Gee... Where are all these so-called homeless people?

[FlyingSquirrel]

http://heraldnet.com/article/20080202/NEWS01/77442759

Gawrsh, 31% fewer than last year. People scritchin' their heads.

May I make a small suggestion. COUNT 'EM WHEN THE WEATHER'S NICE! Don't count 'em every year in the dead of winter!

Duh.

I drive a bus. I deal with them firsthand every day. I can tell you where they went. Drive to the north end of town and you'll see "NO VACANCY" signs on all the motels. 'Specially the really crummy shabby ones. They're booking rooms, 2 or 3 together if they have to. IT'S FREEZING! The ones that can't manage that have headed south to Seattle where the buses run almost all night. They're riding the bus around to stay warm, trying to catch a few z's before hitting the end of the line and getting rousted and ousted by the driver. Some of 'em get to the end of the line on my bus and have no idea where to go from there. If it's the end of the night I take 'em back to the bus station... not that it helps them to be there, but at least there are a few bus shelters they can try and sleep in, and they're near the mission.

Incredible. Why bother to count them if you're gonna do it in the middle of winter?

[lurky]

1. Maybe that's why they do it in the winter.

To make it look like there's less of a problem than there really is. I hate being so cynical sometimes.

[FlyingSquirrel]

2. At first I was gonna say no...

But then I went to the previous article,

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20080126/NEWS01/840193234

and it is in fact a new statewide requirement. So it could be that the time of year was in fact chosen for that reason.

I wonder why they have to rely on volunteers to do the counting if it's a state requirement. Once again no funding to back something they (apparently) don't really care about.

[cutlassmama]

3. Jesus. This is just so sad.

[Berry Cool]

4. You should call Bill O'Reilly and let him drive your route for a week.

Maybe he'll even see some of those homeless vets he claims don't exist.

[KharmaTrain]

5. Try Local Churches, Too

My wife and I wolunteer for several community groups...one of them operates a shelter at a local church. We have collected funds for this shelter over the past couple years and still run into people who deny that we have such people right in our area. Well, we sure as hell do and they're not what most people vision...these are people with families in tow...out of job and luck and this is their only option rather than sleeping in the car. One family my wife knows has a child in the local schools and was surprised as all hell when she saw her there recently. My wife thought she was volunteering...nope, her family was staying the night since they had lost their house several months ago and were staying in the area for her to finish the school year. She told us they stayed at several shelters in the area...never sleeping the same place twice. I can't tell you how shocked both of us were...and how helpless we felt for her and that we couldn't do more.

[AngryOldDem]

8. A generation of children is growing up in homeless shelters

Who knows what will mean in 10 or 20 years. And homeless families are on the increase, with job losses and home foreclosures.

[ileus]

6. where does all their money come from for bus rides and hotel rooms?

[AngryOldDem]

7. Several ways,

Some work day labor, where they get paid at the end of their shift. Others have menial-labor jobs, which don't pay for a stable housing situation, so they stay at the shelter, then when they get enough cash set aside, they take a room or a cheap motel room for a couple of days. Oftentimes, a couple (or more) will pool their resources, rent a room, get booze, drugs, or whatever else they choose to re-create on, stay there and party 'till the cash runs out, and then come back to the shelter. (Sorry this sounds so cynical, but I've seen it, and heard guests talk about doing this. Example: Friday night I just had 19 women in the dorm at the shelter where I work. This was down from about 45 earlier in the week. One guest looked around at the emptiness and told others to enjoy it, because all the loudmouths would be back Sunday night. Friday was the 1st. Checks came out then.)

Others have contact with family, and family gives them money. Others have SSI, SSD, veteran's pensions, what-have-you, so it comes in that way.

Bus tokens, if you have the cash, are relatively cheap; if not, you get a case manager or shelter attendant to get you a couple, provided you have enough of a credible reason/story for wanting them.

(And by the way -- in no way are we talking about "hotel rooms" that are fit for the Ritz.)

The survey that the OP is talking about is called a "point-in-time" survey. Winter, here in Ohio, is a good time to do the survey because that is when our numbers in shelter tend to be at their peak. We had ours last Monday night, also an optimum time, because it was at the end of the month when most people really have nowhere to go and it's then that officials can get a pretty accurate picture of the reasons why people are homeless, and can better estimate the exact homeless population of the city.

[FlyingSquirrel]

11. See, around here in the Pacific NW the temperature varies a lot

in the wintertime, so sometimes it could be very cold and other times not. But they don't count them just in the shelters, they go around to places that they are known to hang out.

[knitter4democracy]

9. Many of the homeless have jobs.

They just don't make enough to scrap together an apartment's security deposit and first month's rent and keep living.

[FlyingSquirrel]

10. Some of them also donate plasma for cash. There's lots of ways

but it all boils down to the same thing, scrape up enough to live for the next day (or have a pretty rough day if you haven't.)