This Was Actually An Extended Comment By A Homeless Person On A Story But We Are Also Running It As A Letter To The Editor.
So I am currently homeless and have been for two and a half years.
I have a few points from what people have mentioned here:
– GSO is an easy place to be homeless, apparently?
I would like to point out that being homeless ANYWHERE, even in a shelter, is not easy in any shape, form or fashion under any circumstances. You don’t even understand or comprehend the mental determination, acumen and strength it takes to walk around this city, and especially within the homeless community, to merely collect things you need to barely survive. Need fresh water? Often that’s a mile walk from where many homeless reside. Food? Once again, miles a day walked. A shower? If you mean the 4 hours a day the IRC offers them 5 days a week max, then a basic count of approximately 300 homeless using these “Amenities” get to have 4 minutes of showering a week – each. Less on the weeks when the IRC is closed on a Friday for “Staff training”.
Then there’s the resilience required to walk in close
proximity to large numbers of those who you don’t or barely know, and instantly have to asses: threat level, mental health stability, addiction possibility, confrontation assessment, weapon carrier/concealment concern, livelihood of assault/verbal altercation — and then on top of all that, show the world you have no fear or an ounce of vulnerability for fear of becoming victimized.
The above may go to show some homeless people’s attitudes when you encounter them as ya know, not only other homeless people are a threat. There’s plenty of housed people who are a threat to the homeless, albeit usually to a lesser extent and more likely verbal abuse only.
Many of the housed, let alone well housed and in charge of this city/county/state/nation, wouldn’t stand a chance living out here on the streets and don’t understand even what I’ve already typed. How they’re in a place to make educated decisions about what’s best for the homeless is the single factor in understanding why the homelessness issue won’t be resolved.
– The yearly/bi-yearly counts are *Insert helpful verb here*
These counts are wildly inaccurate due to numerous points that include the following:
-People who manage to raise enough for a hotel room for a night or so when it’s so cold.
-The city’s new provision of eliminating homeless encampments and ‘Spots’ and going in and throwing all their belongings away merely makes the homeless less visible and more difficult to locate (which, as we know, is exactly what they wish to happen). The more you victimize a group, the more reclusive they will become in mainstream society. Less options for the charity of loving folk and neighbors, means more forced to crime to merely survior with food and water just to survive.
– Mental health this and that:
This is a large reason for homelessness and will never be resolved with current thought processes by leaders who remove and reduce budgets for vulnerable groups. You could probably remove ~50% of the “problem” at least with proper mental health funding – and no, that doesn’t include locking people up in “Looney bins”.
Proper outreach and community health choices for those people who need it that’s properly funded by the government would be the best option. Although then again, government equates to red tape, so yeah. Maybe not.
I could talk about this subject at length, but it shall not change under the current ‘regime’.
