After I began adding labels here yesterday, I found a list on an old draft of half-baked plans for this site. I've used that list to flesh out my labels to try to start making this site more useful.
People often take a really ugly attitude towards homeless people and their relationship to food. Outsiders want to take the position that "Beggars can't be choosers" but a LOT of people on the street have health issues and those health issues come with dietary restrictions.
Good food programs provide healthy options that are also "popular" and don't come across like "I know you are just stupid and won't feed yourself right if I don't decide for you." Try to provide healthy food but also try to provide people choices so they don't have to argue with you about "I can't eat that. I'm allergic." or "I can't eat that. I have diabetes."
Hygiene is the OTHER big thing and we need to do a better job of helping Americans generally have access to public toilets and public sinks and even showers. A lot of health issues deteriorate rapidly if you can't stay clean or get clean again and we do a poor job of giving homeless Americans adequate access to toilets and showers.
We also need to STOP acting like homelessness is a "personal problem" because "you are all junkies and crazies." Even if that were true, which it's not, addiction and mental health issues are a hard problem to solve under the best of circumstances. It's not like people just want to be addicts and mentally ill.
All the data I have seen suggests that the primary root cause of homelessness is...DRUM ROLL PLEASE...the lack of adequate amounts of affordable housing. So we need to be working on solving that issue.
Meanwhile, if you are in homeless services, you can up your game on feeding the homeless WELL and in a manner that helps them get on with their lives rather than insisting they spend all day standing in line at soup kitchens. Free meal sites play an important role in the lives of the homeless population but ideally you should ALSO be providing brown bag lunches or bread and produce as a means to feed them without imposing excessively on their time as if their time has no value.
When you are homeless, solving anything can take a LOT of time. Time is one of the few valuable resources you can have a lot of as a homeless person and homeless services often disrespectfully fritter it away and make the time involved in getting their help an unnecessary and excess burden because in many cases it wouldn't be hard to do it more efficiently, they just don't seem to bother to try because they don't seem to think homeless people actually need or deserve respect for their time.
Original About page.
15 August 2023
- Food
- Stats
- Shelter
- Papers (Mail, ID, taxes)
- Hygiene (Cleanliness, bathrooms, disease)
- Headspace (Mental, emotional, social)
- Utilities (Electricity, internet, phone)
- A Future (Making plans, developing an income, problem solving)
People often take a really ugly attitude towards homeless people and their relationship to food. Outsiders want to take the position that "Beggars can't be choosers" but a LOT of people on the street have health issues and those health issues come with dietary restrictions.
Good food programs provide healthy options that are also "popular" and don't come across like "I know you are just stupid and won't feed yourself right if I don't decide for you." Try to provide healthy food but also try to provide people choices so they don't have to argue with you about "I can't eat that. I'm allergic." or "I can't eat that. I have diabetes."
Hygiene is the OTHER big thing and we need to do a better job of helping Americans generally have access to public toilets and public sinks and even showers. A lot of health issues deteriorate rapidly if you can't stay clean or get clean again and we do a poor job of giving homeless Americans adequate access to toilets and showers.
We also need to STOP acting like homelessness is a "personal problem" because "you are all junkies and crazies." Even if that were true, which it's not, addiction and mental health issues are a hard problem to solve under the best of circumstances. It's not like people just want to be addicts and mentally ill.
All the data I have seen suggests that the primary root cause of homelessness is...DRUM ROLL PLEASE...the lack of adequate amounts of affordable housing. So we need to be working on solving that issue.
Meanwhile, if you are in homeless services, you can up your game on feeding the homeless WELL and in a manner that helps them get on with their lives rather than insisting they spend all day standing in line at soup kitchens. Free meal sites play an important role in the lives of the homeless population but ideally you should ALSO be providing brown bag lunches or bread and produce as a means to feed them without imposing excessively on their time as if their time has no value.
When you are homeless, solving anything can take a LOT of time. Time is one of the few valuable resources you can have a lot of as a homeless person and homeless services often disrespectfully fritter it away and make the time involved in getting their help an unnecessary and excess burden because in many cases it wouldn't be hard to do it more efficiently, they just don't seem to bother to try because they don't seem to think homeless people actually need or deserve respect for their time.
Original About page.
15 August 2023