Social Connections
Most homeless people are not simply poor, they are people whose lives have come unraveled. This is not something that happens simply because you lost your job or even because you drink too much. The fabric of their lives has come undone and a large piece of that is the social fabric.
Lots of people have some sort of personal crisis without ending up on the street. For example, you can lose your job and not wind up homeless because your spouse has a job or family takes you in until you can get back on your feet. People who are homeless are people who have not just run out of money, but have also run out of all of those kinds of options as well.
In fact, hard to solve social problems are often a root cause of homelessness. Some people wind up homeless because they are fleeing an abusive situation, and they have nowhere else to go. So, this isn't necessarily a case of someone being difficult themselves and wearing out their welcome with all of their friends and relatives. Some people just do not have the kind of social safety net that many people take for granted. Some of them never had it for one reason or another.
One of the thorny issues with social problems is that they often create a positive feedback loop leading to a downward spiral that can be nearly impossible to escape. If you don't have friends, it is impossible to get introductions that open doors to new relationships. Your lack of friends and connections can be read as evidence that you aren't worthy of such connections. Having no one to talk with causes your social skills to gradually erode until you can't seem to open your mouth without offending someone. Etc.
It becomes a situation where "the key is in the safe." You need social connections to make social connections. Having none makes it inherently challenging to make new ones. This can be especially true for people who are fleeing their family of origin, the very people who are supposed to give everyone their start in life. Sometimes, one's family is a tremendous albatross around a person's neck. This is inherently an incredibly hard problem to solve.
Once you are homeless, there are yet more inherent challenges to making social connections. Many social interactions require some amount of money, even just meeting a friend for coffee. There is also an expectation that you must be adequately presentable for social engagements, a standard that is essentially impossible to meet for many homeless people. You need to be able to do things like shower regularly and change into clean clothes to be presentable and that is hard or impossible to come by for most people on the street.
Fortunately, we now have the internet and even poor people can get online via a library or Wi-Fi at a place like Starbuck's. This allows for the possibility of making social connections online, where how you are dressed and whether or not you have recently showered are vastly less important.
Of course, that still isn't perfect. There is still a lot of stigma to admitting that you are homeless. In practical terms, if your problem is that you are homeless and people are telling you that you shouldn't admit that online, well, they are basically telling you that you can't really ask for help with the actual problem at hand. It also denies you the opportunity to succinctly explain that you have a long list of challenges, such as limited access to electricity, internet, showers, etc.
Some forums are worse about this than others. I have run into enormous problems on Metafilter due to admitting I am homeless there. The experience has been shockingly classist and ugly. In contrast, Hacker News -- which is filled with self made millionaires and the like -- has hardly cared at all that I am open about my lack of housing.
I would like to see more of the internet behave more like Hacker News than like Metafilter. Not being excluded from meaningful conversation on the basis of my lack of housing has been enormously helpful and empowering. I am slowly sorting my problems and things are gradually getting better.
It seems incredibly obvious to my mind that lack of social connections is a huge problem for homeless individuals and it is one that helps keep them trapped, though I doubt this article will adequately convince most people of that. But for the Grace of God? is a film by Ron Garret that does a far better job than I can do here of explaining this.
Ron sets out to get someone off the street as his plot for the movie. He seems to have an uncommonly good grasp of the importance of dealing with people as people first and foremost. He does succeed and it is basically accomplished by helping this person reestablish social connections, rather than the usual approach of throwing money at the problem (or, worse, assuming they are evil, bad druggies who need to just straighten up and fly right by an act of will or something).
I highly recommend the movie. If you have any desire to really understand this problem space, this is one of the best sources I have seen.
Lots of people have some sort of personal crisis without ending up on the street. For example, you can lose your job and not wind up homeless because your spouse has a job or family takes you in until you can get back on your feet. People who are homeless are people who have not just run out of money, but have also run out of all of those kinds of options as well.
In fact, hard to solve social problems are often a root cause of homelessness. Some people wind up homeless because they are fleeing an abusive situation, and they have nowhere else to go. So, this isn't necessarily a case of someone being difficult themselves and wearing out their welcome with all of their friends and relatives. Some people just do not have the kind of social safety net that many people take for granted. Some of them never had it for one reason or another.
One of the thorny issues with social problems is that they often create a positive feedback loop leading to a downward spiral that can be nearly impossible to escape. If you don't have friends, it is impossible to get introductions that open doors to new relationships. Your lack of friends and connections can be read as evidence that you aren't worthy of such connections. Having no one to talk with causes your social skills to gradually erode until you can't seem to open your mouth without offending someone. Etc.
It becomes a situation where "the key is in the safe." You need social connections to make social connections. Having none makes it inherently challenging to make new ones. This can be especially true for people who are fleeing their family of origin, the very people who are supposed to give everyone their start in life. Sometimes, one's family is a tremendous albatross around a person's neck. This is inherently an incredibly hard problem to solve.
Once you are homeless, there are yet more inherent challenges to making social connections. Many social interactions require some amount of money, even just meeting a friend for coffee. There is also an expectation that you must be adequately presentable for social engagements, a standard that is essentially impossible to meet for many homeless people. You need to be able to do things like shower regularly and change into clean clothes to be presentable and that is hard or impossible to come by for most people on the street.
Fortunately, we now have the internet and even poor people can get online via a library or Wi-Fi at a place like Starbuck's. This allows for the possibility of making social connections online, where how you are dressed and whether or not you have recently showered are vastly less important.
Of course, that still isn't perfect. There is still a lot of stigma to admitting that you are homeless. In practical terms, if your problem is that you are homeless and people are telling you that you shouldn't admit that online, well, they are basically telling you that you can't really ask for help with the actual problem at hand. It also denies you the opportunity to succinctly explain that you have a long list of challenges, such as limited access to electricity, internet, showers, etc.
Some forums are worse about this than others. I have run into enormous problems on Metafilter due to admitting I am homeless there. The experience has been shockingly classist and ugly. In contrast, Hacker News -- which is filled with self made millionaires and the like -- has hardly cared at all that I am open about my lack of housing.
I would like to see more of the internet behave more like Hacker News than like Metafilter. Not being excluded from meaningful conversation on the basis of my lack of housing has been enormously helpful and empowering. I am slowly sorting my problems and things are gradually getting better.
It seems incredibly obvious to my mind that lack of social connections is a huge problem for homeless individuals and it is one that helps keep them trapped, though I doubt this article will adequately convince most people of that. But for the Grace of God? is a film by Ron Garret that does a far better job than I can do here of explaining this.
Ron sets out to get someone off the street as his plot for the movie. He seems to have an uncommonly good grasp of the importance of dealing with people as people first and foremost. He does succeed and it is basically accomplished by helping this person reestablish social connections, rather than the usual approach of throwing money at the problem (or, worse, assuming they are evil, bad druggies who need to just straighten up and fly right by an act of will or something).
I highly recommend the movie. If you have any desire to really understand this problem space, this is one of the best sources I have seen.