I have always wondered this. I totally understand some people have a series of devastating things happen to them to make them homeless for a short period of time. A lot of these people have gone to be succesful, important people in life (I know a few authors that have come out this way). My real question is what we as a society should think of homeless people that have been living like this for over 5 years.
Is our society that unable to help these people get minimum wage jobs and slowly advance through their career, or are they choosing this kind of lifestyle so we shouldn't help them out?
Pity the chronic homeless or keep helping them out?
narbeha1983 posted on Aug 08, 2006
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Comments
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pinkjellybeans said on Aug 08, 2006....
I personally always feel sorry for homeless people. My heart breaks a little each time I see someone in this way. They are often dirty, cold, hungry, lonely - and all I ever want to do is help them be none of these things. But, in the UK, there are ways out of this. There are places one can go if s/he is homeless. There are places that offer free meals, a warm and safe place to sleep, and long-term solutions. Homeless people never really need to be homeless. I want to help people because if I were homeless, I would want to be helped. But at the same time, there IS help out there. I come to the conclusion that they must be choosing to live like this, for whatever reason. And this isn't me deciding this as to avoid my own guilt at not helping but because I KNOW there are ways and means out of this situation. The long and short of it is, I think homelessness is a choice and, should they decide they don't want to be in this situation, there are ways out of it. They have to help themselves. PinkJellyBeans -
purple said on Aug 13, 2006....
I just thought I'd point out that in the US, there are lots of homeless people who do have minimum wage jobs. If you have two or three kids, a minimum wage job isn't even enough to pay the childcare while you are at your job. One illness and you lose your job. If you have no health insurance and no paid sick leave, even something as simple as strep throat can cause you to lose your job and end up back on the street. Some of the homeless shelters are more dangerous than being on the street, and are not really a solution. Many believe at the very least we should raise the minimum wage. If there was a simple way to fix this, we already would have fixed it. -
Chazman80 said on Aug 13, 2006....
And can't afford to rent a place....hummmmm
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