. None of those people chose to be there. They may have accepted that’s where they had to be in life at that time, but cmon. One night the designated freezing weather shelter was way out of downtown. People waited in line for hours to get a bed, the line was so long too.

I will give a shout out to Raleigh downtown churches who provided shelter during freezing temps. Seeing that, and seeing the people helped by it, truly amazing. Also it shouldn’t be on them only imo.

If someone meanwhile is exploiting homelessness to panhandle, I only suggest the frustration be at people who exploit homelessness. Your point there is valid, I can understand that.

Maybe I have seen a different aspect of homelessness that informed my view. And certainly the summertime setup has got to be markedly different than the below freezing setup. Maybe you see different people in warmer weather than in painful winter.

Either way, I’m of the opinion that people shouldn’t be without shelter and food. I don’t know how to make it work, but Raleigh did amazingly this past winter, and somehow expanding that or using it as a model to follow, seems feasible.

[u/Then_Home1399 → u/Optimal-Raspberry-24]

Agreed. Posted in the wrong sub tho. You r gonna get flamed here. Most of these people defending homeless have a very whimsical idea of who and what they are. I have met tons of ex addicts who were homeless after they got sober. Two things are true at once. The average person is not doing great financially but homeless is not a result of the economy it’s almost entirely just drugs or lifestyle

[u/iodinevanadiumey → u/Then_Home1399]

That is not true, homelessness is in fact, statistically, a major result of the economy. Rent gets raised and you can’t afford any other place so you couch surf with friends a bit, then you live in your car “temporarily” until you get back on your feet, but you don’t have access to running water whenever you need it so you end up losing your job, now you have no income, now you sell your car to have some money for food and supplies, now you’re “living” (staying) in a homeless shelter but you can’t have your pets and you can’t keep your belongings because it’s a temporary situation and people are in and out so it just doesn’t work so you go to the street instead to keep your pet and your belongings, maybe you become an addict while you’re on the streets because you have nothing to distract you from the pain or sickness you now have from being in the elements 24/7 and obviously you can’t afford a doctors visit

Yeah it’s definitely not the economy right? Jobs that pay living wages, housing that’s affordable and permanent, accessible physical and mental healthcare, none of those things would drastically decrease homelessness right?

[u/iodinevanadiumey → u/Optimal-Raspberry-24]

If someone is choosing to hitchhike around the country, they’re not homeless, they chose that lifestyle. The overwhelming vast majority of the 600,000+ people who sleep outside every night are NOT doing it because they want to. They’re “doing it” because their rent was raised and they couldn’t find another place they could afford. They’re “doing it” because they wore out couch surfing with their friends. They’re “doing it” because they lost their job because they didn’t have access to constant running water anytime they need. They’re “doing it” because they had to sell the car they were living out of to have money for food after losing their job. They’re “doing it” because homeless shelters are temporary living situations. They’re “doing it” because they can’t keep their pets with them in a homeless shelter. They’re “doing it” because they can’t safely keep their belongings in a temporary shelter space with hundreds of other people in the same situation. They’re “doing it” because after months and years of being on the street drugs are the only thing that distract them from their situation. They’re “doing it” because they haven’t been to see a therapist in years and have trauma from their living situation. They’re not “doing it” because they want to. Shut the actual fuck up.

[u/tabbikat86 → u/Optimal-Raspberry-24]

I've come across many sleeping outside down town over the years .. I'd argue the overwhelming majority of them are actually unhoused...

[u/ChallengeReal7119 → u/Optimal-Raspberry-24]

This is a reality many people do not want to talk about. My husband worked in Brooklyn for a short time- there was a panhandler outside of the subway every day. He would give him money and food on occasion. One evening when he was leaving work, the guy was getting in his Mercedes after putting in a day full of work.