http://www.socialoutcast.net/blog/2009/03/24/10-reasons-why-homeless-people-choose-to-be-homeless/
http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/Community/HomelessnessServices/InformationKitForVolunteers/Module1/DoPeopleChooseToBecomeHomeless.asp
Did you read those posts; I sure hope you did...because I will not be so kind.
You know the philosopher George Santayana said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.", So I was caught off guard when someone, who is an advocate for victims in other arenas, asked me to write a blog about the community of people who choose to be homeless.
Again, I sure hope that you read those articles.
This is the STIGMA that I didn't think I had to address as an individual issue. The image of a Happy Hobo's leisurely scaling Big Rock Candy Mountain, eating beans out the can over an open flame, hoppin' trains, all his belongings nestled safely in a bandana knapsack tied securely to a stick...Is this what you believe Homelessness to be?
The Homeless who say that they are happy being out in "God's Country" are no different than the porn star who says she loves the industry while covering the sexual molestations of her past. Did you know some slaves were upset at being Emancipated? Even some blacks in the south were more comfortable living under 'Jim Crow" than after it was dismantled? The Children of Israel complained that they should have stayed in Egypt instead of coming into the wilderness to die...Moses had to plead with God not to strike them dead for their insolence. Do you not get it? We can adapt to any situation; that never means that that situation is GOOD for us. A frog in a pot will sit in the pot as you slowly increase the heat under him until the water boils and he dies...acclimating until he is stew.
People WAKE UP! The plight of the Homeless is real! The kids who decide to ride the rails or hitchhike for a year to experience America MUST NEVER color your perception of those who are truly Homeless (My God, didn't I already say this?) The mentally ill individual sleeping in a tent city and saying he loves it there can not make up for the countless women who are raped and sold into prostitution while living on the streets. The ramblin' man with banjo in hand strumming on River Street must not color your perception so that the family living in their van in the middle of a field, gas running out while running the heater while the temperature hits 32° and dropping never gets help. The panhandler with the "Let's Face it I just need a Drink" sign does not look like the heart of the man who has just about ruined the soles of his feet chasing after job after job, trying to maintain his sobriety while door after door gets slammed in his face…no employment, no future, ‘cause he doesn’t have a phone, or address or good, clean clothes.
Do you all know the story of Little Suzy? Little Suzy's Dad told her that at the end of the week he was going to take her to
Do you get it? Sometimes the thought, the idea of having a Home is so painful that many have even given up the hope of having a home. That doesn't mean that they want to live outside, sometimes it just means that they can't let themselves be hurt again by hoping.
The bowing and scrapping of an Uncle Tom with minstrel makeup on never overshadows the desperate plight of African Americans in our society. The Taco Bell Chihuahua and Speedy Gonzales are not the defining images of my Mexican brothers. The 16 year old put on the stroll, high on horse and smiling, trippin’, leaning into the car of the 50 year old letch making money for her pimp…No one takes her drug addled opinion of her environment over the desperate need to try and get teenage prostitutes off the streets. So the, what, 1% of the Homeless population that chooses to be Homeless for whatever reason (I don't want to live under someone else’s rules, I love the freedom of nature, I want to experience it, I have a mission, etc...) MUST NEVER DEFINE the 99% that are praying and trying and scraping and flailing against the whirlwind to make it to a place called Home, at least one last time.
Nobody picks hepatitis, staff infection, hypertension, diabetes, athlete's foot, colds and flu and respiratory infections, chronic coughs, itchy skin from the harsh chemicals used to wash your clothes, curfews, and having to see your family under someone else's schedule, going hungry & going cold, sleeping above someone, or below someone in bunk beds, not having any where to go between the hours of 6am until 7pm sometimes, people cursing around you incessantly, arguments, fights, not being able to watch what you want on T.V (if you can watch T.V at all), being inside for tonight and not wanting to deal with where you might end up tomorrow, separating the family, can't eat when you want, smoke when you want, shower when you want, sleep when you want, get up when you want...not ever...or if you are outside always being vulnerable to the police breaking up your camp and throwing away your important papers, children's pictures, medals you earned in combat (I will get to how this country treats her Homeless Vets in a future post, it will not be kind either.) told you can't sleep here, you can't sit here, you can't wait here, you can't stay here or you may end up in jail. This precludes the higher rape estimates
( http://jacksonville.com/community/shorelines/2010-03-20/story/rape_shows_dangers_to_homeless_women ), physical abuse estimates ( http://wellesleyinstitute.com/files/wi%20backgrounder%20-%20homeless%20violence.pdf ) , depression and mental illness
( http://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/07/weekinreview/the-nation-seeing-a-link-between-depression-and-homelessness.html ) and drug and alcohol addiction estimates ( http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/facts/addiction.pdf )and, of course, the higher mortality rate of the Homeless
( http://www.nhchc.org/PrematureMortalityFinal.pdf ).
So, do you really believe that most of the people on the street are there BY CHOICE?
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