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As someone that volunteers at homeless shelters across the country, I can tell you your description is nowhere near close to reality and it is very strange that

As someone that volunteers at homeless shelters across the country, I can tell you your description is nowhere near close to reality and it is very strange that people get off on pretending things are dramatically worse than they are. Do you even do anything to help?

dkarl 6y ago
I kinda can't blame him, because it's common for people to paint a picture of homelessness as something that can easily happen to appealing, relatable people who are highly functional by middle class standards. I hate it, because it reminds me of how conditional empathy is. Empathy is a skill, and like any other skill, it's developed through practice, and we mostly practice on people just like us. So people advocating for support for the homeless have to make them sound like they'd fit right in with the people who have the money and power to help them.
- bitwize 6y ago
  Homelessness is something that can easily happen to appealing, relatable people who are highly functional by middle-class standards. Perhaps you weren't here when Doreen Traylor's article about being homeless for six years appeared? Nevertheless, thank you for showing your privilege. Judgement made.
  - dkarl 6y ago
    Doreen Traylor proves that a homeless person can write, have an online presence, and make a living as a freelancer. The fact that you think that's important is exactly my point, that you think homelessness is a different issue depending on whether or not homeless people are capable of living a certain kind of life we value. It shouldn't matter. It's sad that it does.
  - dang 6y ago
    Please omit personal swipes from your comments here. They just make things even worse. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- hapless 6y ago
  Almost half of American children spend at least one year in poverty Not to mention, I don't know where you folks develop your anecdotes -- you really do meet a lot of totally ordinary, high-functioning adults in soup kitchen and community pantry scenarios. They just happen to be broke and hungry. At any given time, most homeless families are only temporarily homeless, and most hungry families are only temporarily hungry. Life has its ups and downs. Most of the adults spend most of their lives working, just like everyone else does. The "hardcore," long-term homeless, who spend years at a time unhomed, are not terribly representative of the great mass of Americans who have spent some time unhomed. Poverty is endemic in America, and it's a hard time to be a working stiff, especially if you work in, say, the Bay area, as the comic's author did. ("Santa Luna" seems like a very thinly fictionalized Santa Cruz.) A man like the author, in 2020, could very well find himself in the encampment he so obviously feared.
  - scythe 6y ago
    Consider the inherent differences in the metrics you're using. The comment that started this discussion involved observing people visiting a soup kitchen. Short-term homeless may outnumber long-term homeless in an absolute metric (I was homeless for a few months in 2014) but long-term homeless make many more lifetime visits to a soup kitchen and therefore comprise a higher proportion of the people you meet. They also comprise a higher proportion of the people who are at any given time living on the street. If you solve short-term homelessness but not long-term homelessness, you haven't made nearly as much of a dent in the shelter beds and tent cities as you have in the quoted statistic of people who are ever homeless. I'm sure you do meet "high-functioning adults" in soup kitchens, but I would also doubt they're the modal attendees.
    - dan-robertson 6y ago
      Your implication of certain people making more lifetime visits implying that a majority of the visitors are from that group does not follow. For example if a typical longtime homeless person would make (round number) 400 visits a year, and a typical transiently homeless person would make around 40 visits a year, then if eg there were 20 transiently homeless people a year for every longtime homeless person, then the makeup of a soup kitchen would be two-thirds transiently homeless.
baix777 6y ago
Here in Seattle there are far more homeless people than there used to be. In Seattle at least, thing are much worse than they were. The cost of living in Seattle has become too high, and the wages aren't keeping up. The OP is right about that, if overly dramatic about the homeless being handed a death sentence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_Seattle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_Seattle
dang 6y ago
Hey, please don't cross into personal attack. It's much more interesting that you have firsthand knowledge—if you want to share some of what you know, so we can all learn, that would be great, and much more in the intended spirit of the site. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=share%20know%20learn%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
smnrchrds 6y ago
What are your opinions on this DW documentary? Some of the homeless people interviewed here fit the OP's description perfectly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHDkALRz5Rk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHDkALRz5Rk

dkarl 6y ago

I kinda can't blame him, because it's common for people to paint a picture of homelessness as something that can easily happen to appealing, relatable people who are highly functional by middle class standards. I hate it, because it reminds me of how conditional empathy is. Empathy is a skill, and like any other skill, it's developed through practice, and we mostly practice on people just like us. So people advocating for support for the homeless have to make them sound like they'd fit right in with the people who have the money and power to help them.

bitwize 6y ago
Homelessness is something that can easily happen to appealing, relatable people who are highly functional by middle-class standards. Perhaps you weren't here when Doreen Traylor's article about being homeless for six years appeared? Nevertheless, thank you for showing your privilege. Judgement made.
- dkarl 6y ago
  Doreen Traylor proves that a homeless person can write, have an online presence, and make a living as a freelancer. The fact that you think that's important is exactly my point, that you think homelessness is a different issue depending on whether or not homeless people are capable of living a certain kind of life we value. It shouldn't matter. It's sad that it does.
- dang 6y ago
  Please omit personal swipes from your comments here. They just make things even worse. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
hapless 6y ago
Almost half of American children spend at least one year in poverty Not to mention, I don't know where you folks develop your anecdotes -- you really do meet a lot of totally ordinary, high-functioning adults in soup kitchen and community pantry scenarios. They just happen to be broke and hungry. At any given time, most homeless families are only temporarily homeless, and most hungry families are only temporarily hungry. Life has its ups and downs. Most of the adults spend most of their lives working, just like everyone else does. The "hardcore," long-term homeless, who spend years at a time unhomed, are not terribly representative of the great mass of Americans who have spent some time unhomed. Poverty is endemic in America, and it's a hard time to be a working stiff, especially if you work in, say, the Bay area, as the comic's author did. ("Santa Luna" seems like a very thinly fictionalized Santa Cruz.) A man like the author, in 2020, could very well find himself in the encampment he so obviously feared.
- scythe 6y ago
  Consider the inherent differences in the metrics you're using. The comment that started this discussion involved observing people visiting a soup kitchen. Short-term homeless may outnumber long-term homeless in an absolute metric (I was homeless for a few months in 2014) but long-term homeless make many more lifetime visits to a soup kitchen and therefore comprise a higher proportion of the people you meet. They also comprise a higher proportion of the people who are at any given time living on the street. If you solve short-term homelessness but not long-term homelessness, you haven't made nearly as much of a dent in the shelter beds and tent cities as you have in the quoted statistic of people who are ever homeless. I'm sure you do meet "high-functioning adults" in soup kitchens, but I would also doubt they're the modal attendees.
  - dan-robertson 6y ago
    Your implication of certain people making more lifetime visits implying that a majority of the visitors are from that group does not follow. For example if a typical longtime homeless person would make (round number) 400 visits a year, and a typical transiently homeless person would make around 40 visits a year, then if eg there were 20 transiently homeless people a year for every longtime homeless person, then the makeup of a soup kitchen would be two-thirds transiently homeless.

baix777 6y ago

Here in Seattle there are far more homeless people than there used to be. In Seattle at least, thing are much worse than they were. The cost of living in Seattle has become too high, and the wages aren't keeping up. The OP is right about that, if overly dramatic about the homeless being handed a death sentence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_Seattle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_Seattle

dang 6y ago

Hey, please don't cross into personal attack. It's much more interesting that you have firsthand knowledge—if you want to share some of what you know, so we can all learn, that would be great, and much more in the intended spirit of the site. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=share%20know%20learn%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

smnrchrds 6y ago

What are your opinions on this DW documentary? Some of the homeless people interviewed here fit the OP's description perfectly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHDkALRz5Rk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHDkALRz5Rk