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Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Why Homeless People Sleep In The Cold - And Die

You can’t miss them when you walk around a city: shapeless masses pressed up against buildings or into corners. Homeless people sleeping outside, even now when the temperature is cold and dropping. The lucky ones preserve their body heat under a pile of blankets; others make do with cardboard boxes or layers of clothes.

Some die. About 700 a year in the United States. The solution seems obvious: their lives would be saved if they slept in the warmth of a homeless shelter. But there aren’t enough shelter beds to go around, and some of the beds that do exist come with very unappealing strings attached:

1. The “#1 Reason Homeless People Don’t Use Shelters [is the] Lack of Available Beds,” writes formerly homeless Kylyssa Shay. Shelters are over-crowded in many, if not most, cities. People must line up hours before the facility opens to secure a bed for the night, and go through the same process the next day and the next.

2. Those who hold jobs (and many homeless people do) can’t always be in line at 4:30 in the afternoon, so they cannot get a shelter bed. Those who choose to stand in line may give up on finding employment because of the schedule.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

that hotel that the dumbass city of salisbury just gleefully destroyed could have been turned into an excellent city operated homeless shelter, but that would have been a SENSIBLE thing to do with a perfectly sound building, but of course government in america today doesn't DO sensible. instead, they put on a big show by destroying something just to teach us all a valuable "lesson", the GOVERNMENT is yer daddy.....DUMBASSES!!!

Anonymous said...

1:35
If they did that they would lose the taxes they collect for that property. With the college and the hospital buying up all the property in Salisbury they are losing lots of money since neither pay city tax. They are looking for anyway they can to make money. The people in Parsonsburg better keep alert. It's an unincorporated town and I think Salisbury has their eyes on it.

Anonymous said...

If they did that, a lot of people would be on here complaining of all the homeless hanging around that area.

Panhandling, loitering, looking suspicious, etc.

Nobody wants to see them. If fact, they are more or less invisible to most people.

People give a lot of lip service regarding 'helping our own first', but in reality, they complain about that too.

Anonymous said...

homeless shelters are provided by the local churches throughout the winter months. these shelters provide three meals a day and a warm bed. they also come with rules, common sense rules. most times they are not full. we do not need the government getting involved to screw it up

Anonymous said...

Some homeless people are scared to go into shelters, especially in big cities. Also, many of them are mentally ill and you can't reason with them. They're living in their own version of reality.