4 ms·

There’s someone on YouTube I sorta watched from time to time when the pandemic hit. He’s located in Venice beach, German in Venice. He was exposing the homeless

by wil421 5y ago

There’s someone on YouTube I sorta watched from time to time when the pandemic hit. He’s located in Venice beach, German in Venice. He was exposing the homeless issue and lack of government response. Fast forward to now. The city offered everyone a free place to go and many took it. There were still a lot of people who refused. Now the garbage trucks and police evicted them. The garbage people packed a lot of stuff and put it into storage. What’s your take? They were offered housing while they get back on their feet and chose not to take it.

DoreenMichele 5y ago
First, some people took it and some did not. Yet you are trying to suggest we judge all homeless based on those who did not without knowing any further details. Damn them all to hell because some were offered housing and said "no." A lot of services offered to the homeless are really terrible. I never stayed in a shelter while homeless. They have rules that make it just shy of being a form of prison, they tend to not be safe and they often have serious mold problems, among other things. They also offered me no option to continue living as a family with my adult sons. Every service I spoke to urged me to take shelter as a single woman and to wait-list my sons for shelter as single adult men. There were zero programs to help us find shelter as a family of three blood relatives who still need each other to make our lives work. I have done a lot of writing about homelessness and housing issues over the years. I could direct you to several of my blogs if you actually are sincerely interested in my take. I doubt that you are. That's likely a rhetorical device. I am doing what I can to continue researching the issue, to provide useful information for small communities to use, etc. I don't know how to get traction and I don't know how to adequately monetize my work which makes it difficult to keep writing about it in hopes of other people benefiting because I need to eat and pay rent too. I'm certainly not independently wealthy.
- lapsed_pacifist 5y ago
  I'm interested in reading more of your writing. I worked with TANF recipients, many of whom were homeless (although few of them were unsheltered) and would like to hear more of your perspective because I have some exposure personally, and also because there is a serious problem with providing services to a large number of homeless people in my local area.
  - DoreenMichele 5y ago
    https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/ https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/ The sidebar links out to other things by me: Write Pay, Pocket Puter, The Genevieve Files, What Helps The Homeless, San Diego Homeless Survival Guide, r/GigWorks I also run r/CitizenPlanners and I'm the author or Eclogiselle.com and Project: SRO and The Butterfly Economy http://www.eclogiselle.com/ http://www.eclogiselle.com/ http://projectsro.blogspot.com http://projectsro.blogspot.com http://butterflyeconomy.blogspot.com/ http://butterflyeconomy.blogspot.com/ Things don't get updated as frequently as I would like in part because I don't have traction, so I don't get the kind of feedback I need to help me figure out what to talk about and because I don't get enough from tips and Patreon to focus on these projects instead of on trying to come up with enough money to survive, but I have done a lot of writing over the years. That list is not comprehensive. It's just stuff that has more than a few posts and most of that stuff is still being actively developed, just slowly.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- wil421 5y ago
  I’ve done outreach and volunteer work before. Not sure how you interpreted my reply but it was not a negative question. These topics are of interest to me.
  - DoreenMichele 5y ago
    I took it as negative because you closed with this: They were offered housing while they get back on their feet and chose not to take it. It's full of implicit accusation that the homeless are difficult, uncooperative, causing their own problems and you can't help them because they are irrational pains in the butt. I interpreted it that way in part because many homeless services are so bad they help keep the problem alive rather than helping to solve it. As just one example: Most homeless people have serious health issues. It's an underlying cause of their financial problems and a barrier to employment. But if you go to a soup kitchen, you are exposed to other sick people, plus cigarette smoke and marijuana smoke. I eventually quit going to soup kitchens and just worked at finding other ways to keep myself fed because my health issues are my number one problem making my life not work, so anything that makes it harder for me to take care of my health is a very serious problem. I think we should lower the barrier to food stamps in the US. It's a good program that allows you to access food from normal middle class venues which are actually clean etc. I think we should do all we can to cut the bureaucratic costs and as much as humanly possible say "If you want food stamps, here you go" without asking people to prove they need them. But I don't expect anything like that will ever happen. Talk of UBI appears to be code for "And now rich people can say Shut up. You are getting a check, you ingrate." rather than a genuine attempt to give meaningful relief to poor Americans. Cutting a check is an easy answer to a hard problem, so likely won't solve anything. I've listed my blogs elsewhere in another comment if you genuinely want to know more about what I think about homelessness, housing issues and community development.
    - wil421 5y ago
      Doreen, I only asked the question because I wanted your input from your experience. Most of the people who didn’t want to leave were in various stages of addiction and alcoholism. Addiction is something I know about from my life. Not a fan of UBI. I worked endless hours in the Restaurant industry until I was 27 and got into IT and software development. Not trying to compare to your situation. Food stamps and health care assistance should absolutely be raised. I have family who struggle with both costs. Thank you for your blogs and your time.
- ptr2voidStar 5y ago
  I feel your pain - even though I've never been homeless, am male, from an entirely different country and demographic. You are early, a good writer - and were able to convey the feeling of frustration and helplessness whilst maintaining your dignity. Could you perchance share the links to your blogposts on here? I'm sure there are many on here who would like to help in some way if they can.
vkou 5y ago
> What’s your take? They were offered housing while they get back on their feet and chose not to take it. If you are, say, addicted to drugs, and your options are 'Live in sober housing' and 'Live in a tent', is it that surprising that #2 is more appealing? And before someone suggest 'They should just stop using drugs'. I'd also like to point out that we don't have a miracle cure for addiction, and that there are millions of upper and upper-middle class people with every service and support network, both professional and personal, who are unable to deal with their drug problems. What chance does someone sleeping rough, with nobody in their lives who gives two shits about them, have?

by wil421 5y ago

DoreenMichele 5y ago

First, some people took it and some did not. Yet you are trying to suggest we judge all homeless based on those who did not without knowing any further details. Damn them all to hell because some were offered housing and said "no." A lot of services offered to the homeless are really terrible. I never stayed in a shelter while homeless. They have rules that make it just shy of being a form of prison, they tend to not be safe and they often have serious mold problems, among other things. They also offered me no option to continue living as a family with my adult sons. Every service I spoke to urged me to take shelter as a single woman and to wait-list my sons for shelter as single adult men. There were zero programs to help us find shelter as a family of three blood relatives who still need each other to make our lives work. I have done a lot of writing about homelessness and housing issues over the years. I could direct you to several of my blogs if you actually are sincerely interested in my take. I doubt that you are. That's likely a rhetorical device. I am doing what I can to continue researching the issue, to provide useful information for small communities to use, etc. I don't know how to get traction and I don't know how to adequately monetize my work which makes it difficult to keep writing about it in hopes of other people benefiting because I need to eat and pay rent too. I'm certainly not independently wealthy.

lapsed_pacifist 5y ago
I'm interested in reading more of your writing. I worked with TANF recipients, many of whom were homeless (although few of them were unsheltered) and would like to hear more of your perspective because I have some exposure personally, and also because there is a serious problem with providing services to a large number of homeless people in my local area.
- DoreenMichele 5y ago
  https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/ https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/ The sidebar links out to other things by me: Write Pay, Pocket Puter, The Genevieve Files, What Helps The Homeless, San Diego Homeless Survival Guide, r/GigWorks I also run r/CitizenPlanners and I'm the author or Eclogiselle.com and Project: SRO and The Butterfly Economy http://www.eclogiselle.com/ http://www.eclogiselle.com/ http://projectsro.blogspot.com http://projectsro.blogspot.com http://butterflyeconomy.blogspot.com/ http://butterflyeconomy.blogspot.com/ Things don't get updated as frequently as I would like in part because I don't have traction, so I don't get the kind of feedback I need to help me figure out what to talk about and because I don't get enough from tips and Patreon to focus on these projects instead of on trying to come up with enough money to survive, but I have done a lot of writing over the years. That list is not comprehensive. It's just stuff that has more than a few posts and most of that stuff is still being actively developed, just slowly.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
wil421 5y ago
I’ve done outreach and volunteer work before. Not sure how you interpreted my reply but it was not a negative question. These topics are of interest to me.
- DoreenMichele 5y ago
  I took it as negative because you closed with this: They were offered housing while they get back on their feet and chose not to take it. It's full of implicit accusation that the homeless are difficult, uncooperative, causing their own problems and you can't help them because they are irrational pains in the butt. I interpreted it that way in part because many homeless services are so bad they help keep the problem alive rather than helping to solve it. As just one example: Most homeless people have serious health issues. It's an underlying cause of their financial problems and a barrier to employment. But if you go to a soup kitchen, you are exposed to other sick people, plus cigarette smoke and marijuana smoke. I eventually quit going to soup kitchens and just worked at finding other ways to keep myself fed because my health issues are my number one problem making my life not work, so anything that makes it harder for me to take care of my health is a very serious problem. I think we should lower the barrier to food stamps in the US. It's a good program that allows you to access food from normal middle class venues which are actually clean etc. I think we should do all we can to cut the bureaucratic costs and as much as humanly possible say "If you want food stamps, here you go" without asking people to prove they need them. But I don't expect anything like that will ever happen. Talk of UBI appears to be code for "And now rich people can say Shut up. You are getting a check, you ingrate." rather than a genuine attempt to give meaningful relief to poor Americans. Cutting a check is an easy answer to a hard problem, so likely won't solve anything. I've listed my blogs elsewhere in another comment if you genuinely want to know more about what I think about homelessness, housing issues and community development.
  - wil421 5y ago
    Doreen, I only asked the question because I wanted your input from your experience. Most of the people who didn’t want to leave were in various stages of addiction and alcoholism. Addiction is something I know about from my life. Not a fan of UBI. I worked endless hours in the Restaurant industry until I was 27 and got into IT and software development. Not trying to compare to your situation. Food stamps and health care assistance should absolutely be raised. I have family who struggle with both costs. Thank you for your blogs and your time.
ptr2voidStar 5y ago
I feel your pain - even though I've never been homeless, am male, from an entirely different country and demographic. You are early, a good writer - and were able to convey the feeling of frustration and helplessness whilst maintaining your dignity. Could you perchance share the links to your blogposts on here? I'm sure there are many on here who would like to help in some way if they can.

vkou 5y ago

> What’s your take? They were offered housing while they get back on their feet and chose not to take it. If you are, say, addicted to drugs, and your options are 'Live in sober housing' and 'Live in a tent', is it that surprising that #2 is more appealing? And before someone suggest 'They should just stop using drugs'. I'd also like to point out that we don't have a miracle cure for addiction, and that there are millions of upper and upper-middle class people with every service and support network, both professional and personal, who are unable to deal with their drug problems. What chance does someone sleeping rough, with nobody in their lives who gives two shits about them, have?