Homelessness & the Limits of Hospitality

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Philosophy Now
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Homelessness & the Limits of Hospitality

Post by Philosophy Now »

Anya Daly says we’ll solve homelessness only when we see it as our problem.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/123/Homelessness_and_the_Limits_of_Hospitality
tbieter
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Re: Homelessness & the Limits of Hospitality

Post by tbieter »

Philosophy Now wrote: Tue Nov 21, 2017 9:40 pm Anya Daly says we’ll solve homelessness only when we see it as our problem.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/123/Ho ... ospitality
Before I moved in 2005 from Duluth to St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota , I watched a certain a news conference. The participants came from government and the private sector. To great fanfare, they announced a new plan and and a new project. The plan and prediction was to eradicate homelessness statewide within TEN YEARS.

Well, TWELVE years have passed. There is still homelessness in Minnesota statewide. And recently my local newspaper reported that homelessness WAS ACTUALLY INCREASING IN RAMSEY COUNTY !

Read the newspaper article below. It vividly describes the conditions and causes of homelessness locally.

Then read Anya Daly's article. It's theoretical. It does not offer a practical solution to even one condition or cause.

The article is worthless in all respects, and especially as philosophy.

http://www.twincities.com/2017/10/28/ra ... st-resort/
tbieter
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Location: St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

Re: Homelessness & the Limits of Hospitality

Post by tbieter »

What, no interest in the problem? The author writes that a disinterested you is part of the problem.
EchoesOfTheHorizon
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Re: Homelessness & the Limits of Hospitality

Post by EchoesOfTheHorizon »

As someone who has a lot of experience sleeping in the rough, and the elements (fuck rain) I can honestly say, anyone who mentions Merleau-Ponty and homelessness in the same breath doesn't know a damn thing about it, or how to solve it, or mitigate it.

You gotta get rid of traditional concepts of socialism, completely scrap it for the time being. I'm not saying get rid of public housing, I'm saying scrap the concept you can house everyone if only we paid more attention to the "problem", you really gotta prioritize who gets the housing. You give it to families, with kids first. Second is women and elderly. Dead last is guys.

That's not equal rights, that's not liberal, blah blah blah some bullshit feminist theory. I've seen people get raped, beaten. You put families and women up first. Women especially as they can't keep themselves clean enough to hold off yeast infections usually, as most people are clueless in the initial stages of homelessness.

That has to be the chain of priorities, for housing. I get some countries like England have more public housing in ratio to homeless than others, but they still have a homeless issue, and getting thrown away into a grenfeld tower isn't exactly charity. In America, depends on the region.

The initial sort of shelter a community with a homeless population, in a temperate climate,should invest in isn't a homeless shelter, but a warming shelter. Only open these up when the weather drops near or below freezing. That's right.... if liquid water can exist outside, that place is closed. It doesn't become a convienant drop off point for disgruntled parents, spouses breaking up, or a dump for police to coral people they don't like, "solving the problem". It is cheap, and easy to maintain.

If you had to go a step beyond this, I would recommend getting storage lockers, not big enough to lay down inside of, just enough to put clothes in, change, and keep your backpack in. Have it next to a police department, or something similar like a fire department. Charge a basic rent of 5 bucks a month for it, not because the city needs the money, but because you want people taking care of it, and to repair vandalism. If you are really doing good, slap some showers and washing machines in too.

That's 99% of what a munincipality needs to do. Usually food rations/ food stamps are provided, as well as job employment help..... you merely gotta get people in a position where they can store their stuff during the day, wash up, and wear clean clothes. Shelter is often presumed to have to take the form of a roof, but doesn't need to be the case. With a decent sleeping bag, and awareness of how to survive in cold weather climates, most people can survive without that.

In Alaska, life expectancy is ten years. Homeless are everywhere, but they also get oil dividen checks each year, and it is easy to find cannery work when it is in season. They have enough resources, and a nice big homeless shelter in Anchorage. Reason why life expectancy is 10 years, is that the people who are homeless either are deranged, or injured with the medical system insisting they are NOT injured and are merely faking it. What do you do when you are injured and doctors refuse workmans compensation, or to put you on social security? You limp off somewhere and wait to die. That's how socialism works, and Merleau-Ponty can't fix it, or people sitting in some hipster restaurant talking about it. Plain and simple, you got fucked, and you will die. It is a waiting game. They build up homeless encampments a bit more in Alaska than elsewhere, but this didn't stop police from doing what police everywhere do, and that is flush out the homeless encampments, destroying the foundations beneath tents. That is very important for survival, as even sleeping in the very best of sleeping bags in Alaska can kill you. Businesses and middle class people, the sort of people who read Merleau-Ponty, want nothing to do with them, and complain, saying the police and city needs to do something. But something they might mean socialism, but that never happens, police just move in and destroy everything. You are sent off to fucking die. This is the realization of the communist state manifested, the dawning of liberalism.... just push off and die so the liberal arts people can drink at star bucks and talk about Bernie Sanders in peace.

I never ever ever recommend anyone join into hobo encampments for that reason, and stay far out of site, and move regularly. Society is utterly cruel, and it is the evil SOBs with the bleeding hearts who will most abuse and punish you by helping you. They think it is solved if they don't see the problem. Police respond by breaking and beating people. The homeless just starting off feel betrayed, but still very much a part of the community. They think it will get better. For many yes, for many no. Those who don't get better often times will cling to their old life like idiots, getting 2-3 grocery carts, putting as many of their absurd possessions as they can, and tied the carts together, and walk around dazed in a city, looking at everyone amazed. They will have stuff stolen left and right, and the weather will destroy the rest. They get reduced to one cart, and eventually not even that. They are psychologically no different at this stage than the people looking at them unsettled or disgusted. They still can't process mentally what has happened. Hence why I say only a small storage locker. They gotta learn to get rid of the remainder of their property, and simply will not in the beginning for the exact same reason you won't get rid of all your possessions. In order for them to find work, they will have to abandon their stuff during the day, and the possessions a lot of homeless carry around are utterly worthless things to someone making a paycheck, and you'll soon be left with a overwhelmed wearhouse full of plastic and rotted tarps, and old food, dirty clothes if you try to let them keep whatever. You are giving them just enough to store what is absolutely needed for a job.

In the lower 48 in America, as well as Hawaii, I would recommend you stay in the wood line, never in the city. You will get attacked by the police, police are absolutely not your friend. Liberals are not either, don't believe me, look up images of homeless encampments being destroyed in Stockton. You are better off with a range of sleeping spots, going solitary, in deep stealth, and making sure nobody sees you enter and exit. I got used to sleeping in deep hillsides pressed against logs, at a weird angle, or in very hard to reach spots, or in spots you couldn't see obviously as a spot anyone can possibly be in, like in the weeds 20 feet off a trail, in a very flat spot, that required a complicated indirect path to reach. Leave no trace, push off before down, never lay down till after dark. People will still find you, and will act horrified, and will call the cops, both out of fear and your well being. You will be fined and ticketed, and you'll gain a criminal record, and the police will destroy any supplies you have, as well as destroy you tent if you have one. Remember, this is called socialism, stay the fuck away from socialists.

If you are a veteran, your options are in theory wider, but also more deadly. One of the worst things I ever saw was during the Obama administration, in Hawaii, the VA gave a contract to a civilian company to help homeless veterans, called US Vets. Oh shit..... I've never seen so many die. I was having problem finding work after losing a security job (son of the owner returned home, took over my spot) and I finally gave it a shot, and was forced into bizarre programs by civilians who never were in the military or homeless, telling me I needed weeks of counseling and drug and drinking rehabilitation, despite the fact I never once drank or did drugs.... I'm as sober as it gets. I merely wanted work, but in order to get help finding work, I had to take course after course after course.... that talked about my feelings. Only after a few weeks could I graduate and be sent out to look for a job (most guys, flipping burgers after looking for weeks) and then I could apply for the privledge of staying in a old military barracks across the parking lot, which had absurdly strict rules..... a few guys a week committed suicide jumping out it's window, splattering on the pavement below.

I was told the classes was because of the bell curve, and that the people who are most likely to succeed do all the classes, and are within the bell curve, but so pointed out everyone was dying, and we all had a knack for not fitting inside the bell curve, and fuck the bell curve, because I came strictly to find work, and not get shuffled from one bullshit class to another, by someone clueless about the situation I was in. That was mostly a scam facility set up to keep staff employed, not fund the vets and their needs. Best thing about the place was the AA Meetigs for the drug users, but AA meetings are free, everywhere.

Honestly, getting shoved into a run down barracks, told you have no future there, and given the lowest of minimum wage jobs after begging, seeing non-veterans take jobs counciling veterans, stuff we could easily do ourselves, is deeply unsettling. I ended up jumping up and down screaming after a few weeks of tests, being told I absolutely could not leave the barracks to go search for work, because I had to be within the bell curve. Fuck your bell curve, just let me look for work.

But D.C. has groups that get all this absurd funding, and only a trickle goes to the actual people who needs it. Rest goes to staff who went to college to get this sort of work. Hence why I say, focus on warming shelters, not homeless shelters. Get the kids, women and elderly off the street. Leave single guys to fend for themselves, but educate them a bit (a few hours top, of talking) on how to survive the weather, where to go to clean up and wash, find clothes and uniforms for a job, etc. Don't drag it out, don't get governors to send out assistants to do questionnaires with locals, and set up five year plans, none of that does anything, absolutely fuck those people. No solution has ever arisen from such meetings. Just set up warming shelters, stop giving the homeless criminal records for being homeless, absolutely stop giving them fines for being homeless, and in some of the more asinine cities, don't harass them for sleeping at night. Many homeless have jobs, need to sleep in order to save up.... a lot of psycho police burghoughs enforce laws than ban homeless from sleeping, and will pick them up, throw them outside of city limits. They end up walking 10-25 miles back to town to get to work, no sleep. It doesn't do the workforce any good. One guy I know figured out if he rode the Amtrack train out of San Francisco overnight, he would arrive back in time to shower at the gym and go to work. It cost him $200 a month to do this on his unlimited amtrack pass. That's the silliness people often have to go to keep hidden, and blend in with others.

A lot of homeless problems can't be fixed. Many pedophiles become unhireable. Society simply refuses them, but are asked body. They end up on the fringe. That is the core of my town's homeless population. They occasional get tired of it, call the cops letting them know they are about to smash a window. Cops show up, they smash it, go to jail. Obviously society isn't going to put these guys up in liberal socialist suites for the rest of their lives from some bad life choices. They just are stuck. They will eventually die. Nearby homeless shelters are too full, and don't want to bother with them, and they don't want to bother with them as well.

This isn't the solution most want to hear, but tough.

First night your homeless, it is a surreal experience. You are inexperienced, senses are hypersurreal, you hear everything form far away, thinking that anyone seeing you or merely walking by is at risk. It takes a lot to get used to, and the damn truth is, you should be scared. Some of the nicest acting people will abuse you. You'll feel betrayed and butt hurt about society for a while. Just how it is.

My advice is to avoid shelters. They are disease filled, full of crazies, they try to lock you in at night. You can't do that if you are working weird shifts. Like I said, most of the homeless population doesn't fit inside the bell curve of success. That stuff is for politicians, to agree to fund bad programs, programs with nasty endings. Most important thing upyou can do is stay away, and look for work on your own, and figure out how to stay clean and clean shaved, presentable for a job, and a place cops can't see you, so you don't gain a criminal record or fines. Absolutely fuck cops, they are the enemy, when you are homeless.

Merleau-Ponty of all things..... I actually carried a book of his, was a blue book, bunch of his radio interviews printed out, didn't do a damn thing for me when homeless.
EchoesOfTheHorizon
Posts: 356
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Re: Homelessness & the Limits of Hospitality

Post by EchoesOfTheHorizon »

Also, seriously, stop it with the liberal celebration around drugs. So many end up on the street because of it.
Dubious
Posts: 4000
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Re: Homelessness & the Limits of Hospitality

Post by Dubious »

tbieter wrote: Tue Nov 21, 2017 10:29 pm
Philosophy Now wrote: Tue Nov 21, 2017 9:40 pm Anya Daly says we’ll solve homelessness only when we see it as our problem.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/123/Ho ... ospitality
Before I moved in 2005 from Duluth to St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota , I watched a certain a news conference. The participants came from government and the private sector. To great fanfare, they announced a new plan and and a new project. The plan and prediction was to eradicate homelessness statewide within TEN YEARS.

Well, TWELVE years have passed. There is still homelessness in Minnesota statewide. And recently my local newspaper reported that homelessness WAS ACTUALLY INCREASING IN RAMSEY COUNTY !

Read the newspaper article below. It vividly describes the conditions and causes of homelessness locally.

Then read Anya Daly's article. It's theoretical. It does not offer a practical solution to even one condition or cause.

The article is worthless in all respects, and especially as philosophy.

http://www.twincities.com/2017/10/28/ra ... st-resort/
What you write is pretty much universal throughout North America. Politicians are usually the creator of problems based on whatever is expedient for them at the moment. To ameliorate the fallout of what most often turns into a fiasco they make promises to solve it 3 to 5 years hence hoping to be re-elected in the interim based on their advertised intentions. This has always been the I.O.U method of politicians to regain in advance the credibility they lost while being in power reneging to do anything in the meantime. Obviously if they don't get re-elected, they owe nothing and if they do they will usually breach promises made claiming circumstances are no longer the same while hoping that the whole thing gets vaporized in the minds of the electorate. Unfortunately they are almost always right about that knowing that the public is just a fickle as they are. If that weren't true the system as we know it, could never uphold or justify itself.

It's constantly declared by politicians that homelessness is contra to human rights but this is just a ploy to gain or retain power while the problem is guaranteed to steadily worsen. You're only worth what you have in your bank account regardless of how you got it. All other measures of human value have very limited input...but that's the way its always been. Homelessness is here to stay and since nothing stays the same it will only get worse under the current system.
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