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 By Argile Stox Nov. 16, 2005 Timothy N. Stelly, Sr.'s article on homelessness, http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/nov/article251.html, has valid points and he touched on issues that require additional comments. I was homeless during the recession of 2002-2003 and chronicled my experiences in a 325 page book, Computer-End Program / June -2004 / ISBN 1-4137-2496-5. Affordable housing / low wages are key factors and individuals are about one to two paychecks away from homelessness. What happens when an individual does become homeless and what does the State / Federal Government offer to assist the newly homeless person? If you were displaced and lost your job during a natural, biological disaster – there are programs that an individual can apply for. The process is time consuming and tedious and the waiting period can be nerve-racking. If an individual has lost their job due to the precarious state of the economy and evicted due to non-payment, the State and Federal Government offers – lip service. If you are an ex-convict and or drug / alcohol dependant, there numerous agencies and programs that are in place to accommodate those special needs, and an individual can seek temporary relief from their homeless plight. The average individual, through no fault of their own or nature – who has lost their job and housing, has an unbelievable uphill battle to get back on their feet. I have been their and done that. Once the average individual has exhausted their unemployment and extensions, has filled out a mountain of paperwork at State shelters, and followed all the rules – the best that individual can hope for is that a sympathetic employer will hire them at a very reduced salary. If that does not happen with in a tolerable amount of time, the individuals’ thoughts may veer toward suicide. If the individual has one last spark of sanity, the next stop is the State run mental hospital. Once there, the individual will get meals, a bed, therapy, and more lip service for about ninety days. Released on the street with medications to ease chronic depression, the individual is back to square-one and still homeless. The individual can elect to enter the shelter system again, and start the job search once again and apply for Welfare benefits. After a short period of time, the individual will exhaust the medications supplied by the mental institution, and use the monthly stipend of welfare money to buy alcohol and drugs to relieve the now clinical depression. As the need to take a pharmaceutical vacation increases, and the welfare money is not enough to cover the booze and marijuana expenditures – the individual will begin to shoplift at the local Wal-Mart, filling up a bag of dry dog food with batteries, paying for what the clerk thinks is a bag of dry dog food. The individual will then sell the batteries at the shelter – using the money to buy additional drugs. I did not go that route; however, many homeless individuals I came in contact with at shelters had quite a business enterprise, selling batteries, cigarettes, and other shoplifted items to their customer base who resided at the shelter. If the individual eventually gets busted, they go to jail – and once released, they can apply for the programs that are geared toward ex-convicts with alcohol and drug related problems. Dear Reader, are you surprised to learn that the States and Federal Government encourages individuals to become drug abusers and felons? Get over it. The system has been in place for the homeless for countless decades. The shop-lifting scheme of empting hug bags of dry dog food, filling it up with alkaline / lithium batteries at local discount chains – then paying for the bag of dog food at the cashier, has been passed from one homeless person to another since the beginning of civilization. To the individual who has lost all hope of ending the spiral of homelessness by playing by the rules – becoming a criminal is very appealing. Not all homeless individuals are mentally ill. They catch the disease through homelessness. The clear thinking mentally ill homeless individual will learn from others how to “work the system”. The next time your paycheck stub comes into view, think about the State and Federal Government deductions. A percentage of your money is funding criminal activities and the agencies that service ex-convicts. Is it your fault? No. Your ancestors voted for politicians who enacted and funded programs that encouraged criminal activities by individuals who saw no way out of homelessness through normal channels. A vast majority of the agencies that service ex-convicts who have drug and alcohol problems, employ ex-convicts who have had (and still have) drug and alcohol problems. Society refers to these reformed and employed ex-convicts who work in State agencies that service ex-felons and substance abusers as “success stories”. This may be true in a vast majority of cases. However, a good percentage of these individuals have figured out that once they have paid their dues – they can get civil service jobs that pays a decent wage and has job security. Other homeless individuals elect to go through the revolving door of the penal system, substance abuse programs, and the shelter system. These individuals “work” extremely hard to stay in the system and exploit the services that are offered – for their entire lifetime. There are the former homeless who have regained their foothold in society through persistence and “chutzpa” (like me). However, for every individual who has dragged themselves out of homelessness – there are one hundred others who have elected to continually reap the benefits of “playing the game”. These are individuals who have found their own community of like minded individuals that have become friends, advisors, brothers & sisters. The key words here are “belong to a community of like minded individuals”. Homelessness becomes an occupation and a job. Do you want to end this cycle? Sure you do. However, it will take the destruction of all the agencies that suck the life out of your paycheck, replacing them with programs that make it impossible to profit from becoming an ex-convict / substance abuser. Ah, this seems to be making sense to you. So, now what are you going to do and when are you going to do it? ------------ Email Argile Stox: argilestox@gmail.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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