Question about the homeless.. (1 Viewer)

[Pamela]

I had a dear friend who became homeless. He was a proud man, with his own business. Lived a comfortable life.

Rather suddenly, his behavior started to change. He became irrational, easily angered. It became difficult to reason with him. He started spending enormous amounts of money he didn't have,

He became paranoid and delusional (he had a psychotic break). It was obvious something was terribly wrong. He would show up at my place of work. On payday, he would show up at my door. I became terrified of him.

He ended up on living out on the streets.

It was frightening to watch his descent into mental illness and homelessness. Never in a million years did I think this would happen to him.

He's doing OK, last I heard. He was able to get help and get off the streets.

 

[Sam Posten]

I dunno Hola. I think your perspective might be skewed because you are both male and above average in size and strength. Even at my size I'm wary around homeless simply because of the likelyhood that they arent fully under their own control due to drugs or alcohol, I would be more so if I wasnt as big, or if I was a female especially alone.

 

[Grant B]

One of the problems is very few homes for the mentally handicapped. They were closed by governer Ronald Reagan to save money.....private concerns were supose to fill in but that never happened. The past election had some gains which hopefully will do something for these people.
I spent 2 years volunteering and after spending time in some of the shelters, I understand why many won't go.
I had to hold my breath they stunk so bad....numerous safety concerns and other problems made them 'unliveable'

 

[Garrett Lundy]

NYC only appears to have fewer homeless than LA. Any medical examiner will quickly tell you that during any winter month, the death count of the homeless can be in the hundreds.


Also:

*Not every job can support an apartment.
*In many ways, shelters can be as dangerous as no shelter
*Many "homeless" do live in their cars

I'm not even going to touch the subject of mental health, since I don't have any recent figures on it.

 

[DaveGTP]

Yeah, that's kind of how it is. If one of them decided to mug me, I'm a scrawny-ass, fairly weak white guy.

I do pity them, but I am also wary of them.