Questions/Thoughts on the Homeless

[emprworm]

ok i had this wierd thought. i was watching on the news the other night a story about a huge homeless problem in the city of santa monica in california. there are so many homeless in the streets that businesses are losing money, hotels are going bankrupt because no one wants to go there. Now that is sad in itself, but there is another problem:

stores will not let homeless people use their restrooms unless they buy something. So these people have to deficate and urinate in public. Now that is most unfortunate. Obviously a person will die if he doesn't 'do the business' he he. So there was talks of building some restrooms that are public. Now I thought about this. imagine with me here:

what if you were to build a public restroom with 5-6 stalls and left it available for the public. The first day you open the restroom it is clean and tidy. After one week you go in there and what will it look like? Full of foul waste, unflushed toilets, toilet paper strewn about, crystallized urine on the walls, floors...probably even rags, garbage, underwear, ect.

A FILTHY MESS. Regpugnant. Who cleans this? No one. So you make it a rule that unless the "people who use this restroom" clean it, then they get no restroom. But will they clean it? No. Of course not. It will be a waste-infected sewage bucket.

Yet what if you built a restroom for rich people? The opulent, upper class. You open it the first day, and its clean and tidy. After 1 week it is STILL clean and tidy. Probably even after a month, it will still be in fairly good shape.

now, I am not making any statements here against the poor, I am just observing a phenomenon.

I know its a very bizzare post, but I am just stumped here. I had never thought of this before, and I really am wondering why this is?

any thoughts?

[Anathema]

Hire someone to clean it. Otherwise, don't build one.

Of course, better would be to get the homeless peeps off the streets. But that's not the point of this thread I suppose.

But if you don't consider it a moral obligation to get them off the streets, don't bother building toilets for them either.

[Acriku]

Stores won't let anyone use the bathrooms without paying, so it isn't just the poor helpless defenseless homeless people. ::)

Anyways, they will keep it tidy because they were brought up with morals and standards, defacating the walls of a bathroom would not be part of the standards.

[sneezer3]

ok i had this wierd thought. i was watching on the news the other night a story about a huge homeless problem in the city of santa monica in california. there are so many homeless in the streets that businesses are losing money, hotels are going bankrupt because no one wants to go there. Now that is sad in itself, but there is another problem:

stores will not let homeless people use their restrooms unless they buy something. So these people have to deficate and urinate in public. Now that is most unfortunate. Obviously a person will die if he doesn't 'do the business' he he. So there was talks of building some restrooms that are public. Now I thought about this. imagine with me here:

what if you were to build a public restroom with 5-6 stalls and left it available for the public. The first day you open the restroom it is clean and tidy. After one week you go in there and what will it look like? Full of foul waste, unflushed toilets, toilet paper strewn about, crystallized urine on the walls, floors...probably even rags, garbage, underwear, ect.

A FILTHY MESS. Regpugnant. Who cleans this? No one. So you make it a rule that unless the "people who use this restroom" clean it, then they get no restroom. But will they clean it? No. Of course not. It will be a waste-infected sewage bucket.

Yet what if you built a restroom for rich people? The opulent, upper class. You open it the first day, and its clean and tidy. After 1 week it is STILL clean and tidy. Probably even after a month, it will still be in fairly good shape.

now, I am not making any statements here against the poor, I am just observing a phenomenon.

I know its a very bizzare post, but I am just stumped here. I had never thought of this before, and I really am wondering why this is?

any thoughts?

Well. if you could check behind everbody that might work. but who wants to do that? And if they did make a mess then what could you do to them but run them off? Maybe if there was a law about that.. hmm that may work but still they might be in a hurry to go somewhere. so you'd have to hold'em there.

But then what put'em in jail where theres pleanty of food to eat?

Also Toilets are nasty in most restrooms. anytime i have to use the bathroom in one i put tissue around them then sit on them.

I never heard of that happening. but if all did that. homeles people would die out preety quick with out anyhere to use the bathroom.

[emprworm]

but thats such a problem. why are the homeless and destitute such slobs? what if i didnt WANT to hire anyone or didnt have the resources to keep it clean? lets say i wanted to help the homeless. I dont even live in santa monica, but i want to help them so i hire a contractor to build a restroom. I put out a sign that says "please clean up after yourself". after 1 month, the restroom is so utterly foul that it has to be CLOSED DOWN due to public safety violations. thus once again the homeless have no restroom. it just baffles me, yet this is exactly the scenario that would occur.

[Edric O]

Simple: Because they never had the chance of a basic education. They're not clean because they don't know how to be clean, and/or their living conditions are too miserable.

[emprworm]

so i guess it is too much to ask that they clean up after themselves if we build them a restroom?

well it shouldnt be too much to ask, but perhaps it is.

[TMA_1]

Its not always a person's fault if they live in poverty. My sister was born handicapped and for a long time we lived a very poor life. We were able to live in a house though and even got a computer. It is amazing. In every government there are always loopholes that people will get sucked into. This means that some will fall through. I think that in america there is a problem with discrimination of the poor. When my dad pastored a church in washington he would give all he had that wasnt needed for living. Many decons of the church would say stuff like "dont give money to them" or "you know they will just buy booze with it". This is horrible. until the poor are treated like equals then we will live how we do. Saddly thats never going to happen. Christ was right when he said "the poor you will have with you always". That is my thought on the poor.

[sneezer3]

Simple: Because they never had the chance of a basic education. They're not clean because they don't know how to be clean, and/or their living conditions are too miserable.

Well. most homeles people choose to be poor. They never get a job anywhere they don't got a house. So they sit around beging untill they die the way i understand it. But depeanding on where they live. Some might not can get a job.

so i guess it is too much to ask that they clean up after themselves if we build them a restroom?

well it shouldnt be too much to ask, but perhaps it is.

Well the thing is you could have 1000 Homeless people that would go by the rules. but if just 1 din't. then it would ruin it for everbody else. And then they'd have to shut down.

In any case it isn't a huge problem. but there are a lota homeles.

[emprworm]

i dont give money to the poor in seattle. when i used to take the ferry from bremerton to seattle, when i got to seattle, i would go into the mcdonalds there and buy like 5 cheeseburgers. then when i saw a homeless guy, i gave him a cheeseburger. trust me if you give them money they buy booze/ciggz/drugs with it.

give them food, pillow, coat, etc. instead of giving them money,, go buy something with that money first, that way you can be sure you are actually giving them something they NEED

just imho is all.

[Acriku]

There is also Interdumpster commerce going on, give a man a pillow, he trades it for crack. You can buy/sell anything for anything.

[undsputed]

Crystallized urine huh? I was getting set to eat dinner :)

Some people are homeless due to bad choices and some are homeless simplay because they never had anything.

Then, there is the fact that a MAJORITY of the homeless are actually mentally ill! That is a fact. I recently took a course regarding mental illness and it is not unusual to find a mentally ill homeless person. Problems like schizophrenia and the like.

Maybe you want to consider that as an explanation to what you talked about...just throwing that out there. Interesting topic though.

[TMA_1]

true about the mental illness' and the poor undisputed. The problem is its not our place to judge what the poor do with the money. Why take a high hand on them liek you do emprworm? You are just feeding the discrimination. also not following your God are you? Who is my God too.

[emprworm]

i dont think you read what I said TMA. I'll let you scroll up and reread the post prior to this one.

[Acriku]

What did they do, poll the homeless? ::) A lot of homeless people become mentally ill from the situation of being homeless, and all of the nasty stuff included.

[emprworm]

interesting concept akricu. you are suggesting that the causual agent of the mental illness could be the homelessness rather than the causual agent for the homelessness being mental illness.

[Acriku]

Indeed, it may not be true but that's what I imagine.

[undsputed]

Excellent point! That was one of the topics we discussed. Do schizo's tend to make their way to the poorer class because of how the illness affects their lives OR do the poor tend to be more likely to get it???

The answer isn't known.

[Lord J]

True, especially considering we (meaning the scientific community) hardly even know what Schizoprenia *is*.

It's too bad we (as a nation) cannot round up our homeless and rejected, and use them for a common good. Public work, military, and science, comes to mind.

If we're not careful, both the "middle to upper class" and the poverty class will continue growing, and, with resources the way they are, find ourselves in another "Tale of Two Cities".

Of course, if we tried to take action at this point, we would do no more than step on humanitarian toes. It's shame and a disgrace when people can't work together for thier own good.

And I was going to pass this post by... ;)

[Acriku]

A lot of homeless were military to start with, so you might piss off a few by sending them back in lol.

[Lord J]

True, true. Of course, those that were in military are probably veterans from the Gulf War or something recent, and probably have disabilities preventing them from serving, whether physical or mental.

[Nyarlathotep]

Btw, it's not always true that rich people keep restrooms clean. They can make just as big a mess as poor people. I'd say build one, employ some homeless to keep it clean and you'd (partially) solve 2 problems.

[Dude_Doc]

Or a bit of world domination thing. But this one requires a lot of recourses and patience. You take some people that will "capture" all homeless, and then drug them so they fall into sleep. You take them to a base somewhere. You clean them up and teach them, feed them, give them entertainment and etc. Then they will become loyal to you. After that you slowly start to brainwash them so that they will be ready to die for you. When you have enough, you conquer the world. :P Simple, isn't it?

Anyways, I think we could do something about the homeless. Like someone that can adopt a homeless. But nobody would because homeless people are grown ups and knows things children for example, don't. They can as well be robbers or murderers.

And I don't think you should build a toilet. Trust me, even here in Sweden we have problems with toilets that are overseen by special Public Toilet Personell (PTP's). Imagine what it would be to have one without any PTP's or costs!

[Andrew]

i believe that society should employ them in cleaning areas like streets, ditches, or manual labour or something they would be good at(since they may not be educated). instead of money, provide them with food , clothing and shelter(maybe health care depending on where you live). of course they should be supervised while woking to make sure they are working. then the homeless could make a union and make demands for the job and all. but of course they should not replace jobs with other people working there, unless they moved on to a better job.

[Edric O]

Many of you seem to forget that the homeless are people just like you and me, and most of them simply have no means to pull themselves out of their misery. It's not that they don't want jobs - but who would employ a homeless person? NO ONE.