Living the homeless lifestyle makes you vulnerable to certain types of antagonists. Unfortunately there are many people out there who think that the homeless are lazy drug addicts who are a drain on society and take that frustration out on the homeless. I'm not sure where this stereotype started however, this is more of a myth than fact. What's worse is that parents are even passing this hate of the homeless down to their children who then act on that hate.
I have been chronically homeless for the last 25 years and in all my time it has been hard to find a lazy homeless person. If you look at the requirements of the homeless lifestyle is does not allow for the lazy to flourish or survive. Because I sleep outside I have to get up as early as 5 AM to start packing my gear into my backpack so I can avoid being harassed by the police. Once my bag is packed then I must walk up to 2 miles to a feeding line unless I choose to use my food stamps. After that, depending on the day, I may have to wait in line at a shower house to get laundry and hygiene taken care of before I wait in another line for lunch. In order to accomplish these tasks I am required to walk with a 25-40 lbs. pack on my back to each place I attend.
I think that people mistake the lack of work for the lack of motivation, this could be debated for hours. Laziness requires that a person do as little as possible with as little effort as possible while convincing others to do the work for you. In the homeless lifestyle it is more about priorities than it is about motivation. Due to the stress, discrimination and harassment that the homeless deal with on a daily basis, especially those with mental health issues, the main priority is to medicate one's self. Those who deal with depression disorders tend to want something to pick them up like meth or crack. Those who deal with anxiety such as myself tend to want things like alcohol and marijuana, so after all of those basic tasks are taken care of the need to self medicate becomes the primary priority.
Although the lifestyle can take its toll on an individual over a period of months and years, there are those of us out here who have kept out humanity and composure. We're the one's who mainly deal with the harassment from the housed population because we're the ones trying to get ourselves stable again which requires regular interaction with the public. Because of the stereotypes given to the homeless we must deal with the discrimination even though we don't participate in the behavior's or acts of the severely broken homeless individuals.
Those that are labeled as severely broken didn't start out that way either. When they first became homeless they tried to get back on their feet, but there wasn't any real help. As someone who's been chewed up by the mental health industry, I can tell you that it is broken and causing more issues that it solves and who needs mental health assistance more than the homeless. If it wasn't mental health, it was the loss of a job or health issue that made them homeless which doesn't make things much better. In truth the homeless get inadequate care, discriminated against or dispossessed which then leads them to what you see today.
So, how do we stop the mistreatment and harassment of the homeless? I think we figured out a formula with the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960's. Although it has taken many generations to root out true racism, those who were victimized by those who held onto their hate had rights of recourse. The homeless don't have any rights of recourse at this time. We've barely been recognized as residents of cities through court cases such as Boise V Martin. As of right now children and adults can spit on, throw trash on and target the homeless with no recourse for the homeless person.
I think that providing adequate and effective services to the homeless to assist them in rebuilding their life is important and failure to do that is considered in the realm of mistreatment of the homeless. The homeless have forgotten self reliance due to circumstances, it is important to push this on all fronts. Also, the homeless are discriminated against when seeking employment due to lack of access to showers and shelter that works with their work schedule. Most services work on bankers hours, but most employers don't, so access to services dictates the ability to take gainful employment.
I think we have evolved enough as a nation to realize that every human being is just that, a human being and deserves to be treated with a basic dignity that anyone would expect. Right now we have made it socially acceptable to intimidate, harass and target the homeless, maybe it's time we changed that as a society. When society as a whole decides to make a change, it may take a while, but it happens with positive results most of the time. It may take some time, but I think we're mature enough as a nation to realize our fault and make the necessary changes.
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