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Anything Helps – God Bless!
Please donate to Eden in Babylon.
Anything Helps – God Bless!
This is in response to a Quora question, to the effect of one’s wondering why so many homeless people seem to be talking to themselves quite a bit. I didn’t contest this perception. I did my best to explain the phenomenon, and also referenced another writer who had done the same.
I appreciated the answer of Adora Myers because this is a side not often seen in the homeless equation.
It is true that a person suffering from paranoid schizophrenia will often believe that s(he) is talking with those who are not actually there. It is also true that many schizophrenics, as well as people suffering from severe PTSD and other mental illnesses, are too ill to effectively access treatment, or else they lack privilege which would render treatment more accessible to them. So they wind up on the streets, more-or-less by default. This is a very sad state of affairs.
However, it is also true that people who have become homeless in large urban areas, especially where there is a sizable concentration of other homeless people, will feign or play-act the known symptoms of these mental disorders in order to protect themselves by making themselves more frightening to would-be assailants and thieves.
I know this to be true, because I did it myself. When I was homeless, I walked around a city that contained over a thousand visible homeless people. As I did so, I composed music in my head. This meant playing drums on my pants legs, guitars and keyboards in the air, and singing tell-tale syllabic sounds such as “Bop Bop Bop” in a manner that conceivably could be construed to be obnoxious.
People frequently told me to “shut the f—k up” but they also had a way of keeping a distance from me. So this “act” worked in my favor.
Incidentally, I would guess that only about 30% of onlookers realized that I was actually a serious musician in the process of composing music. The other 70% shrugged and said, if they knew me by name: “That’s just Andy. He’s one of the local wingnuts.” If they did not know me by name that was reduced to: “Wingnut.”
Of the 30% who perceived I was writing music, I would say that probably 20% of them appreciated what I was doing. The other 10% frequently showed up with smartphones facing me and grim expressions on their faces, giving me the distinct idea they were out to steal my stuff.
So much for life in the Big City. Glad to be indoors — and far away from all that particular noise.
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On the site Quora, where I am considered to be a “Most Viewed Writer” on the subject of Homelessness, somebody recently posed the question: “How do people become homeless in the USA?” I answered it quickly according to my experience, and later noticed that it had received over 3,500 views and 73 “upvotes.” So I figured I’d share it here. I hope you gain from it.
Having lived in a community of over 1,000 homeless people for five years, and having been homeless and borderline-homeless in other areas for seven additional years, I think I might be qualified to answer this question.
There are many ways that a person can become homeless in America. Let me list four that seem most prevalent:
(1) A sudden medical problem or family crisis that costs a person an unexpected amount of money, making it impossible for them to continue paying rent or mortgage.
(2) Socio-economic factors beyond the scope of individual control; e.g., a persistent rent increase over a period of time that far exceeds any increase in the renter’s income.
(3) A drug or alcohol problem resulting in job loss, eviction, and/or general inability to make rational decisions over the long haul.
(4) A mental health condition that goes untreated or is (as in my own case) misdiagnosed, resulting in one’s taking medications that work to one’s detriment rather than one’s benefit.
My experience is that, in larger urban areas, there is a greater percentage of people who became homeless as a result of socio-economic factors or circumstances beyond their control.
In smaller, more rural areas, such as the small college town where I now live in Northern Idaho, it is much more difficult to become homeless without sort of “asking for it” by displaying a serious drug or alcohol problem.
I do know that in the two years that I have now successfully rented apartments in my present city – first, a studio, then a one-bedroom, I have done every thing that would have “made me homeless” in situations that arose in the San Francisco Bay Area, where rents are on the average four times as high, but where my fixed income from Social Security has not varied.
Had I not moved to this small college town in the middle of the country, I would have died a meaningless death on the Berkeley city streets. I simply would never have been able to pay the rent. And because I was largely regarded as unemployable due to my mental health condition, I found it difficult to cut through that stigma in order to find a job.
After almost two years of successfully paying my rent every month, I am living a very meaningful and happy life.
All it took was a $200 Greyhound bus ticket to a distant State, and a loan on an apartment deposit, to end twelve years of seemingly inescapable homelessness in the Bay Area. I applied for a part-time job three weeks after I arrived in Idaho, and was hired. I even managed to keep the job for ten months before aspects of my condition caused them to ask me to resign. But by that time, I was established in the community with a church and a solid support group, and I knew how to make ends meet.
I hope this information has been helpful, and of particular use to someone who may be in need.
Please donate to Eden in Babylon.
Anything Helps – God Bless!
Please donate to Eden in Babylon.
Anything Helps – God Bless!
A man came up to Jesus and asked:
“Teacher, what good thing must I do
to get eternal life?”“Why do you ask me
about what is good?” Jesus replied.
“There is only One who is good.
If you want to enter life,
keep the commandments.”“Which ones?” he inquired.
Jesus replied, “ ‘You shall not murder,
you shall not commit adultery,
you shall not steal,
you shall not give false testimony,
honor your father and mother,’
and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”All these I have kept,”
the young man said.
“What do I still lack?”Jesus answered:
“If you want to be perfect,
go, sell your possessions
and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me.”When the young man heard this,
he went away sad,
because he had great wealth.Then Jesus said to his disciples,
“Truly I tell you,
it is hard for someone who is rich
to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Again I tell you,
it is easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle
than for someone who is rich
to enter the kingdom of God.”Matthew 19:16-23
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Anything Helps – God Bless!
“Midnight Screams” from Eden in Babylon. Copyright © 2018 by Andrew Michael Pope.
Please donate to Eden in Babylon.
Anything Helps – God Bless!
I like to post a youtube of my piano playing here each Friday. Although I prepared something yesterday, by the time I got around to uploading it, I noticed that my screen was cracked. I am now on my older, spare computer — but unfortunately have not yet determined an avenue to get the video onto this computer, and thus onto youtube, from here. My apologies. Here’s a Quora answer explaining my theory why there are more White homeless people per capita in the homeless populace in America than there are per capita in large urban areas where homelessness is prevalent.