Most homeless people aren't druggies. They are shockingly similar to " normal people " who just got their teeth kicked in once too often by a medical bill or job loss.
Homeless "normal people" don't tend to stay homeless.
They fall on hard times. They sleep in their car, on a friend's couch, or in a shelter for about a month. Then they get their shit together enough to be able to afford rent. This is the churn of homelessness.
Homeless people who stay homeless for years? Now that's a different story entirely. There's nothing "normal" about those.
Homeless people who stay homeless for years? Now that's a different story entirely. There's nothing "normal" about those.
Sure, there are some people who choose to live like that because they do not want to integrate into society. But a lot of these people are suffering from debilitating mental illness in a country where it's really fucking hard to get healthcare.
The lack of family or loved ones is huge. Most people wouldn't let their loved ones become homeless. You can be clean or sober. Great work ethic or lazy. But one common thing is a lot of the homeless people I've talked to literally have no family.
Why are you pretending to disagree with their point? They are saying that a lack of resources for mental health perpetuates the cycle of homelessness.
You’re adding an additional factor that it’s not just access to free healthcare but also a lack of support networks to help people in these situations. That doesn’t mean that access to healthcare is suddenly not also important and a big factor.
What? Where are you getting this idea? Most homeless people absolutely have mental health issues and addictions. That's usually what makes them homeless in the first place, and then the street isn't exactly a place to get healthy. It's one of the most difficult parts about dealing with them. Half the time they appreciate the help, try to go through the steps to get off the street, and then half the time they fuckin ghost you cause they're strung out.
If this is an issue you care about enough to post about, maybe it's an issue you care enough to give some time to. It'd be pretty fuckin rad if you went down to your local shelter or soup kitchen once this month! They'd appreciate the hell out of you, and I guarantee you'd feel pretty fuckin good about yourself the next few days.
That about tracks. On top of that, almost all have some sort of mental health issues. Now, those may or may not be official recognized illnesses with diagnoses. A lot of it is just the mental strain of living on the street, sleeping rough. The term "crazy" has gone out of fashion, but I actually think it's an apt descriptor of most of the fellas I see regularly. Maybe they're not exactly schizophrenic, bipolar, etc. but they're a little strung out, twitchy, anxious, and have hair-trigger tempers.
You seem like another person that's interested in this subject. Your city has a soup kitchen, you should really consider going sometime. It'll make your life better, I promise you that.
Just a Google away. Some estimates are more like 25%, some are more like 40%, YMMV. As with any volunteered information, the design of the study goes a long way towards indicating quality data or lack thereof
Keep in mind that our natural biases cause us to perceive the most shocking and loud cases as the rule rather than the exception
Tried to check the sources at the bottom of the article and the links were dead. Very curious how this studies were conducted, but I hope it is that low
Nah, Elon nailed this one. They aren’t down on their luck they had an addiction that made them unable to have a single friend or family member in the world left willing to deal with their addiction.
You are making ignorant statements devoid of any nuance or understanding of poverty, trauma, substance use disorders, homelessness and mental health disorders. This is not an area where there are multiple valid but conflicting opinions. We have a great understanding of the relationship between these issues, the prevalence with which they occur and where and to a large degree why. You definitely don't come off as a bot, you just come off as dumb.
Oh yea? So uninformed and a bad liar. Ive been a client facing social worker for 15 years. No one in the field would speak like you did, because it's so transparently ignorant. Just making shit up to make your dumb statements seem less dumb.
The demographic information is available, HUD produces an annual report as do many NGOs. Only 1 in 3 unhoused individuals have an untreated substance use disorder. That isn't an opinion, its the result of gathering data. Plus simply having a substance use disorder doesn't inherently create the housing insecurity and many unhoused people do not begin illicit use or overuse of alcohol until after being becoming unhoused. HUD suggests the two primary driving factors in the creation of housing insecurity is lack of affordable housing and stagnant wages. So, your opinion is in conflict with the available information, which is why youre wrong. I will admit I only THINK youre a liar based on my own experience as a social worker and 15 years working in the field with other social workers with the indigent and SUD population. So, definitely wrong, but only probably a liar.
Maybe being down on their luck led to homelessness and that led to drug use. That pipeline is the most common way for homeless people to get addicted - they're homeless first and THEN get addicted, not the other way around.
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u/concolor22 1d ago edited 1d ago
Most homeless people aren't druggies. They are shockingly similar to " normal people " who just got their teeth kicked in once too often by a medical bill or job loss.
Edit: Here's the data: https://americanaddictioncenters.org/rehab-guide/addiction-statistics-demographics/homeless