Homeless People

Night-Reaper wrote:Does anyone here have a problem in the area that they live with homeless people? There are a few homeless people in my area. They mostly hang around the on-ramps and exit ramps with their signs, WILL WORK FOR FOOD or HOMELESS VET ANYTHING HELPS GOD BLESS.

If you see any homeless person holding up a sign, do you feel sorry and want to help? Or do you stop to consider that it could be a scam? Now I'm not saying that there isn't any homeless and hungrey people. All I'm saying from one perspective is that it is hard to determine a genuine homless person from a scammer. I say that because I have seen these people in wheel-chairs, claiming that they can't walk, begging for money. When they think nobody is looking they will get up out of that wheel-chair with out any problems.

In the area that I live, there is a city ordinance that prevents homeless people from walking up to someone and begging for money.

CarolinaHound wrote:As OT said, there will always be scammers. But one thing I learned from being with my ex through her stroke and the other handicapped people I met through her theropy, doctor's appointments, and visits/fights to get her disability benifits at the ss dept; just because a person is wheelchair bound does not mean they can't walk, but they may not be able to do it for extended periods.

I have a friend who has a degenerative nevous system desease simular to MS. He was diagnosed with it in his 30's, he's 50 something now. For about ten years he was in a situation where sometimes he could control his muscles enough to walk, however he looked like he was drunk when he could walk. At other times he had to be in a wheelchair with no control over his mucles, they did what they wanted to the point he had to continuasly put his feet back on the foot rest with his hands because they'd just wander of of them on their own. So just because a person looks healthy and fine doesn't mean they are.

Let's set up a hypothetical situation...
So let's say you were struck with a desease that caused you to physicly be unable to work somedays, other days you were fine. You had a job that required physical labor, let's say you're an electrition or construction worker. It's likely all you know, all you've been trained to do because your parents didn't have the money to send you to community collage, much less to a 4 year collage for a degree. How many employers would keep you on not knowing when you'd be there and when you'd be out with your ailment?

Unfortunatly you are telling it like it really is.

Now let's say you could do a job if it was behind a desk or something you could do at home on the computer on the days you were'nt unable to come into work. But most jobs like that require some community collage education at the very least, however you've been out of work for months because of your ailment and you don't have any prospects of any money falling out of the sky into your lap. There's no scholorships available to a person in your situation.

Eventually you get kicked out of your home because you don't have the money to pay the rent because the only jobs you can get are odd jobs on the days you are able to work. And that little bit just gives you enough to maybe get something to eat. Your parents may not be around to help. If you're not lucky enough to have a brother or sister that will give you a place to stay.... there's really only one place to go, the street. You're homeless.

You've turned to social security disability, you've paid into it since you began working. It'll be there for you, right. Maybe, but in most cases unless you are blind or completely unable to walk, you get deniged two times until you finally get to go infront of a judge, which if you didn't get a lawyer to work probono for that third hearing which takes on adverage 18 months to get. that equals out to 3 to 5 years to fight to get your benifits, you'll likely get turned down again because the adverage Joe doesn't know how to obtain the evadence and information to prove the case.

All in all, that's 4 to 6 years of your life waiting on red tape and living with no income, surviving on the generocity of others before you finally/hopefully get approved for the benifits you've paid for all those years. Then there's a few more months waiting for them to process your case before you finally get your first check.

And that my friend is where a lot of these homeless people come from. Sorry about the rant.

HotParadox wrote:i don't give to beggars on the street and i feel no remorse. i give to charities that have strong roots in helping for real homeless people.

Night-Reaper wrote:

HotParadox wrote:i don't give to beggars on the street and i feel no remorse. i give to charities that have strong roots in helping for real homeless people.

That's how I feel as well! Because most street beggars just want to try to get a little bit of money to get a bottle of booze. Nothing more and nothing less. They hold up signs: WILL WORK FOR FOOD, HARD WORKER. I smell bull-shit.

HotParadox wrote:not my problem since im not a mind reader. i see desperate homeless people everyday at work and they go to the charities that help them. my way of doing it is going to the charities that see that the money is going to the right people for the right reasons-food and shelter. but lol, that sign is to the point and i can't blame a guy for trying!

CarolinaHound wrote:

HotParadox wrote:not my problem since im not a mind reader. i see desperate homeless people everyday at work and they go to the charities that help them. my way of doing it is going to the charities that see that the money is going to the right people for the right reasons-food and shelter. but lol, that sign is to the point and i can't blame a guy for trying!

It really depends with me, and what mood I'm in. Sometimes might give a couple dollars or whatever change I have. Other times... well... I have been known to tell them to go get a job.

Old Timer wrote:

CarolinaHound wrote:

HotParadox wrote:not my problem since im not a mind reader. i see desperate homeless people everyday at work and they go to the charities that help them. my way of doing it is going to the charities that see that the money is going to the right people for the right reasons-food and shelter. but lol, that sign is to the point and i can't blame a guy for trying!

It really depends with me, and what mood I'm in. Sometimes might give a couple dollars or whatever change I have. Other times... well... I have been known to tell them to go get a job.

The way it looks that is going to be getting harder and harder.

CarolinaHound wrote:

How does a millionaire end up getting their home repoed? I mean you could buy a decent home for a hundred grand straight out with no morgage. (less than that acually if you're willing to live like the rest of us, God forbid ) Then put enough in a bank account so the intrest will cover the taxes, the rest in another account, live partially off the intrest of that and a part-time job. Maybe even a full-time job that you semi-enjoy.

CarolinaHound wrote:That's what I mean, just because a person makes a high income, doesn't mean they have to live in a $500,000 home. Though I can understand about the loss of jobs. I guess I never had to deal with that kind of money, so paying that price for a home just seem ridiculas to me. Now if it came with a hundred or two acres to hunt and fish on I could understand.

Old Timer wrote:

CarolinaHound wrote:That's what I mean, just because a person makes a high income, doesn't mean they have to live in a $500,000 home. Though I can understand about the loss of jobs. I guess I never had to deal with that kind of money, so paying that price for a home just seem ridiculas to me. Now if it came with a hundred or two acres to hunt and fish on I could understand.

It don't. It only comes with a small plot for the house and yard. once you get over a million then the land starts to expand a little. I have seen land as small as 10 or so acres go for 2 to 3 million, that is just land. No house, road or utilities. those you put in at your expense.

We have a 1,000 sq.ft. two bedroom apt which is like a house as it is an end unit and it costs us 1150.00 a month. Living here aint cheap.

CarolinaHound wrote:

Old Timer wrote:

CarolinaHound wrote:That's what I mean, just because a person makes a high income, doesn't mean they have to live in a $500,000 home. Though I can understand about the loss of jobs. I guess I never had to deal with that kind of money, so paying that price for a home just seem ridiculas to me. Now if it came with a hundred or two acres to hunt and fish on I could understand.

It don't. It only comes with a small plot for the house and yard. once you get over a million then the land starts to expand a little. I have seen land as small as 10 or so acres go for 2 to 3 million, that is just land. No house, road or utilities. those you put in at your expense.

We have a 1,000 sq.ft. two bedroom apt which is like a house as it is an end unit and it costs us 1150.00 a month. Living here aint cheap.

I'm afraid I'd have to move. lol
But then to me a house can be a shack, it is nothing more than a facility to keep the rain off you head. It's what's in it that makes it a home, not what it looks like or how much it cost.

Night-Reaper wrote:Does anyone here have a problem in the area that they live with homeless people? There are a few homeless people in my area. They mostly hang around the on-ramps and exit ramps with their signs, WILL WORK FOR FOOD or HOMELESS VET ANYTHING HELPS GOD BLESS.

If you see any homeless person holding up a sign, do you feel sorry and want to help? Or do you stop to consider that it could be a scam? Now I'm not saying that there isn't any homeless and hungrey people. All I'm saying from one perspective is that it is hard to determine a genuine homless person from a scammer. I say that because I have seen these people in wheel-chairs, claiming that they can't walk, begging for money. When they think nobody is looking they will get up out of that wheel-chair with out any problems.

In the area that I live, there is a city ordinance that prevents homeless people from walking up to someone and begging for money.