So I’m in Eindhoven right now after missing the last train home. I figured I’d walk to this little park where I went last time I was in Eindhoven.
Last time I was there, a homeless guy was sleeping on a bench here. But now look at it:
Problem solved! Boomers don’t have to suffer the sight of homeless people anymore. Now there are just two garbage cans hovering in a void.
I think I’m just going to sleep in the grass.
Last time I was in Bremerton I noticed they closed down the homeless shelter, so now all the hobos just sleep in-front of it now. We already had a couple tent villages but now I think they’re only going to grow. I love my country.
It seems from a cursory search that there are hotel rooms in Eindhoven for as cheap as €65 for the night, that’s honestly not that bad, way cheaper than my nearest city.
> Choose life.
But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you’ve got doom porn?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SaP7qmsQbSI?&t=71
My church is hosting the rotating emergency homeless shelter in town this month; each month it is a different church. We have to provide sleeping quarters and dinners and food for other meals. It is a huge project for each church that does it.
So I dropped supplies off last night and met some of the guests. It was almost all white guys age late 20s to 60s; I did see one Asian girl and one lady in her 70s. In years gone by we got a number of recent immigrants and people who seemed to have drug issues, but all of these guys seemed like anyone else, other than demoralized and embarrassed and worn out. It’s just that there is not enough housing. It’s a Democrat thing; at least in a Republican state you can live in a cheap shack and not have to live in your car or in a temporary shelter and be fed food cooked by crazy church ladies.
>at least in a Republican state you can live in a cheap shack and not have to live in your car or in a temporary shelter
Yes, states like Mississippi have entire villages that look like the zombie apocalypse broke out.
But that’s not really something to be proud of I’d say.
It beats being cold at night. There was a middle class lady at the shelter last year who had permanent frostbite damage on both hands from sleeping outside; her hands were rotting away. You can snicker at crummy houses all you want, but it is still better than freezing. The red states do way better: https://www.lendingtree.com/home/mortgage/homelessness-study/. The median house price in Mississippi is about a quarter of the median house price in California.
You slept outside in winter? Did you have a sleeping bag or tent? The times I have slept outside, even in warm weather, I was paranoid that something nasty might happen. It’s illogical but kind of atavistic maybe. If there is someone else there it makes it much easier, much more of a lark. I have never done it alone in an urban or suburban setting.
It’s not illogical to think you could be killed. This guy is near where I grew up; an area I know well; it is a very safe area overall but he would be dead if not for his dog alerting him: https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a62875397/homelessness-in-america/. He sleeps in his car but one can’t be in one’s car every second. The “nice” areas in blue states (and in the red states) in the U.S. are that way because the homeless people are driven away, not because they take care of the homeless. The only real answer is cheaper housing, like things were even twenty years ago. The worst part is that this guy grew up where he is homeless, and still there is nothing for him and his teeth are all falling out and his kidney function is 30 percent.
No, I tried falling asleep but everything was too hard. In the end I just stayed up and wandered around town doing side-quests. I found someone’s phone and tried to convince a local guy at a hotel to keep it safe, but the guy was a bit of a moron, so I ended up bringing it to the police instead.