The Secret Lives of Homeless Students

https://medium.com/bright/the-secret-lives-of-homeless-students-a4b506ded525

by sarika008 • 11 years ago

170 30 11 years ago

Mz8• 11 years ago

I think it is a shame that this has been upvoted so much and not commented upon yet. I happen to be homeless and I know there are other people here who are struggling in the present -- pleas for help sometimes show up here by people in real trouble -- and I know there are people here who have been homeless in the past.

As a nation, we need to work on putting together a better social safety net and we need to work on making a whole lot more affordable housing available. I don't recall the exact figures off the top of my head, but the number of available affordable housing units is some relatively small percentage of demand. This is in part because of the way taxes and financing and things like that are structured. It is in part because we have done away with a lot of affordable options in a lot of places, like SROs and boarding houses. The types of places young single people used to live largely no longer exist.

As a nation, our track record for caring for our children really sucks. This is a very poor policy that hurts the future of our country. We are churning out relatively large numbers of people with terrible childhoods and then wondering why so much fails to go smoothly. We are grinding up a very high percentage of future citizens and then expecting them to somehow solve it themselves. Aside from any moral concerns, this is just a terrible thing to do to ourselves as a nation. We are flushing a great deal of human capital down the toilet by caring so little about the welfare of our children.

Edit:

From the end of the article: This also means that we need to de-stigmatize homelessness, so students in need will self-identify and get the help they need.

This is part of why I am open about being homeless, although I know that in the short term it hurts me. I would probably be taken more seriously here and other places if I weren't open about being homeless currently. I was one of the top three students of my graduating high school class. I have about six years of college, including an AA and 2 certificates and I am a few classes short of a bachelor's. But I realize that my lack of housing is something that convinces many people I am simply incompetent and I get dismissed and they move on. And that needs to change if things are ever going to improve in this country. As long as people figure homeless folks are merely inept, they aren't going to try to get at the real roots of the problem, like sky high housing costs.

marincounty• 11 years ago

Homelessness in America is our biggest problem. It's just going to get worse. I don't know why politicians/people are in such denial?

I don't have any sure fire answers, but right now every county should have a piece of land reserved for homeless individuals. Just a place you can pitch a tent, access to out house, and portable washing facilities.

Right now most counties/town will ticket you for living in you car, and campgrounds are not available, nor cost effective.(Where are they suspose to go?)

Every county that does not comply will forfeit all funds from the federal government--period. That is if we can get a president/congress really interested in solving the problem?

As to the fear of crime and drug use in these designated areas--if there's a problem police can always be called. I'm sure they can be dragged away from revenue collection?

To the person I am replying to--apply to section 8 housing. It will be awhile, but get on the list if it's even open? Hang in there. We do care! I think most of us are in a state of denial? I do know this--I know too many homeless former Programmers? This community should be discussing the problem?

Mz8• 11 years ago

but right now every county should have a piece of land reserved for homeless individuals. Just a place you can pitch a tent, access to out house, and portable washing facilities

There is no way in hell I would camp there.

FWIW, I was working on becoming an urban planner when life got in the way. My incomplete bachelor's is in Environmental Resource Management with a concentration in Housing and I took a class on Homelessness and Public Policy as part of that. I was a subforum moderator and active participant for a time on the world's foremost planning forum.

I will reiterate that changing a lot of government policies will have to happen so that housing costs can come down. Right now, we have a lot of really crappy policies that actively inflate housing sizes and prices and create a growing divide between the haves and have nots.

To the person I am replying to--apply to section 8 housing.

Yeah, that's not going to happen. I will suggest that people like you are part of the problem. The only thing you know about me is that I am homeless, so you think a one off suggestion from you can solve significant and complicated problems. You are doing exactly what I described above: Assuming I am inept. That will not help me. It will not help anyone. It only deepens the problem.

We do care!

There are people who genuinely do care. You aren't exactly coming across as one of them.

Snesker2• 11 years ago

Homelessness in America is our biggest problem. LOL. Not the military industrial complex? Not pollution? Not corrupt politicians? Not murder, assault, rape, fraud? Not wall-street? Even autism is arguably much more important. You could even wrap it up in poor American education. every county should have a piece of land reserved for homeless individuals. So crime-ridden slums that would attract only violent alcoholics and thieves. These people can't be 'saved' and are homeless because of their vices and inability or distaste for adapting to society. As to the fear of crime and drug use in these designated areas--if there's a problem police can always be called. I'm sure they can be dragged away from revenue collection? Thinking the police have nothing better to do is one of the lamest excuses for wanting to create crime I've ever seen.

sitkack• 11 years ago

This isn't glib, but I had a very discreet van, gas and insurance with a little fuck you money (1.5k ~20 years ago). Living in a vehicle is 1/10th the price of an apartment.

Before that I couch surfed, slept in my truck and took apartments that were highly unsafe (crackling wiring, soft floors).

The trick is to get some sort of fuck you money, stand tall and carry on. You can only be subjugated by will.

I prefer the think of it as houseless. Home is earth.

Mz8• 11 years ago

No, not glib. I understand. This is my version of FU money: http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2014/02/money-and-ma...

I am pretty tired of being homeless and very much want off the street, but I did make a choice: I walked away from a Fortune 500 company for health reasons. It was the right choice, given my circumstances. So while there are things that frustrate me, I do have agency. I also run a homeless website trying to help other homeless people preserve their agency: http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/

I also more recently began recording my thoughts on What Helps The Homeless: http://whathelpsthehomeless.blogspot.com/

Largely due to my medical condition, all my websites are updated somewhat sporadically. But my health is improving and that is resolving one of the big underlying problems that I have. Most homeless people have some sort of medical problem or handicap as a root cause of their difficulties.

aluhut• 11 years ago

I think it is a shame that this has been upvoted so much and not commented upon yet.

I left the tab open when I went to sleep to see how this thread works out. The only surprise was your comment.

This place is pretty good to discuss the best opportunities to work while on a cruise ship or an island in the Caribbean (we really had this) or similar bourgeois first world problems.

Unfortunately this is pretty representative for the upper class in our western society. And yes I'm sure everybody has some good cause they are sending money over regularly. Makes falling asleep (in the mag lev bed) easier on the less busy days.

You'll recognize the real friends and people worthy caring about by the way they handle you and your situation. Take this chance to make some real friends. You won't get many chances like that in the future when you are on the other side. Good luck!

blueskin_• 11 years ago

Sometimes people don't comment because they don't have anything interesting/useful to add, but still found the article interesting and want it to be more visible, so they upvote it and move on.

kumarski• 11 years ago

Hells yeah for chutzpah and grit.

lowbloodsugar• 11 years ago

Did Cleveland State make improvements to justify a tripling of tuition or did something else happen?

steveklabnik2• 11 years ago

I can't tell you about that college specifically, but my tuition doubled over the course of my education, from 2004 -> 2009. No major changes, really, and in fact, the CS department was basically dying.

Personal theory: it became easier to get loans, and schools know that students aren't exactly price sensitive. What's the difference between $2k and $4k a semester when you're paying it off years later anyway?

(Turns out, a lot, but not when every single influence in the world is _screaming_ that if you don't go to college, you're a failure.)

huuu• 11 years ago

Serious question: am I right when I think the first thing homeless people need is a place[1] to call their private home?

[1] tent, cabin, whatever provides enough shelter.

Edit: note the 'private'. Some people think shelter is enough. But I think you might need to have a private space to get your head straight.

steveklabnik2• 11 years ago

On the surface, sure. Homelessness is the lack of a home, so giving someone who is homeless a home 'fixes' it.

But, as you seem to suspect, it's not that simple. There's an underlying reason for why that particular individual does not have a home in the first place, and that needs to be addressed to truly fix the problem. See Mz's comments in the rest of the thread for one example. Another is that there is a _high_ amount of correlation between homelessness and mental illness (in the States, anyway), and is a result of a lack of care in that area.

pizza234• 11 years ago

I think the answer is definitely a "no", with the assumption that the homelessness we talk is a certain mental condition (not necessarily an illness) rather than somebody "normal" who's going through economical problem.

People in the former condition tend to be detached from the common way of living in the society; the paradoxical effect is that you may give them money, and they don't know what to do with it (see the homeless coder), or you give them shelter, and they live in it exactly the way they would live in a street (for example, on a mattress laid down on the floor, and without taking care or "using" the place they live in).

hitlerwasright• 11 years ago

is homeless, complains about the adversity, wants to go to college to make a better life
studies fine arts

yep. sure is modern society

The Secret Lives of Homeless Students

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