Pulaski

I think I like you.

Rete

Which is great for your kids but that does not mean that they won't wound up homeless.

My husband's son had a drug and drinking problem when living in Halifax, NS, after his stink in the RCAF. Dad continually sent him money but all he was doing was paying for the drink and drugs that son was taking. On the advice of his chaplin, he had to go the tough love route. Once the kid was truly living in the cold of a winter in Halifax in doorways, etc. and he had no money for his daily fix, he hit rock bottom and went to Sally Ann for help. He has been clean for over 25 years now but being homeless and 'helpless' saved his life and he is enjoying a well paying IT job and his wife and son.

There are myriad reasons why someone is homeless in all countries of the world and not all of them are due to their own choice. There are programs in some states but they are underfunded, short staffed and the need is too great to accommodate everyone.

scrubbedexpat097

I think we are all aware of homeless and struggling families and it is not just here in the US.

So what do you do about it? Doing what the OP did, a gift card and candy is a kind gesture.

Usually contacting one of the local churches about the situation will help. Churches have funds and information to give help.

Getting into a situation when you have nothing can happen to anyone, and when you are in a country away from family and friends it is difficult. Very difficult To a slightly lesser extent it happened to us when we first moved here. It was a sickening situation, being in a cheap motel and having to count out how much money you have left to eat and support your kids before you become completely homeless. We dug our way out with the help of newly found friends .

I look back on that time and it's a reminder and like Rete I make sure if anyone around us needs help we will do all we can. Sometimes a cooked meal, some extras for kids or just a few suggestions to help the situation.

The lesson we learned was never take anything in life for granted. It can change in a heartbeat.

jkeller

O'connor v. Donaldson 1975 case put a lot of mentally ill folks onto the streets. Basically the Supreme Court said...being mentally ill is not a crime and you can't keep a person locked up in a psychiatric hospital just because they are mentally ill.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Connor_v._Donaldson

scrubbedexpat091

Here in British Columbia age out for youths in foster care and government care is 19, and then basically it's see ya have a nice life. Several high profile cases of youth aging out of the system with limited to no supports after 19 who ended their life as they literally had no supports.

Considering youth in government care are coming from troubled lifes and homes, they likely have no family, and just tossing them onto the street at 19 with limited help is cruel in my opinion.

You just can't compare a youth who grew up in a stable, caring, loving home with one who grew up in the system.

Steerpike

I think this decision had a lot of unforeseen consequences, mostly negative ... I think one abuse of the original processs was that people could get their ageing parents 'committed' and thus access their inheritance while their parents were still alive. But stopping that, and other abuses, has led to far greater issues.

geoff52

There are no votes on this issue for the politicians.
One further point, different cultures have different attitude to poverty.
Having lived in the UK and traveled extensively in the US the two have very different outlook on life.

DandNHill

I worked ina drop in center for at risk and homeless youth. If you gave them a gift card they would sell it for drugs (not all of them of course)

Gordon Barlow

When he first lived in Norway, years ago during his hippie days, my son became heavily involved in the plight of the homeless in Oslo. He told me that most of them either had mental problems or were drug addicts. Norway is a very caring country, on the whole, but little of the maintenance-money paid to the druggies was spent on food. Predictably, none of it was spent on rent, so squatting in unoccupied buildings was the only way for them to survive the winters. The Police generally turned a blind eye to drug-abuse, but one wonders if maybe they should have locked the abusers away during the coldest months, for their own protection.

Pulaski

And in the middle of that you have confirmed what I, and many others, think/know, that giving homeless people cash often just enables them to perpetuate their problems.

jkeller

Very true. The US outlook is based on everyone working, trying to better themselves economically. This is why the US has inheritance(death) taxes ultimately to prevent generational(class) wealth. It's why health insurance is employment based, why the first day on the job you don't automatically get 5 weeks vacation, it's why stores don't close mid day for an afternoon nap.

mrken30

I had to work 3 months to get my first 3 week vacation. If I had started 2 months later, I would have only had waited a month. It can vary a lot by employer. My current job I had to work 2 years to get my 3 weeks vacation. the first job was an evil corporation, the current job is a wonderful not for profit organization. I preferred working for the evil corporation.

Pulaski

If that is the reason then they are spectacularly ineffective, not least because anyone who has enough wealth to be impacted employs a tax lawyer or accountant to largely circumvent estate taxes (there is no federal inheritance tax, and only a few stares have one). There are only a minuscule percentage of people pay US estate taxes.

Lion in Winter

Whereas leaving them on the street corner without giving them cash obviously sorts them right out.

People who have background advantages - family or others who still care about them, education, no mental illness, etc., - may make it out. Or not.

It is estimated that over half a million people are homeless in the US, although how they can count that god knows. Hundreds freeze to death every winter. Others die becaues they get no medical treatment for their problems.

Another vast number of people are one missed paycheck away from being in the same situation through no fault of their own. I know, I've been there - I have never had any drug, booze, psychological etc issues in my life, and I did nothing wrong at all. I just had a series of personal and economic misfortunes. Thanks to my education and general advantageous background I kept it together - just - but have been down to $0s, literally, from check to check. I never had to ask for money, but I was absolutely at risk, with my small child to look after. A (mostly) former poster here once sent me $20 in the post so I could buy my son a small present. I won't ever forget that - kindness from strangers can be a big part of helping someone back up because it's a sign that someone still considers you to be a person worth helping and it keeps you in the circle of "normal people". It's a mistake to make generalisations about how and why people end up where they do, and even more so to judge what's good for them and what is not without knowing the individual situation. That's buying into the whole Victorian deserving/underserving poor thing. I find Americans to be afraid of poverty - they seem to think it's catching and I watch them give a wide berth to people on the street asking for money, just in case.

ian-mstm

I'm a firm believer that people should be held accountable for their own actions. There are those who are homeless through no fault of their own and there are those who are homeless because they keep making poor decisions. This latter group includes drug abusers. I have great sympathy for those in the former group - they likely don't want to be in that situation and actively try to improve their circumstances. I have no sympathy for the latter - they've chosen to be in that situation. If they die in the night, it solves both their own and society's problem.

Mine is likely not a popular opinion. I'm reminded of the Sherlock Holmes story: The Man with the Twisted Lip.

Ian