
Homeless: Can you build a life from $25? - alaskamiller
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0211/p13s02-wmgn.html?
======
bokonist
In college I helped run the office of a non-profit that attempted to find jobs
and homes for the homeless. The people we dealt with tended to have a massive
number of problems. Sometimes it was outright drug use or mental illness.
Other times it was simply never having any pattern of success in life. They
wouldn't know how to make appointments, present themselves decently, be
consistent, or talk intelligently.

I came to several conclusions:

1) You can try to infect them with a can-do attitude all you want, but the
concept of working hard to build the good life is so alien they never buy into
the program. Yes, the guy in the story is right, success does come down to
attitude. But changing someone's attitude is much, much harder than just
giving out money.

2) The existence of the minimum wage hurts the homeless. The people I worked
with were incapable of producing $6 an hour of value for an employer. If there
was no minimum wage, they could work $2 an hour of value and then gradually
work their way up. I don't know how many would actually do this, but at least
they should have the choice. Because they are legally prevented from getting a
job, they usually end up doing black market work like selling flowers or
collecting cans which has no path of upward mobility.

3) I tend to think supportive housing is the best you can do. Give them stable
place to live and gradually push them towards being more productive. It often
ends up being cheaper than the cost of shelters + emergency room care + police
monitoring of the streets. Of course, few cities want to build this kind of
housing for fear of becoming a draw for the homeless.

Keep in mind, I'm talking about the hardest cases. There were people who
managed to have a good attitude and rebound very quickly. One great example
was a woman who just got out of prison from drug use and was looking for a
job. We helped coach her on how to answer interview questions about her past,
and she ended up getting a job at Sears.

------
DanielBMarkham
I lost everything I owned except a car and 3 pairs of clothes when I was 23.

Didn't end up homeless though. Just stayed with friends, worked double menial
full-time jobs, and put it all back together.

Anybody can _get_ homeless. Staying homeless is an emotion-related disease. My
opinion only.

~~~
whacked_new
Wow, this is very interesting and informative and inspirational at the same
time. Much respect. Is there an elaboration somewhere?

~~~
DanielBMarkham
It's not something I share a lot, to be honest. It always sounds like one of
those "Heck with the homeless! I was poor and pulled myself up by my
bootstraps!" kind of things.

I feel for the homeless and the poor. But I don't think giving them cash every
month (as San Francisco does) or giving them other handouts is helping much of
anything at all. Simply because something troubles you morally does not mean
that there is a moral solution.

Since you asked, my first wife and I split up, I moved into a boarding house
that agreed to take all of my stuff. Now this just wasn't everything I owned
-- it's worse than that. My mother had decided to remarry and gave me all of
the things from my childhood home. So I had all of that with me as well.

Being pretty messed up over the bad marriage, I wasn't working, so I got
behind on the rent (a month or two as I remember) The family told me they were
moving so I had to move out. I told them I was going to stay with friends for
a couple of days to see if I could stay with them. When I came back, the
entire house was empty. Nil. Nada. SOBs even took a 1979 Pontiac I had out
front. So I had 2-3 changes of clothes and the car I was in. That's it. I
believe that's what they call "starting from nothing"

I never did find my stuff. I checked the VIN on the car several times with the
police but nothing showed up. I guess the worst part is the pictures -- you
just can't replace those pictures. I'd give half of what I have now just to
get those pictures back. The rest of it? Just stuff. If anything, it was a
great lesson in how life can be more about your stuff than yourself. In a lot
of ways, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I know that sounds
cliche, but it's true. Even now, I wouldn't mind living on Ramen noodles for a
few months while kicking out some code in a startup -- it'd be a blast.
Whereas I think if I never had that experience I would somehow feel that I was
"better" than doing that. I consider myself very lucky.

~~~
mqt
Escaping materialism can be a very difficult gift to receive. I think
rebuilding after losing everything is a beautiful thing -- rejuvenating yet
humbling.

Thank you for sharing, I really appreciate honest sentiments like this.

------
wallflower
African-American woman. Born to teenage unwed mother in rural Mississippi.
Later raised in Milwaukee ghetto. Molested by relatives at age nine. Runaway,
living on streets as teenager. Pregnant and gives birth to son (who died in
infancy) at 14. Drug user in her 20s. Extraordinary stage presence and social
and Oratorical skills since early childhood.

Oprah

~~~
drubio
Take it to wikipedia for a buttered-up 'rags to riches' story, these are all
half-truths, and what is missing in this short paragraph is all the STRUCTURE
Oprah had at a young age and later in life, just like this college educated
story.

Here is another bio on Oprah read between the lines :
<http://gale.cengage.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/winfrey_o.htm>

Her unmarried parents, Vernon Winfrey and Vernita Lee, separated soon after
she was born, leaving her to be <b>raised by her maternal grandmother</b>.
"She certainly wasn't an educated woman, but she taught me the shape of
letters, and she taught me my Bible stories," Winfrey recalled in Life
magazine. By the time she was six, Winfrey had moved to Milwaukee to live with
her mother.

Winfrey said her father saved her life. <b>He was very strict and provided her
with guidance, structure, rules, and books. He required his daughter to
complete weekly book reports, and she went without dinner until she learned
five new vocabulary words each day.</b> She joined her school's drama club and
became a prize-winning orator, winning a $1,000 college scholarship after
delivering a short speech entitled "The Negro, the Constitution, and the
United States" to 10,000 Elks Club members in Philadelphia.

------
mqt
This is a contrived example of the "American Dream." You're not truly
suffering unless you feel the emotional pains of poverty. The depression from
the uncertainties of tomorrow is the real killer.

I'm not surprised that he achieved mediocrity with the confidence of education
and safety-net of a credit line and a weathy family. You could do similar by
working at McDonalds. This sort of thing is possible in many Western
countries. Infact, you are probably better off in a welfare state than in
America if great wealth does not interest you.

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run4yourlives
>He had a gym bag, $25, and little else.

>A former college athlete with a bachelor's degree, Mr. Shepard had left a
comfortable life with supportive parents in Raleigh, N.C.

Sounds like he had quite a bit to me. Most homeless aren't lazy, as this would
seem to suggest. Most have developmental or addition problems. The fact that a
bright kid can make it doesn't prove anything, really.

~~~
edw519
"The fact that a bright kid can make it doesn't prove anything, really."

I agree.

He had the single most overlooked aspect of a college degree: he had achieved
something. He KNEW he could succeed; that's often half the battle.

Many down and out people can't imagine succeeding, so they don't.

This story reminds me of Robert Allen's old claim, "Put me anywhere in the
United States with no money, and by the end of the day I will own some real
estate." He did it every time. And to this day, with my limited real estate
knowledge, I don't know if I could do the same thing even once.

Nice story, but run4yourlives is right; it doesn't really prove anything
except that it's mostly in your head. Then again, maybe that was the whole
point.

~~~
nradov
I hope you realize that Robert Allen was a fraud.

<http://www.johntreed.com/Reedgururating.html#anchor496881>

~~~
edw519
OK, then let me try another example.

The whole time I read the OP, I felt like I was watching a trapeez act with a
safety net. The young man KNEW he couldn't fail (just like the trapeez artist
can try something extra difficult because he KNEW he wouldn't die.)

Kinda took the wind out of what was otherwise a good story.

------
boredguy8
And we're supposed to be shocked that a good looking, college-educated white
kid succeeded in South Carolina?

If you don't see how this proves nothing, you've never lived in the south. And
to use this as proof that people who are poor are poor because they -choose-
to be is to defy reason.

~~~
ardit33
People that are poor, are poor b/c they

1.Don't know better.

2\. Health illness (major cripling one, or mental reason).

3\. You come in this country at a late age (i.e. 55+)

There are really no other reasons. I have two families, one of my uncle, and
one of my first cousin, that came to the US (with green cards), and had to
restart their lives all from the beginning.

All they had was 5k. For a family of 4, that is very little, and goes by very
fast, yet, 10 years later, they are both doing great.

My uncle had to work as pizza deliver person, then truck driver, until found a
good job in a car dealership. His wife, had to be a waitress for a while (it
sucked, as she was not good for it), but eventually ended up becoming a
"accountant helper" for a hospital. 8 years later, she is primary person,
managing their money, both of their kids ended up in good private schools, and
now one goes to Dartmouth, the other to a good college. They own a house,
(bought at reasonable rates, before this buble), cars and all that, living the
true american dream.

My other's cousin family, is having a little bit harder time, as they have to
get menial jobs, but my cousin became a teacher assistent, (teaching french),
and eventually she would move up to something better, while their kids are
doing great in school.

As I said, poverty is b/c ignorance. If these two families, can move from a
different continent, and re-build everything from scratch, and provide great
education to their kids, then everybody else can.

In this country hard work, and perseverance will pay off. B!tching about your
conditions, and doing nothing about it, wont.

Sure, you can blame racism, but from experience, it is not that. It is the
huge amount of hard work and ethical mentality, and the strong family values
that drives all these immigrant families, who while starting dirt poor, they
do well, and much better than the american born poor.

~~~
wallflower
In the city where I live, some of the homeless are mentally ill. A friend who
works for one of the city hospitals says a lot of homeless hang out near the
hospital, they scare her when she goes to work there early but they are
desparate to be admitted and taken off the streets.

~~~
Shooter
I think the MAJORITY of homeless people are mentally ill.

I live in a suburb of Chicago, and I run into quite a few homeless people
around our shopping districts and public transportation. I usually strike
conversations up with them - which terrifies my wife, by the way - and most
display fairly obvious symptoms of mental illness even in the brief moments I
spend with them. I can't begin to imagine what symptoms they might exhibit if
I was around them for longer periods of time.

I think mental illness is much more widespread than people realize, and our
society really doesn't have an appropriate way to deal with the situation. I'd
like to see this young author try to 'pull himself up by his bootstraps' if he
was paranoid schizophrenic and hallucinating. It's rather hard to interview
for a job when you think the interviewer is trying to kill you and you have
leeches crawling out of your ears, for example.

~~~
kingkongrevenge
> our society really doesn't have an appropriate way to deal with the
> situation

They used to all be committed in mental institutions. The laws changed and now
they're out on the street. Pick your poison: government power to lock non-
criminals up and force treatment, or free crazies wandering the streets and
hurting themselves.

------
fiftyone
I had a really great job in the music biz when I was 20-21 but after 9/11 I
converted to Islam and decided it was a good idea to quit my life and move to
the Middle East to study Arabic. I had an Airline ticket, $250 bucks and
enough high hopes and faith to fill the Staples Center. I had decided to go to
Egypt, ( it was Syria or Egypt at the time because they were the cheapest
places to go) my idea was to learn Arabic and return to the states to work as
a translator ( that never happened haha ) Anyhow, my $250 bucks got me an
apartment with a couple other American guys ( who were believe it or not on
the same spiritual journey I was on ) for $35 bucks a month. I ended up taking
some money from mom a couple times but I did it mostly on my own. Anyhow, now
2008, I married an Egyptian girl, I have a 6 Month old baby boy and a new
carrier as a teacher. Not bad for leaving with 200 bucks and a couple T-shirts
:)

~~~
wallflower
+1 Arabic is said to be one of the difficult languages to start learning

------
rw
The article seems to say:

Theorem: If someone has been educated on how to operate (and succeed) in the
current microeconomic environment, then that person can succeed in the current
microeconomic environment.

Proof: The author knows how to succeed, and he does. QED.

Only problem? It needs a larger sample size.

(Also, there are skills and habits you learn in college that cannot be put on
a resumé.)

The article is not saying that the American Dream is either "real" or
"possible" for most people; on the contrary, this seems to be a contrived
situation in which unjustified conclusions are drawn from the experiences of
one example.

------
huherto
Looking at the factors of poverty in
<http://www.cpa.ie/povertyinireland/whatispoverty.htm>

Work - He started out with out a job but soon he was able to get one. Age - He
had a perfect age to work. Health - He was in good health. Education - He was
well educated. Family - He only had to support himself. Location - He lived in
the U.S.

So he really had no factors for being poor.

------
rw
So he gave up his health insurance too?

Did he talk using a simpler vocabulary than that which he learned at college?

------
fiaz
I think this story is testament to the fact that resourcefulness outweighs
whatever resources you have. How you use what you have matters more than what
you have to work with. Definitely a lesson in this story for those of us in
the process of bootstrapping.

Absolutely amazing!

------
rokhayakebe
Broke Coder: Can you build a startup from ruby, coffee and noodles.

~~~
kingnothing
Do I get a computer, internet access, a desk, and a quiet place to work?

I'd have a hard time building a startup by writing ruby in a spiral bound
notebook and hoping to successfully pitch a VC with it. ;-)

~~~
asdflkj
That gives me an idea: an APP for mobile phones that lets you take a picture
of handwritten text, and then REPLs it.

~~~
icky
No, too many of my notebook doodles are valid Perl...

------
ntoshev
Here is the ending of the movie Factotum (about the life of Charles Bukowski),
a favorite scene of mine:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlXJIawiPE0>

------
redorb
Honestly, to write a book about it is a little self serving.

\- Better Option: Blog about it.

~~~
h34t
Earning money by writing a book is wrong because ...?

------
daniel-cussen
This experiment suggests interesting questions about the cycle of poverty.

