I doubt that most of those living on the street started living on the streets willingly and voluntarily gave up all their worldly possessions except for their bankaccount in which they had millions. I've helped out at a shelter once on christmas day while visiting friends in Sacramento and the people that came there for lunch were not looking like they wanted to live on the streets, I can tell you that much. I've never seen so broken people.

You imply the possibility that those who live on the streets just choose to be there and could get off it if they wanted  to. I think life as a homeless person is pretty harsh and that most really don't want to be there but don't know how to get out of it or don't know whom to ask for help. Getting off the street is probably alot harder than starting to live on it. It's a viceous cycle and escape is not that easy, especially in nation with such a calvinistic work ethic mentality and where hard work is not enough sometimes and those who need welfare are stigmatized as lazy despite working 2 or 3 jobs in some cases.

Generalizsations in either direction are always prejudicial and cause me to lose sight of the individuals, and that is bad thing because every homeless person had a home once and a life story (now I sound like lifetime melodrama  ) but it's true nontheless.

A guy once called into a talk show I was listening to, on which they were discussing the homelssness issue. He was a truck driver, who had, during his 20s, lived on the streets for several years. His point was that he, and many of the people he knew there, had homes, families and lives they could go to, if they so chose, but none did. They just preferred the aimless, drifting lifestyle of being bums on the street. Others were addicts of various kinds, and/or mentally unstable people who chose not to take their meds.

This guy said he just woke up one day, tired of being there, went to a church asked for help and got right, got a job, went and earned his CDLs, and said he was writing a book about his experiences. Is it possible to get off the street? Of course; all you have to do is want to, just like anything else. 

Little Whip, who used to write here, once wrote that she has a homeless heroin addict in her neighborhood; he panhandles, and once told her he often makes over ten dollars an hour doing so. That being the case, why should he rejoin society? That's the mentality that irritates people like me.

I'm not saying that everyone who lives on the streets chose to be there; not at all. What I'm saying is, there are, indeed, many who have done so, for whatever reason(s), or who are not willing to take on the responsibilities of society, and thusly live as they do. Various people and groups politicize this issue, and make more out of it than it really is, using these people and the isses they embody for monetary or political gain.

I remember a few years ago; there was a big outcry over the 500,000 homeless people in Chicago (I think it was); politicans and homeless advocates beat their breasts and wept over this sad, shameful problem. In the next year or so later, however, a university did an independent survey, and found less than 5,000 homeless. That's a lot, but it's a lot less than half a million.

I know what you mean with the panhandlers.. I grew up in very touristy town in Germany at the lake of Constance and we had this homeless guy who came every summer and had a few dogs and just begged - and he must have made alot of money. During wintertime he was in his house in southfrance. Freiburg, where I currently live, has a lot of homeless punks who just sit around all day and drink and do drugs. Public drinking is not forbidden here.. so they have their orgies right in the middle of the pedestrian precinct. There is broken glass all over the place all the time during early morning hours. They get welfare and beg and make more money that way then they would working or making an apprenticeship for a trade (those take 3 years) and they feel cheated because they get less money working than living on welfare lol *hmpf* (that is really a crappy mentality) It annoys me as hell, because they truly leech from society because Germany has a very tight social net. Then there is the problem with organized begging by gypsie crews who come every few years like a plague. They beat up their kids and mistreat their wifes so they look horrible and pityful and make more money. Thank god Romania is the EU - free travel for everybody ey

From what I have heard that is not so much the case in the US. If you lose your job and house because you can't pay the mortgage anymore and your car etc. you're really screwed. Everything relies on people having a car, not being able to drive is almost like being crippled.

I believe that life on the streets changes you as a person.. those normal ways of behaviour don't exist anymore. You're on your own and have to look out for yourself and nobody will care if you die or have enough food or need help - except some social workers or cops. Going from that violent existance back to normal must be really weird, and even if they could theoretically go back to their families and old jobs some just don't fit into that society anymore - can't handle normal. I am pretty sure that is why so many don't make it back, but I am also pretty sure that love for ones family is strong enough to help overcome the obstacles in others.

Politics loves sentimental stories, especially in the US. It doesn't surprise me in the least that it is picked up as an issue.

local churches always go and simply BEG homeless people to take aid that they are offer... they refuse. In the USA, the homeless are homeless due to reasons OTHER than economical.

They might have ran away from home due to being abused, they might have ran away from society, they might be on drugs or mentally unstable.

Being POOR is no reason to be homeless in america. Minimum wage easily pays for a place to live, and more, and there is ALWAYS help to those who are willing to receive it.

Economical reasons are one of many reasons, and I'd be surprised if that could be dismissed out of hand as having no importance at all. 

Read Barbara Ehrenreichs book on minimumwage. She tried to live off it as an social experiment and wrote a book about it. She said it is impossible to pull it off, and I am inclined to believe her. Maybe if you are single and have no children and very low living standards and never get sick, then you might get by. Otherwise I doubt it is as easy to make ends meet as you make it sound.

utemia, i am a poor student. I live on BELOW what the government said should be poverty for a single male of my age. I worked minimum wage before... Everyone there spent half their money on cigarettes and beer.

Also, how can you stay making minimum wage? UPS forklift driver, 16$/hour, goes up by a dollar after 2 week training period. Construction worker, clerk... there are a ton of jobs that pay more than min wage...

Roomates is also another big helper. Even when NOT in college, I spent many years sharing appartments or houses with friends to reduce living expenses.

I've always shared apartments to reduce costs. It is pretty common here. And I had a lot of crazy roommates lol sheesh.

Ahh poverty.. another issue of huge political impact. If what you say were true, then nobody should live in poverty - which is not true. Even people that work hard from early to late in the evening are poor and stay that way in the US (and in the rest of the world). Reasons for that are manifold, I think it's mostly due to a poor education. In order to fight poverty one has to make sure that everybody has a solid education. Every dollar spent on education will reduce costs spent on welfare programms. That's what PISA is all about, a survey of skill in math, reading and writing, and logical solution finding among 15 year old students in different countries around the world. Industry needs skilled workers and experts in their field so education is a question of economics. And since more and more jobs become computerized and more technical, the need for skilled workers rises. Unlearned people are needed less and less.

In order to work as a forklift driver in Germany you have to finish an apprenticeship as a warehouse clerk. That takes 3 years. Same goes for construction workers, builders, painters, electricians, carpenters etc. have to have a finished apprenticeship before they are employed by any construction company. Administrative workers have to do that - basically every trade required it.

Germany doesn't have minimum wage, did you know that? We have very powerful workers unions in many different fields, like service jobs, metal industry, chemical industry etc. and they negotiate tarifs. Wal mart actually withdrew from Germany because the union was too strong for their liking.

And taking 3 years to do an apprenticeship is... unreasonable?

Anyways, I said there is no reason to be HOMELESS, not that there is no reason to be POOR. You can be poor but not homeless...

But for most people, they can easily become middle class with just a tiny bit of hard work.

Utemia, I don't know about Germany, but are you aware that in America, "poverty level" begins at $25,000/year? That obesity is considered a disease of the  very poor? That to be considered "hungry" in America, all you have to miss is one meal a month?

I know lots of "poor" people; heck, I'm one of them, by wage standards. Between the two of us, my wife and I make less than $50,000 a year, yet we live very comfortably, and well. Sometimes the wolf howls, but that's life; it's crazy to think everyone should get to live like a king, just because, and without having to work at it.

Thanks to a recent inheritance, we've purchased a house; up til now, however, we've rented, both houses and apartments.

All the "poor people" I know have cars or access to transportation, homes of one sort or another, more than one TV, and cash for things like junk food, fast food, cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana.....but by the standards of the day, they're "poor".

And you're right....it often IS due to a poor education. But there have to be efforts made on both sides of that issue. Here, even people with a high school diploma often can't identify historical figures, do basic math, read or write at adult levels; the educational system is geared toward overall testing results, rather than basic, "three-R's" learning. My wife's cousin is a fine example of the modern American educational system; he can neither read nor write, yet he accepted a HS diploma in 2005. He works as a janitor....however, he does get paid pretty well, from what I've heard.

The area I live in has a very strong union mentality. The unions dominated the steel mills and smaller industries for years, and dictated to managment and the business owners what they would and wouldn't do, what concessions they would make, which weren't many.

Well, aftr many years of union thuggery, we now have a lot of idle, rusting steel mills; we have lots of Brazillians, Japanese and Koreans doing what people like my dad used to do, and for a whole lot less. 

We have a lot of retired steelworkers who've lost their pensions and their medical and life insurance, because when the good times were over, it turned out the unions had ultimately screwed them over all during the 60s, 70s and 80s.....and have had to give in now.

Yet, the union leaders live in $300,000 houses and drive BMWs.

The union mentality is so pervasive, however, that most union members still blame management and the businessmen, rather than the unions themselves. Talk about brainwashing.

I call bullshit.  She may not know 'how' but it's being done.  And who ever said minimum wage jobs should be careers for God's sake?

I am reminded of a conversation I had with a classmate after I scored really well on a test...

Her: "tal, how are you so smart"

Me: "what do you mean? I just study hard, today I spent four hours reading the textbook"

Her: "Oh man, I can never get myself to read the textbook"

... the day before she told me that:

1. She is failing the class

2. she will not withdraw, because withdrawing you don't learn anything and you admit failure, instead she will push to the end.

3. she is poor and is trying to get an education to get out of it.

I don't think she is gonna succeed in this... she is failing the classes because she will not read. She just doesn't have the patience to spend on reading the textbook and it shows. You cannot FORCE a person to learn, you can only offer them knowledge.

Agreed; according to statistics, most people who live on minimum wage only earn it for 6 months or so, before raises kick in, or moving on to a better-paying job. It's called working your way up.

I'd be curious to know how long she lived on it, too; it was probably like the reporter who goes out for a night or two in December or January, living on the street with the homeless, then goes back to his warm, comfy apartment and writes a prize-winning article. This has happened, by the way; a reporter for the NYTimes (naturally) did so, even kicking a bum off his steam grate "bed", in order to see how he lived. +LOL+ That's liberal compassion for you.

I am kicking you off for your OWN GOOD, by writing about your suffering many people will be angry and supportive of my political beleifs, resulting in you receiving their magical vibes of good feeling.

Uh....excuse me?

that was sarcasm.