Home General Chat
If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.

Homeless people

123457

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    lucifer_devil, a big part of the reason why so many homeless people don't use the help available to them is that they don't trust the social services and the government.

    Many of the homeless people I've chatted to have been totally fucked over by the social services; names of family have been blanked out on their files and deaths etc covered up because the social services people don't think it's beneficial to them to tell them the true details of what's going on. Victims of this abuse of responsibility then gain a distrust of social provision and would rather avoid it as much as possible.

    And organisations like Shelter and Crisis are fantastic in what they aim for but even they have to stick to social policy in what they do, so they're restricted in what ways they can provide help. Plus, mainly due to people who are ignorant and bigoted and/or scared, they don't have enough volunteers and staff to run many shelters and hostels etc.

    Most mental health provision etc will only be provided to people who have been clean from drugs and alcohol for 6 months; that's enough of a struggle for addicts who have a support system, let alone those on the streets, stressed and uncomfortable and surrounded by drugs and other addicts. And if you ARE menally unhealthy it's normally family and friends who notice problems and check you in; the homeless rarely have that available.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    i was actually thinking about homeless people recently, as i use the trains a lot and you see 'em everywhere on the LU.........i have to say i'm quite ashamed of myself because i used to stop and give something to the poor bastards, but i think 4 years in the city has turned me cold, like when you see something all the time it desensitises you........no excuse really, all the people who have said 'well they're just gonna buy drugs with it', well tbh, if i was in their situation so would i........i think around christmas time it hits me more how good i've got it, i think that's the main thing to remember, most people will be too busy complaining they didn't get what they wanted in their fucking stocking........btw blagsta is blunt at the best of times, so i don't know how well he'd cope with a personal insult.....you just have to see past the abuse and take it on the chin as he does make a valid point now and then.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    yeh like i said he does have valid points to make, just at times could've put them across in a better way! anyway end of that one now me thinks.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I've learnt loads from this site. I've lived in a small village since I was 4 (until moving to York for uni), and I have such limited 'world knowledge' that sometimes I don't even feel like I should have an opinion on issues, because I know so little about them. My experiences of homelessness are as follows:
    The drunk tramp who looks like santa that sits outside blockbusters in Banbury, and will reach out and try to grab your legs
    A scruffy, smelly man who tried to get money from me at York station (scared me a bit)
    Reading Jaqueline Wilson's 'Bed and Breakfast Star' when I was younger
    Seeing lots of people huddled in doorways in York last night.
    Hearing that the reason the bus stop seats are uncomfortable and steeply sloped in Banbury is so that homeless people don't sleep on them. I don't know if that's true or not though.

    Honestly, I don't give change. Usually I don't have any change. Thing is I don't know HOW to help people, giving to charities is great and all, but it drives me crazy when I see problems that could be solved/helped by the right people, but I can't figure out a way to sort things out. You think: build more homeless shelters. Ok, so a few more people will be able to sleep inside in the warm, but then what? It's a short term solution. Where do you go from there? You can't house them in a hostel forever, but what can you do to get them a home and a job? Also, where is the money for staffing, maintenence etc going to come from? It just... I just can't see a solution. And that's where my mind starts to ache.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    off topic but i used to live in banbury!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Hehe, cool. Whereabouts? I don't live there but in a village nearish it. I'm a proud member of Banbury Canoe Club though.
    (not meaning to continue this tangent)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Umm, umm..well I went to St Johns school and was about 15 minute walk from there and lived just across the road from the canal.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    but it drives me crazy when I see problems that could be solved/helped by the right people.

    What do you mean "the right people" Why can't you be the right person? Giving change might not do much in the long run but it can mean the difference between a cup of coffee at night and not.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    turlough wrote:
    What do you mean "the right people" Why can't you be the right person? Giving change might not do much in the long run but it can mean the difference between a cup of coffee at night and not.
    True. When I say the right people, generally I mean people who have enough money to do something about it. But I appreciate that's not the answer, but it's always the first thing that I think of. It seems like a lot of money goes on pointless things, rather than on things that matter more. Like I said though, I don't have much knowledge and experience about, well, anything that isn't canoeing, Harry Potter and babysitting, so I'm ignorant about a lot of things.
    *awaits flames*
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    True. When I say the right people, generally I mean people who have enough money to do something about it. But I appreciate that's not the answer, but it's always the first thing that I think of. It seems like a lot of money goes on pointless things, rather than on things that matter more

    Yes the Government doesn't give much help to these people.

    So while everyone isn't expected to jump out of their chairs and rush to the local charity to volunteer to help these people, giving a quid here and there will suffice to some degree.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    i only call blagsta a cunt when he's beeing one!

    ever heard of rightous anger?
    i think thats where blag is coming from ast the moment.

    i feel his anger and despair when hearing that so many people ...especialy young people ...are so ignorant of what is REALY happening in the world.

    but ...all power to you lucifer devil for sticking it out.

    blagsta can be quite intimidating.

    i'm convinced of his sincerity though ...on all the issues he fights and rants about ...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I'm not really intimidating...I'm a pussy cat really.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Then why do you seem to be such an asshole. Apperantly I can't survie the real world, everybody who doesn't participate in the debate forum has shitty opinions and lucifer is a cunt. Such a kitty, yes.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I don't always give change because I don't have enough money to. I wish I did and I wish I could help more.

    I understand that the pull your socks up and you could have a house, a job and three grand in savings by the end of the week attitude is annoying because the real world is not like that unless you have mummy and daddy paying your way when your still fourty. However, I can't feel guilty that I am in a good situation and others are not every time I see a homeless person or people dying on tv because I would just shrivel up.
    The its not my problem attitude may offend people but if I made every injustice in the world my problem then I wouldn't have much else and my head would explode.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Blah_ha wrote:
    I understand that the pull your socks up and you could have a house, a job and three grand in savings by the end of the week attitude is annoying because the real world is not like that unless you have mummy and daddy paying your way when your still fourty.


    so just 'cause i think some of them could do something about it, this makes me a spoilt snob? my mummy and daddy do certainly not pay my way, i get by with my student loan and i have a job. that's how i manage.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Then a lot of the injustices in the world would be solved.

    Apathy and the 'it's not my problem' attitude are exactly the problem. No, you don't have to jump up and fight every problem in the world, but if only people would recognise their abilities to make a positive difference in the world and start acting on that even in little ways - letter writing for Amnesty, for example - then the differences that could make are unfathomable. People sit in their lounges and look at images of genocide, tut to themselves, have a whinge about Tony Blair, and then go and put the kettle on. THAT is what allows so much injustice to perpetuate itself, and what drives me up the proverbial wall.....
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    i never once said it wasn't my problem!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    woah, chill, chicken - not having a go at you, you're entitled to your own opinions. It was the post above you I was replying to.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    woah, chill, chicken - not having a go at you, you're entitled to your own opinions. It was the post above you I was replying to.


    i am chilled! :)

    sorry thought you were responding to mine.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I normally don't agree with Blagsta (or more his ways of reacting towards people sometimes) but he does have a point. There are very few services to help homeless people... I mean it's all very well offering food and drink and a warm bed but at the end of the day, but people need more than that. You can't get a job without a fixed address (bar the Big Issue) and wthout any income you can't get a fixed address. Not to mention a lot of people need help with mental health problems or drug addiction.

    As for those who think homeless people are 'lazy'... Well think about it, why would somebody be so lazy as to get themselves thrown out on the streets? Who would want to live on the streets?

    We don't know what these people have experienced, they could have lost their wife and kids in a housefire, they could have had a nervous breakdown, they could have never had somebody hold them in their arms and say "I love you" in their life.
    so just 'cause i think some of them could do something about it, this makes me a spoilt snob? my mummy and daddy do certainly not pay my way, i get by with my student loan and i have a job. that's how i manage.

    I don't mean to jump on you at all... But how many services do you know of to help homeless people and where do they need to go?

    I have no idea, apart from the Shelter shop in my home town and I'm a literate young woman with access to the internet. If we don't know where to get help, how the hell will they?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    so just 'cause i think some of them could do something about it, this makes me a spoilt snob? my mummy and daddy do certainly not pay my way, i get by with my student loan and i have a job. that's how i manage.

    I wasn't refering to you.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    my_name wrote:
    Then why do you seem to be such an asshole. Apperantly I can't survie the real world, everybody who doesn't participate in the debate forum has shitty opinions and lucifer is a cunt. Such a kitty, yes.

    Get over yourself. I never said any of that. People like you are why I'm rude. You're being a twat.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Blagsta wrote:
    Get over yourself. I never said any of that. People like you are why I'm rude. You're being a twat.
    PML :D oh dear, how do you survive in the real world?
    Maybe 'cos they know they'll get pulled up for having a shitty ignorant attitude?
    In response to the rhetorical question I wonder why people don't go into the poli and debate forum
    a judgemental cunt.
    You ignorant little fuck.
    And a few about Lucifer. Did you really forget that quickly?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Which are very different things from "Apperantly I can't survie the real world, everybody who doesn't participate in the debate forum has shitty opinions" aren't they? I asked you "how you survive in the real world" and I said that people who have shitty attitudes get pulled up. They are very very different statements aren't they?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I don't mean to jump on you at all... But how many services do you know of to help homeless people and where do they need to go?

    I have no idea, apart from the Shelter shop in my home town and I'm a literate young woman with access to the internet. If we don't know where to get help, how the hell will they?

    fair point, i only really know of shelter and i think crisis is another one. i don't even know where there is a homeless shelter in my area. i know there are helplines like the samaritans and childline but i know from watching bluepeter that with childline, for every call that is taken, it stops another coming through and they just provide advice don't they.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Bloody heck, that took ages to read.

    I buy the big issue, and after reading Blagsters thingy, I'm gonna part take in helping the homeless from now on. Even if it is just giving them a couple of quid.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    and after reading Blagsters thingy, I'm gonna part take in helping the homeless from now on. Even if it is just giving them a couple of quid.

    oh fuck ...that means i'll have to buy the beer all night if i ever meet him ...oh well ...some good came out of the grumpy old twat at last.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    fair point, i only really know of shelter and i think crisis is another one. i don't even know where there is a homeless shelter in my area. i know there are helplines like the samaritans and childline but i know from watching bluepeter that with childline, for every call that is taken, it stops another coming through and they just provide advice don't they.

    Yup, people aren't sure wha their rights are, or where to get help.


    I don't know why... I guess the government don't give a toss.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Yup, people aren't sure wha their rights are, or where to get help.


    I don't know why... I guess the government don't give a toss.
    trouble is moon ...there are loads of highly inteligent and caring people who are homeless ...who know their rights ...who soon learn there rights don't actualy exist in reality ...the services available don't actualy exist on any scale to actualy mean much more than a political feel good spin.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    If only it were so easy to change people attitudes though. Today, a witch from housing benefit actually laughed at me on a follow up call about my appeal claim: "Well, we helped you out after you lost your home so you should know the system by now" chortle chortle. Me being a sappy git actually burst into tears to the meany moo. grrrrrrrrrrr why i oughta...lost ? ? ? :crying:
Sign In or Register to comment.