What is Digg?129 Comments
- kward711, on 05/10/2009, -1/+31a lot of people in homeless shelters are mentally ill. Not everybody is in a homeless shelter because they're bad people who are lazy.
- darkfate, on 05/10/2009, -3/+31Some people in homelessness don't do anything irresponsible. They weren't in a high paying jobs and they could have gotten laid off, but since they didn't make much money, not much was saved and I think that they would go to a homeless shelter instead of getting an apartment or house they can't afford. Granted, there are some people like the one's you describe, but it's mostly the minority of people. The one's that seem to be outspoken and the bums you see on the street don't really give a crap about their situation and want to rely on others.
Also, you have to understand that they may have not gotten past the eighth grade because they're parents were dirt poor and they needed to work to support themselves. Just because they couldn't finish school doesn't mean they were slackers. They had family priorities over school ones. - CaptainAmerica1, on 05/09/2009, -28/+54If you make $8.50 an hour, don't have babies.
Don't have unprotected sex.
Don't sleep with every sperm donor that comes along.
Any bets this chick has no idea who the sperm donor is?
Any bets this chick has no idea where the sperm donor is?
Any bets this chick never went beyond 8th grade?
When is society going to stop paying for irresponsible behavior? - deadbaby, on 05/10/2009, -0/+24Presumably because a lot of these people need a halfway solution. Just saving up enough money for the first month's rent isn't enough. They need to learn how to manage their money and understand the rent has to be paid. The added benefit is increasing the capacity of the shelters for people even worse off.
And as to why your tax dollars pay for it -- because the majority of people who vote think it's the right thing to do so they elect people who enact laws to fund homeless shelters. Just get on your libertarian high horse and win some elections and change it I guess. - abstracthuman, on 05/09/2009, -15/+38FTA: “I don’t see this playing out in an adverse way. Our objective is not for families to remain in shelter. Our objective is to move families back into their own homes and into the community.”
Then why the ***** aren't they allowing them to save every penny they can in order to move out of the place? - lukas88, on 05/10/2009, -0/+22It is a good thing you have it all figured out. I hope nothing ever goes wrong in your life.
Poverty is not just the result of personal choices. - Pseudorious, on 05/10/2009, -3/+22Rent is theft? *****, I'm being robbed monthly!
- DephexTwin, on 05/10/2009, -1/+19You're right. There's no reason, then, that we should pay for police either, right? We should all just be mature about things.
- alexanderhazard, on 05/10/2009, -3/+21you provide a frustration that is easy to sympathize with, but there is just much more to it than that.
- epublicus, on 05/10/2009, -1/+18You are correct, and this country is certainly rich enough and compassionate enough to take care of our citizens that *cannot* take care of themselves. I doubt you would be able to get much of an argument about that. The problem isn't the mentally ill, the problem is the people that *will* not take care of themselves.
- Pseudorious, on 05/10/2009, -17/+34If you don't charge increasing rent, residents will never leave.
As for letting residents save, rent is an ongoing cost; they need to meet it monthly. Paying from fixed savings will lead to homelessness once depleted.
Finally, if residents of homeless shelters made good decisions, they probably wouldn't be in a homeless shelter. - Ninh, on 05/09/2009, -2/+18Bloomberg, slum lord?
- RockSlice, on 05/10/2009, -1/+15FTA: "should not exceed 50 percent of a family’s income"; "she was informed last week that she owes $1,099 in monthly rent on a $1,700 monthly income"
Someone there can't do math.
Also, 1k a month for "rundown shelter" rent!?! Who are they trying to kid? - cubicledrone, on 05/10/2009, -4/+17If you charge increasing rent, residents go broke.
"if residents of homeless shelters made good decisions"
Five million people made good decisions and got fired in just the last four months. Tens of millions made good enough decisions to own homes and got foreclosed on. - smemily, on 05/10/2009, -0/+11That's all well and good, but once you are in the situation where you're in your 20s, making $8.50/hr, with kids and no education, then what? Everyone can agree that getting there wasn't the brightest idea, but there's no arguing that some people will, and for most of them it has a lot to do with family circumstances.
- sheetrock, on 05/10/2009, -0/+11So are jails and prisons, which are where many homeless people will end up if you don't run homeless shelters.
At least in the shelters, some of them can apparently find and hold jobs. Seems to me the smart option is to try to figure out how to boost people up from the shelter, not keep them there longer (at taxpayer expense) or turn them out to the streets to be dealt with by cops or imprisoned (at greater taxpayer expense.) - tribecom, on 05/10/2009, -4/+15Fvck you for assuming everybody in a shelter is there for irresponsible behavior. Get on your knees and pray that everything goes right in your life because you are clueless to how easy it is for someone to end up in bitter straits.
- GamerXR72, on 05/10/2009, -1/+12Im good with it as long as they don't just instantly start charging you from day 1.
If you've been there a year, start paying. - almk, on 05/10/2009, -1/+11It's unbelievable to me that some people's hearts aren't pained and saddened by this story. There but for the grace of God go I.
And anyone who thinks Americans shouldn't be paying taxes to try and help these people needs lessons in history, sociology, economics, and simple human decency. - dcruzen, on 05/10/2009, -0/+10I'm just confused why the woman who makes $1700 a month doesn't move somewhere else. Even is San Diego you can live off that much. New York must be super pricey.
- canchin, on 05/10/2009, -3/+12Yeah! That's the way America! Allow corporate tax cheats to hide hundreds of billions of dollars in unclaimed profits in off-shore accounts; allow Wall Street ***** to make billions in profits for decades and then go sucking on the taxpayers tit to get more billions because their scam failed and they lost for one year; pay morons in government far more money than they deserve, from the municipal suckholes all the way up to POTUS; pay doctors millions for killing their patients; allow pharmaceutical companies to make billions for producing poison...and then f*ck homeless people in the as* by charging then half of what little money they can scrounge in menial jobs so they can revel in the glory of homelessness.
Damn! What's next? - grapesofbaath, on 05/10/2009, -2/+11That's right, they should pull themselves up by their boot-straps, just like me.
Was I born middle-class? Yes, so what? Was I encouraged by my parents and taught the extreme importance of a proper education? Yes, what's your point? Did I go to school in an environment where my friends also cared about their education? I really don't see where you're going with this. - inactive, on 05/10/2009, -6/+14why shouldn't she be held accountable for paying her way? The ***** rest of us have to.
these shelters are kept open by tax payer's money - I don't know about you, but I pay enough for my own ***** housing than to be paying for anyone that can pay for themselves. - ruarctb, on 05/10/2009, -1/+8No one lives in a shelter because they want to. These people are struggling and if they could afford to pay, they wouldn't be there.
- inactive, on 05/10/2009, -2/+9I agree with Spire3660.
Smart people with limited income (ie living from paycheck to paycheck) should commit a few robberies and invest that money in a few stocks, put the some of it in savings and if theres.money left over buy a piece of property and rent it out.
That should secure their future for alteast 10-15 years (with good time served). - northwatuppa, on 05/10/2009, -0/+6So, I assume you are against the bailout of the banks, etc. Let everyone except the superwealthy and super powerful go down in flames? What a wonderful world this would be, if you had your way.
- martoq, on 05/10/2009, -3/+9This is how it should be. Social programs are there to help people not support them. To long have these programs been abused by people while others who are genuinely trying to recover and need that support are made to suffer. I grew up in an inner city, and I cannot count the number of times I have heard people refer to their welfare check as a "paycheck". These systems are broken and need to be fixed. I think this is a good first step. But I would rather have seen people with NO income being required to do public service as a means to compensate for the receiving of benefits.
Think of the amount of public work that could be provided by this untapped resource. - tattertech, on 05/10/2009, -1/+7I think the decay of Western society is centered around people unwilling to learn the difference between "to" and "too".
- inactive, on 05/10/2009, -0/+6@Ellipsys ,@canchin, @cubicledrone ETC Never mind the fact the elderly RICH retirees get full medicaid.. Some of them live in 250K, 500K+ ...houses and get all their medicines and healthcare provided free. I can understand older ones with no money but the rich ones????
- judicar, on 05/10/2009, -0/+6or take that $1799 and buy a bus ticket to somewhere pleasant.
- northwatuppa, on 05/10/2009, -0/+5New York is superpricey, especially where rents are concerned. I recall one recent example that I know of personally where a person paid 1800 dollars a month so sleep in a small spare room in someone's apartment. Most people in other parts of the country do not make in a month what New Yorkers pay each month for rent.
- cubicledrone, on 05/10/2009, -1/+6It's amazing the amount of effort and planning that goes into making things more difficult for the poor.
- ShoujoKakumei, on 05/10/2009, -0/+5Something tells me someone grew up in the suburbs.
- phosphite, on 05/10/2009, -1/+6They should definitely take some money for rent (from the working class) to keep them from staying forever, but obviously it should not be that much that it keeps them there indefinitely, contradicting the original intention.
- tofagerl, on 05/10/2009, -2/+7Then you dig yourself out of your hole. My mom was in that situation after her divorce, and she worked a full job while taking a three year degree in four years.
It might seem impossible, but it's doable if you you've got the stones.
I love my mom :) - cubicledrone, on 05/10/2009, -3/+7Funny how people bleat about getting a place to live for free while we give money, factories and sports stadiums away to the rich.
How many foreclosed, empty and rotting houses are there in this country at the moment? The only reason people are homeless is because rich people put locks on the doors of a place to live. - cubicledrone, on 05/10/2009, -0/+4"Part of making good decisions is PLANNING AHEAD FOR FINANCIAL CHANGES."
Ok. Someone gets fired and can't find another full-time job for two years. They have $3750 a month in mortgage payments. What's the plan? - oxymoron69, on 05/10/2009, -1/+5@CaptainAmerica1
Dude, are you talking about that Nadya Suleman chick?
Everything you said describes that crazy biatch to a T. - Bosox958, on 05/10/2009, -2/+6These shelters obviously aren't for-profit organizations...does anyone think they would've enacted this if they didn't feel it was absolutely necessary?
- mvarelas, on 05/10/2009, -4/+8That is the one thing I absolutely *HATE* about living in NYC. The homeless that seem to think that I owe them something and they are everywhere. I get accosted almost daily by these ***** that probably make more than I do.
This actually happened last summer in the east village-
Homeless guy walks up and rudely asks for a buck or two so he could get something to eat.
I told him I'm not giving you any money, but if you really are hungry you're welcome to the other half of my sandwich.
He eyeballs the sandwich for a second and looks me dead in the eye. "No thanks, I'm a vegetarian." - cawfee, on 05/10/2009, -0/+4Get that moonlight outta your hair!
- aetherboy, on 05/10/2009, -1/+5Agreed with tofagerl. There is ALWAYS a way. Depending on how big the hole is that you've dug for yourself, it may take some extreme measures, but there is a way. If people are complacent in their homeless shelter situation, I see no problem "encouraging" them to stop wasting my tax dollars by charging them rent.
Let me be clear, I have no problem with people who use shelters as a halfway house, or for the truly mentally ill who are for whatever reason unable to get help elsewhere.
What I DO have a problem with is these leeches who try to figure out exactly how many kids they need to get a welfare check big enough to support their lazy ass lifestyle of foodstamps, drinking and drugs who are now stuck in shelters thanks to our lovely economy.
We need to run a lean operation in these times, and that means people who are able to fend for themselves, but are too lazy to do so, need to be kicked to the curb. - maz2331, on 05/10/2009, -1/+5Temporary poverty can result from unexpected events, but unless one is actually disabled it isn't permanent. Permanent poverty in the able-bodied is always a sign of personal choices.
- LenBaird, on 05/10/2009, -0/+4That's a drug addict lying to you. This one deserves credit for making up a story about why he doesn't want the food you offered.
- Laminarcissus, on 05/10/2009, -1/+5Well, if you have paid attention to your overall general hygiene as much as you have paid attention to your education, I'm glad the Internet has put some distance between us.
- junyamint, on 05/10/2009, -0/+4Agreed. (Except the doctor thing)
We spend so much money on so many other things that don't actually help people. It is absurd. First and foremost, WAR! As Orwell said, there is no better way to destroy the productivity of the people than to have them make bombs and blow them up. If we just brought our military home from all parts of the world including Iraq and Afghanistan there would be so much more money for social causes.
That being said, a lot of people on here are really upset at homeless people... surprising. - localzuk, on 05/10/2009, -0/+4Spire - it is not possible to plan for a bloody recession!
- Yazilliclick, on 05/10/2009, -1/+5Yes because obviously if somebody is against giving away free homes to people who can pay they MUST be for giving money unconditionally to the rich!
- oxymoron69, on 05/10/2009, -2/+5Far too many ***** these days are all everyman for himself...
Maybe a great plague or war will force people to have a little ***** empathy. - chief302, on 05/10/2009, -0/+3Perhaps they included her 19 year old son in the "family income" calculation.
FTA:
Martha Gonzalez, who is 49 and lives with her 19-year-old son in a rundown shelter in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, said she was informed last week that she owes $1,099 in monthly rent on a $1,700 monthly income as a security guard in Midtown. She said she planned to contest the rent demand in court. -
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