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Do the homeless matter?

We Never Know

No Slack
Do the homeless not matter? They are people too! This needs more attention.

Homelessness is lethal’: US deaths among those without housing are surging

Experts at the non-profit National Health Care for the Homeless Council say that, in many places, the people who perish without housing are never counted. They estimate the total number of deaths is actually between 17,000 and 40,000 every year.

https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.amp...ness-is-lethal-deaths-have-risen-dramatically

We have a long ways to go...

 

InChrist

Free4ever
Do the homeless not matter? They are people too! This needs more attention.

Homelessness is lethal’: US deaths among those without housing are surging

Experts at the non-profit National Health Care for the Homeless Council say that, in many places, the people who perish without housing are never counted. They estimate the total number of deaths is actually between 17,000 and 40,000 every year.

https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/07/homelessness-is-lethal-deaths-have-risen-dramatically?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw==#amp_tf=From %1$s&aoh=16694364900237&csi=1&referrer=https://www.google.com&ampshare=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/07/homelessness-is-lethal-deaths-have-risen-dramatically

We have a long ways to go...

Yes, the homeless definitely matter. I think it’s important to do some research and find organizations that offer real long term help to people providing them with a compassionate hand up off the streets, rather than a short term hand out. This is the kind of organization I’m happy to partner with...


Union Gospel Mission provides more than 194,000 meals a year to the homeless and people in need. In addition to meals, the Mission provides food boxes, a day room with coffee and snacks, clothing, hygiene items, referral services and cold weather shelter to the homeless.

Union Gospel Mission is home to the LifeChange program, a Christ-centered recovery community. Its purpose is to transform lives and break people free from addiction and destructive life patterns.
Our Mission — Union Gospel Mission Portland



“Suddenly there was power to change, because God was helping.

Pragmatism changed to awe as Jones went through the Gospel Mission’s Bible studies and counseling programs, however. The transformation, he says, began when he stopped thinking of God as “a bunch of physics laws” and started to see Him as “a personal entity that man could relate to.” Suddenly he could pray, for he knew God was listening. Suddenly there was purpose that went outside self-pleasing, for God was watching. Suddenly there was power to change, because God was helping.

After five months Jones felt “completely changed.” When I interviewed him in February 1995, he spoke of no longer living for each day’s pleasures, as he had done since the 1960s, but dying to self and seeing God rather than man as the center of things.

Complete changes sometimes short-circuit; time heals all wounds and also tests all spiritual swoons. I’ve checked on Rudy Jones: He stayed clean and was judged ready to move out of the Gospel Mission in order to live with and care for his mother, who is now in her 80s and in need of help. He’s working in telecommunications and volunteering twice a week to teach English and writing to newcomers at the Mission. ”

Real help for the homeless | WORLD
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
Do the homeless not matter? They are people too! This needs more attention.

Homelessness is lethal’: US deaths among those without housing are surging

Experts at the non-profit National Health Care for the Homeless Council say that, in many places, the people who perish without housing are never counted. They estimate the total number of deaths is actually between 17,000 and 40,000 every year.

https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/07/homelessness-is-lethal-deaths-have-risen-dramatically?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw==#amp_tf=From %1$s&aoh=16694364900237&csi=1&referrer=https://www.google.com&ampshare=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/07/homelessness-is-lethal-deaths-have-risen-dramatically

We have a long ways to go...


When I was homeless, I didn't matter to most people.
Although I did matter to the state of Colorado since I was under 18.

As soon as I turned 18 though, they kicked me out. Now considered an adult I was left to fend on my own.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Do the homeless not matter? They are people too! This needs more attention.

Homelessness is lethal’: US deaths among those without housing are surging

Experts at the non-profit National Health Care for the Homeless Council say that, in many places, the people who perish without housing are never counted. They estimate the total number of deaths is actually between 17,000 and 40,000 every year.

https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/07/homelessness-is-lethal-deaths-have-risen-dramatically?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw==#amp_tf=From %1$s&aoh=16694364900237&csi=1&referrer=https://www.google.com&ampshare=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/07/homelessness-is-lethal-deaths-have-risen-dramatically

We have a long ways to go...

Well we know what happens when people try to help the homeless out and give them some real actual dignity and respect.




Then afterwards...


The government stops any and all efforts with extreme prejudice.

 

Mock Turtle

Oh my, did I say that!
Premium Member
Well we know what happens when people try to help the homeless out and give them some real actual dignity and respect.




Then afterwards...


The government stops any and all efforts with extreme prejudice.

When 'a solution' doesn't help 'the solution' but merely tends to prolong the causes of the problem then perhaps one can see why many authorities might deal with this. Just go to so many cities all around the world with permanent squatter communities and where the authorities have simply allowed such conditions to fester and grow. The USA is supposedly one of the wealthiest nations in the world but apparently can't find solutions to this. :oops:
 

PureX

Veteran Member
Thanks to our capitalist culture, we are all competing with each other for everything we need to survive and thrive in the world. Every other human is, in effect, our 'enemy' materially speaking. Everyone else is trying to get as much of what we need to live as they possibly can, and will pile it up and lock it away before ever being willing to share any of it with anyone else. And so we, in turn, feel that we must do the same thing, just to protect ourselves.

And as the people who are very good at navigating this big "greed machine" culture pile up more and more and more and more of everything we humans need to survive and thrive in the world, the people who are not very good at navigating this system are being driven out of the culture all together. They are the folks becoming homeless, and jobless, and hopeless. But because the system we live in is based on competition, and on greed, no one is willing to share whatever they have managed to pile up with anyone else. So that in a culture and a country that is swimming in excessive wealth, food, housing, and jobs, millions of people are suffering and dying for lack of these basic necessities.

And because we don't want to see ourselves as being the frightened, selfish, and greedy humans that we have all become under the yoke of capitalist culture, we don't want to see the damage this is causing to our fellow humans, and to our own moral character. So we don't look. And we make excuses in our minds that tell us it's not our fault that they're suffering and dying in the streets, it's theirs. Because the truth is that we are afraid that we will become one of them if we don't participate in the big "greed machine" that is our capitalist culture. And we're right.
 
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Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
No one talks about land being some kind of human right. That's one thing that might help ease the difficulty somewhat, because it seems like they are not only experiencing the toughness of homelessness, but they have to do it while hiding.

The Universal Declaration on Human Rights addresses this as a human right, although not necessarily about land. But housing is mentioned in Article 25:

Article 25

1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Wikisource, the free online library

By failing to take care of the needs of the homeless, when housing is considered a fundamental human right, our government is guilty of human rights violations.
 

amorphous_constellation

Well-Known Member
By failing to take care of the needs of the homeless, when housing is considered a fundamental human right, our government is guilty of human rights violations.

Scanning your link, we see that article 17 seems to imply, to me, that property need be bought. I am talking about a right to have land, once you are born. Certainly, none of the modern talking heads mention such a thing, from any side.
 

MikeF

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Do the homeless not matter? They are people too! This needs more attention.

Homelessness is lethal’: US deaths among those without housing are surging

Experts at the non-profit National Health Care for the Homeless Council say that, in many places, the people who perish without housing are never counted. They estimate the total number of deaths is actually between 17,000 and 40,000 every year.

https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/07/homelessness-is-lethal-deaths-have-risen-dramatically?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw==#amp_tf=From %1$s&aoh=16694364900237&csi=1&referrer=https://www.google.com&ampshare=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/07/homelessness-is-lethal-deaths-have-risen-dramatically

We have a long ways to go...


What, in your opinion, are the causes of homelessness, as I would assert there are multiple causes, and what are your solutions to those causes, or in some cases, combinations of causes, that result in someone being homeless?
 

We Never Know

No Slack
What, in your opinion, are the causes of homelessness, as I would assert there are multiple causes, and what are your solutions to those causes, or in some cases, combinations of causes, that result in someone being homeless?

I couldn't tell you. Don't have that problem in the small community where I live. If there are some, I don't know about them and haven't seen any.

"In many places, the people who perish without housing are never counted."

Ignoring the problem and acting as if they don't matter doesn't make it go away.
 

The Hammer

[REDACTED]
Premium Member
You see no homeless people in Taiwan

Just because you don't see them, doesn't mean they aren't there.

You don't "see" them in Japan either, but I've run into a few, they are there. Just shunned to the point of almost hiding.
 
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Left Coast

This Is Water
Staff member
Premium Member
Do the homeless not matter? They are people too! This needs more attention.

Homelessness is lethal’: US deaths among those without housing are surging

Experts at the non-profit National Health Care for the Homeless Council say that, in many places, the people who perish without housing are never counted. They estimate the total number of deaths is actually between 17,000 and 40,000 every year.

https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/07/homelessness-is-lethal-deaths-have-risen-dramatically?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw==#amp_tf=From %1$s&aoh=16694364900237&csi=1&referrer=https://www.google.com&ampshare=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/07/homelessness-is-lethal-deaths-have-risen-dramatically

We have a long ways to go...


I recently saw a study that the lifespan of homeless folks averages 20 years less than the general population.

Widespread use of fentanyl, intentionally and unintentionally, is also contributing to a lot of their premature deaths.
 
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