#there has been a collosal failing here but it's not on the homeless people it's that we have a society where this is so prevalent

[hella1975]

I think you’re gonna understand this just based on how you’ve written tams so far so I’m saying this to you because I’ve known so many people who are just awful about this but one group of people I’m more fiercely protective over than any other are homeless people. I’ve known so many people who are so hateful towards them and blame them for being homeless or think they’re all drug addicts or crazy which is still like. At that point there should be systems to prevent people that are addicts or mentally ill from ever facing homelessness but either way no one should be homeless, it’s not their fault and it’s a huge punishment for things like “not budgeting”. On top of that I worked at a store where our most stolen product was baby formula at the height of Covid when the prices for them skyrocketed. All of my coworkers were always so infuriating saying that they’re stealing it away from moms to cut their drugs with, none ever considered that maybe they were moms doing anything they could to feed their babies. Anyone who steals food, I never reported or look down on them, they are doing anything they can to feed themselves and I’m not going to stop that. I know how bad homeless shelters are and food banks, I know how common it is for things to be stolen and to get beat up just for being there or raided by police. Sometimes they’d sit outside our store or even shop and my manager wanted me to kick them out. They were never doing anything, most never even asked for money! They needed shade, a roof and ac for a few minutes from the heat or rain! There was a tropical storm once and we were forced to keep the storm open but when homeless people came in they wanted me to kick them out then too, to go where?? They wanted me to throw them back onto the streets in dangerous weather and for what. We got stolen from all the time, genuinely it would’ve made no difference. Most people who stole looked like rich tourists stealing our alcohol or teens stealing makeup but they never said we could kick them out. Likely because they could defend themselves, if nothing less than in court. Maybe it’s because I almost ran away as a kid and I researched into being a homeless child at like 10ish and saw how horrific it was from people who’ve been there before so I stayed home out of fear but I can’t imagine having no sympathy for other people. Even if they steal, how could you blame them? They are just trying to survive. Especially if they steal from Walmarts or targets or whatever, they is about as “ethical stealing” as you can get. I can’t imagine looking at someone who has nothing and does what they can to not starve and just making it to the next day and deciding you hate them and being filled with rage over them being in public. No one would choose that life, I promise they’d love to work and make money if only anyone would hire them. Nothing makes me more filled with rage and sadness than seeing someone hate or be mean and aggressive towards homeless people. The same people have more sympathy over a stray cat than a homeless person and I genuinely don’t understand that

no i completely agree with you on ALL of this it's the basic 'you're closer to becoming homeless than you are to ever becoming a millionaire' like it literally just takes one bad financial turn and that could be you. it really baffles me that if people can't at the very least empathise with homeless people from a humane perspective of the fact they're, oh i dont know, real life actual people with feelings, then you could at least empathise from a self-preservation standpoint because that could be you. that could be you so fucking easily. homeless people have not failed morally to get there. they didn't get judged by some higher power and were found lacking. they are just people. and the same way money breeds money, poverty breeds poverty. if you're homeless, you dont have a home address, which means you can't apply to jobs, which means you can't get an income to GET a home, on and on in a hundred different cycles. it's called the poverty TRAP for a reason.