4 ms·

You're right, their situation does prevent them from jumping into a white collar, professional life with a good credit score and personal references. But I don

by tdfx 5y ago

You're right, their situation does prevent them from jumping into a white collar, professional life with a good credit score and personal references. But I don't think that's what anyone is suggesting. Most of the problems you stated are not problems for the type of labor that is offered to homeless people. Jobs for construction, landscaping, moving etc. with a truck that picks you up and drops you off. Usually done by illegal immigrants so cash pay is not a problem. From the business owners I know who have tried to hire homeless people to do daily labor, none of them are interested.

cduzz 5y ago
I would ask you to think through the logistics of managing any of your proposed solutions when you don't have a safe place to sleep or store your stuff. Instructions like 1) leave your stuff some place out of your control 2) somehow get to a parking lot where people pick up day workers 3) hang out with day laborers hoping to get a job 4) get in a random truck on the promise that someone will pay you 5) get driven some place to do a job 6) do the job 7) assume they'll take you back where they got you 8) assume they'll pay you what they promised in cash 9) get back to my stuff, hope it is still there 10) hope that I can store my cash some place safe 11) of course, don't forget you're doing this with basically no sleep, unhealthy food, no good place to poop, no reliable place to wash, etc. For months at a time. And of course do that for a couple months or years without having anything terrible happen to you until you save up enough to rent a place? That doesn't seem like a realistic plan.
- tdfx 5y ago
  I can only speak to the situations I've encountered, but: (1) There's churches nearby that offer lockers for the homeless (2) They don't need to go anywhere, these jobs drive around looking for them (3) See #2 (4) Illegal immigrants do this every day, and they often don't even speak the same language (5) Seems OK. (6) Seems OK. (7) Seems reasonable the business operator will want to continue the arrangement if they did a good job, so this seems very likely. (8) See #7 (9) See #1 (10) This is probably the most difficult part (11) Shelters in my city are underutilized almost all of the year except during inclement weather. They offer showers, cot beds, and basic food. I'm not saying that it's easy being homeless, or that making the transition into suburban homeowner is easy or even practical for them. But the problem is not a lack of available jobs (the jobs are there) or shelter (homeless shelters are underutilized). I'm fine with spending money on a compassionate solution, but only if we're solving the right problem.
  - pas 5y ago
    Illegal immigrants have the mental resilience required to power through. They usually have a support network (family, relatives, maybe in the worst case some criminal organization that made a deal with them to exploit their labor). Homeless folks on the other hand don't have this (and that's why they homeless, and usually they burned all their bridges before they ended up on the street because the aforementioned mental health problems).

by tdfx 5y ago

cduzz 5y ago

I would ask you to think through the logistics of managing any of your proposed solutions when you don't have a safe place to sleep or store your stuff. Instructions like 1) leave your stuff some place out of your control 2) somehow get to a parking lot where people pick up day workers 3) hang out with day laborers hoping to get a job 4) get in a random truck on the promise that someone will pay you 5) get driven some place to do a job 6) do the job 7) assume they'll take you back where they got you 8) assume they'll pay you what they promised in cash 9) get back to my stuff, hope it is still there 10) hope that I can store my cash some place safe 11) of course, don't forget you're doing this with basically no sleep, unhealthy food, no good place to poop, no reliable place to wash, etc. For months at a time. And of course do that for a couple months or years without having anything terrible happen to you until you save up enough to rent a place? That doesn't seem like a realistic plan.

tdfx 5y ago
I can only speak to the situations I've encountered, but: (1) There's churches nearby that offer lockers for the homeless (2) They don't need to go anywhere, these jobs drive around looking for them (3) See #2 (4) Illegal immigrants do this every day, and they often don't even speak the same language (5) Seems OK. (6) Seems OK. (7) Seems reasonable the business operator will want to continue the arrangement if they did a good job, so this seems very likely. (8) See #7 (9) See #1 (10) This is probably the most difficult part (11) Shelters in my city are underutilized almost all of the year except during inclement weather. They offer showers, cot beds, and basic food. I'm not saying that it's easy being homeless, or that making the transition into suburban homeowner is easy or even practical for them. But the problem is not a lack of available jobs (the jobs are there) or shelter (homeless shelters are underutilized). I'm fine with spending money on a compassionate solution, but only if we're solving the right problem.
- pas 5y ago
  Illegal immigrants have the mental resilience required to power through. They usually have a support network (family, relatives, maybe in the worst case some criminal organization that made a deal with them to exploit their labor). Homeless folks on the other hand don't have this (and that's why they homeless, and usually they burned all their bridges before they ended up on the street because the aforementioned mental health problems).