« There's talk of an income tax increase to help fund something or other to help provide more resources to homeless people locally and uh. Folks are getting testy at the mere THOUGHT.

Lots of "hard working people" and "other people's bad decisions" and "lazy" getting thrown around
And people backtrack, which is fun, like "Oh well I mean YOU obviously worked hard and got yourself out of it, YOU were a GOOD homeless"

No. I got lucky. That's all.

I got lucky, and so many others didn't,  don't, and never will.
Because instead of getting a helping hand, they get called names and they get jailed and they get abused and they get ground into the dirt by every little pissant fortunate enough to never ever have found themselves without a home to go to.

I know firsthand how precarious housing can become virtually overnight.

If you don't know what that feels like, you don't have any right to talk about it as if you would do better in that situation.

I guarantee you that you would not.

If you were suddenly out in the world with only the belongings you can carry, without regular access to bathrooms, food, water,  and just public ground to try to sleep on - I guarantee you that you would not do as well as you think at recovering from that change in circumstance.

One more thing about "lazy" and homelessness:

Whenever someone refers to homeless people as lazy, I can't help but laugh. There's no faster way to make it crystal clear that you have no idea whatsoever what homelessness is like.

Lazy? My god.

Being homeless is relentless, exhausting work just to meet the bare minimum requirements of survival.

It takes SO MUCH effort to survive homelessness, just finding food and water and safe spots to sleep, even without taking into consideration the cruelty of strangers. »