General Discussions

[LP]

I'd be wary of "squeezing complicated lives into a simple headline", as Bono puts it.  Far too many homeless are trapped between a god awful past and a non existent future. If your only options are to return to a violent, abusive past life, or live on the streets, that choice is not really a choice. I'm not sure too many make the decision because they love the lifestyle. I watch a YouTube channel called Invisible People, and have watched it for a few years. The resilience shown by these people is quite remarkable, but most are there because of poor choices, bad luck, or because the other options are worse.

I've spent some time in Atlanta, which can be bitterly cold in winter, so much so many people working in the CBD commute between buildings via enclosed elevated walkways set up floors above the ground.

The ground is the domain of the homeless and transport, they camp around huge air-conditioning vents that extract excess heat from the high-rise buildings even in winter the buildings generate excess heat. While I was there an associate saw me pondering the plight of the homeless from a restaurant window some 10 floors above. When I mentioned the situation he told me the problem is more complex than people can imagine. The city mandates that hotels and other accommodation allocate a percentage of rooms for the homeless over winter, apparently this meant more rooms were available than homeless to use them but it allowed flexibility so venues could distribute the load as needed. However, the vast majority of rooms weren't being used. The problem, the dealers and pimps that supply the bulk of the homeless with either cash for drugs or drugs to buy weren't allowed in the same venues or feared entering them under observation, no access to cash for drugs or the drugs to spend it on so the homeless won't stay there. Instead they spend the night on the street where they can find what they are looking for!