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e.nonHamilton Nolan
9/18/13 10:51am
and yet, i see these friggin towers going up everywhere ... oh wait. it's all 'luxury' housing.. who the fuck is going to do the heavy lifting for the plutopigs once that stratum of people is no longer able to live/work/travel to the city...
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  cheerful_exgirlfriende.non
  9/18/13 10:56am
  Same thing here except it's not towers it's more McMansions and some just plain mansion mansions.
  
  People here get insane about 1 low-income apartment building being proposed, calling it "high density" because sure, in comparison to a single family 3000 sq ft home it is high density.
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  KristenfromMAe.non
  9/18/13 11:00am
  Plutopigs? Nice. Gotta remember that one.
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MuscatoHamilton Nolan
9/18/13 11:02am
This has long been a guilty secret in New York. Fifteen years ago I volunteered at a home shelter and was startled when one of the regulars was a waiter in a restaurant I often went to - he was recovering addict who couldn't find an apartment he could afford and that would, given his record, take him on as a tenant.

Failing the poor, failing the mentally ill, imprisoning, isolating, stigmatizing, and hiding... why can't we do better? Oh, right - Bootstraps, Galt, trickle down, Jeebus. I forgot.
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  Peso28Muscato
  9/18/13 11:14am
  Yeah, this is nothing new. I also had to volunteer at a soup kitchen following some, erm, trouble with the law...and people would bring their families like they were stopping by a restaurant, only the food was free. No judgments, and the place wasn't run like it was meant for homeless people, just anybody that needed a free meal. Needing shelter is a more pressing need than a meal, in a certain perspective, so the fact that it's becoming a more widespread problem is troubling.
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  DTVGGalMuscato
  9/18/13 3:14pm
  I had the same experience in Los Angeles. I have seen people that didn't appear to need the help, but you never know their situation. I watched some guy pull out tupperware to take a second plate of food home. It can't be easy for some of these people.
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gilbertkittensHamilton Nolan
9/18/13 10:48am
"Note to poor people: NYC doesn't want you. Go somewhere else." - Love, New York City
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  phunkshungilbertkittens
  9/18/13 10:53am
  Hence, Newburgh.
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  VeryWellgilbertkittens
  9/18/13 10:55am
  P.S. Don't go TOO far away- we need busboys.
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inProductionHamilton Nolan
9/18/13 11:57am
If it is truly this bad, the city should put together a relocation program. The 15 year mortgage on my 5 bedroom house is under $1000, and there is plenty of work here.

It would be a win/win, the city no longer has to pay $3000/month, just one time relocation costs and the family/person in question can become gainfully employed and potentially own their own home.
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  PlantinMoretusinProduction
  9/18/13 1:33pm
  But what communities want to have a bunch of NYC homeless move in? Plus you'd have to find landlords willing to take them as tenants, plus it could distort the residential rental and sale markets in those communites. Plus the former NYC homeless would have to do something in these new communities to re-build their lives. It's a solution that creates a whole bunch of other problems.
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  inProductionPlantinMoretus
  9/18/13 1:41pm
  From the article these are working homeless, so they have marketable skills and aren't your stereotypical street hobos as pictured above. Most of the landlords here do not perform the same level of due diligence than those in big cities do.
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funny_lady123Hamilton Nolan
9/18/13 11:14am
Just a thought...maybe NYC should have offer more rent controlled units so that working class people can actually afford to live in the city. Lets face it, America needs working class people to help keep the county (that includes NYC) running. These people aren't paid 6 figures a year but are just as vital to the country ( and city) as the people who are.
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  Aquasolfunny_lady123
  9/18/13 12:18pm
  These people aren't paid 6 figures a year but are just as vital to the country ( and city) as the people who are.
  
  Shhh, don't tell that to the "BOOTSTRAPS!" people, they'll just ramble about magical educations that always end with perfect jobs and zero debt! Why, they're only making that little because they choose to!
  
  And it's sad, because as poor as the majority of the country is, most everyone seems to think that those making less than six figures are less-than-human and deserving of all of our mockery and scorn.
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  Sarah Jfunny_lady123
  9/18/13 9:26pm
  Agreed. This is why I have a problem with the "anyone can be a millionaire if they try hard enough!" attitude. It's like, no. In a capitalist economy, well, in ANY economy, you NEED people working on the bottom. That's not to say the McDonald's cashier should be paid as much as a doctor or CEO. But McDonald's, and countless other businesses, need the cashiers and the fry cooks and the salespeople and so on. Without the people doing the grunt work, the companies would fail and not even the highly paid CEOs would get away safe. A business is a pyramid, and the people at the top would all fall down if they weren't being held up by those on the bottom.
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SteveBenjaminNYCHamilton Nolan
10/19/13 12:47pm
The indifference and shit-talk among the commentators here is truly sickening.
To all the snarky, pithy commentators that eye-roll at the less fortunate, I offer a hearty "GO FUCK YOURSELF" I truly hope you experience what many of these working homeless have - all the karma talk aside, if you have never faced situation like this I guess one may find this HILARIOUS.

I guess everyone here has amazing lives and no one here has ever been struck by a cyclone of catastrophic events that ruined them financially - so I can appreciate why specific comments reflect that attitude. Yes, everyone in the homeless shelter systems are pieces of shit that should consider themselves lucky to clean the scraps off your plate of food in an over-priced mid-town resturant.

I was one of these statistics for nearly 5 months a couple years ago. The working homeless. It doesn't help the stock photo shows a homeless person who clearly has mental health issues.. :( It also doesn't help that from Seth Diamond to to the lowliest cafeteria worker, the NYC homeless shelter system has an unwritten policy of treating it's "Clients" with the utmost contempt and disrespect. "Hey if you don't like it, LEAVE. "

That being said - I guess for some people compassion and treating everyone with respect must be earned...By an unfortunate twist of events... And I truly hope one day the assholes that posted smack-talk will learn that lesson. Painfully, with tears and humiliation over the course of many years of suffering.

So snark away - laugh at the misfortunate - roll your eyes at the lazy piece of shits that deserve what they got. Sure many people end up in the system as a result of their own poor choices, but many did not...
ps. If you take issue or are offended with what I said, you're a piece of shit and you can go fuck yourself.
Sincerely,
A son, a brother, a father and citizen of this planet. :)
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Veronica CorningstoneHamilton Nolan
9/18/13 12:03pm
The American Dream: 1945-1979. Fend for yourself, fuckers - unless you're the 1%.
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LizTaylorsEarringsHamilton Nolan
9/18/13 10:53am

GIF

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BostonistoodamncoldHamilton Nolan
9/18/13 10:55am
The title should read:

A Shocking Number of People With Jobs Are Homeless

We should be outraged.
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  BostonistoodamncoldBostonistoodamncold
  9/18/13 3:29pm
  Thanks for the credit on the title change, HamNo.
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FloriDuck790Hamilton Nolan
9/18/13 11:58am
Up until I started graduate school this semester, I worked at the largest homeless shelter in Pinellas County, FL (part of Tampa Bay, which has the highest rate of homelessness in the US and the third highest number of homeless individuals of any major metropolitan area in the US, after NY and L.A.). The shelter is administered by the Sheriff's Office, in partnership with local mental health agencies as well as the Public Defender's Office. Our area has laws similar to the controversial laws planned in Columbia, SC (http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/08/22/kic…)- open container laws, loitering laws, and pan handling bans that are specifically targeted at the homeless. However, we backed it up by amping up mental health services, creating homeless outreach teams in the various police forces, and setting up the shelter I work in, which is geared toward jail-diversion. Folks cited for one of the aforementioned laws generally would end up at my shelter, and would do community service, and have a mental health counselor available. The shelter is NOT a jail- no one is required to stay. We also work closely with the individuals who opted to go to jail instead of seeking services at the shelter- they also saw a social worker 7 days a weeks, who encouraged them to seek a variety of services according to their needs. These were the most "hardcore" guys, but if you want to eliminate homelessness in your area, you have to address everyone, from families with little kids to the mean old drunk.

With 470 beds, I'd say that at any given time, at least half of our population was working or actively seeking work, so this doesn't surprise me at all.
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  DTVGGalFloriDuck790
  9/18/13 3:31pm
  This sounds like a good solution. I wonder how much it has been costing people for these sorts of programs. I wish that everyone as a whole was more willing to donate and help the homeless. There really needs to be more programs to get people back on their feet. The problem is what do you do with the drug addicts that don't want to change or the people that prefer living on the streets?
  
  I agree with the anti-begging laws because most people begging are looking for drug money. If you really want to help the homeless it's best to donate time or money to the shelters instead.
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  FloriDuck790DTVGGal
  9/18/13 3:46pm
  To put cost in perspective: to house a mentally ill or drug/alcohol addicted person in jail for a year (and those generally come hand in hand), it costs roughly $100,000, give or take. With 470 beds, it costs the shelter I worked at roughly $2 million a year to run. That is a no brainer.
  
  The laws really do help when it comes to folks who don't want to change or prefer to live on the streets. The vast majority of people would, when cited, choose to come to the shelter (I also want to note that many people come to the shelter on their own- it isn't only there for jail diversion purposes). We set up the program of social workers visiting the jail every day to combat the more hardcore folks, who would repeatedly be arrested, and repeatedly choose jail. Previously, they would spend a few hours in jail, a judge would clear them, and then they would get a bus ticket and be one their way back to where ever they came from. Now, there is no more bus pass, and they don't see a judge until the social worker clears them to. The hope is that they will eventually choose to go into a program. Not everyone does, but more and more are. You'd be surprised how many guys who have lived on the streets or in the woods for 10, 20 years suddenly get a taste of sleeping inside and getting 3 square meals a day and realize it isn't so bad after all.
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A Shocking Number of People With Jobs Are Homeless