Homeless situation...It is "NOT" going away. Could you "survive".?

[Haertig]

Your right all hundreds of thousands (millions) of (currently) homeless had their home "LEVELED" because of subsistence abuse.

Because your home and your preps could be "leveled" in a single event is why I prep the way that I do. Part of my thinking is prepping NOT to become homeless. I don't do much in the way of prepping to SURVIVE homelessness. Because by my way of thinking, not becoming homeless in the first place gives you a leg up in a disaster situation.

 

[mml373]

From who? The homeless are a cross-section of the local society, some are between major life changes like moving to get work, divorce, or a run of bad luck. Injured vets and runaways round out the population here, we have a few meth heads, crack smokers, and drunks, but they seem to want to live like that, So I can't really call them homeless. I remember my bud who was a Vietnam Vet, he had PTSD and an alcohol problem, and he lived out at the the edge of the industrial zone, but he liked it because nobody bothered him and nothing would "Set him off" because he'd get violent or go on a cheap vodka binge. He had an honest and pure hatred of the world and I respected that. RIP Smitty.

I went through a divorce in 2011 that cleaned me out (after the ex had been spending all the income I earned, for years). Lost my active duty military career the following year due to Obama and congress at the time making excessive and unnecessary personnel cuts to all service branches. Had meager savings built back by the time I came off active duty, sold accrued leave, jumped into the Reserves and found a civilian job, but went without income for some months while having to pay child support. When I finally got paid, I was 2 weeks into trying to find a homeless shelter in Tampa for veterans. No luck. Prior to that first paycheck, I had $29 to my name and wasn't sure how I was going to pay rent. It took months to climb out. No help from family or anyone else. That was close enough to homelessness for me to see what it was all about and how awful things are for people who find themselves in situations not entirely of their making. Support is exceedingly hard to find for those in need of covering gaps, because "we earn too much". That does nothing to help when money is zero and you're in between...

We really need better solutions to homelessness in the US. Maybe the export of illegals back to where they came from will help. I gladly would have found a farming job if one were available immediately to help cover the gap between departure from active duty and finding/starting my new job back then. It would have been a great education...I own and am growing a small farm, now.

And despite what Obama and his congresses tried to do to active duty military members between 2010-2015, targeting those of us with 13-18 years of service to prevent us from retiring (many got "pink slips" while deployed in combat zones), I found a way back on active duty and secured active duty retirement. No love lost for that administration.

 

[Haertig]

From who?

It was a rhetorical statement.

 

[Neb]

Not all homeless are addicts.

Some are homeless due to unfortunate circumstances. We have served hot meals in a homeless shelter for about 35 years. Some where cared for by family members that have passed. Amputee and birth defects.

Some have jobs. We can typically feed about 50 and make up 10 extra meals for those who are still working when we are serving.

The longest I have seen is about 6 months for one fellow with birth defects. The other faces change regularly. The shelter doesn't tolerate drugs or alcohol which may explain why the faces change as they get back on their feet.

My 2 cents

Ben

 

[UserNameTaken]

I think Al and I would get along. Freedom is good. Unplugging from the stupidity of contemporary US life is probably good as well.

LOL - Big Al was a hoot. @Sourdough reminds me of him a little. Al would ask you questions to force you to contemplate and explore the uncomfortable spaces.

I knew another guy like that - his name was "Number One Archer." He was the unofficial "Greeter" in Laguna Beach, CA, after the original fellow, Eiler Larson passed away. He had a long, white beard, and would sit on the coast hwy and wave to passing cars. I got to know him a little, wrote an article about him. His real name was #1, his last name, Archer. He was a twin, and when born his parents didn't have names ready. Then they discovered it required a court order to change, so they never did. His brother was #2. He lived in a storage unit in Laguna Canyon, not far from Timothy Leary's old house (you know, the LSD guy) man he had some insane parties back in the day...

Anyway, we'd sit on the planter out in front of the "FingerHut Gallery" and #1 would ask unanswerable questions that made you uncomfortable. Sometimes I miss those guys.

 

[Peanut]

The homeless are a cross section of general population types yes. But the percentage of those who are dangerous is disproportionate compared to the general population. Whether it’s from those with substance abuse issues or the criminal element.

For example I’ve never been assaulted in a hardware store, a diner or walley’s. But this happens with regularity in the street. To not acknowledge that is burying your head in the sand.

 

[UserNameTaken]

This is an article I wrote 20 years ago. I believe it is time for it to happen now.

Homeless to Aliens top of page

Yesterday I attended a workshop regarding lack of affordable housing for persons with disabilities and the homeless. As I sat there I noticed that half of the participants were professionals employed as social workers, attorneys specializing in discrimination litigation, etc. and the rest were referred to as their “consumers”. I listened as they all agreed that there just were not any affordable homes available, period. Just this week the city of Pensacola, by its actions, implied that affordable housing was new homes in the $175,000 - $200,000 range. It appeared that nothing at all was accomplished by the workshop except for a little venting and a few consumers learned to fight harder for one of the remaining affordable houses.

During the workshop Albert Einstein’s statement “The enormous problems we face today cannot be solved from the same frame of mind that created them” kept going through my head. Maybe we are looking at the problem too closely. I wondered how an alien, unfamiliar with our culture and economics, would have assessed yesterday’s workshop and address the housing problem? I think possibly the following:

• This is a long term problem that has been occurring for many, many years. If the goal is to make the problem permanently disappear, it is futile to solve the long-term problem with a short-term solution.
• Based on ten thousand years of history it is obvious that governments have no intent of permanently resolving this problem. Therefore it might be concluded that in the scheme of our social economic system the “problem” is beneficial in some way and is not a problem to the whole. Or perhaps it is just a small flaw of our system that we tolerate.
• The problem may have been sliced and analyzed too thinly. Litigators view it from a litigation viewpoint only. They are paid to do that so they must close their eyes to other viewpoints. Social workers do the same. Landlords do the same. These persons are not paid to resolve the problem from the whole.
• If the problem could be permanently resolved in one day would the above mentioned persons elect to do so? Probably not - they themselves would be without a job and subject to homelessness. This is the culture we live in.
• A short-term solution is to put an economic underachiever in a home and then leave them. In our suburbia culture, lacking transportation, medical assistance, community support and livable wage jobs, most of these placed persons will rejoin the homeless.
• It is falsely assumed that because most of these persons cannot locate a 40 hour a week job in the want ads that they are unemployable and thus will always be non-productive to community.
• There are two money problems in our culture: the lack of money and too much money. The problem with too much money is that we use it for security and if you lose your money there goes your security. Oddly, the more money you have the more insecure you become!
• Earlier in our history it appears that we systematically destroyed tribal communities. Perhaps this was done so that we could control them with money. Until our arrival the tribe was a member’s security so he had no need for money.
• It appears that the current culture dictates that any activity undertaken must be taxed by supplying a living to others around it. This need not be so.

Possible Solution:

Perhaps it is time that we establish villages or communities small and large enough to house both moneyless and the wealthy, providing security for all. Only affordable housing costing around $40,000 each would be constructed. The community would not be dependent on transportation as most jobs would be provided to all who wish to work there. This would be a place that would be internally sustainable forever. This would be a place where the professionals who would work themselves out of a job would rather be at anyway. From start to finish, no one would make a profit on the venture.

Fighting over the few remaining affordable houses is not the long-term solution.
Building a surplus of affordable houses is.

Very well said. I've met very few people working in the homeless support industry who truly has a clue. Certainly nobody in government does. If I give y'all my honest opinion of the oligarchy and what I think should be done, you'd call me a commie socialist. But the income disparity can't continue.

Until my cancer we were making 200k plus, both working. Now we scrape by on our megar investments. My wife has 4 college degrees (science, computer science, two in business). She's been out of work two years since Google screwed her. She's always had to fight foreigners for jobs. There is NO job security for most. And with work from home going away, we're screwed unless we move to a city. She's played the ghost job game - 90% of advertised jobs don't exist.

But to buy an average home in San Jose CA, requires a mininum $454,000 salary. And that illegal alien Elon Musk and his oligarch cronies want to pay foreigners min wage and live 15 to a house. If someone can't figure out why America is drowning in homelessness, this is why.

 

[Neb]

The homeless are a cross section of general population types yes. But the percentage of those who are dangerous is disproportionate compared to the general population. Whether it’s from those with substance abuse issues or the criminal element.

For example I’ve never been assaulted in a hardware store, a diner or walley’s. But this happens with regularity in the street. To not acknowledge that is burying your head in the sand.

Agreed.

Sea story time

One evening dinner was delayed because of a skirmish among the residents. Police came in and carted away offenders. So after dinner I was anxious to get home but was side tracked by construction. Eventually found my was to an intersection I recognized hooray! Stopped at the light with my turn signal on and another car pulled behind me. Light turned green and I made the turn when the red lights on the car behind followed me through the intersection.

Turns out no left turns at that light. I passed my ID and carry permits to the officer and explained I was unfamiliar with that part of town. When she heard about the incident at the homeless shelter she realized my story was legit. Got away with a warning.

The shelter had metal detectors and no weapons allowed in. We have to smuggle in knives to prep some food. I have had to resort to using a swiss army knife on occation.

Ben

 

[UserNameTaken]

What I am going to post is 100% "Valid".

I find it fascinating that "ALL" discussions about homelessness, must evolve into discussions about why they are homeless. Alcohol and drugs MUST enter the conversation.........It MUST.

I have never seen a discussion reference homelessness, that did not deteriorate into discussion about drugs and/or alcohol.

Why does it matter so greatly to people, unless it is them setting the foundation for themselves to FEEL SUPERIOR.

It is fascinating to me that people simply can't control themselves. They "MUST" judge and distinguish themselves as "SUPERIOR HUMANS".

What is the difference between someone who can't control their need to judge others as weaker, and inferior then themselves. Then those who can't control their substance addiction.

I think people who can't even control their own thinking process, their inability too not just others (as inferior) are just as weak as those with subsistence control issues.

Well a fact is that mental health and substance use contributes to a considerable amount of homlessness. When you're beaten down daily, it's hard.

It's not a matter of superiority or judging anyone. It's just fact. The past couple of decades drugs have played a large part. Now economic stress and housing cost is causing the working middle class to lose their housing.

There are actually over 50 hot wars. With millions displaced - they are refugees, not homeless.

Natural disasters, lack of insurance, and typical govt mismanagement wipe people out. It could happen to any of us. Just having to defend yourself from some slimebag could ruin your life and bankrupt any of us.

Drug involved homelessness.

Refugees

Digital nomad

 

[Neb]

Very well said. I've met very few people working in the homeless support industry who truly has a clue. Certainly nobody in government does. If I give y'all my honest opinion of the oligarchy and what I think should be done, you'd call me a commie socialist. But the income disparity can't continue.

Until my cancer we were making 200k plus, both working. Now we scrape by on our megar investments. My wife has 4 college degrees (science, computer science, two in business). She's been out of work two years since Google screwed her. She's always had to fight foreigners for jobs. There is NO job security for most. And with work from home going away, we're screwed unless we move to a city. She's played the ghost job game - 90% of advertised jobs don't exist.

But to buy an average home in San Jose CA, requires a mininum $454,000 salary. And that illegal alien Elon Musk and his oligarch cronies want to pay foreigners min wage and live 15 to a house. If someone can't figure out why America is drowning in homelessness, this is why.

CA is a problem of its own making.

Ben

 

[UserNameTaken]

CA is a problem of its own making.

Ben

Yeah, but if you want to be in tech the options are mostly big cities, and when your jobs are displaced to foreigners, you lose your housing, health, and self esteem. Like the guy I interviewed 30 years ago in CA. The crack haze eased his pain and shortcommings.

And in our case, we are rural, before remote work one of the local casinos (Harrah's) offered my wife $9 an hour as an IT programmer. Seriously. For a $150,000 job. If you want to make realistic money you have to be in a city - which eats up all you make. Remote work was great, for awhile, underpaid, but at $125k and low costs life was good. But now the "evil corporations" say, "If we are paying for remote work, let's just outsource to India and pay ten cents on the dollar."

And that's how/why some of the middle class is collapsing.

 

[sonya123]

OK......There are currently roughly 12 to 14 (maybe even 16 to 20) devastating "WAR's" around the world. Displacing hundreds of thousands. Arguably MILLIONS.

Your right all hundreds of thousands (millions) of (currently) homeless had their home "LEVELED" because of subsistence abuse.

I get it........YOU WIN. All those homeless in North Carolina (Maybe from some water) are homeless because of subsistence abuse caused the hurricane and flooding. YET, clearly it was their subsistence abuse.

that is why I wrote it totally depends on WHY someone is homeless!!!
The situation would be very different for a Syrian or Gaza refugee for example, than for someone going through a divorce in the US and temporary homeless...
You have to have a starting point
IF WE became homeless here , again it would depend on why. If a wildfire was to wipe out our entire property with all the buildings, we would just have to take all our money out of the 401k , pay the fines, and buy a trailer to live in or something
If we became homeless because a war or government would take our property, we would try to leave the country and get to some place we have relatives and could stay with at least temporary
You see , the why matters.

 

[Neb]

Thinking more...

Support of family is a critical factor.

My father told me when I was junior in HS...

When you graduate you will get a job, get out or both.

That leaf me to the Navy. After I got out I rented a room from my father few a few months until I found a place to share with buddies.

After my X threw me and my son out I again rented from my father until I paid off all of my debts.

So my family kept me off the streets more than once.

Ben

 

[Magus]

It was a rhetorical statement.

I don't do rhetoric, IDK what it even means.

CA is a problem of its own making.

Ben

CA is an ulcerated meth sore about to bust all over America!

 

[Recluseau]

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS: No rants about what a superior human you are. When I see people "blanket" trashing homeless people. I figure that they consider themselves to be vastly superior.

I have never understood how some have zero empathy and consider themselves superior to those homeless. Yes, a fair amount of homeless have drug and/or alcohol abuse issues. I would be willing to bet that on a percentage bases, people living in safe homes have on percentage bases much higher percentage of substance (alcohol & drugs) abuse.

Translated living in a home and safe in that home "DOES NOT" mean drugs and alcohol are never abused. So, I am asking nicely that you not turn this thread into your negative opinion of homelessness.

Can you honestly assess your personal ability to function and survive being homeless. I don't know why but I find myself asking that question a lot.

Speak to anything about homelessness other than how superior you are as a human.

https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2024/12/27/us-homelessness-spikes-18-look-alaskas-numbers/

I don't mean to glamorize being "homeless." My own experiences were by choice. As a kid I could have gone and lived with my dad in the city. My mom could have stayed with my grandmother till she got restarted. But come on - city life vs fishing and subsistance poaching in the High Sierra? No thanks. That experience shaped my life and gave me the skills and confidence to do anything.

In the Keys I could have rented a room and lived like a "normal" person. And after a bit, I did. There are advantages to air conditioning. I made good money, but I was saving over a grand a month. Spending $300 on rent meant I had to work 30% longer to reach my goals. The money I saved (that I should have saved while in the Army...) enabled me to buy my boats, and later on, several rentals and a house on a canal in Ft. Lauderdale. But I hated giving my hard earned money to greedy landlords. I guess there's a bit of "Big Al" in my DNA.

When I was a journalist I covered several homeless encampment stories. One was in Oceanside, CA the city literally buldozed an occupied camp to make way for residential development for the rich. They destroyed everything those people had but the clothes on their backs. "Well, they were warned," was the jack booted response from the "authorities." I was so outraged at the atrocity, the LA Times called me a "homeless activist," in an article. And I guess maybe I was.

Later I did a story on a big encampment in the Santa Ana Civic Center. I got to know some of the people. I went in their tents and hung out. It was during the "crack" period. I remember one fellow's story. He was a computer programmer, had been married, got hooked on crack. I remember he just kind of held up his hands, "And here I am..." What more can you say. I hope he found his way out.

Today I feel we are seeing two levels of homelessness. One is the mentally ill, and addicted. The other is the growing phenonema of working homeless in many places. People who are simply priced out, or taxed out. Loss of job, or health wipes people out, and there's no place to go, or interium safety net. And now the Supreme Court has essentially made being poor or unhoused, a crime and people right now are being arrested in municipalities across the country for the crime of sleeping. To me that is inhumane and un-American. And it could happen to any of us. If the economy collapses (when...) and you can't make your property tax, the State will take your land.

But, when you see the garbage camps in Anchorage, and many cities, even in the desert behind my fancy HOA - well nobody wants that in their backyard. It affects property values, not to mention issues of hygine and crime. I've had several incidents at my shop of homeless trying to set up camps on my land. I own most of a small block in a commercial district, my shop is on one corner, the other is a church, in between are three lots I will either sell or develop at some point. I may ultimately have to spend probably $10,000 to fence it all in. I shouldn't need to do that.

Society needs to figure it out before the downtrodden masses pull a Bastile Day on the oligarchy.

https://recluseauhermitticus.substack.com/p/planetary-rent-strike-cont
All I know is that NONE of us actually own the planet. . .so charging each other for permission to share it is basically fraud and extortion.

 

[UserNameTaken]

https://recluseauhermitticus.substack.com/p/planetary-rent-strike-cont
All I know is that NONE of us actually own the planet. . .so charging each other for permission to share it is basically fraud and extortion.

Well that's certainly an interesting point. The native americans figured out how to live in harmony, too bad we can't. If I lose my house to inflationary taxes, we'll come to your place.

 

[poltiregist]

I don't recall the exact number but saw the statistics a few days ago on the homeless increase in the United States the year 2024 , it had increased somewhere between 12 and 20 % in that single year . As to how much it has increased in the past 4 years is no doubt staggering . Biden economics result .

 

[poltiregist]

A couple of months ago I heard kids a squealing and playing down at my son's house . Come to find out they were homeless . A woman and her kids had been living inside a vehicle . My son gave them shelter and a place for the kids in our rural area to play , for a day or two .

 

[poltiregist]

I am not sure but a high chance the homeless family that I mentioned above , were the same family that was living in a tent a few days later at a nearby lake .

 

[poltiregist]

Part of the homeless population is my own son " a different son than the one giving shelter to the homeless that I mentioned above " . The homeless son a few months ago , I found in jail - I bailed him out and bought him a rusty old pickup truck .The last contact we had with him was when he got in that truck and told me he was heading to check himself into a rehab facility .

 

[poltiregist]

Something some might find of interest . The homeless son , mentioned above , when I brought him home had so adapted to living in the woods that even after I offered him a stove to heat up something he had in a can to eat , he declined but instead built a fire in my front yard and heated his can of food as he was accustomed to doing .

 

[Jim Costa]

I wrote this website 20 years ago, knowing this will be possible only after our current Collapse and Reset, and the Banksters are gone that would normally outlaw it.

And no, it is not Communism, because that is a government, refusing to let you escape it.
In this case, it is a Cooperative, in which everyone there is The Government.

And no, this is not for everyone, just the 20% or so that choose it in the global human population.

See: https://costa4669.wixsite.com/coopvillages/prepping-for-beginners

 

[Neb]

Well that's certainly an interesting point. The native americans figured out how to live in harmony, too bad we can't. If I lose my house to inflationary taxes, we'll come to your place.

See below.

https://www.google.com/search?q=nat...eSBwQ0LjE5oAe-nQE&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp

Ben

 

[UserNameTaken]

See below.

https://www.google.com/search?q=native+american+conflicts+before+european+colonization&client=ms-android-cricket-us-revc&sca_esv=de14563ab2a76bcf&sxsrf=ADLYWIKNk74P5v122ZpUtzyon2T7QKBSZw:1735592282995&ei=WglzZ7mxPOPV5NoPp7PdkAk&oq=american+indians+conflicts&gs_lp=EhNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwGgIYAiIaYW1lcmljYW4gaW5kaWFucyBjb25mbGljdHMqAggFMgYQABgWGB4yBhAAGBYYHjIGEAAYFhgeMgYQABgWGB4yBhAAGBYYHjIGEAAYFhgeMgYQABgWGB4yBhAAGBYYHkia0AFQ7BFYkoIBcAJ4AZABAJgBtQGgAbsUqgEENy4xNbgBAcgBAPgBAZgCF6ACshfCAgoQABiwAxjWBBhHwgIKECMYgAQYJxiKBcICCRAAGBYYxwMYHsICCBAAGIAEGKIEwgILEAAYgAQYhgMYigXCAgsQABiABBiRAhiKBcICBRAAGIAEwgILEC4YgAQYxwEYrwHCAgoQABiABBgUGIcCwgIIEAAYgAQYiwPCAgwQLhjRAxgWGMcBGB7CAgYQLhgWGB6YAwCIBgGQBgeSBwQ0LjE5oAe-nQE&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp

Ben

Well, yeah, they had their little tiffs. I was thinking more of "with nature." There were several indian on indian fights here dating back to the days of spanish explorer Francisco de Ulloa in the 1500's.

 

[Amish Heart]

https://recluseauhermitticus.substack.com/p/planetary-rent-strike-cont
All I know is that NONE of us actually own the planet. . .so charging each other for permission to share it is basically fraud and extortion.

The cool thing about this country is that you're not forced to rent anything. Or to buy anything. Just say no.

 

[EastenerWesterner]

The not so cool thing about this country- you can’t do anything about people living on the PUBLIC area out side your house property
They can block the public sidewalks, permanently park their campers in front of your house if they move it 3ft every 3 days
It become in favor of them rather than the taxpayer.

I will buy a happy meal for someone digging through trash at MickeyDs. But I don’t have deal with the abusers.

 

[UserNameTaken]

The not so cool thing about this country- you can’t do anything about people living on the PUBLIC area out side your house property
They can block the public sidewalks, permanently park their campers in front of your house if they move it 3ft every 3 days
It become in favor of them rather than the taxpayer.

I will buy a happy meal for someone digging through trash at MickeyDs. But I don’t have deal with the abusers.

No, incorrect now. The Supreme Court recently upheld a draconian law from Grants Pass, Oregon (Rogue River), (home of Mel Tappan, an early writer / promoter of prepping and survivalism) making it a CRIME to be poor or homeless throughout America. Municipalities are begining to incarcerate the poor for the CRIME of SLEEPING in public, or on public land. It is a human rights violation to make SLEEPING illegal. But nobody cares.

They are using the law to clear camps and old motor homes of the poor - but not the guy in his 2 million dollar Prevost motor home at the rest stop.

 

[Mountain trapper]

There does appear to be a superiority complex on display here.

So what's wrong with that? I think living in a nice warm house, without drug, alcohol or mental problems is far superior to living like a bum in the gutters.

 

[Mountain trapper]

No, incorrect now. The Supreme Court recently upheld a draconian law from Grants Pass, Oregon (Rogue River), (home of Mel Tappan, an early writer / promoter of prepping and survivalism) making it a CRIME to be poor or homeless throughout America. Municipalities are begining to incarcerate the poor for the CRIME of SLEEPING in public, or on public land. It is a human rights violation to make SLEEPING illegal. But nobody cares.

They are using the law to clear camps and old motor homes of the poor - but not the guy in his 2 million dollar Prevost motor home at the rest stop.

Good. We get squatters occasionally around here living on Forest Service lands. They don't stay very long before the Forest Service runs them off. I've called on them a few times myself. I don't think anyone would care if these people left a clean camp, but they don't. They leave trash and garbage all over the area.

 

[Magus]

The not so cool thing about this country- you can’t do anything about people living on the PUBLIC area out side your house property
They can block the public sidewalks, permanently park their campers in front of your house if they move it 3ft every 3 days
It become in favor of them rather than the taxpayer.

I will buy a happy meal for someone digging through trash at MickeyDs. But I don’t have deal with the abusers.

One reason Rome fell was its pandering to this class. after Bread and circuses, they were owned by the Vandals and Visigoths.