What I Learned About Humanity From Living on the Streets

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/what-i-learned-about-humanity-living-streets


The author reads a morning newspaper on a tree-lined street in Manhattan. All of her belongings are in bags beside her. Her image has been intentionally blurred at her request.
Photo Credit: Guardian

October 14, 2013 |
Passers-by mainly ignore me, a homeless woman sitting on the sidewalk or a bench. The people who do speak to me are either curious, or harpies who give me unsolicited and useless advice, or the more irritable who chastise me. I try to explain by example that there are good, decent, employable but destitute people in New York City.

Many people also assume that the homeless are all drug addicts, criminals or prostitutes. I am none of these things, yet I have seen the stereotypes first-hand.

I try to keep busy, doing whatever jobs I can find, often the kinds of jobs illegal immigrants now do. When I volunteered at a church soup kitchen, hoping to do my part, a stranger claimed all these nasty things about me in the presence of the minster and other members of the church. For years, she continued to make these sorts of remarks and warned new volunteers that I would steal from them. No one said a word in my defense.

I don't have recent data, but I know that in 1994, a study of homeless people in Manhattan was published and a summary appeared in many New York City newspapers. The findings said that 30-40% of the street homeless population suffered from a mental illness, including alcoholism and drug addiction. It's a tragic statistic, but you can also infer from this survey that 60-70% of the street homeless are not mentally ill, drug addicted or alcoholic. People should remember that other factors – such as education, job training, employment, the housing market and how programs for the poor are administered – also cause people to end up on the streets.

[KurtNYC]

1. The pilfering by workers at non-profits is disgusting

I worked briefly for a non-profit and the Executive Director was a man who had been pushed over to the NP by his regular employer, a bank because he had sexually harassed several female employees there. He was red faced and half drunk every time I saw him, totally useless. The NP collected books and toys for kids in shelters and on the margins. They were all stored in one room on pallets and my boss had the key. She took her friends and some other management employees on 'shopping trips' into this room. She could do that and then go give another talk to another group about donating to the poor kids and she sounded so sincere. Pathological.

Then you have the Paul Ryans of the world who come only when they have media in tow. They "water" clean dishes and pose, treating the homeless as props while they worship Ayn Rand.

And "Feed the homeless" ? How does that solve the core issue, eg. housing?

[davidthegnome]

2. A couple of things.

I have the deepest of sympathy for anyone who has lived, or is now living on the streets. I've come damn close to it a few times myself and it was scary. Imagine being out on your own, no money to buy food, no bed to sleep in unless you're lucky enough to get squeezed into a shelter. Imagine being constantly hungry. Now imagine getting looks of contempt every day from random strangers that pass you by on the street. Imagine people telling you to "get a job, bum" when you're already doing your damndest to find one. Imagine having to rely on the charity of strangers just to eat for the day.

Still with me? Now imagine that you ARE mentally ill, by no fault of your own, you have an illness that makes you struggle enough as it is to be happy, to like yourself. Some days it sucks so bad that you can't get back up after lying down. Some days you agree with every nasty thing people say about you.

That 60-70%? They're damn hungry, they're damn tired, they're suffering and most people don't give a damn, or think they're bums looking for drug or alcohol money. But the 30-40%? They're even worse off, because even more people think that they deserve to be kicked when they're down.

There is a great stigma against the homeless, as well as against the mentally ill, and those who are addicted to drugs or alcohol. Our unenlightened society makes it even worse through ignorance and cruelty. The good thing is - a lot of people are starting to realize this. We're in it together, and it's time to start building something better, it's time not just to help ourselves, but to help each other too.

[dreamnightwind]

4. beautiful post - eom

[Dustlawyer]

3. Ronald Reagan, the deified one, made it much worse for both the Homeless and the mentally ill

when he kicked all of the mentally ill out of treatment facilities onto the street! There is that great "for profit" health care system again. We have to be the most hard-hearted country in the world! American Exceptionalism at its worse!

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

5. There but for grace...

Well, for most of us anyway. The Koch Bros will never end up there. Some of the useful idiots who do their bidding may, but they'll blame it on Obama.