Politics Homeless people in Oakland

Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Register Log in

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
I used to be homeless. I am not an addict. I do want to work. I nearly always have. When I was a teen my dad lost his job. He tried to find other work. It didn't come. We lost our home. I lived on the street for most of a summer. I was able to get a job, save, and get back on my feet. I gained a lot of humility though. I have never forgotten the experience. I have respect for people in that position.

Yes, I found there are some who want to be homeless. Who like that life. But, there are others who were living paycheck to paycheck. They lost their jobs or rent kept going up till they drowned. A lot of people don't want to be homeless. They have just found themselves there because they were failed by a society that leverages the rich against the poor. The disparity is real.

Everyone deserves a roof over their head. That should be a basic human right. It is terrible to have to wonder if you are going to be able to pay the rent next month. How you are going to put food on the table, pay utilities, etc. It adds up and for millions of Americans the bill is higher than the paycheck.
 
Chris Craig said:
I used to be homeless. I am not an addict. I do want to work. I nearly always have. When I was a teen my dad lost his job. He tried to find other work. It didn't come. We lost our home. I lived on the street for most of a summer. I was able to get a job, save, and get back on my feet. I gained a lot of humility though. I have never forgotten the experience. I have respect for people in that position.

Yes, I found there are some who want to be homeless. Who like that life. But, there are others who were living paycheck to paycheck. They lost their jobs or rent kept going up till they drowned. A lot of people don't want to be homeless. They have just found themselves there because they were failed by a society that leverages the rich against the poor. The disparity is real.

Everyone deserves a roof over their head. That should be a basic human right. It is terrible to have to wonder if you are going to be able to pay the rent next month. How you are going to put food on the table, pay utilities, etc. It adds up and for millions of Americans the bill is higher than the paycheck.
Click to expand...

Damn, that's rough, man. I never would have guessed.

I know that some homeless people are just bums, but I've also heard stories like yours...good people with bad luck.


fwiw, kudos to you for hanging tough.
 
Chris Craig said:
I used to be homeless. I am not an addict. I do want to work. I nearly always have. When I was a teen my dad lost his job. He tried to find other work. It didn't come. We lost our home. I lived on the street for most of a summer. I was able to get a job, save, and get back on my feet. I gained a lot of humility though. I have never forgotten the experience. I have respect for people in that position.

Yes, I found there are some who want to be homeless. Who like that life. But, there are others who were living paycheck to paycheck. They lost their jobs or rent kept going up till they drowned. A lot of people don't want to be homeless. They have just found themselves there because they were failed by a society that leverages the rich against the poor. The disparity is real.

Everyone deserves a roof over their head. That should be a basic human right. It is terrible to have to wonder if you are going to be able to pay the rent next month. How you are going to put food on the table, pay utilities, etc. It adds up and for millions of Americans the bill is higher than the paycheck.
Click to expand...
I actually think that this is a description of the real problem at least IMO. It's not the existence of the ultra-rich or the wealth disparity. It's the cost of living, especially in larger cities. A lot of people are homeless and have jobs. The costs of all that stuff is just to great and going up faster than their ability to make money. Yes you can make good arguments that the ultra-rich, and crony capitalism have enriched themselves at the expense of others, but there is not anything wrong in being successful financially, there is something wrong in using that wealth to hold back lower /middle-class people from finding success themselves.

There are a lot of homeless people, some from bad decisions, some from bad decisions of their parents, some by choice, there's lots of reasons.
 
TorturedBlazerFan said:
I actually think that this is a description of the real problem at least IMO. It's not the existence of the ultra-rich or the wealth disparity. It's the cost of living, especially in larger cities. A lot of people are homeless and have jobs. The costs of all that stuff is just to great and going up faster than their ability to make money. Yes you can make good arguments that the ultra-rich, and crony capitalism have enriched themselves at the expense of others, but there is not anything wrong in being successful financially, there is something wrong in using that wealth to hold back lower /middle-class people from finding success themselves.

There are a lot of homeless people, some from bad decisions, some from bad decisions of their parents, some by choice, there's lots of reasons.
Click to expand...

It's greed. The problem is greed
 
TorturedBlazerFan said:
That's definitely part of it.
Click to expand...
It's the number one problem humanity faces....only an airborne virus will humble the 1% as to the dangers of people breathing air that have no healthcare or sanitation...when they make your family sick, it starts to have value. I was in Taiwan for the SARS epidemic and it was amazing to see the effect it had on all walks of life
 
riverman said:
It's the number one problem humanity faces....only an airborne virus will humble the 1% as to the dangers of people breathing air that have no healthcare or sanitation...when they make your family sick, it starts to have value. I was in Taiwan for the SARS epidemic and it was amazing to see the effect it had on all walks of life
Click to expand...
I'd probably call it selfishness, but greed is part of that, and it's mostly semantics. Even in epidemics though, there is plenty of history of people willing to take advantage of it. Hard times do tend to bring people together though.
 
TorturedBlazerFan said:
I'd probably call it selfishness, but greed is part of that, and it's mostly semantics. Even in epidemics though, there is plenty of history of people willing to take advantage of it. Hard times do tend to bring people together though.
Click to expand...
Many very wealthy Taiwanese paid pilots to fly them out of the country...breaking the law to escape under quarantine...some doctors did...nurses stayed behind and died saving lives...those who tried to buy their way out, risked lives of others and died as well. The nurses were heroes …..the triads, mafia bought all the face masks everyone had to wear and charged top dollar for them...bleach saved the country. These are not generalities or speculation, they're real. Invisible assassins are the scariest ones..it was one hell of a life lesson I think about whenever I see homeless camps
 
Chris Craig said:
I used to be homeless. I am not an addict. I do want to work. I nearly always have. When I was a teen my dad lost his job. He tried to find other work. It didn't come. We lost our home. I lived on the street for most of a summer. I was able to get a job, save, and get back on my feet. I gained a lot of humility though. I have never forgotten the experience. I have respect for people in that position.

Yes, I found there are some who want to be homeless. Who like that life. But, there are others who were living paycheck to paycheck. They lost their jobs or rent kept going up till they drowned. A lot of people don't want to be homeless. They have just found themselves there because they were failed by a society that leverages the rich against the poor. The disparity is real.

Everyone deserves a roof over their head. That should be a basic human right. It is terrible to have to wonder if you are going to be able to pay the rent next month. How you are going to put food on the table, pay utilities, etc. It adds up and for millions of Americans the bill is higher than the paycheck.
Click to expand...
When I was about 9 there were days when we had nothing to eat. I remember one time when my mother stole my little brother's piggy bank so we could get milk to go with the cornbread we had for dinner. Maybe that's why I, too, have empathy for those who are disadvantaged. No kid should have to go through that.
 
TorturedBlazerFan said:
I'd probably call it selfishness, but greed is part of that, and it's mostly semantics. Even in epidemics though, there is plenty of history of people willing to take advantage of it. Hard times do tend to bring people together though.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. I grew up in Oswego where there weren't an awful lot of disadvantaged people. I remember this poor girl who was the same age and went to school with me. My father used to buy raw milk from a a guy who owned one cow which gave him a tiny income. I remember going with my father one day to pick up mild and seeing this same little girl peeking out the living room window from behind curtains. She always wore the same tattered dress. Now, that family was disadvantaged but we never bonded. We were half an inch above them and I had to disassociate from her or be branded in the same lower social strata. Looking back on it I feel terrible but that's the way the advantaged society that I grew up in made me. Luckily for me my father changed and realized the plight of the disadvantaged and got me on the right track to feel the plight of the disadvantaged.

I credit my father with all my growth.
 
yankeesince59 said:
Damn, that's rough, man. I never would have guessed.

I know that some homeless people are just bums, but I've also heard stories like yours...good people with bad luck.


fwiw, kudos to you for hanging tough.
Click to expand...

There are a lot of good people with bad luck. Yeah, like I said there are people who choose to be homeless, people who are addicted and in a bad place, who have decided it is not worth caring anymore. We don't know their stories, their pain. It is not for us to judge.

That is part of why I felt the need to respond. Tired of seeing people look down on those less fortunate than themselves. Antipathy is a road paved by ignorance. If someone is prosperous and fortuitous then they should be grateful for their position. Using that stature to condscend is a good indication of a lack of character. It is easy to look down on others, but it is not so hard to bring oneself down to the level of those less off to seek understanding and compassion. Judge not what you don't know.

I often hear, "I have worked my ass off, why should someone else get a free pass?" That is spite and stuffy pomp. I have worked my ass off to be where I am at. Am I well off? Not really. But, I have a home, a family, my health, all the real things to be grateful for. If those more disadvantaged then me need help, left them have it.

There are a lot of issues that added together, have created this homelessness issue. Economics(the inequality of cost and pay), mental health, drug addiction, etc. All in all it's a failed system at play. The problem is only going to get worse, because no one wants to truly look at it. Instead the solution is to throw homeless people in jail, send them to other cities on buses, etc...anything but really trying to solve it. It is a complex problem. It will take a complex solution.
 
Chris Craig said:
There are a lot of issues that added together, have created this homelessness issue. Economics(the inequality of cost and pay), mental health, drug addiction, etc. All in all it's a failed system at play. The problem is only going to get worse, because no one wants to truly look at it. Instead the solution is to throw homeless people in jail, send them to other cities on buses, etc...anything but really trying to solve it. It is a complex problem. It will take a complex solution.
Click to expand...

^^^Ditto.
 
All I will say is I believe there are far more people that choose to be homeless than people that simply have "bad luck" and are homeless.
 
I think anyone making blanket statements about homeless situations is being subjective. Guys get out of prison broke and homeless ...my first marriage I woke up one day and my ex drained the bank...took the car and moved thousand miles away leaving me with 6 bucks in my wallet and filed for divorce....I stayed with a friend for a week until I could get a decent job painting houses , rented a room and started over. It was having a friend that gave me shelter that first week....then if you get divorced in California...the child support requirements are tough to keep up and pay rent, bills, etc...I have a strong work ethic but not everyone could get through something like that. I think its rarely a "choice" to become homeless but it is a choice to become a drunk or lazy. Those young kids who play at being street people will get tired of the plastic tent soon enough....the people who just need to stop having withdrawals won't. Social science is complex.....lot of homeless commit crimes so they can go to jail, get shelter and medical care they don't get on the street.....homelessness increases desperation and that often leads to criminal behavior
 
riverman said:
I think anyone making blanket statements about homeless situations is being subjective. Guys get out of prison broke and homeless ...my first marriage I woke up one day and my ex drained the bank...took the car and moved thousand miles away leaving me with 6 bucks in my wallet and filed for divorce....I stayed with a friend for a week until I could get a decent job painting houses , rented a room and started over. It was having a friend that gave me shelter that first week....then if you get divorced in California...the child support requirements are tough to keep up and pay rent, bills, etc...I have a strong work ethic but not everyone could get through something like that. I think its rarely a "choice" to become homeless but it is a choice to become a drunk or lazy. Those young kids who play at being street people will get tired of the plastic tent soon enough....the people who just need to stop having withdrawals won't. Social science is complex.....lot of homeless commit crimes so they can go to jail, get shelter and medical care they don't get on the street.....homelessness increases desperation and that often leads to criminal behavior
Click to expand...
Almost all of us in here are being subjective. Subjectivity can be ok, we've all got different experiences.
 
Some of my best friends and a couple family members have been homeless at one time or another. I think there is a distinction that needs to be made. I've technically been homeless too. That involved me surfing a couple couches and then finding a gig that provided me and opportunity to have a roof over my head. I'm lucky. I count my blessings everyday that I wake up.

Personally, I've seen opioids and heroin effect more people in my sphere of influence than anything else. Alcohol is definitely a factor too. What I have noticed, is that once one of those things get serious, it gets bad. And then it can get really bad. And then it seems like it is irreconcilable.
 
Last edited:
riverman said:
I think anyone making blanket statements about homeless situations is being subjective. Guys get out of prison broke and homeless ...my first marriage I woke up one day and my ex drained the bank...took the car and moved thousand miles away leaving me with 6 bucks in my wallet and filed for divorce....I stayed with a friend for a week until I could get a decent job painting houses , rented a room and started over. It was having a friend that gave me shelter that first week....then if you get divorced in California...the child support requirements are tough to keep up and pay rent, bills, etc...I have a strong work ethic but not everyone could get through something like that. I think its rarely a "choice" to become homeless but it is a choice to become a drunk or lazy. Those young kids who play at being street people will get tired of the plastic tent soon enough....the people who just need to stop having withdrawals won't. Social science is complex.....lot of homeless commit crimes so they can go to jail, get shelter and medical care they don't get on the street.....homelessness increases desperation and that often leads to criminal behavior
Click to expand...
When I got out of the Army, I worked at Tektronix for less than $2/hr. I believe it was actually $1.75/hr. Lucky for me that my car was paid for and I found a really cheap studio apartment that was furnished with utilities included for less than $100/mo. It was with that pay that I saved up enough to buy my fiancee a 1/4 carat diamond ring. Her wealthy parents payed for the wedding. My parents paid the groom's share. When I married my current wife, my parents refused to pay a nickel for the wedding. My wife had no money so I took out of my retirement account to pay for the wedding.
 
Shaboid said:
Impressive. Should I post my resume every time I post also?
Click to expand...

I think you should, yes. And when I am king... well, I guess my resume will look better then.

barfo
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top