Some of the things most people don't understand about homelessness

That homeless person you walk by or drive by today, it could be someone like this guy.  Or it could be me.  Or it could be someone closer to the stereotypical homeless person caught in the throws of addiction just struggling to survive day to day.  You don't know... unless you ask.

-There are more spare bedrooms and empty buildings in this country than there are homeless people.

-Every homeless person has a story, and you don't know what that story is unless you get to know the person.  Most of the time that person's story is MUCH DIFFERENT than what popped in your head when you first saw them.

-For every homeless person most of you see today, there are a MILLION people getting a government disability check and being supported by your tax dollars.  That's not a typo, no one has good stats, but the best estimate is that there are around 12 to 15 MILLION people living off of SSI or SSDI, and most of them scammed the system because they are lazy pieces of shit.  Kentucky and West Virginia top the list, but most Southern states are being seriously propped up by the Social Security Disability system, which supports millions of people they can't create jobs for.

-The best thing you can give a homeless person is cash.  Yes, they might use it to buy beer, booze, or drugs, which are likely the same things YOU were going to buy with that money.  More likely though, the money will be used for food personal items, or a motel room.  Cash gives homeless people the options to buy many things with many uses, and not just a single use like a bottle of water or a granola bar.

-It costs money to be homeless.  Right now, I'm an artist/entrepreneur who happens to be homeless at the moment, and it costs me $8 to $12 a day to survive.  An all day bus pass (go to library, run errands) is $3.50 here, and food costs me $5 to $10 a day.  I could live cheaper IF I wasn't working my ass off every day drawing cool pictures and building a business online. 

-Most homeless people led fairly normal, "productive" lives, until some serious event led to homelessness.  Major medical issues are a huge reason a lot of people end up homeless.

-Homeless people have skills.  Most of the homeless guys I've met have basic, handyman-type skills.  Many have some serious carpentry, drywall, and construction-type skills.

-In California I learned that 5%-6% of people will give something to a panhandler on a freeway off ramp.  In North Carolina, deep in Bible Belt, about 1/2 of 1% of people will give something to a panhandler on a freeway off ramp.  Yes, that means "crazy Californians" are, in my actual experience, about 10 to 12 times more likely to help a person in need than people in North Carolina.

- The vast majority of people in our country live in tremendous amounts of fear that they go through their lives avoiding and not facing.  That's why you're so freakin' afraid to simply say "Hi" to a homeless person, among other things.  The single best thing we could do for our society is to face our own fear, and work through it.  Facing your personal fears is a big part of what spirituality is.  I faced a lot of my fears riding my BMX bike in my younger years, working as a taxi driver and living on the streets.  Fear is still and issue, but I've totally changed my relationship to it, and it's not the driving force in life life it was when I was a kid.

-Just because you have a nice place to live doesn't mean you know what a particular homeless person really needs.  MOST of what people give to the homeless are items that are useless, and quickly get thrown away.  Everything you give to a homeless person has to be physically carried, and taken care of, by that person.  I had a guy get upset one time at Christmas because I turned down his offer to give me a 12 pound frozen turkey.  I was on an off ramp in California, panhandling money to get a motel room for a night.  I slept in the bushes most nights.  I had no way to cook anything, you can't start fires in CA, because of the dry climate.  What the fuck would I do with a turkey?  He simply couldn't understand that.

-For an average person, buying a drink at McDonald's, for example, is just a drink.  For a homeless person, buying that drink is actually paying rent for heat or air conditioning, a place to sit down, a halfway decent bathroom, wifi, and a place to charge their phone.

-Every decent sized city or metro area has what I call the "Homeless Merry-go-Round."  This is a series of free meals and shelters that homeless people travel to day after day.  These are run by mostly well-meaning non-profits and church groups.  Once you get on the Merry-go-Round, you go in circles, but never get anywhere.  Most programs for homeless people, help the homeless... stay homeless.  Since I actually have a talent and want to work hard, I avoid these places for the most part.  They do have their role, but you can get stuck going in circles day after day.

-The answer to homelessness is simple, it's "Hey, you can sleep on my couch until you get back on your feet."  But no one wants to hear that.  Homelessness is an industry, and lots of people, mostly non-profit organizations, make money off of homeless people.  It takes several thousand dollars to put a long term homeless person in an apartment and set them up in a normal life.  The other option is to move into someone else's house and blend into that situation.  A large number of good paying jobs would help tens of thousands of homeless and near-homeless people get themselves going again. 

-About 3 million people are homeless in the U.S. every year.  BUT, over 2 million of those people are only homeless for a few weeks or months, and get themselves back into regular life.  Somewhere around 800,000 (according to the best stats I've found) are "chronically homeless," and struggle with getting back to a normal life, for all kinds of reasons, not just addiction. 

-There are far more mentally ill people with a place to live than there are on the streets.  There are far more heavy drinkers and raging alcoholics in nice houses than on the streets.

-There will always be some homeless people in society, because "civilized society" simply doesn't take care of its most vulnerable people.  But we can dramatically reduce the number of homeless people in society, we just don't have the social will to do it. 

-When you become homeless, going to the bathroom and sleeping become ILLEGAL.  You can literally get a ticket or get arrested for doing either of those things.  Think about that for a minute. 

-There are at least 7 million men in the U.S. who don't work, and aren't looking for work.  At least 2/3 of these men get some form of disability or government help.  These people, living off your tax dollars, are usually NOT homeless. 

-There are about 20 million felons in this country, most of whom have trouble finding good work.  These are people who are not in jail or prison, have done their time, paid their debt to society, and have trouble getting back to normal life because of the lack of good paying jobs that will hire felons. 

This post was written by a working artist.  I'm currently homeless in Virginia, and I don't drink alcohol, I don't do any street drugs (and avoid prescription drugs as much as possible).  I'm not a felon, and I've been told I have an I.Q. of between 170 and 180.  I slept out in the open, on old, rough asphalt last night.  There was no rain predicted, and no one really wanders around that area, so I slept pretty well.  A cheap motel room, a nice long shower, and a pizza sounds really freakin' awesome right now, though.  Hit me up to buy a drawing...