As many of you know, I’ve been working on getting a homeless, bipolar veteran off the streets and telling the stories of other homeless people that I encounter in that quest.
These people asked me to thank you for caring. We're hoping the publicity will help alleviate some of the problems. For them, it's just nice to know that people care.
Did you read this OP from yesterday:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8613246He won’t file for SSDI or a service-connected disability at the VA because he feels further documenting his disability creates a stigma. Street people don’t respect the “really crazy” homeless people.
He says his lead on the construction job fell through. He’s still on the list to build pallets on a piece-meal basis. Construction jobs are hard to find in America these days. People that think the homeless don’t want to work should meet some of them.
Yesterday afternoon I found him passed out drunk on a park bench. It was drizzling rain : and I told him if he didn’t get up the local cops would arrest him. The park is right across the street from the court house.
I took him by another veterans’ apartment so that he could get a shower. My other veteran friend is service connected from catching plenty of led, so he gets more money than me. He paid my buddy $20. to clean the kitchen last week; but today the housekeeper had come by and cleaned..
When we got there, he started picking arguments and refused to shower or eat. He was totally wasted. My friend Jay had been having issues with his titanium knee, so I hurried him out of there. He’s now messed up in the only place that he could shower and get a meal while drunk.
As we sit in the park chatting, my friend - a homeless veteran - speaks to another homeless individual he met at the local mission, as he shuffles from trash-can to dumpster. As he shifts his sack to the other shoulder, he smiles a toothless smile and waves. He's collecting cans and bottles. In MA we have recycling, so there's a .5 bounty on each container. Lots of homeless get their drinking money in this way. Alcoholism runs high with the homeless. It helps them forget.
Unlike many states, Massachusetts has a healthcare system for the homeless. Boston is a magnet for healthcare, so indigents get pretty good care.
Now for the bad news. Starting July 1, 2010 Mass. Health is cutting out much of the dental. You can literally die from bad teeth, so this is bad news for the area homeless.
An alarmingly high percentage of homeless people are mentally ill. Like others with mental issues, the homeless are concerned with the stigma of documenting their diagnoses. This is why many of them have problems accepting or seeking government checks.
About a 1.56 million people in America spent at least one night in a homeless shelter last year, according to The National Alliance to End Homelessness. In these tough economic times, that number is likely going to increase.
That’s only the measurable tip of the iceberg. People who became homeless and moved in with friends or relatives elevates the number immeasurably higher.
While data is not available, many of the children of homeless families go on to become homeless themselves at a high rate.
“Mom” is one of those statistics. Mom, as everyone calls her, is a spry 68 years old. She cleaned houses to raise her children. Three out of her five children are chronically homeless. Only one is currently homeless, though. Mom now collects Social Security and lives in federal housing. Her daughter, a recovering heroin addict, is homeless and on the Methadone Program. Even on the program, methadone is fairly expensive, so her daughter relies on prostitution to pay for the drugs. Drugs and prostitution are common in this sector of humanity.
Mom can’t allow her daughter to sleep over because of federal regulations. In fact, Mom is upset because a friend of hers took in another homeless person, which broke the rules of the building. Now her friend will also become homeless, again. Her friend has some serious psychological issues.
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