How American Homeless Stay Wired 287
theodp writes "San Franciscan Charles Pitts has accounts on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. He runs a Yahoo forum, reads news online and keeps in touch with friends via email. Nothing unusual, right? Except Pitts has been homeless for two years and manages this digital lifestyle from his residence under a highway bridge. Thanks to cheap computers, free Internet access and sheer determination, the WSJ reports that being homeless isn't stopping some from staying wired. 'You don't need a TV. You don't need a radio. You don't even need a newspaper,' says Pitts. 'But you need the Internet.'"
Re:And yet (Score:5, Insightful)
I am not sure you realize how bad the "human resources" movement people are at finding talent that doesn't fit into a distinct mould. There are tons of good people out there who have true talent who can't get jobs because they don't strictly fit into some H.R. drone can't easily label them or because H.R. is playing games with H1-Bs or whatnot.
People like Charlie Pitts deserve chances. Not every homeless guy is the "bum" stereotype we see so much in our media, and many have genuine talents and can contribute a lot. It's just that we don't manage our available talents well in the US at all right now.
I think jobs pay better than blogging (Score:1, Insightful)
Hey homeless, try looking up a fucking job board instead of blogging and updating your Twitter page.
Re:Facebook status: "LIVING UNDER A BRIDGE! HELP" (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Great New World (Score:1, Insightful)
Your post made nearly no sense. You are an idiot. I hope that if you are not homeless now, you are soon.
Re:Facebook status: "LIVING UNDER A BRIDGE! HELP" (Score:5, Insightful)
You have to realize that in most cases of homelessness, there are other factors. What I mean is that the situation isn't one of "Person lost their job, exhausted their savings, and was thrown out on the street." That is extremely rare. Not losing one's job and running out of money is rare, but that the immediate follow up is "and thrown out on the street."
In a lot of cases, the problem is substance abuse of some kind or another. Alcohol, illegal drugs, inhalants, whatever. The person has chosen their addiction over everything else, and thus their friends and family are sick of putting up with them. I mean someone can be a real good friend of yours, but if all they do is get drunk and damage your place, eventually you are probably going to throw them out. There are other causes too like mental illness, or simply being lazy to the point you find that not working and being homeless is easier.
If you look in to it you'll find that it is rather rare to see someone who is homeless 100% by circumstance. For most people, if life takes a shit on them, they have others they can go to for help. There is another compounding factor involved. Something that has either caused those that care about them to give up on them (like drugs) or something that has caused them to decide not to try and deal with the situation.
Re:And yet (Score:5, Insightful)
The most useful person I have hired came to us as a part time student. When he graduated I took him on as a permanent because I could see that he learnt new stuff fast and had shown potential mentoring our new intern.
HR just want to cover their arses and keep costs down.
Re:And yet (Score:1, Insightful)
A lot of "employable" people can't find jobs, no matter how long/hard they try.
Re:And yet (Score:1, Insightful)
In today's job market its not ok to be average. There are a lot of average people out there. When employers interview they don't just hire the "average" person they hire the best they could find from their pool of applicants. Since you already have a job you should know this. If you don't already you might want to consider learning about it because if you loose your job you could be in the same predicament.
Re:And yet (Score:2, Insightful)
Tried looking outside of your preferred line of work? Tried going to a retail chain and asking for an application? Maybe there isn't a lot of demand for physicists out there. Hint: don't tell them you're a physicist.
In all seriousness, just because you've dedicated a whole lot of time and effort to learning an obscure skill or some obscure knowledge does not magically make that skill or knowledge useful. Disagree? Think your specialized knowledge really is useful and people just don't realize it? Then you shouldn't be looking for employment, you should be looking to start a consultancy business. Convince people that you can use Physics to save them money, ask for 30% of their savings over the first year.
And if you can't do that, then maybe physics really /isn't/ a useful enough skill right now, and you should look into jobs you can find out about using your feet.
Re:And yet (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:And yet (Score:3, Insightful)
Homelessness is a very grave sacrifice, but sometimes it's the best of the options that you can choose from. It's not as simple as someone does not want to work - most people want to feel like they are doing something in life, doing something worthwhile. Then it comes to what is really work, only stuff you get an income from? Isaac Newton writing the Pincipia, while sustaining himself from a small farm. Was writing the Principia work? Is a hobby, an entertainment, work? Is the exchange of money what classifies something as work? We have a system of finances that directs actions of most people, and we go by it because we don't know what's better. But the system is not absolute perfection, it doesn't do it's job well, but both extremes - neither communism (total distribution of resources - nobody has personal incentives) nor full blown absolute capitalism (or feudalism with serfdom as a better example of concentrated power, where very few people dictate the rules to everyone) have been the magic answer to most overall human happiness.
Re:And yet (Score:5, Insightful)
> with the abundance of soup kitchens and charity groups out there
Not sure what you base that claim of "abundance" on, but it's not the number of groups that matter, its access to actual food and beds. And there are more homeless than plates in my city. A couple times I picked up panhandlers to show them how easy it was to get a meal and a bed. It turned out to be not so easy at all - those resources are finite, and they actually turn people away.
It might interest you to try the same - escort a homeless person to the abudant resources in your town. Hopefully you'll have more luck than me. And if not, maybe you can split a lunch and wish him well.
Re:And yet (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:You Don't Know Anything About Homelessness .... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Guess I shouldn't... (Score:3, Insightful)
They are doing much better today with Obama's corporate welfare for megabanks and other mismanaged giant corporations. These are swallowing up billions of borrowed money which the next generation will have to pay. The amount of money that the so-called welfare queens swallow up is chicken feed in comparison.
That's exactly what I fear is going on with "OMG Welfare Queen" type attacks...to distract from the much larger corporate-welfare situation, whether Obamaesque bailouts or something else.
Re:And yet (Score:5, Insightful)
You're the delusional one. Some people are homeless and hate it, but some people just choose this lifestyle because that's what they want. Yup, some people would rather spend all day outside, drinking booze, eating food from dumpsters (I'm sure the more experienced dumpster divers eat better food than I do) and sleep in a park bench or abandoned building with 3 other guys rather than get up early in the morning, do a retarded job in a cubicle all day to go back home to watch TV and worry about paying bills and mortgages.
Some people would rather choose freedom than working a 9 to 5. Mind blowing, isn't it?
Re:And yet (Score:5, Insightful)
I suffered (or, rather, endured) a very similar situation. I was cohabitating with my girlfriend. Things didn't work out, I had to get out. I was unemployed at the time, so for the couple months I was sleeping out of my car and/or couch surfing (people get sick of that really quickly, the polite notice it and act accordingly).
I got a job, saved up some cash and got a place to live. But in the months leading up to that I was homeless. While I wouldn't reccomend it, especially to the light of heart, it isn't neccesarily nearly as much an indication of an underlying condition so much as a sign of lack of concern for something most people would obsess over.
Was it comfortable? No. Was I happy about the situation? No. Did I make the best of it? Damn straight I did.
In the time that I was homeless I managed to secure a job, save money to get a place to stay, form a new band and coordinate practices and shows. I kept up with my myspace and emails on a daily basis. I didn't dumpster dive. I had money to purchase food. But I wasn't obsessed with needing a place to call home. On a temporary basis. I knew that I was working towards that and I was dealt (or had caused my self to have to deal with) a bad hand. Live, learn, etc.
There is nothing in that behavior that suggests that I need to get 'checked out'. The GP as well as myself both enjoyed a reletively high standard of living, however we weren't so entrenched in our way of life that when our situation was drastically changed that we fretted needlessly over our lack of walls.
So I went to partys and instead of leaving, I'd do what I wouldn't ordinarily do. Crash on the couch. I went home with girls I may not have ordinarily gone home with. I also acted in a more gentlemanly manner that I ordinarily wouldn't have acted with.
All in all it was an exciting time that I wish to never revisit, a lot was learned, progress was made, and it was all dealt with in a very honest and pragmatic manner. I see no reason why GP or myself should seek treatment for merely 'living off the land' in an urban setting.
-Dan
Re:Facebook status: "LIVING UNDER A BRIDGE! HELP" (Score:4, Insightful)
Well that's just not true, and blaming 'drugs' is an easy way to scapegoat people so you don't have to feel bad about yourself.
Re:And yet (Score:2, Insightful)
That's an easy one. Our economy is rigged from the top down to ensure that there are ALWAYS more people looking for work than there are jobs available. It benefits employers by ensuring that labor is always plentiful and cheap, via the laws of supply and demand. (Free market, my ass! A free market would be characterized by employers desperately trying to attract a few employees with lavish contracts, as most people would prefer to go into business for themselves if the cost of entry wasn't so artificially high.) Oh, and it also helps prevent inflation, which is terrible for investors and people with large sums of money, but not so bad for the little people as long as it's not too strong.
Basically, our unemployment rate counts only people actively looking for work (since those are the only folks useful for driving down the cost of labor) and when that number gets too low, it's time for the Fed to ratchet up the interest rate. This puts small and marginal businesses underwater, and their employees are then dumped back onto the labor market to ensure that working folks don't start thinking they're not worthless bozos, and getting all uppity and wanting raises and shit.
All this is due partly to commonly accepted economic theories which are just this side of outright voodoo, and whose basis in 'evidence' would get you laughed out of any other science besides psychiatry -- but it's also due in large part because it's beneficial to those with wealth and connections. So there you go.
Re:And yet (Score:1, Insightful)
Wow. Seriously, people, wow. I'm not a historian, but I wonder if there's ever been a period in history where the fortunate were so incredibly delusional about how lucky they are, and actually believe that anyone else fortunate than themselves is just lazy. You don't really believe this, do you? Do you really think that someone would PREFER to live under a bridge, enduring inclement weather, harassment from the police and the threat of violence from others on the street, rather than get a job, work, and rent a cheap apartment where, at the very least, they're inside out of the rain? My God. You don't really think it's that easy out there, where you can get a job just because you're able to organize stuff without much difficulty? if so, I hope that you and the others posting the like on this article never lose your jobs and become homeless, for your own sakes; you're so clueless that you wouldn't last a month, let alone long enough to get another job and a place to live.
Most unemplyed people are fit for work but once you have been unemplyed for a while few employers want to know you as they see you as unemployable, not unfit for work. Once that happens it is very very hard to get work. Ask most people working freelance in the arts world.
miow.
Re:And yet (Score:3, Insightful)
Well said. I personally find it offensive and obnoxious when people insist on hectoring others into embarking on counselling, phychological or psychiatric treatment just because they don't happen to adhere to a nice, comfortable bourgeois social norm.
There are countless ways to live one's life, and if someone doesn't want to fit the profile of a nice little suburban nine-to-fiver there's no reason why anyone should try to make him. In my opinion, psychologists tend to fuck up more people than they help, since as often as not they have a tendency to manufacture problems where none exist outside the narrow-minded preoccupations of others. And once they've got their claws into their victim they never seem to let go.
Re:Facebook status: "LIVING UNDER A BRIDGE! HELP" (Score:5, Insightful)
You have to realize that in most cases of homelessness, there are other factors. What I mean is that the situation isn't one of "Person lost their job, exhausted their savings, and was thrown out on the street." That is extremely rare.
Not as rare as it used to be. As of a few years ago, about half of homeless people in SF were on drugs. Now, the shelter operators report people in suits showing up. People are running out their savings and their friends' patience.
Simply having made a bad career choice can break you now. And it's going to get worse before it gets better.
Re:You Don't Know Anything About Homelessness .... (Score:1, Insightful)
>>in 2000-01 I was making 6 figures working as a Senior Developer in Los Angeles. I lost my job after Bush and 911. I sent out over
>>300 resumes in a 3 month period - not one single response. I had 6 months income saved . By month 7 I was sleeping on friends
>>couches.
You blew thru 50,000 bucks. (or more) in 6 months?
I dont care where the fuck you were at... You were living WAY beyond your means at that point. Jesus christ. So many people dont make 50k an entire year (pre-tax) for their whole family! And still don't end up homeless.
wtf...
Re:You Don't Know Anything About Homelessness .... (Score:1, Insightful)
Wow, you managed to eat up all your savings from a 6 figure income in 7 months! That takes talent, even in California! But I can see how quickly that money can go down the drain when you're accustomed to an expensive apartment and expensive food. Or perhaps you were still living a "progressive" lifestyle and giving to charity long after you lost your source of regular income! Seems to me that must be the case, what with all those poor unfortunate people you've taken notice of! As for myself, the best I've done is make a five figure salary, eat out almost constantly, give a few bob to the salvation army now and then, and yet save almost quarter of a million dollars. Oh, and Bush is responsible for you losing your six figure job! Makes sense! Your family are all evil, too? Convenient. You mean they lack that infinite reservoir of compassion for someone with your lousy judgement and fucked up personality?
What should be obvious but isnt... (Score:2, Insightful)
Why would I feel bad about myself? (Score:4, Insightful)
This has nothing to do with scapegoating, everything to do with reality. Most people who are homeless are that way for a reason. The most common reason is addiction. I'd actually say that alcohol addiction is more common than any other drug. Their addiction is to the point that it totally rules their life and it is all they care about.
Either way, not sure why you think I should feel bad about myself. Even if the reality was different, I still don't feel bad. I don't feel sorry or evil or whatever for having happiness and success in my life. I would hope that everyone else does as well, but I don't feel bad about myself because many don't.
So if you think I should feel guilty, well sorry I don't and I won't. If you choose to guilt yourself over what you have in your life, I can't stop you, but I don't feel it is productive and I don't do it. I enjoy my life.
Re:And yet (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Facebook status: "LIVING UNDER A BRIDGE! HELP" (Score:5, Insightful)
No I haven't. Addiction is a choice. I don't mean one chooses to become addicted, but one has to choose to stop. There is no forcing an addict off their addiction. They have to decide for themselves that there are things they want even more than satisfying their addiction. They then can choose to work to get better. I'm not claiming it is an easy choice to make, but it is a choice. An addict can choose to stop, or they can choose to continue. They can decide when the tradeoffs are too great, and they have to fight their addiction.
That is why it is often said that you have to "bottom out" before you can recover. What it means is that you have to get to the point that things have become so bad, you are now willing to try and do what it takes to quit. For different people this is at different levels so there isn't a "bottom" that all addicts hit. For some it might be much higher than others.
Homeless addicts, well they may not have a bottom. They may be the kind that no matter how bad things get, no matter how deep they go, they still will choose the addiction over recovery. There is nothing out there that they won't trade for their addiction.
Choosing your addiction is the easy choice, the path of least resistance, choosing to fight it is extremely hard (especially with some drugs) but make no mistake it IS a choice. A hard choice is still a choice. That's why you can provide love, support, and help for an addict you care about but you can't make them stop. They have to choose that themselves, and only then can it happen.
citation (Score:3, Insightful)
[citation needed]
Re:You Don't Know Anything About Homelessness .... (Score:3, Insightful)
You are misinformed about the type of people who join the Army, Most of them are NOT gung-ho types who like guns and the idea of shooting up people.
Most of them just need a job. Most of them just want to go to college. Most of then are very poor and/or come from urban places that make the Army seem mild . Most of them saw the nifty multi-million dollar ad campaigns that tell them how they can be all that they can be or how in 6 weeks they can be a computer programmer too!
But the ads don't show war. They don't show you killing women and little children because you have been put into a place where you honestly have come to believe that you need to do that in order to stay alive - or to keep your buddies alive. The ads don't show you that.
Me, I was 2 years into an Ivy League education with a family that would make Dick Cheney's look warm and fuzzy by comparison. And I had enough and I left. And after my money ran out and I had no experience as a 19 year old in the world - I joined the military not because I liked guns but because I wanted to continue my college.
The Army does not take care of every aspect of your life as I've seen some people say here. You only think that if you haven't been in the military. Being in the military is a lot like being in any other job - you work 8 to 5 and you get weekends if you're not in combat. True, you don't have to worry about health care, or becoming homeless if you're laid off or even paying for food or housing (if you're single) but in most civilized Western countries (save the U.S.) . In many ways the peace-time Army is a lot like Sweden. But you still have to pay your bills, plan your financial future and buy your housewares just like everyone else.