General Discussion

The only money to be made under Reagan was yuppie money, wasted money, gentrification money. With rooming houses (rooms with a bed, hot plate, dorm fridge, bathroom down the hall) being turned back into mansions in which two yuppies and their rug rat were rattling around like three peas in a barrel, marginal workers had no choice but to hit the bricks.

Before Reagan, homeless people were mostly male alcoholics. People tried extra hard to get the female alcoholics off the street. I did know a few of those.

I rethought homelessness a long time ago. I had to live in my car for a while. It was bad enough that I've gone hungry just to keep a roof over my head and a stable address.

Most people are an auto accident, a bad diagnosis, a series of job losses due to offshoring, or fleeing a violent marriage away from homelessness. There is a lot of denial out there but that is the truth and people who should care about that often don't.

I have to laugh at the "survivalist" shows. If those people wanted to know how to survive a total socioeconomic meltdown, they'd be talking to homeless people Homeless people are a great resource on hacks and kludges to survive disaster.

Some have been friends over the years, refusing to take "charity" if I offered to help them when I was working and had money. I know they all have stories but don't owe it to anyone to tell them. And every day they stay homeless is an indictment of how this country spends its money.