Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community  

Go Back   Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community > Chatter > General Discussion


 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 11-21-2009, 03:14 AM   #1 (permalink)
Psycho
 
Where's the best place to be homeless?

I haven't ever been homeless. I wouldn't like to be - I guess it goes without saying that it's better to have a home than to be homeless - but it's something I'm interested in. If you were homeless but could be so anywhere in the world where would you choose?

Homeless people where I live (north west of England) generally seem very anxious, miserable and altogether wretched people. They have no obvious posessions and they tend to sit next to ATM machines asking people that use them for spare change. They are usually ignored or avoided by members of the public. Some make a little money selling a magazine called The Big Issue.


This is in contrast to the homelessness I saw on holiday in California last year. Homeless people there seemed to have a much better life. They often had large bags and packs full of posessions and a lot that I saw had shopping trolleys filled with stuff. One guy I saw near Santa Monica Pier was asleep under the shade of a tree. He looked pretty well-fed and it's a cliche but he looked like he didn't have a care in the world! Someone in San Francisco told me that in that city there are people who are homeless because it's a lifestyle choice they made.

Based on that I would much rather be homeless in Southern California than in Manchester, England. I think if I was homeless somewhere in America I'd try to make my way there - or Florida or Texas - just for the sake of not being cold in the winter.

I'm also interested in homelessness in bygone times. Reading books like Down and Out in Paris and London (George Orwell) and The Autobiography of a Super-tramp (William Henry Davies) - first hand accounts of homelessness in the early 20th Century - makes me think that being homeless was more pleasant eighty to a hundred years ago than it is now.

Where's the best place to be homeless? Has anyone had experience of being homeless? If so, where, when and for how long? How realistic is the notion of gradually relocating hundreds of miles to somewhere warmer?
oliver9184 is offline  
Old 11-21-2009, 03:50 AM   #2 (permalink)
Delicious
 
Reese's Avatar
 
Cold and wet nights are miserable. They can make you feel like shit for days. It's easy to see how So-cal is better suited to living outdoors. They have outdoor shops, people eat outdoors and throw away perfectly edible leftovers where you can easily snatch it up.
__________________
“It is better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick” - Dave Barry
Reese is offline  
Old 11-21-2009, 04:12 AM   #3 (permalink)
Sitting in a tree
 
Location: Atlanta
Years ago, I worked at a veterinary hospital that was across the street from a homeless shelter. The shelter was always packed. They had waiting lists for folks to have an opportunity to sleep on a cot and get a couple good meals in. Those in waiting slept in the woods and just perused the streets. Occasionally, homeless men were found dead in the woods from who knows what diseases - possibly just from starvation. Authorities would arrive and stay only long enough to haul off the body of John Doe. {These woods surrounded the clinic btw.} Several times a week, we'd get folks coming in begging for dog food to eat. Thankfully, I only dealt with these situations a handful of times, as the DVM instructed us to often tell them no - we have nothing, to avoid making their visits habitual. But us techs would scrounge up something for them anyways. At Christmas, clients would always bring in loads of cookies, popcorn tins, other goodies, etc. for us. A man came in one time and asked me if he could please have a can of dog food... just one. I gave him a huge popcorn tin instead. I did this right in front of the doctor and silently dared him to say something to me about it. Which he didn't.

Around the holidays, people often drop off turkeys and hams at the shelter. 'Tis the season and all. I just might do that this year. All it takes is a bad turn of luck and any of us could be in the same situation as these folks. No family - friends - roof over the head, etc. It breaks my heart. Even those who are addicts - my heart goes out to them still as I know firsthand about the sickness.

Dude, there's no good place to be homeless. The thought of it sickens me. I'm not being mean or anything but I'm just a bit shocked by such a question. Maybe some members will have good answers - I dunno. I'm sad now :/.
wooÐs is offline  
Old 11-21-2009, 06:43 AM   #4 (permalink)
Eat your vegetables
 
genuinegirly's Avatar
 
Super Moderator
Location: Arabidopsis-ville
Berkeley, CA.
they're everywhere, and lead a pretty decent life.
__________________
"Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq

"violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy
genuinegirly is offline  
Old 11-21-2009, 07:06 AM   #5 (permalink)
warrior bodhisattva
 
Baraka_Guru's Avatar
 
Super Moderator
Location: East-central Canada
In Canada?

Vancouver....and Vancouver Island.

The winters are far easier to bear. The homeless from as far as Ontario (maybe further) make their way out there for that reason.

If you can put up with the rain, it rarely dips below freezing there. Unlike pretty much everywhere else.
__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
Baraka_Guru is offline  
Old 11-21-2009, 02:02 PM   #6 (permalink)
Psycho
 
Location: Canada
Quote:
Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru View Post
In Canada?

Vancouver....and Vancouver Island.

The winters are far easier to bear. The homeless from as far as Ontario (maybe further) make their way out there for that reason.

If you can put up with the rain, it rarely dips below freezing there. Unlike pretty much everywhere else.


I live in BC, farther north than Van, but still in BC. Homelessness is a huge problem. Canada is cold. No matter what. Vancouver is easier for sure concidering they get less snow and it does get as cold. But when it's below zero, it's cold to live without a place to go for constant heat.

I think that if I were to be homeless, I'd try to migrate my way south. Probably heading for California. It's got good weather to be living outside in, and like Oliver said, it's easier to grab things because so much is outside.
Salem is offline  
Old 11-21-2009, 02:22 PM   #7 (permalink)
Sitting in a tree
 
Location: Atlanta
Wanted to shout out a quick ty to the op. This thread brought up memories of that above mentioned shelter and I went ahead and pulled it up online. Turns out there are quite a few volunteer opportunities available and I think I'd like to jump on that. Even if it's just for a couple hours a week, it'd be a real feel-good thing for me to consider taking part in . So thank you.
wooÐs is offline  
Old 11-21-2009, 02:26 PM   #8 (permalink)
comfortably numb...
 
uncle phil's Avatar
 
Super Moderator
Location: upstate
key west...
__________________
"We were wrong, terribly wrong. (We) should not have tried to fight a guerrilla war with conventional military tactics against a foe willing to absorb enormous casualties...in a country lacking the fundamental political stability necessary to conduct effective military and pacification operations. It could not be done and it was not done."
- Robert S. McNamara
-----------------------------------------
"We will take our napalm and flame throwers out of the land that scarcely knows the use of matches...
We will leave you your small joys and smaller troubles."
- Eugene McCarthy in "Vietnam Message"
-----------------------------------------
never wrestle with a pig.
you both get dirty;
the pig likes it.
uncle phil is offline  
Old 11-21-2009, 02:49 PM   #9 (permalink)
WHEEEE! Whee! Whee! WHEEEE!
 
FuglyStick's Avatar
 
Location: Southern Illinois
Eden's house.
__________________
AZIZ! LIGHT!
FuglyStick is offline  
Old 11-21-2009, 03:14 PM   #10 (permalink)
Please touch this.
 
Halx's Avatar
 
Owner/Admin
Location: Manhattan
I second uncle phil here.. Key West... You can live in a cave and fish your food up.
__________________
You have found this post informative.
-The Administrator
[Don't Feed The Animals]
Halx is offline  
Old 11-21-2009, 03:40 PM   #11 (permalink)
... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.
 
Willravel's Avatar
 
Scandinavia.
Willravel is offline  
Old 11-21-2009, 04:51 PM   #12 (permalink)
zomgomgomgomgomgomg
 
telekinetic's Avatar
 
Location: Fauxenix, Azerona
On the topic, an interesting (if kind of depressing) look at homelessness:

Becky Blanton: The year I was homeless | Video on TED.com
__________________
twisted no more
telekinetic is offline  
Old 11-21-2009, 06:01 PM   #13 (permalink)
Junkie
 
Location: My head.
I too would pick southern USA like FL, TX or CA. ... Maybe not Texas, they might shoot me.
Xerxys is offline  
Old 11-21-2009, 06:22 PM   #14 (permalink)
Alien Anthropologist
 
hunnychile's Avatar
 
Location: Between Boredom and Nirvana
Nope, don't pick Texas....unless you don't mind the cops or some governement person giving you a bus ticket to CA. (or Arkansas or Florida).

That's usually the way they get rid of homeless folks in the longhorn state.
__________________
"I need compassion, understanding and chocolate." - NJB
hunnychile is offline  
 

Tags
homeless, place

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -8. The time now is 08:58 PM.

Tilted Forum Project

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360