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This is super interesting. My last 5 years living on Rose Ave in LA we noticed a growing number of folks sleeping in tents, trucks & RVs on the blocks just west

This is super interesting. My last 5 years living on Rose Ave in LA we noticed a growing number of folks sleeping in tents, trucks & RVs on the blocks just west of us. I often wondered how many of the people living on (or basically on) the streets could completely fix their lives with a single payment of $5-10k.

tehwebguy 6y ago
Also I regret the phrasing “fix their lives” here. A better description of what I’m wondering is if that amount of money could get the folks in question housed and afford them the time to do what it takes to stay housed.
- antihero 6y ago
  Also RV living is probably quite attractive in some ways, it feels almost dirty spending such a large amount of the money you work for paying off someone else's mortgage or enriching them simply for owning stuff.
  - tehwebguy 6y ago
    There is some appeal for sure, especially in places with good weather and hugely expensive rent. But I spent a week in a very nice tour bus with a very nice bathroom. That was enough to rid me of the idea.
the_only_law 6y ago
Off topic, but I recall a YouTube video I watched a while back from maybe around a decade ago. There was some man out in LA who had experienced homelessness in his youth and wanted to help people in that situation. To do this, he crowed funded a project where he would build small shelters for people that had locks, and a solar panel feeding into an outlet. A lot of the people indicated that this was a major upgrade to their lives on the streets. Of course the city, and more importantly, the homeowners were livid. There were complaints about having these shelters out and visible for worry of property values. Additionally there was complaints of these being on the sidewalk and that creating safety issues. The city ordered them to be seized and destroyed. The coordinators offered to have them moved , but they were met with not cooperation, and one of the men’s who had lost his shelter reported a cop sneering about how he should “get a job”. There was a city official going on about how this project wasn’t helping anyone and continued to allude to his vague plan to “end homelessness”. Wonder how that worked out for them. Additionally there are a few channels that interview various people on the street and I recall one quote where a man said something along the lines of “I wish my family wouldn’t look down on me for being homeless”. In another, a man claimed he tried to reinitiate contact with his family, who had him arrested. Both of the men seemed sober, mentally stable, etc. in fact, the latter man ended up getting his life together in a stroke of luck. I have to wonder if these more to these stories, but disowning someone simply due to their economic status alone is absolutely insane to me.
- xyzzy123 6y ago
  Living rent-free (or practically so) in a shack or your van is the ultimate insult to society. You're showing everyone else up as idiots. Especially if you don't have to answer to anyone. People think it's about shelter, but it's actually about status. Not having to do what people tell you to do all the time is very high status. To preserve the conventional status hierarchy you have to be dehumanised, outlawed or "othered". Anything but decades of servitude to land and capital holders won't be tolerated. That's why the "good people" have to drive you out.
  - ByteJockey 6y ago
    It sounds like you're describing the distrust that has existed between settled and unsettled people since... well, since at least the beginning of recorded history.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]

tehwebguy 6y ago

Also I regret the phrasing “fix their lives” here. A better description of what I’m wondering is if that amount of money could get the folks in question housed and afford them the time to do what it takes to stay housed.

antihero 6y ago
Also RV living is probably quite attractive in some ways, it feels almost dirty spending such a large amount of the money you work for paying off someone else's mortgage or enriching them simply for owning stuff.
- tehwebguy 6y ago
  There is some appeal for sure, especially in places with good weather and hugely expensive rent. But I spent a week in a very nice tour bus with a very nice bathroom. That was enough to rid me of the idea.

the_only_law 6y ago

Off topic, but I recall a YouTube video I watched a while back from maybe around a decade ago. There was some man out in LA who had experienced homelessness in his youth and wanted to help people in that situation. To do this, he crowed funded a project where he would build small shelters for people that had locks, and a solar panel feeding into an outlet. A lot of the people indicated that this was a major upgrade to their lives on the streets. Of course the city, and more importantly, the homeowners were livid. There were complaints about having these shelters out and visible for worry of property values. Additionally there was complaints of these being on the sidewalk and that creating safety issues. The city ordered them to be seized and destroyed. The coordinators offered to have them moved , but they were met with not cooperation, and one of the men’s who had lost his shelter reported a cop sneering about how he should “get a job”. There was a city official going on about how this project wasn’t helping anyone and continued to allude to his vague plan to “end homelessness”. Wonder how that worked out for them. Additionally there are a few channels that interview various people on the street and I recall one quote where a man said something along the lines of “I wish my family wouldn’t look down on me for being homeless”. In another, a man claimed he tried to reinitiate contact with his family, who had him arrested. Both of the men seemed sober, mentally stable, etc. in fact, the latter man ended up getting his life together in a stroke of luck. I have to wonder if these more to these stories, but disowning someone simply due to their economic status alone is absolutely insane to me.

xyzzy123 6y ago
Living rent-free (or practically so) in a shack or your van is the ultimate insult to society. You're showing everyone else up as idiots. Especially if you don't have to answer to anyone. People think it's about shelter, but it's actually about status. Not having to do what people tell you to do all the time is very high status. To preserve the conventional status hierarchy you have to be dehumanised, outlawed or "othered". Anything but decades of servitude to land and capital holders won't be tolerated. That's why the "good people" have to drive you out.
- ByteJockey 6y ago
  It sounds like you're describing the distrust that has existed between settled and unsettled people since... well, since at least the beginning of recorded history.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]