(no subject)

[novapsyche]

I am alarmed.

There is a rise in the homeless in Ann Arbor.

I know it because I see men pushing around grocery carts around my neighborhood.

I've driven down a side street and seen a grocery cart parked like a car.

This is not right.

I have lived here for nearly four years. I've never seen this.

I've seen men holding signs in front of exit ramps between Ann Arbor and Ypsi: "Homeless. I'm hungry. Help me please."

I knew I was losing some of my humanity when I was driving to work and I almost didn't notice one. I just caught him on the outside of my peripheral vision.

This is not right.

On my walk tonight, I passed a man pushing his belongings. We passed greetings. He called me, "How are you? Sister Sister!" In his wake, the smell of roses.

This is not right.

Comments

[shadowriderhope.livejournal.com]

No, it is very much not right. :( And I agree, it does seem to be getting worse...

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

I've never seen anything like it. And, of course, my mind goes back to a recent South Park episode about how the homeless congregate around affluent cities. NPR just did a segment about the rise of the homeless in Philadelphia, after the city had achieved a turnaround some years ago. Something is going on.

Unemployment is on the rise nationally. Business is leaving Ann Arbor. You want to talk about a trickle-down effect? Google bringing 1,000 jobs doesn't offset Pzifer sacking 3,000.

I grew up poor, and I never saw anything like this. This is so wrong. I think, "But for the grace of God go I." It is the truth.

The Dow is at a record height while it is at one of its lowest exchange rate against the pound and the euro. This business boom is hollow. The housing market is crashing before our eyes (with that, solid construction jobs); automotive and other manufacturing went global years ago. What do we have left? Even service jobs are outsourced.

Greenspan recently predicted that there's a two out of three chance that we won't go into a recession. Which means that there's a significant chance we will. Inflation is up, from everything from gas to food.

Oh, I know I'm ranting. I just don't know what to do. I started crying tonight after that man passed me. When I neared home, there was another man with a cart, moving over onto the grass so that a mother and her daughter could have the sidewalk. I see this with my own eyes. It just isn't right.

[pgdudda.livejournal.com]

Yes, and my Mom refuses to believe that my SO can't find a job. She lives too far north of the poverty line to see this happening. In the meantime, I'm debating whether I should take my next transfer-to-savings and convert some of that to Euros before the exchange rate gets too weak... :-/ (...and count myself fortunate that that's a viable option for me.)

Mark my words, I see "1929" written all over our credit-based economy, and IMHO it's been long overdue for a crash. :-(

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

*nod* I got the feeling that I was somehow being reminded of the Great Depression. Such disparities in wealth so nakedly apparent.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

rate was ratios that somehow became a singular noun. Should be rates.

[gwendally.livejournal.com]

I have some experience with the homeless. A couple of points:

1.) It's closely associated with mental health care. You're more likely to see a rise in poor control of mental health/drug addiction than a rise in unemployment as a cause.

2.) It's associated with weather. You are MUCH more likely to see homeless out on the street when it's a beautiful spring day. For one thing, the winter shelters typically close. For another, it's nice out.

The mentally ill/homeless tend to hang out most often in the library in our town. Public bathrooms, comfy chairs, stuff to read and do. They go to the soup kitchen for dinner and get tubs of food to eat for later, too. (If you happen to collect deli containers or cottage cheese containers or anything like that it's a great idea to bring them, with their lids, to a soup kitchen.)

Homeless in the non-mentally ill tends to be invisible. They crash on someone's couch. They stay with their parents. They stay with a friend who gets subsidized housing. It's only the truly low-functioning, the mentally ill and drug-addicted, who can't manage to stay off the streets.