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How high is the quality of life for your towns hobos?

Tenchiro

Attention K Mart Shoppers
Jul 19, 2002
5,407
0
New England
I was walking down the street today and saw the same hobo that I see at the same spot every day, asking for money. :rolleyes: Today however I noticed he had a cup of frikkin Starbucks coffee. How good does a hobo have it if he can afford Starbucks?!?

:nonono:
 

BurlyShirley

Rex Grossman Will Rise Again
Jul 4, 2002
19,180
17
TN
I thought hobos referred to bums on railroad tracks. In that case, uh, I havent seen any hobos.

But our bums have it about as good as other bums. Usually they live a life riddled with a combination of insanity, addiction, hunger and poverty. This time of year they sweat. In winter they freeze. Im sure if they had enough money for starbucks they'd buy beer with it.
 

Tenchiro

Attention K Mart Shoppers
Jul 19, 2002
5,407
0
New England
BurlyShirley said:
I thought hobos referred to bums on railroad tracks. In that case, uh, I havent seen any hobos.

But our bums have it about as good as other bums. Usually they live a life riddled with a combination of insanity, addiction, hunger and poverty. This time of year they sweat. In winter they freeze. Im sure if they had enough money for starbucks they'd buy beer with it.
I just think Hobo rolls off the tongue nicely. But if you prefer I can change it to 'Urban Outdoorsman'.
 

amydalayna

Turbo Monkey
Aug 16, 2005
1,507
0
south lake tahoe, ca
the hobos where i am don't seem to be doing so bad. my favorite one walks around with a cat on his shoulder.
i asked him once when i was coming out of the supermarket if he wanted a snack and he said no and that he was saving up money to spend the night in a hotel room.
 

SilentJ

trail builder
Jun 17, 2002
1,312
0
Calgary AB
Tenchiro said:
I was walking down the street today and saw the same hobo that I see at the same spot every day, asking for money. :rolleyes: Today however I noticed he had a cup of frikkin Starbucks coffee. How good does a hobo have it if he can afford Starbucks?!?

:nonono:

There's a nice hobo that sits on the corner from where I work - I'll buy him a nice coffee and donut on the colder days.
 

urbaindk

The Real Dr. Science
Jul 12, 2004
4,819
0
Sleepy Hollar
We have a guy that walks briskly / runs around waving two black plastic trash bags full of air. His name is Leon. I really don't think he needs any caffeine.
 

Tenchiro

Attention K Mart Shoppers
Jul 19, 2002
5,407
0
New England
skatetokil said:
dc hobos are pretty haggard. it's about half amputee vietnam war vets and half crackheads.
I work at a hospital, which happens to be across the street from a Methadone clinic, so we get a ton of absolute wastoids around here. I don't think too many of them are homeless however, but they all seem pretty strung out.
 

Changleen

Paranoid Member
Jan 9, 2004
14,335
2,448
Hypernormality
When I worked in Palo Hobo Alto all the hobos hung out on University hobos. People would come out of restaurants with doggy bags hobos and give them to the hobos. Hobos. Those were hobo some well fed hobos. We saw this one hobo guy with a small pile of hobo food from different places. Hobo.
 

Heath Sherratt

Turbo Monkey
Jun 17, 2004
1,871
0
In a healthy tension
Most homeless are homeless by choice and in my experience they can make between 100 to 300 daily. Thay just use it for crack and smack and jack and poof-all gone... gotta do it again the next day. That's why i get to know the homeless in my area and can then see which will actually use money to improve their situation. The crack heads I just leave alone. Some of those "homeless" folk live pretty good lives until they go back in the slammer. Revolving doors, that's what we called em in the bighouse. They would just come in, do their time and then go back out and keep on livin the criminal life and then viola back in again. Sometimes I would see the same guy three of four times before I would get out. Crazy.
 

jdcamb

Tool Time!
Feb 17, 2002
19,800
8,383
Nowhere Man!
Heath Sherratt said:
Most homeless are homeless by choice and in my experience they can make between 100 to 300 daily. Thay just use it for crack and smack and jack and poof-all gone...



Crazy.

You are high or ignorant. Sorry but that statement is just ridiculous.
 

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
Heath Sherratt said:
Most homeless are homeless by choice
You're quite the dillhole. Most are mentally ill, and some have drug/alcohol addictions on top of that.

I dig the news specials on the one guy in the city who is homeless by choice that make everyone feel better about shoving living human beings in corners and marginalizing them. Our society does a damn fine job at turning people into subhumans. The fact that someone is mentally ill or addicted to drugs, or smells funny, or looks like ****, does not make them unworthy of a helping hand.

You're not being very Christian today, Heath ****head. :thumb:

edit: We feed about five homeless people a day. One is a Julliard trained cellist who suffers from schizophrenia. He's 55. Yeah, life sucks.
 

Heath Sherratt

Turbo Monkey
Jun 17, 2004
1,871
0
In a healthy tension
blue said:
You're quite the dillhole. Most are mentally ill, and some have drug/alcohol addictions on top of that.

I dig the news specials on the one guy in the city who is homeless by choice that make everyone feel better about shoving living human beings in corners and marginalizing them. Our society does a damn fine job at turning people into subhumans. The fact that someone is mentally ill or addicted to drugs, or smells funny, or looks like ****, does not make them unworthy of a helping hand.

You're not being very Christian today, Heath ****head. :thumb:

edit: We feed about five homeless people a day. One is a Julliard trained cellist who suffers from schizophrenia. He's 55. Yeah, life sucks.
Well, seeing as how I was homeless for roughly a year in San Fransisco and lived in Auquatic Park for most of that time there I think I would have a pretty good handle on who's who in my community. I also did ministry there every friday for 5 years. I talk to most of the homeless people I see and have found that the majority of them are homeless because they are addicts-that means they are homeless because of their choices-I.E. they are homeless by choice. I have also spent a lot of time in jail with homeless people-same thing-drugs or hatered 99 times out of 100. There are a few exceptions but they have stories too and most of them lead back to screwed up families or bad choices. Nobody has to live on the street. I have taken so many homeless people into my home and they always choose to go back out there. How many homeless people have you taken in? How many are citizens now? They are few and far between. Go hate somewhere else, you two are getting old. :nope:
 

rooftest

Monkey
Jul 10, 2005
611
0
OC, CA
merrrrjig said:
No hobos in so cal? look again! We have a few local ones but this one guy always is on the same bench, and he leaves a stain on the wall from his hair. ahhaha
There's one I pass every morning on the way to work. He's been there for at least 2 years, but his sign still says "just got out of the hospital".

He had a big bottle of Dasani water this morning. I thought - WTF? If I had to scrounge for every nickel, I sure wouldn't be buying bottled water.
 

TN

Hey baby, want a hot dog?
Jul 9, 2002
14,301
1,353
Jimtown, CO
Heath Sherratt said:
Well, seeing as how I was homeless for roughly a year in San Fransisco and lived in Auquatic Park for most of that time there I think I would have a pretty good handle on who's who in my community. I also did ministry there every friday for 5 years. I talk to most of the homeless people I see and have found that the majority of them are homeless because they are addicts-that means they are homeless because of their choices-I.E. they are homeless by choice. I have also spent a lot of time in jail with homeless people-same thing-drugs or hatered 99 times out of 100. There are a few exceptions but they have stories too and most of them lead back to screwed up families or bad choices. Nobody has to live on the street. I have taken so many homeless people into my home and they always choose to go back out there. How many homeless people have you taken in? How many are citizens now? They are few and far between. Go hate somewhere else, you two are getting old. :nope:
Your statements are still idiotic.
 

Polandspring88

Superman
Mar 31, 2004
3,066
7
Broomfield, CO
The only apparent homeless guy in our town wears galoshes and rides his bicycle to the library to read every day.

Where I go to school it is slightly more colorful. There are two guys that wheel each other around in shopping carts waving brooms all over the place and pretend like they are on a ship. I had another guy ask me for a few dollars and say that he had to quit his job at the local grocery store pushing carts because it was too stressful. :rolleyes:
 

kinghami3

Future Turbo Monkey
Jun 1, 2004
2,239
0
Ballard 4 life.
Tenchiro said:
I was walking down the street today and saw the same hobo that I see at the same spot every day, asking for money. :rolleyes: Today however I noticed he had a cup of frikkin Starbucks coffee. How good does a hobo have it if he can afford Starbucks?!?

:nonono:
Seattle's homeless have it pretty good; it's nearly impossible to go hungry... I went through a program with my university that left me semi-homeless for 5 days in Seattle. We chose to work in exchange for food at the local missions, and the hardest part about the ordeal was finding something to do so we wouldn't die of boredom.
 

Slugman

Frankenbike
Apr 29, 2004
4,024
0
Miami, FL
merrrrjig said:
No hobos in so cal? look again! We have a few local ones but this one guy always is on the same bench, and he leaves a stain on the wall from his hair. ahhaha
Ewww...

I'm in RSM, I've been told by a few people that there are ordinances set up to prevent them. Basically they get whisked away to some shelter in another town... :wave:

Don't know if that is true or not, but I've never seen any in my town...

blue said:
<snip>Most are mentally ill, and some have drug/alcohol addictions on top of that.
In the Boston area most of them are... it seems that a bunch of super-lefty law school kids thought the way the mental institutions were treating their clients was inhumane, so they got the places shut down.

Problem is that the dillholes didn't have a plan to care for all the people they "saved". So now there is a large population of mentally ill people wandering the streets w/out a home. You can see them at Harvard square most any day.
 

MikeOK

Monkey
Nov 29, 2002
118
0
twelve
the hobo village up the river from where i ride sometimes is like a little kingdom without a king. they all pretty much get along allright and help each other out though. every once in awhile one of the hobos will go to town and pillage enough to score a jug of redeye and a big box of old mil. that's okay too unless he tries to hide it and the mean hobo finds out. the mean hobo will chop up the pillager and take his booze. the sherrif takes the mean hobo away and it'll be quite again for awhile.

it makes the news sometimes.
 

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
Heath Sherratt said:
Well, seeing as how I was homeless for roughly a year in San Fransisco and lived in Auquatic Park for most of that time there I think I would have a pretty good handle on who's who in my community. I also did ministry there every friday for 5 years. I talk to most of the homeless people I see and have found that the majority of them are homeless because they are addicts-that means they are homeless because of their choices-I.E. they are homeless by choice. I have also spent a lot of time in jail with homeless people-same thing-drugs or hatered 99 times out of 100. There are a few exceptions but they have stories too and most of them lead back to screwed up families or bad choices. Nobody has to live on the street. I have taken so many homeless people into my home and they always choose to go back out there. How many homeless people have you taken in? How many are citizens now? They are few and far between. Go hate somewhere else, you two are getting old. :nope:
This is always a hard one for me. I don't like to give money to bums. Not that I hate homeless, or think they deserve whatever they get. I just think handouts are a waste of money and traditional routes are better, like soup kitchens and shelters.

But on a personal standpoint, I acknowledge most people I meet, but many bums who saw me look at them and said hello, used this as the opportunity to ask me for money.
 

Joe Pozer

Mullet Head
Aug 22, 2001
673
0
Redwood City
The homeless here in San Fran. are very creative when it comes to asking for money. My two favorites are Peace sign Joe and Billboard Wille.

Peace sign Joe walks around giving the peace sign, but flicks the peace sign very rapidly. I'm nowhere near coordinated enough to do this.

Billboard Willie has constructed a multi-level cardboard sign that he can flip to show different messages, just like a rotating billboard.
 

Heath Sherratt

Turbo Monkey
Jun 17, 2004
1,871
0
In a healthy tension
Sanj- that's one of the reasons I chose to be homeless. I wanted to experience it. Fully. To see how people would treat me. To see how I would act when starving. Having to fight over sleeping spots and waking up a couple of times to men dragging my sleeping friend Mary off was a little crazy too. Me and Ben-Mary's boyfriend had to constantly fight off guys trying to steal her away in the night. It is no fun living out there and they are no different than you or I, they just need more love, more affection, but it still comes down to them just wanting to live that way.
There's this one bum Bob that lives in pleasant hill. We would take him in all the time. Our church gave him jobs repetitively and would house him and take him on vacations but he would just use us and never change. We eventually had to kick him out of the congrgation to protect people from him. he became more and more greedy and then would cry and pull guilt trips to get us to "help him". he just wanted to stay drunk and live in misery. He still does. It's just so sad that that's what he thinks is a good life.
 

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
Heath Sherratt said:
How many homeless people have you taken in?
If by "taken in" you mean let sleep in my place and eat my food, then 2. Woohoo? Who cares. It still doesn't change how inhumane your comments are.

The Mormons here will love you if you convert and go to church, same with the Catholics. Otherwise, you're scum. Ridiculous. :nope:
 

jdcamb

Tool Time!
Feb 17, 2002
19,800
8,383
Nowhere Man!
Heath Sherratt said:
that's one of the reasons I chose to be homeless. I wanted to experience it. Fully. To see how people would treat me. To see how I would act when starving.
Did you have an escape hatch? (ring.. ring.. mommy I am cold and hungry. Can you come into the city and get me??) You starved too. Damn. I am so glad I didn't have to be homeless to know it sucked.


Heath Sherratt said:
It is no fun living out there and they are no different than you or I, they just need more love, more affection, but it still comes down to them just wanting to live that way.
Hmm they need love, more love then you or I. And when they don't get it they lash at themselves by living the shear hell that being homeless must be. Hmm interesting....

Heath Sherratt said:
There's this one bum Bob that lives in pleasant hill......he became more and more greedy and then would cry and pull guilt trips to get us to "help him". he just wanted to stay drunk and live in misery. He still does. It's just so sad that that's what he thinks is a good life.
Did you call him a Bum to his face? Like hey here is my friend Bob, he's a bum and I am taking him home with me. Did you say to yourself, hey I like helping bums? Then did you say to yourself, hey I would love to help Bob my bum friend except that he is sick? It is a shame about my bum friend, he is so ill he likes to live in misery? I would have dropped him like a hot stone if he didn't come around too my way of thinking/acting too.
 

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
jdcamb said:
Did you call him a Bum to his face? Like hey here is my friend Bob, he's a bum and I am taking him home with me. Did you say to yourself, hey I like helping bums? Then did you say to yourself, hey I would love to help Bob my bum friend except that he is sick? It is a shame about my bum friend, he is so ill he likes to live in misery? I would have dropped him like a hot stone if he didn't come around too my way of thinking/acting too.
Heath is not stupid or petty. I know personally, he actually hired me at my shop I still work at now. And we became friends despite huge differences in politics and religion.

But how much time can you invest into one person, and have it come up lemons? Homeless are not exactly looking for bootstrap to pull themselves up.

I personally spent alot of time working with inner city youth. Kids are more fun to be around and I feel that the time invested in them pay off big divendends. Adults are too set in the ways sometimes to make a big difference.
 

jdcamb

Tool Time!
Feb 17, 2002
19,800
8,383
Nowhere Man!
sanjuro said:
I personally spent alot of time working with inner city youth. Kids are more fun to be around and I feel that the time invested in them pay off big divendends. Adults are too set in the ways sometimes to make a big difference.
Thats cool. I spent a lot of time being an inner city youth. I always appreciated some good attention. My involvement in cycling is from someone who invested time in me. I however disagree about your adult assessment.
 

rooftest

Monkey
Jul 10, 2005
611
0
OC, CA
Leethal said:
I would guess the Dasani and Starbucks were pulled from the trash...
Nope - the Dasani was covered with condensation and was full - he had just bought it from the gas station's 'fridge.

How about the homeless that smoke? Those things are $5 a pack in CA now.