cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15197917
this post was submitted on 13 May 2024
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I've never figure out how these people are expected to pull themselves out of their situation. Drug use is merely a symptom, the cause is living conditions and an existence that makes being sober untenable.
"Get a job"? Find a job that will hire anyone on the spot, AND that can pay for an actual place to live.
My brother said the same thing. "He can go get a job at McDonalds."
Ok, do you think McDs wants to hire someone who hasn't bathed recently? How will he eat after work if he hasn't been panhandling during the day? What happens between now and his first paycheck? What if he doesn't have a bank account when that arrives?
It's as if getting a job doesn't immediately cure your problems. My brother sorta seemed to be persuaded in that he didn't push the idea any further.
There are super shady jobs that pay in cash daily. Hang around a Home Depot parking lot before opening and get a gig with a contractor looking for manual labor.
Oh, it's going to fucking suck, and you'll feel like you're going to die on day 1. But work is there for the willing.
So the homeless should be exploited for illegally low wages (a form of slavery) just like we treat certain immigrants?
If your advice to people to help them get out of homelessness is to allow themselves to enter a slave market, you are part of the problem.
I'm saying, if you're legit willing to work, the work is there and if you're homeless, no work should be "beneath you".
If somebody is "legit" willing to work, why are you suggesting slavery is their best option?
That's fucked up and you have a lot of predatory and exploitative beliefs you should unlearn.
You're setting the parameters. Homeless, no shower, dirty clothes, no background check, instant payments...
If that's your baseline then there's your baseline job.
If you think wage slavery is the solution to homelessness, I strongly urge you to look into sociopathy and maybe go get screened.
Hey, if they don't want to actually work, then admit that.
I talked to a homeless dude with a "Will work for food" sign.
"Hey, I know a guy who needs a hand, what do you need?"
"I can't work inside."
"Your lucky day, it's pushing a wheelbarrow outside."
"Just give me money, man."
Interact with enough homeless people and you see the same grift over and over. They aren't interested in actually working.
My father used to make the same claim as well. My father was a liar though. He never once offered a job to a homeless person.
I don't think you have either, but regardless of that, offering to rent day labor at below market wages does nothing to solve homelessness.
I have, multiple times. The one time it wasn't some bullshit story was a dude on a train offering to rap for food money.
Dude was probably 22 or 23 but methed out of hus fucking mind and looked 40 and like he was about to keel over.
"Naw, man, you don't need to rap, I'm getting dinner at the next stop, I'll buy you dinner."
He was in TEARS.
We walked into the restaurant and the workers FREAKED OUT, pretty sure they had seen this guy before so told them "No, it's cool, he's with me."
Told him he could order whatever he wanted, and he cried through the whole meal. Sat down and talked to him for a bit and we went our separate ways.
This was, oh, 24-25 years ago now.
That's all very interesting. None of it happened, but very interesting.
I'm sorry my lived experience conflicts with your preconceved notions of reality. Both of those stories are 100% true. I could go on, but it's clear you aren't interested.
No, I'm not interested in what you have to say.
Sure, so the first homeless guy I talked to was when I was in college at the University of Oregon. This would have been, oh, 1990? 1991? Something like that.
He stopped me because he had a DEEP Southern accent and I gave him some change, but I wanted to know...
"Clearly, you're not from around here... What's your deal?"
Most honest response I've had...
"I'm addicted to heroin, my sister's a lawyer and got sick of dealing with me and told me she'd buy me a bus ticket to anywhere provided it was one way."
"And you picked..." (gestures) "Here? I mean, I'm biased, I love Eugene, I grew up here, but I can't wait to leave."
He just kind of shrugged. Eugene is kind of special in that the clock stopped there somewhere around 1972. If you're scrounging for drugs, Oregon is a general destination, but Eugene SPECIFICALLY. At least, back in the day. It's Portland now.
Down the street from this guy was the U of O's resident "Homeless" guy, Frog. Frog was a character and wasn't TECHNICALLY homeless. He made a "living", if you could call it that, selling home made joke books to the student population. Wow, he's still alive...
https://www.hereisoregon.com/people/2022/10/street-vendor-frog-and-his-joke-books-have-become-a-university-of-oregon-institution.html
The polar opposite of Frog was this guy everyone called "Zeus". I don't think anyone knew his real name. There was lots of urban legends about Zeus... scary looking dude who walked around in a pink house coat with a string of Barbie doll heads tied around his waist.
You did not talk to Zeus. Had all the earmarks of a paranoid schizophrenic. I never heard of him actually hurting anyone, but he sure looked the part.
Looks like he died in 1998, tuberculosis, he was 39.
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19981125&id=5E9WAAAAIBAJ&sjid=s-sDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1736,6680996&hl=en
If only you had offered Frog your friend's wheelbarrow. Maybe things could have been different.
Oh, that was years later...
Okay... Well, I wish you the best.
Sounds legit. I fully believe this story.
Not to mention they are not overseen by OSHA, so if you get hurt on the job, and you’re still homeless, you might die!
A significant number of homeless in CA and WA have at least 1 job as far as I know.
Fast food workers make up 6% of the CA homeless population, for example.
they are expected to not exist because they are an eyesore and reminder of human fragility.
nobody cares about them 'pulling themselves out of their situation'
It can be done. The job IS going to suck, and you will hate your fucking life for doing it, but it can be done.
https://www.indeed.com/q-general-labor-l-seattle,-wa-jobs.html
Better if you at least have a drivers license.
https://www.indeed.com/q-lot-attendant-l-seattle,-wa-jobs.html
https://www.indeed.com/q-parking-attendant-l-seattle,-wa-jobs.html
I helped a friend throw sod in a back yard one time. Hardest fucking job I've ever done in my life, I'll never do it again. But it paid. :)
https://www.indeed.com/q-turf-l-seattle,-wa-jobs.html
https://livingwage.mit.edu/metros/42660
The problem with homelessness is that each person's situation is a bit different, now to you it might sound like a massive lump of excuses when heard all together, but to an individual the one or multiple things that prevents them from having personal stability is a massive barrier.
anecdote
I once helped a homeless stranger get a bus back to Alberta because he hitchhiked to Vancouver over 3 months but couldn't find the opportunity he wanted to (plus the rents here are upwards of 1500USD equivalent for a small studio), so he wanted to go back. He used to work in construction but he got fired and his wife left him. He wasn't drunk or high, he was just bumming cigs from people and begging for money. Spending a day with him, I found that little things made him nervous and stressed him out, he couldn't really advocate for himself well, had nothing but a broken android tablet with his expired health card and birth certificate, and he couldn't read 24 hour time. The intercity bus operator wouldn't let him on the bus bc he looked too dirty, even though he was a paying customer. I get him cleaned up at the community shower, a new pair of pants, and I book a flight for him (which ended up being around the same as the bus) gave him 50USD equivalent spending money and the addresses of libraries, charities, employment centres in Lethbridge (this is where he came from). At the airport, they were bugging him that he had only 1 valid ID and 1 expired photo ID, I had to escalate for him 3 times for them to allow him through and get accomodations to guide him through the airport. Something that's normally so easy to get through if you have a ticket and a phone and whatever is a nightmare for someone so disadvantaged.Trying to apply for work, not get scammed and advocate for yourself throughout a process is honestly a challenge that is tougher than the actual labour. I'd been taking those things for granted myself. Fines and fees for being poor just worsens the problem.