Why are people homeless when they can receive help?

Question

Why are people homeless when they can receive help?

Answer 1

Not all homeless people have the mental capacity to want help or seek out help.

Answer 2

I have always wondered that myself.

A lot of them are on drugs though and thats why they are homeless they spend all their money on drugs and dont care.they dont even want help.

Answer 3

Just because they receive help doesn't always mean they can find shelter. Did you see 'the Pursuit of Happyness' movie?

Some people fall through the cracks or run out of funding or get kicked out of their shelter because it no longer takes welfare people or because they don't let you stay at the shelter during the day so you're homeless until nightfall or they run out of beds or because the shelters are too dangerous.

Some can't work because of a disability but don't have an advocate who can help them get SSI or they lose their benefits when they lose their home for one reason for another.

I saw a show where people go into the hospital and don't have medical insurance so the interns take them in an ambulance back out on the streets when they need to be in the mental ward. Who's going to help them if the hospital turns them away?

I think the saddest cases are the alcoholics and drug addicts. They dry out and get help and then get drunk or high again and don't show up for work or get fired. Then those people that tried to help them just give up and find someone else to help that won't let them down or make them look foolish. That's just a few reasons.

Answer 4

A lot of them don't know where to search for help and sometimes they just get turned down due to discrimination and demand for things such as food stamps, shelter, and jobs.

Also, most American homeless persons receive less help than lets say a Cuban that just arrived. The system sometimes favors some over others.

All in all, it's not that easy.

Answer 5

You cannot lump all homeless people into one category. Some homeless people are strung up on drugs and live only for the next high. Others choose to be homeless out of pure laziness. Others are homeless because they suffer from a mental illness. Also some shelters only house them for one night. Some shelters require a few dollars in order for them to be housed and they have to be paid up front. Soup kitchens depend on the generosity of people who volunteer there.

Answer 6

Not all can receive help.  There are limited funds available to those who are homeless and jobless.  Some do not qualify or meet the  requirements for assistance.

It is an unfortunate reality.

Answer 7

Too often they fall through the cracks.  Sometimes because of a disaster or house fire they don't have time to prepare.  The reasons for so much homelessness can be defined by the following "d's"

Disaster-loss of house and or business during a disaster

Divorce-loss of 2 income family or if the person was a homemaker, no income

Disease, too ill to work

Disability-can no longer work

Downsizing-job loss

Death of a supporting member of the family

All the above reflect loss of income.  Most families are only 2 paychecks away from homelessness, it can happen to any one of us at anytime.

The lines are long to get help, sometimes the agencies do not have enough money, sometimes there is a waiting period and sometimes you have to jump through hoops to get much needed help.  Sometimes women will have to leave with just the clothes on their backs and their childrens backs to get away from an abuser

Answer 8

because they believe that they have no more chances in life, when the truth is they could get up off their lazy asses and get a job if they wanted to, but they would rather complain about it.

Answer 9

People are homeless for different reasons. One of the big ones is due to cuts in mental health benefits across the country several years ago. The cut in benefits turned thousands of people with debilitating mental illness onto the streets, who had lived in residential care. You can give these people places to live, but without treatment for their mental conditions, they are unable to maintain their living quarters, or care for themselves.

Answer 10

lazy bums

Answer 11

Hello Keith,

My name is Lauren.  I am a 43 year old woman with a long-time employment history, have been with the same employer for over 5 years (and was employed before that), without any history of drug use or criminal record (and I mean NONE) and...I have lived in what amounts to a homeless shelter for the past 7 years, and I'd like to try and answer your question.  Although it's more of an opinion, the way you put it.

First of all, you need to recognize that there are many variations to actual homelessness, but I can tell you the one common factor is the lack of (through death or distance or dysfunction, the big 3 D's) a do-able support system that would have prevented their homelesness.  There are people like me in quasi-shelters, and there are people like me in full-fledged shelters (like the Salvation Army), then there are the homeless in what is known as transitional housing, where a person or family can live for up to (usually) 2 years while recieving approptiate counseling and attention.  There are people in domestic violence shelters--does that not also count as homelessness?  Then there are those people who most everyone identifies as the "true" homeless.  These are the people living under bridges and "on the streets".

Would it surprise you that even though I am living in what the state calls a homeless shelter, that I and many other women there also get to feeling the same way you do, and that we are always saying   "why are we still living this way"?  It is very frustrating to try and describe my emotions.

I was in a domestic violence shelter before being placed in the homeless program.  Before that, I was living in my car.  but I drove 400 miles wearing only the clothes on my back to get some help for the abuse, and this is a very common situation that starts many women on the path to homelessness.

Keith, you want to know why people stay out of shelter all you'd need to do is spend some time talking to these people like I have had the opportunity to.  First of all, please understand that in my view, there are the homeless, and there are bums.  Sometimes people are both, but not as much as you'd think.

The bums are the ones who abuse the system and the shelters.  They prey on the homeless and make living in a shelter so terrible and dangerous that is why people choose to be under bridges.  Many of these bums use the system set out forthe homeless but are not and have never been homeless, really.  One instance?  We had a lady come into our shelter, who uses the shelters across the country as freebie hotels.  Really!  She had not paid a moments rent in YEARS.  She was getting disability for mental issues but in my opinion she wasn't mental she was manipulative.  She left our shelter after I complained to the Homeless Coalition aboutthe 27" TV she had just bought, even as her rent was paid for with public funds.  The shelter staff?  Loved her.  (sigh.)

I have a job--you'd be shocked to know how many homeless do have jobs.  But people just don't talk about it, ya know?  

Anyway, I work next to a creek.  At night I can see and smell the fires that many people attribute to the homeless, and many are, but some are merely camp squatters--people who prey on people who do not have housing, by selling thse people drugs, beating them up, and sexually assaulting them.  There have been 2 bodies found by the creek, 2 rapes, and 2 near-death beatings.  Not ONE crime was done by a homeless person but by camp squatters, all of whom had jobs.  Some of these people are known to the other residents in my shelter, so I actually do know where I'm coming from.

My shelter makes us pay rent.  It makes me proud to do that.  It is NOT like HUD, where they take a portion of your pay, but at times my rent can come to 80 % of my take home pay.  And the shelter didn't have a place for me to keep my car so it was stolen.  Not one worker in the shelter so much as blinked or offered a word of condolence or assistance.  Keith, 2 other women in the homeless shelter lost their cars for the same reason.  And Keith--we are not in a big city but in a small town in Appalachia.  No wonder so many homeless people refuse help from the shelters.  I myself question my own sanity for staying; sometimes, I think if I had any humanity remaining in me at all, I'd be living under a bridge.

Life in the shelter is demoralizing and has totally destroyed my faith in myself to rejoin normal society.  And I am coming at you as a SUCCESS story.  Where is all that 'help"  you described?  In actuality, most homeless programs offer no help, but offer rules rules rules--and rules are great, for normal people.  But being homeless makes even a normal person feel abnormal and angry.  Nobody sticks up for the homeless when denied a job, becasue it's actually quite legal to do that.  I have been threatened, seen others threatened.  Seen drugs sold both in and ouside of ths shelter and was intimidated by staff for reporting it!  Been spat at outside the shelter and been told to "get a job, b****ch!", waiting to be let inside at night, after work.  I have to pass women sleeping on the shelter couches, and gone to work, knowing that because these lazy women never work, they have all the time in the world to get the shelter staff on their side, as their friends, ie, they get free wardobes etc.  Homeless shelters are only as good as their staff.  And nearly all are grant-based, meaning that homeless shelters need people to remain homeless so that they can keep there jobs.  I beg to ask, then:  where is the motivation for these shelters to actually assist the homeless?  Oftentimes, there is no motivation to help, so they don't.  but under a bridge, barring the camp squatters of course, the homeless find a kind and understanding ear, becasue there is so little mental help for those who are homeless.  Don't believe me?  Google, right now, and look for a homeless support group.  I have, and found NOT ONE.  

I've been denied employment based on where I lived, previous to my current job, which by the way I am being underpaid to the point I can't move out, reasonably, I can't, even as i work extra hours.  Been denied outside housing due to my current shelter status.  Oh, I could eventually go into "public housing", where many occupants have NEVER worked.  Where is my motivation, gone gone gone.  And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Oh, on  a sad note, right after I started living in the shelter, I saw a white station wagon by the river.  There was a family living there.  Why?  Because there are no emergency shelters that ook in entire families that didn't seperate men from women.  That is corrrect--if you were a single mother and you became homeless due to fire or loss of work or your time in the domestic violence shelter ran out before you application for public housing went through, you'd have to go to a shelter where your 10 year old son would be forced to live in a room with up to 20 men, and they don't check for predators, either.  What kind of mother would do that?  So many women put their children into state care, and stay in the shelter where I'm at, which is for single women.

There are no places for men, so god forbid what would a single father do.  How could anybody keep a job in these circumstances?

Most of my job is spent keeping sane.  ITime has shrunk so that I have only hours and years, being homeless means all other time has evaporated for me.

Probably I didn't answer your question.  Probbly I raised more questions than were answered.  If you want to ask more questions by editing your question, I will be happy to try and answer them.

Answer 12

that's a good question.  maybe you should ask a homeless person. :P

Answer 13

lazy alcoholics or drug addicts!

Answer 14

Some people don't know where to recieve help. Others feel it is degrading to recieve help and think of it as charity (which it is). Many people feel that they don't need help; they can stake it out on their own and do well. Plus its a pride thing; they don't want other people feeling sorry for them.

Answer 15

Many homeless people suffer from mental illness so their decision to stay homeless is not necessarily rational.

Answer 16

I know, but its sad how not everyone will offer to pitch in and lend a hand

Answer 17

i dont want to simplify it, but oftentimes its an issue of dignity

Answer 18

Because they can't receive sufficient help and/or help in time to keep them from being homeless.

Example: If you needed a dollar to keep a roof over your head but all you can get is 50 cents, and on top of that you can't get it until next week, then you're not going to be able to have a roof over your head even when you get that 50 cents.

Answer 19

they are hurt and cant get a job. some of them just simply like to be homeless.(which i cant understand).

Answer 20

i think a lot of them do have a family to go to but the family has rules !!

they ( homeless) will not abide by the house rules ( no  drinking, drugs, smoking ) so they get kicked out.

Answer 21

homeless people can not afford to buy/rent a unit

Answer 22

Who's offering to help? religious fanatics, and other homeless people mostly. When was the last time you heard of a rich person helping get hundreds of homeless people off the street? perhaps never, right?

also, there are many people who prefer homelessness, because being unattached includes a degree of freedom unattainable by any other means.

Finally, many people need to become destitute to realise that their unhealthy habits are unsustainable, providing the motivation to quit.

Answer 23

Actually there are 4 things to life. Good food, Good Cloths, Good home and Good _uck ... Whatever you think is right.

So they people didn't got all these things. If they got home then food cloths and other things are out of there range.

So they put there alloted homes on rant and go back again at jhuggi. This is there luck. I also want to help them but only by food. If I gave them money I know where they use this.

Many of them are smacker and drinkers.

Answer 24

Some of them suffer from mental illness.  Some of them just screwed up so many times that there isn't any more help available to them.  Some of them hate themselves deep down and are just waiting to die, and some of them are mean hateful people who are on the streets because of their own actions and are now to proud to ask the people they once mistreated for help.

Answer 25

Sometimes it is because of addiction to drugs or alcohol.  And what 'help' are you referring to exactly?  Is there a program that will buy you a new suit for an interview?  Or supply you with a warm meal 3 times a day and a place to shower and sleep?  Does this 'help' loan a car to or pay for bus money to get to and from a job?  Or how about the people that won't help because they assume a dollar will go to buying alcohol?  Since when does helping someone go hand in hand with judging them as well? Help only goes so far.  It's not easy to get back on your feet when you're eating just to survive and sleeping on benches with newspapers for warmth.  Theres alot of things that go into being stable again.  That's why helping the homeless is very important.

Answer 26

cause whenever they get help the people try to make them stop drinking or smokin crack, so you can get the rest of the picture.

Answer 27

Because they could care less, and they are mentally challenged. It hurts very much to see them act this way doesn't it????

Answer 28

Great question!

I have heard that over 75% of them are mentally ill and just don't have the capacity to seek help.  Many have education and family but just comprehend what to do next.

It is very strange to us, and very sad.

Answer 29

Hello:

Its about being in control of your own life.  If I had to sleep in a church basement and eat whatever people felt donating (mummm pumpkin pie filling from a can again).  I have oversimplified the answer, but its about living our life on your terms...though in a crappy situation.  

I hope this helps

Rev Phil

Answer 30

There are a variety of reasons people are homeless. Yes it's true there is often help for those who seek it, but it's also true that help can sometimes be difficult to get.

As someone who has been homeless twice in my life, I can tell you from personal experience that it can happen very quickly. One minute things are just fine, the next you lose your job and don't have any money to pay the rent. Just because you look for a job doesn't mean you'll be able to find something quickly and before you know it you're out on the street. Once you're on the street, it can be difficult to hold it together because things are so unpredictable. You never know from day to day where you'll sleep or shower. It can create a very vicious cycle that is difficult to escape.

Then there are the people who choose to be homeless because it's easier than trying to pay bills and hold a job. Or there are people who have a mental illness that makes them incapable of doing what needs to be done to maintain a home.

It's easy to ask how someone can get to that point, but if you're living paycheck to paycheck in low paying jobs, you can lose everything in no time at all. And once you reach that point it can be very difficult to get out.

Answer 31

quite a few of the homeless people r veterans and have issues

their problems keep them from getting help