I’ve worked helping homeless people in the past on many occasions, had friends whos family members were homeless, had homeless friends, and had even been homeless myself for a small amount of time. There are a lot of people that are homeless through no fault of their own, there are people that are homeless because of drug abuse (which perpetuates the cycle). Both of these people need more access to the help that can be provided to them, but I mainly wanted to talk about a third category of homelessness: People that are homeless by choice.
People that are homeless by choice have told me that they enjoy the lifestyle and enjoy the freedom that it brings despite the negatives. They actively rejected help from people and expressed their desires to me to intend living that lifestyle forever. While I think every person has the right to live their own life the way they see fit, homelessness often has negatives to the people that aren’t homeless. Feces and needles in the streets, breaking and entering into homes, garages, sheds, vandalizing and burning them down in the process. Of course all homeless people aren’t like that but the point still remains: a healthy society generally doesn’t have homeless people. How do you achieve a balance to allow the people whom are homeless by choice to live in a way they see fit while also minimizing the perceived issues of homelessness? What are your thoughts on homeless people?
I ask these questions in good faith and I hope you also do the same. Thank you for your thoughts and opinions.
There are political premises embedded in the framing. It’s an intractable question up until you ask homeless people. Dehumanization and exclusion of homeless people from discussions of how to help them are the norm.
You can perceive it that way, but all I’m saying is that I didn’t perceive the title as being framed in a way that implies homeless people aren’t a part of society. I perceived it as quite clearly a question that obviously implied homeless people are a part of society.
I think notion that this question inherently implies that homeless people aren’t part of society is… pretty presumptive. @beansniffer@lemmy.ml , when you wrote this question did you have it in your head that homeless people aren’t part of society? Because reading your question didn’t at all make me feel like your question assumed homeless people aren’t part of society.
I didn’t ever intend to imply that homeless people are not a part of society. Of course they’re a part of society. They have everyday interactions with homeless and homed people alike. The conditions that made it possible to have mass homelessness don’t just go away if everyone has a home. There is a systemic issue that affects more than just homeless people. Homed people have to work with homeless people together as a society to find practical solutions to serious issues affecting everyone.
Exactly. The notion that your complaint inherently implied that you don’t believe that homeless people are a part of society is just… It just feels needlessly argumentative.