RE: I Checked-In To A New York City Homeless Shelter For 3 Months, Here's What Happened (Part I)
I too stayed in homeless shelters from 1979 through 85. Mind you, not all the time. The amount of homeless today is a deep deep sickness on the part of humanity and that it could happen in countries that call themselves Christian is appalling which is why I became a Gnostic as only Gnosticism makes any sense out of this at least from my experiences.
I'm on the balmy west coast now but I remember those cold eastern winters out on the streets and the amount of drugs one had to do to cope with the cold and harsh conditions.
I've written quite a bit about neoliberalism's toxic relationship to the poor although elite attitudes towards the poor long predate neoliberalism. I would say that that economic model concretized or fully institutionalized the worst elements of meanness on the part of the ruling establishment.
Thanks for the excellent post and stay well:)
I completely agree about neoliberalism's hand in creating this mess. The homeless need jobs, money management education, and mental health counseling, so they can stand on their own two feet, not handouts. And instead it's created this co-dependence system where they make just enough to get by, but never enough to get out the welfare and homeless system, so they keep coming back. Then depression sets in and they're completely demotivated to do anything. Thanks for reading!