Do you think most homeless are homeless by choice?

Question

First take away all of the obvious mental cases. OK. I believe that a significant number if not the majority of homeless are homeless by choice. They have made bad choices, and those choices got them there. I would bet dollars to donuts if you took the average homeless guy, got him into a halfway house, got him cleaned up and got him a job he wouldn't last a week. They don't want to obey anyone's rules or have any structure.

By the way, did you know there was a kiddy brigade in Vietnam? I've seen some guys with "Vietnam Vet, please help, god bless" signs who couldn't have been more than 10 years old when the war ended.

Jasmine, I see you were not able to grasp that this is MY OPINION. No, I don't have any scientific research, I live in the real world and as a productive person must work to pay for society's leeches that government supports with mine and other productive persons' money. My OPINION comes from a lifetime of getting hit up by these bums on the street and other anecdotal evidence. I believe in the saying that says "If you are homeless and hungry in a major city in America, you're doing something wrong". There's way too many people with misdirected "compassion" who just feed these people for nothing in return.

LOL... "my mommy says a lot of the people she sees are homeless because they use drugs or alcohol, it is not by choice"

Anyone else get it?

Answer 1

Most homeless people I have encountered were homeless because they chose to devote their lives to drugs or alcohol. I knew one guy who is a skilled autobody man (one of his cars is in the Harrahs Museum)...he used to have a nice house and new cars, etc. He still works...and makes good money...but it is all spent on drugs, and lawyers fees when he gets arrested (Drugs dont ruin lives so much as cops do).
I knew one guy who wasn't a druggie/alkie.....lives in his van....he gets a nice disability check each month...but spends it all on storage units, in which he keeps junk that he finds in the garbage!!!
Then there was the guy with the "Will work for food" sign...whom a friend of mine wanted to hire for the day....but the guy didn't want to leave his lucretive post in front of the sign...apparently it's easier and more profitable to just hold the sign offering to work, than it is to actually work. (My friend had to end up hiring a Mexican, who gladly worked...funny...they're never homeless)
People should know that when they donate money to soup kitchens, they are only enabling people who are druggies/alkies/criminals....people who are too irrespopnsible to provide for their families....so they send them to the soup kitchens, while they go buy the crack.....people who get a fat disability check each month, but spend it on other things (why spend money on what ya can get for free?)
Ya see homeless in New York City and Southern California...the most expensive places on earth to live....uh...why don't they move to cheaper areas? (I did!).
But NOOooo!!! People cant afford to live in some areas...but they insist on living there anyway...and others will give them charity to do so.
Oh...and the piece of resistance: I have relatives who are going to have to vacate their rented house in a few months. They've had MONTHS to prepare and save for a deposit for a new rental or a down payment on a modest house of their own...and to look for a place.....what do they do? They were trying to buy a brand new house...which they cant afford, and of course couldn't get financed. Do they look for a more modest house? (You can still buy nice houses here for well under $100K)...NOooo!! What do they do? They went out and bought a new car!!!! Now when the day comes that they get kicked out of their current place, they'll be living in that car with their four kids...and people will feel oh so sorry for that poor homeless family with four kids....and meanwhile,, they were buying cars and ATV's and foosball tables, instead of the necesseties.
So, to answer the question: Yes! Absolutely! In just about every case, people are homeless as a result of their own choices and decisions and actions- alcohol..drugs...mental illness...or just plain stupidity and irresponsibility.

Answer 2

"I would bet dollars to donuts if you took the average homeless guy, got him into a halfway house, got him cleaned up and got him a job he wouldn't last a week. They don't want to obey anyone's rules or have any structure"

Do you have any scientific research to back this up or did you come up with this all by yourself?

Oh, ok...so in the "real world" you've helped homless guys get into a halfway house, got them jobs and got them cleaned up and most of them have not lasted a week?? or again, do you just have no clue what you are talking about?

Just because you live in a big city and see bums everywhere doesn't make you qualified to make that judgement. Because of city funding that has been cut for social programs for the homeless and those addicted to drugs, I CAN BET that most of these men haven't been given the help that you say they turn down.

Answer 3

By the same argument, it is always a choice to get sick, because we get sick as the end result of choices we've made. Does this mean that we should stop all efforts to treat illness? Anybody who really *wants* to get well, and stay well, will do so, on their own. And why excuse the mentally ill from their responsibility for choosing to be mentally ill?

Close to half the homeless people in the USA tonight are children, and close to half of those are under 10 years old. Are they responsible for being homeless because of their "bad choice" of which parents to be born to?

In reality, whatever problems a person has, they are easier to solve when they have a safe and stable place to sleep -- and many times harder to solve without that.

In reality, no matter what the immediate cause of a person becoming sick, injured, or homeless, it does none of the rest of us any good to leave them like that. The more of our people who are healthy and prosperous, the stronger our country is. Helping others to get healthy and prosperous helps improve our own health and prosperity.

Forty years ago the U.S. had a fraction of the homeless people we have today. We did not have a wave of people abandoning responsibility for themselves; we had a wave of abandonment of our responsibility for each other -- and it is destroying our whole country.

In reality, there are thousands of successful programs nationwide that are getting people permanently out of homelessness every day. One local success is HopeLink: http://www.hope-link.org/

We can end homelessness, if we choose to. We created it, we can end it.

Answer 4

Having been homeless before (literally homeless, as in sleeping on benches), I can attest that it's extremely difficult to find a job without an address or a phone number. Not may local government agencies are willing to help either. A close network of friends and family is far more effective. Only when that effort is made will local government agencies take notice to one's request for job training and education. That effort has to be there, though. But often the homeless don't have that network either and they don't know where go or who to ask. I was extremely lucky, however; it was my chess skill that got me noticed by educators and I was able to continue schooling with some assistance.

Answer 5

I never like it when I see broad assumptions made for very serious problems. This is a multi-layered, multi-faceted problem. Yes there are many homeless people that for whatever reason would not appreciate help or take it. There are also huge numbers of mentally ill that are not receiving the treatment that they need to any kind of quality life. That is definately a black eye for our society.

There are also families now who are disenfranchised. They can't get a job because they had a drug problem or a prior criminal record. Are we helping these people. After they pay their debt to society or clean up we just abandon them and expect them to figure things out.

Homelessness is a serious problem. We live in the richest country in the world and the statistics on homelessness are staggering.

Please don't lump people into categories. We are all one step from disaster at any given moment and who are you to judge.

Answer 6

Some people become homeless because of their own stupid choices, and others have no control over it.

It's sad that some times there isn't enough space to house the homeless in half way homes/homeless shelters, so that's why there are so many people living under bridges and on the street.

Answer 7

Do you know, my very simplistic friend, how many of those people are schizophrenic (yes, I know they look just fine, but you can't hear the voices they hear)? You are assuming that there would be enough room in halfway houses for all of them. Many are illiterate (how do you propose they fill out the application - or resume for the six-figure job you apparently think are plentiful)... To your simplistic way of thinking, a paranoid schizo is "just a guy who doesn't like authority"... I hope life hands you a couple lessons to make you a bit more empathetic. Good luck when it does. It is always easy to judge when you haven't been there. And no, I'm not homeless, but not stupid enough to think that having shelter makes me "superior"... Just lucky, and you should be thankful for what you have, not an A**...

Answer 8

I lived in Seattle and SF which are both bum capitals of America. After 10 years (and a few in NYC), I can testify that 99% are NOT mentality ill. The few that were, were so because of substance abuse. I once worked in a liquor store in SF. When I walked to work, bums would hit me up for money 'for food'. Later on that night, the bums who did, all filed in to buy booze. The more a city tolerate bums, the more bums it has. In SF I was hit up 25 times in one hour (I counted). In NYC I was hit up may a hundred times in 2 years. And NO the bums were NOT pushed off into the borough's like the liberals who never lived in them say. I lived in Queens and was hit up ONCE.

To answer your question: being a worthless bum is a choice. I knew people who volunteered in 'homeless' shelters and they gave up and said 'these guys want to live on the street". It should be illegal to sell them alcohol.

Answer 9

I think that a lot of them are in this situation because they have made wrong choices in life....drugs, alcohol, etc. I am certain that some have been legitimately displaced because of difficult circumstances. However; according to a social services worker that I talked to recently most are homeless because of addictions or failure to seek out the means to help themselves....psychological or otherwise.

Answer 10

I have been homeless and its not by choice you mean ididots people are mean to the homeless why are americans so mean to there homeless people its wrong American people are mean to there homless people they are to lazy to get there homelsss homes and get them of the streets this upsets me

Answer 11

I agree that there will always be folks who choose to be homeless, but it doesn't always have anything to do with bad choices. Except in the very early years of our country, there have been those who just don't fit into society and don't want to fit. Many were people like tinkers and fur trappers, but others were just tinkerers, as handouts weren't the norm. However, even most of those folks have some mental issues, I'm sure. I have no sympathy for panhandlers.