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Forum Post: Video: The Homeless Tent City in Google and Facebook's Backyard

Posted 11 years ago on April 6, 2013, 8:59 a.m. EST by GirlFriday (17435)
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6 Comments

6 Comments


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[-] 0 points by OTP (-203) from Tampa, FL 11 years ago

Guaranteed at least 1/3 of em are vets.

Used, abused, and then tossed in the streets. Sick.

Guaranteed at least 1/3 of em are mentally ill.

Sick, not right, and no one does a damn thing about it. Sick.

Chances are the other 1/3 are drug addicts or enjoy the freedom. Kind of made their own bed and continue to. Sometimes you cant help people who wont help themselves.

[-] 3 points by GirlFriday (17435) 11 years ago

This isn't the same population that we had 20 years ago. We cannot conveniently toss those people aside.

[-] 0 points by OTP (-203) from Tampa, FL 11 years ago

Im all for helping people who are down for the effort. The amount of times some people fuck up though is mind boggling. And with all the homeless in occupy, I think it was an eye opener for a lot of people.

[-] 4 points by GirlFriday (17435) 11 years ago

Well, you know there is no one size fits all here. If you were not mentally ill before you wound up homeless then there is a damn good chance that you will become mentally ill.

You have people that have lost there jobs and you have people that have jobs but cannot afford to pay rent. You have people that are mentally ill. You have a plethora of foster kids that have left the system at age 18 and a shit load of runaways. Then there are the elderly populations and entire families and vets. Those people like the teacher in New Jersey and her husband that lost their jobs.

I have read newspapers and news clips where people like to locate a homeless person that matches the bias. You lose your living quarters and you will be jacked simply because you can't get or update a license.

[-] 0 points by OTP (-203) from Tampa, FL 11 years ago

And I wish we had enough of a sense of community in every country to help each other. Theres also a plethora of reasons why we have no sense of community anymore.

The thing is, you go to people and you give them options. You give them chances. Some will be on it in a hearbeat. But there will be others who simply dont give a fuck. And you just cant help those people. And while the number of people getting screwed for no reason is increasing, the amount of people who dont want to work themselves out of trouble is increasing too. Its not good all around.

Metropolitan Ministries just opened a new facility here in Tampa, I know a couple of people there pretty well. Some of their stories are incredible, others are just frustrating.

We will be doing Paint Your Hear Out here in Tampa on April 20th. Good thing, lots of people involved. But the volunteers get pissed when they ask the neighbors or those living inside if they would like to help out, and get ridiculed like "I aint doin that shit"...

Im not so much worried about the people who simply dont want to help themselves, they can do what they want. I want methods and community for those who are in need. Ive been there, multiple times. Its people helping combined with the will to do whatever it takes, that gets people out.

My biggest problem is the veteran issue with the homeless. Like I said, they use em and then dump em. Disgusting.

[-] 3 points by GirlFriday (17435) 11 years ago

Actually, there is a lot of help that people at the bottom give each other, however, it is unacceptable or doesn't match societies norms but people use it because they need it.

The problem that many charity organization have found out is that all of the people that they used to depend on for funding and donations are now in need themselves. I don't care what kind of facility that you have, it is only as good as the available resources provided via state and federal grants and programs.

Too, you now have to combat years and years of propaganda that has painted homeless people as a bunch of suck ass people. People like homeless shelters as long as they are some place else.

It depends on what kind of circumstances revolve around digging themselves out of too.