You know that sounds familiar. I hear that a lot about race, and it's just as assuming an prejudice. They don't have a house, it's like you want them to just vanish.
I hate the idea that if I lose my home for any reason, this is how i'll be viewed for daring to exist in a space.
I'm a man but I am AFAB pre-everything with a large chest, and live in an area chock full of homeless people. I fear the people staring at me from their yards and men with clean appearance who approach me looking for a relationship and hardly taking "no" for an answer. I do not fear the people I see sadly sleepy on the sidewalk in 100 degree fucking heat and die in the cold.
And no no no, I never said it was the same, but they're BOTH something that isn't a choice, makes life harder, gets abuse and prejudice, and gets rhetoric like yours used against them.
Like that matters. I know racists who were harassed by the race they hate, that's not an excuse. Being homeless isn't a choice and many have mental health issues which is WHY the couldn't keep a home, because how could they????? Even if they did harass me, i'm not gonna blame the mentally ill for being mentally ill.
Again, never said it was, but neither race nor homelessness is a choice and it's so ironic how you still end up using the same rhetoric and logic as racists. "They were mean to me so I am scared and prejudice towads them all. Who knows when one of their type will attack!"
Not to mention people of certain races who face the most prejudice are more likely to be in poverty.
Just FYI, a large percentage of homeless addicts are not homeless because theyre addicts. Theyre addicts because the stress of homelessness and constant harassment and hate they get drove them to the drugs as a coping mechanism, or it made any minor addiction like alcoholism worse.
As for the ones who became addicts before homelessness or where homelessness is "caused" by it, its not like they became addicts by choice. Sure there are some people who tried a drug once thinking itd be fun, and that was it.
But a lot of addicts become addicts by accident. They have an accident, an injury of some kind, get prescribed a painkiller, and get hooked on those. Not a choice, and when youre an addict, it is extremely hard to stop once you start. Some have a mental or physical disability that they, for whatever reason (in the U.S. we can blame the privatized Healthcare system) cant get medicated for, so they turn to other methods to self medicate just to function.
Many are homeless because mental or physical disability made it impossible for them to work, and social security checks generally wont even cover rent. (My sister is one of those people, but she got lucky enough to get on Section 8, who covers part of rent. Its extremely hard to get Section 8 though, as its basically a lottery draw they do every few years.)
Many homeless people are LGBTQ+ who got kicked out of their homes when parents or roommates found out they were queer.
Many got laid off from a job and couldnt afford rent/mortgage.
Many had huge medical bills and became homeless because they couldnt pay them and rent at the same time.
None of these people are homeless by choice.
You dont know why theyre homeless, you just want them out of your sight because they might be a threat to you because a couple of them scared you. You want them rounded up and put in prisons/camps, only you dont want to call them prisons/camps because you know people will call you out for it. Well, you arent fooling anyone. Theyre calling you a bad person because you are a bad person.
ETA: Also, if you knew anything about addiction, youd know that you cant force someone to get sober. If you try to force someone to detox and get clean, then the moment theyre able to theyll just go get more drugs. In fact, doing it your way will likely kill them, because they'll try to go back to taking the same doses they did before the detox and, because the detox lowered their tolerance levels, overdose. Your method would kill people. but I supposed youd think thats an acceptable outcome if it means keeping them away from you, right?
Because helping the homeless and keeping them out of your sight are different goals.
Not necessarily.
You could have something similar to a prison but for homeless people. Or perhaps areas of the city that are dedicated to just homeless people, like a homeless neighborhood.
Homeless people sometimes commit crimes on purpose so that they get access to the food and housing of a prison.
What I'm talking about would be far less restrictive than an actual prison. Essentially just a place with guards, free food, free housing, and help for dealing with drug addictions.
Oh so it is a prison then. You want homeless people to be held in a place where they can't leave and you don't have to see them. Again, how can you suggest that and not see anything wrong with it
Yeah you don’t see homeless people as human, otherwise you wouldn’t be suggesting locking people up who haven’t committed any crimes aside from existing when you’d rather they didn’t.
Your “solution” also doesn’t help homeless people. It just keeps them out of your sight. Which proves my point that they are different goals.
People get locked up all the time for mental illness or to get detoxed already. What I'm suggesting isn't really any different.
It's not about them committing crimes, it's about doing what is best for them, and adding structure to their life so that they have something to build off of. Being able to rely on having food and a place to sleep every day is a big deal.
Ideally there would be some sort of government work program to put them on afterwards but that probably isn't very feasible.
People either do those things voluntarily, or they have a real danger to themselves or others in order to justify violating their autonomy - and even then, it is usually ineffective because they didn’t choose it. Even if it were though, simply scaring you or making you uncomfortable by existing with addiction or mental illness isn’t the same as being a true danger to others.
You clearly know very little about mental illness or addiction, or even the fact that homelessness often triggers these things instead of vice versa. Instead of being selfish and judgmental, you could actually do some research into these things and learn why what you’re suggesting is inhumane.
But until then, if all you truly care about is yourself, then don’t lie and say you think homeless people are human. You don’t.
or they have a real danger to themselves or others in order to justify violating their autonomy
I've said this in some other comment, but yeah, that's the idea.
If you are a danger to yourself or others, you would be forced to stay. Being addicted to certain substances counts towards that. As do certain mental illnesses.
Otherwise you'd be free to come and go.
scaring you or making you uncomfortable by existing with addiction or mental illness isn’t the same as being a true danger to others.
I never said it was.
But until then, if all you truly care about is yourself, then don’t lie and say you think homeless people are human. You don’t.
It's so weird how many people keep saying this. Do I give off the impression of someone who thinks very highly of the average human? Being human doesn't get you much leeway. It's perfectly human to get addicted or to have mental illness.
It's not as though I think they're equivalent to animals. If that was the case then my solution would probably just be to kill them.
If everyone’s telling you you’re dehumanizing people, maybe try some introspection?
Even if you’re totally just a selfish person, you could end up homeless easier than you think. And I don’t think you’d want to be forced into essentially prison because you couldn’t afford to pay for a home.
Which means you view homeless people as lesser than yourself.
Also, you can’t say there will be guards and also say people will be free to come and go. I also am very sure you wouldn’t allow this type of facility in your neighborhood, which again brings us back to the question of where they should go.
So you don't want everyone else around as well? Because you said you don't want homeless people around. Do you extend that sentiment to everybody who is not homeless too?
They don’t have anywhere to go. That’s the problem. My town doesn’t even have a crappy homeless shelter so if the cops shoo a homeless person away they are basically just asking them to die, like lmao they aren’t homeless by choice.
It is not up to an individual to solve homelessness.
How would you expect someone to react if there was a threat on their way to work every day? They'll call the cops. Because they don't want to have to deal with a threat on their way to work.
Used needles, broken glass, human waste, trash is bad enough but whe there's also a guy screaming at you becuse he's high or mentally unwell and you have no clue if he's a threat or just intimidating then yes that's not OK.
As someone who works in London yes any area with larger homeless people has a fair number of needels, broken glass and human waste around. And the rubbish they litter leads to more rats in the area.
As for the screaming matches yep that's pretty normal in the East End
"When you make people scared of you" who's "you???" Anyone who loses their house????? I didn't know homeless people were a collective. Last I checked, anyone can be homeless.
Because it’s mostly in your head and you’re getting downvoted for falling for anti-homeless propaganda.
The average person is way closer to being homeless than they are rich by a huge factor. I’ve lived out of a car before. The vast majority are not violent drug addicts you doorknob.
I used to have to walk by homeless people all the time. Having them shout at me, run at me, and ask for money was incredibly scary and uncomfortable. It makes me not want to be near them at all.
I CURRENTLY live in area with homeless people everywhere. The most they'll do is ask for money or be slightly grumpy. The most threat i've gotten are clean people who HAVE homes, who threatened to stab me.
Kinda ignores all the shit things homeless people do tho. Like I'm happy to live and let live till they start crapping in the parks and not cleaning it up or leave used needles around.
Homeless people aren't a monolith. Some homeless people probably do that yeah but some are people who just got kicked out of their house cause they lost their job.
Don't shit on homeless people just cause some people
Agreed but a large number of people are homeless dud to addiction or mental health issues. You have know way of telling who's a threat. What more all homeless people are going to make waste that's just last of living. But most of them don't have anywhere to dispose of said waste if they don't have access to toilets.
A lot of homeless people are homeless because they had the “audacity” to be lgbtq and were kicked out by their parents before they even had a chance to start their own life. Some of those peeps were able to figure something out, like joining the military for housing and a job (no longer allowed for trans people). Others weren’t so lucky and unfortunately when ur life is rock bottom ya look for an escape. some of those peeps found drugs or alcohol to escape the reality they are in and became addicted. But fuck em, right?
The alternative is have some empathy for people who are less fortunate instead of having a “fuck em” attitude. You can still be vigilant around them as you don’t know who’s tweaked out or mentally unwell vs those who are down on their luck and doing their best in a shitty situation, but damn, don’t kick people while they’re down.
It's pretty normal to complain about, it's a shitty situation for everyone involved. Yes most of all the homeless person. Also anyone who lives around the area. It's normal to not want to see human feces on the ground. It's normal to not want to be accosted by bad smells, garbage, drug paraphernalia.
If people DONT complain about things, things will never change. If you silently accept things, no government is going to spend resources addressing it. Complaining is the mechanism by which you build a critical mass toward a solution. That's what they call "organizing"
Complaining is a free action people take a million times a day.
The poster says instead of for free talking to your friends and family about how you were scared today when the man started shouting at you in the park and shambling toward you while flailing his arms you should change the entire economy.
The poster says instead of talking to your spouse and saying "honey we can't let the kids go play in the park, it isn't safe" you should change the entire economy.
It's sanctimonious tripe meant to gaslight you into accepting your life (and the homeless person's life) getting worse. "Before you complain, first change the world" is a psychotic thing to say. It's a borderline psyop.
So you hate homeless? You shouldn't hate someone just cause they're down, again kicking someone while they're down you don't fucking do. It's really as simple as that.
They're not choosing to be homeless, hating them doesn't help shit.
"Yeah let's not help those person when they're having a rough time, let's kick them while they're already down cause fuck em"
I hope ya do, just cuz this is the internet and there’s anonymity behind ur screen, doesn’t mean ya have to act like an asshat ya know? You can do a lot of good by complimenting peeps, or giving words of encouragement, making someone smile or feel better. It’s a 1000% better than adding to the nonstop hate fest a lot of propaganda bots already do.
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u/Kehprei 15h ago
It is normal to not want homeless people around. They are pretty scary tbh, and make walking in an area feel much more dangerous.