[HN Gopher] A stranger secretly lived in my home
___________________________________________________________________
A stranger secretly lived in my home
Author : Gupie
Score : 89 points
Date : 2021-09-10 11:18 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
| bob229 wrote:
| the guardian is trash, it's amazing anyone reads it. Stop sharing
| it
| spoonjim wrote:
| This story was covered in a more riveting way on a podcast I once
| heard, but I can't remember the name of it.
| eth0up wrote:
| Motion - Never leave home without it
|
| * https://motion-project.github.io/
|
| Several options I use are:
|
| 1. Simply upload images/vids to server, cloud etc.
|
| 2. Write images to external drive in mounted safe, if offline.
|
| I've a script to initiate it with nohup, then activate physlock.
| This helps protect the data.
|
| A fantastic and less caveman implementation is described by this
| HN comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24587745
|
| No Amazon politics[1] and minimal data vulnerability.
|
| 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21346307
| knbknb wrote:
| In 2009 there was a Finnish woman who lived inside the buildings
| of the Berlin Tegel airport, for several months. She was mentally
| disturbed.
|
| https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/escape-to-berli...
| niffydroid wrote:
| The worst part of the story for me was the puppy. I couldn't care
| about her, but poor puppy
| tarun_anand wrote:
| How did this comment make to the top of HN?
|
| The quality is deteriorating...
| melenaboija wrote:
| This works with votes and flags, the more votes a post or
| comment of people visiting HN the higher it gets, inverse to
| flags and some other factors but you will find more detail
| here:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html
|
| About quality I guess is subjective but I would say there are
| two options here:
|
| - use the voting system to accommodate it to your quality
| standards
|
| - don't visit the page
| bjelkeman-again wrote:
| Also weekends have had a quite long tradition of having more
| general interest subjects posted.
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| Agreed. I like that it feels like days off.
| tarun_anand wrote:
| Not noticed it but as I said we always have the option to
| look elsewhere for "hacker" news
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| > - use the voting system to accommodate it to your quality
| standards
|
| The downvoting seems increasingly bizarre. I have a post on
| this page downvoted; I said the post above was reasonable.
|
| The reasonable post was correcting me; it brought up a point
| I had missed.
| tarun_anand wrote:
| Yes I guess not the place for "hacker" news anymore...
| whirlingdervish wrote:
| A couple years ago one of the devs I work with came in to the
| office very early for some reason and discovered a man sleeping
| in one of the conference rooms. After the fact we discovered that
| an emergency exit door wasn't locking properly.
|
| He didn't take anything even though he could have easily made off
| with tens of thousands of dollars of electronics. He just needed
| somewhere to sleep.
| stevezsa8 wrote:
| Your office got off lucky.
|
| We had a guy walk into our office behind employees. No one
| challenged the trespasser... he walked off with a stack of
| laptops.
| Scarblac wrote:
| As a teenager I worked in a large logistics center for
| supermarkets. Usually we would fill trucks that brought the
| supplies to the supermarkets, but rarely they had ran out of
| something small and would come to us with a van or so.
|
| So one day two guys drive up with a van, park it at a loading
| dock, go into the warehouse and start loading the van with
| coffee. They even got help from some workers. Turns out they
| weren't related to any customers at all, they just stole a
| van full of coffee.
|
| Which wouldn't be worth a story... But two weeks later, the
| same guys did the exact same thing again, at the same
| logistics center. Successfully, again. That takes some nerve.
| AussieWog93 wrote:
| >So one day two guys drive up with a van, park it at a
| loading dock, go into the warehouse and start loading the
| van with coffee. They even got help from some workers.
|
| Reminds me of that scene from Trailer Park Boys
|
| https://youtu.be/8d-bM-Whsmk
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| > Your office got off lucky.
|
| I disagree. Sleeper guy wanted to crash & didn't want their
| hardware. There wasn't meaningful risk.
|
| I think we make the mistake that perceiving risk makes it
| real. It's reality that determines our actual risk tho.
| anm89 wrote:
| right, thats why they were lucky
| tdeck wrote:
| They got lucky in the sense that their exit door was
| unlocked, and anyone (not just the sleeper guy) could have
| discovered it.
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| This is reasonable.
| nsxwolf wrote:
| Did you ask the women in your office how they felt about
| that incident?
| SkipperCat wrote:
| Sadly that person could be charged with a crime instead of
| being recognized as a person in need.
|
| We should be viewing these situations as a cry for help instead
| of a criminal activity. This is what I hoped the "Defund the
| Police" movement was targeting. Sadly that phrase had good
| intentions but pretty bad optics.
| actually_a_dog wrote:
| Even more sad is the fact that, although it's probably rare,
| there are some people who will commit crimes in order to get
| arrested, because it gets them off the street.
|
| https://www.vice.com/en/article/4agyzq/a-homeless-
| mississipp...
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| > We should be viewing these situations as a cry for help
| instead of a criminal activity.
|
| You're right. When we uphold a law for the law's sake, we've
| lost our way.
| SkipperCat wrote:
| Agreed - the "three strikes" and mandatory minimum
| sentencing guidelines have had judges forced to issue
| sentences which they, and their communities, felt were
| absurdly high.
| vegetablepotpie wrote:
| Right, but laws enforced selectively based on feelings is
| its own form of tyranny.
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| It can be but usually isn't.
|
| The value of a local, penalty-backed law is in it's
| ability to guide bulk behavior. These laws imply a
| bargain we make with our governments, that enforcement
| will be limited to the stated objective.
|
| Reducing traffic speeds by citing a few speeders - this
| upholds that bargain. Citing every possible speeder while
| those fines fatten the police budget is a gross
| perversion.
| toomim wrote:
| Some people believe that phrase had good intentions.
|
| Other people, like the NYTimes, believe it literally means
| abolish the police:
| https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/opinion/sunday/floyd-
| abol...
| themacguffinman wrote:
| You mean "Mariame Kaba" not the NYTimes, because that is an
| NYT Opinion piece written by someone outside the NYT who
| does not necessarily represent the NYT's editorial views.
| Publishing other relevant perspectives that in-house
| journalists may not write for is the entire point of the
| Opinion section in every publication.
| bloodguard wrote:
| We had an AC tech ask us if we knew someone was living on our
| roof. Turns out an coworker's GF kicked him out of his house*
| and he was living up there.
|
| Tent, free wifi, showers next to the bike room, full kitchen
| and big 80 inch TVs down in the conference rooms. He was livin'
| the life. He said he usually took down the tent and hid
| everything every morning but just got complacent.
|
| *Yes. His house. She told the cops she felt in danger. Cops
| told him he had to stay somewhere else and go through the
| eviction process. Mad world.
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| > Yes. His house. She told the cops she felt in danger. Cops
| told him he had to stay somewhere else and go through the
| eviction process. Mad world.
|
| The pendulum needed to swing toward protecting women by
| default. As these things happen, it may have swung to a point
| where nuance needs to be applied.
|
| Your example seems fairly complex. I couldn't opine on it w/o
| knowing the details of the complaint.
|
| I can offer a different example. My ex's mental illness
| sometimes required me to take a stronger hand in her life,
| than would be benign otherwise. One time, she was in a
| delusional state. She stole my van and left the area. I
| wasn't able to report it stolen because she was my wife. The
| police were protecting her from the possibility that I was
| lying and using the police to harass her.
|
| A stranger found her in the middle of the night, hundreds of
| miles away, in a remote area wrapped only in a towel -
| obviously not herself. I directed the guy to call the police
| because he could do that. Local cops delivered her to a
| facility where she was stabilized.
|
| What I would change is that I would have had tightly limited
| status as her caregiver. I'd want my wife and I to be
| regularly evaluated by a female mental health professional,
| who had training to detect manipulative spouses. In cases
| where my wife might be in distress, police would defer to me.
| Meanwhile the details would be immediately forwarded to the
| MH pro overseeing my spouse, who'd have authority to
| intervene, if she saw an issue.
| pengaru wrote:
| Did your employer offer him a job as night security guard?
|
| It appears he really badly wanted the position...
| [deleted]
| nsxwolf wrote:
| He also might have attacked or raped someone. That is not a
| safe situation. It's not just about property.
| blamazon wrote:
| Weirdly wholesome story, despite the dark undercurrent. Those of
| a certain faith may argue the stranger was an angel.
| rubinlinux wrote:
| This reminded me of my aunt, who recently expressed concerns like
| this. Someone uses my toothpaste, "I just bought this tube a few
| weeks ago and it is almost empty" for example. And similar with
| ice cream etc. Thing is, it was her. She has recently been
| committed to a facility with Alzheimer's. At certain times, as
| the disease drifts in and out, she is quite present and sane, and
| cannot explain to herself the lost time any other way.
| elcano wrote:
| 'The Secret Apartment' is the story of a Vietnam vet who claims
| to have lived in Veterans Stadium for years
|
| https://www.inquirer.com/news/the-secret-apartment-vet-stadi...
| [deleted]
| georgewsinger wrote:
| This read like it could have been a chapter out of a Stephen King
| novel, until the stranger saved the puppy:
|
| > I got a puppy. While she was being toilet-trained, I kept her
| in the bathroom. One day, when I was out, the apartment flooded.
| I came home to find the puppy in the sink. She was tiny. I didn't
| know how she could have got up there unless someone had put her
| there to save her.
| pen2l wrote:
| I visited SanFran a couple of years ago, and this reminded me
| of a homeless guy, in his late 60s I imagine, that I saw at a
| fast food chain.
|
| So I was I think at in-and-out, and a homeless guy was going
| through the garbage bin to find food. When I came over to dump
| my stuff in the bin, he was immediately considerate and stepped
| aside so I could dump the covers and napkins, whilst making
| sibilant sounds and keeping his gaze down in a strangely
| submissive manner. And then the staff came over and tried to
| make him leave the place. I recall he said no actual word but
| put a mild challenge with more sibilant sounds but eventually
| left. And I remember thinking, well, he smelled and I tried to
| avoid physical contact, but was there really a need to make him
| leave, and take away what small dignity the world had assigned
| him? Clearly mentally off, I don't know, but trying to survive
| in the way that he can. But I find myself thinking again what I
| thought then -- there, but for the grace of god go I
| kelp wrote:
| Living in one of the worse parts of San Francisco, for the
| past few years (west SOMA), I can say that people going
| through your trash is quite a nuisance.
|
| You'll put your trash out for pickup day, and a significant
| portion of the time, someone will come and go through it. And
| often as they are going through it, they will just throw
| random things on the ground. So our little side street kind
| of has a constant layer of trash.
|
| The city does employ people to come through and pick it up,
| and they do that regularly, but they would have to do it
| daily to really keep the street clean. I think they come more
| like weekly.
|
| Tangentially, I was walking my dog this morning, and had to
| ensure she didn't step on the used hypodermic needle on the
| sidewalk. Nothing covering the needle. This happens all the
| time.
|
| Right now they are at least 3 tents on my small side street
| block.
|
| For businesses, like if you were at an In-n-out you must have
| been at Fishermans wharf, that's the only one in SF. They
| regularly have to ask people to leave who are acting in
| various disruptive ways, and bothering their customers.
|
| A few years back, I was sitting at a bar in SF, that had
| outdoor tables. I think I was on a first (and only) date. I
| guy walked up, took my dates glass of white wine, drank the
| whole thing down, and then said "I'm an alcoholic". And then
| just stood there looking at us.
|
| (Also as someone who's lived in San Francisco for years, I
| just can't help but be triggered when someone says San Fran.)
| throwdecro wrote:
| It's a city, not a mall. If you want to keep alcoholics
| away from your beverage, it would make sense to not have it
| out by the sidewalk when they stroll by. Otherwise, that's
| life in the (sorta) big city.
| kwhitefoot wrote:
| > that's life in the (sorta) big city.
|
| Not in any city where I have had a drink in a pavement
| cafe! Not even in the US.
| nelsondev wrote:
| You are victim blaming, and have low standards.
|
| I, for one, would like to live in a city where I can
| eat/drink outside without fear of someone stealing my
| food.
| pengaru wrote:
| And I want a pony
| throw1234651234 wrote:
| Yeaaaa, but you guys have SEALS and electric skooters that
| tell you where the bad areas of the city are (where you
| can't leave your scoot). It's good times all around. And
| that windy road thingy.
| lisper wrote:
| > people going through your trash is quite a nuisance.
|
| Sure, but who is ultimately responsible for this, the
| people going through the trash, or the people who have
| structured our society in such a way that there are people
| who think their best option in life is to scavenge other
| people's trash? Because I'm pretty sure that the people
| going through the trash would stop in an instant if they
| were offered a better alternative.
| anm89 wrote:
| there are no "people who structure society" in a
| meaningful sense. no one sat in a meeting and said " ok
| lets design it so some people have to eat out of the
| trashcan"
|
| yes some people have more pull than others, maybe a lot
| more, but even the president doesnt have that kind of
| ability to "structure" the day to day reality of average
| people ina generalized way
| lisper wrote:
| > there are no "people who structure society" in a
| meaningful sense
|
| That is ridiculous. Our society is governed by laws and
| social norms. Those are not handed down from heaven by
| the gods, they are made by people. Yes, it's true that
| "the people who structure society" is not a small or
| easily-identifiable group. That doesn't mean that this
| group of people does not exist. It most assuredly does
| (and if you are on HN you are probably a member of that
| group).
| anm89 wrote:
| If all of HN is in this group than the group is so large
| as to be meaningless. 1% of all Americans is more than 3
| million people.
|
| I certainly don't wake up in the morning and ordain where
| people get there food from even if I'm an incremental
| part of structures that have some influence on the
| economics of America (all voters are)
|
| > That doesn't mean that this group of people does not
| exist.
|
| This logic sounds a whole lot like what a moon landing
| denier would say. I'm not saying you are in that group
| but the line of reasoning is the same.
| lisper wrote:
| That is equally ridiculous. A group does not become
| meaningless once it gets beyond a certain size. The
| Republican Party is very large. That does not make it
| meaningless.
| swman wrote:
| I live close to Los Angeles so here's my take. Even where
| I live an hour away there is a sizable homeless
| population.
|
| Most people who enter homelessness leave it within a
| couple of weeks. That's because these are people like you
| and me who due to unlucky bad circumstances are out on
| the street. They want to get back on their feet so they
| take advantage of social services, don't have drug
| addictions or mental illnesses, and maybe have broader
| support structure through friends and family.
|
| Then you have about 40% of the chronically homeless who
| are unfortunately not served well by the public services.
| These folks have mental illness that is left untreated
| and it's sad to see them die slowly on the streets. These
| are fellow humans who are mentally incapable of making
| decisions, and they need full time care or something that
| puts them in a safer environment. We have ignored mental
| illness in this country.
|
| The remainder is basically people who willingly want to
| be homeless and do drugs. They won't enter shelters
| because you can't do drugs there. They won't take up
| temporary housing because the hosts ask for basic decency
| like no raging inside.
|
| I think we need to make a clear separation between
| mentally ill/addicts and those who want to just do their
| own thing. Ultimately I'm paying A LOT in taxes and I
| feel that I have a right to access the public parks and
| not have to deal with belligerent people who pose a
| safety threat to the community. I can excuse the folks
| with mental illnesses or drug addiction as I believe we
| have an opportunity to help them - but if some folks
| adamantly refuse help then I'm not going to settle for
| letting public places just become dumping grounds.
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| > Most people who enter homelessness leave it within a
| couple of weeks.
|
| I'm a bit skeptical of the "Most" claim but it's based on
| anecdotal evidence from recent years of interacting with
| our sizable homeless community. I haven't seen any stats.
|
| > They want to get back on their feet so they take
| advantage of social services
|
| While the first part is undeniably true, the latter
| depends on the availability or existence of social
| services. Southern US states are openly hostile toward
| folks with long term vulnerabilities. Where services
| exist, politicians here proudly trim them back where they
| can.
|
| >and maybe have broader support structure through friends
| and family.
|
| My mom rescued me from homelessness when I was a
| teenager. The odds of escaping homelessness without help
| are ~0.
| grkvlt wrote:
| you are interacting with the chronic permanently homeless
| population, what gp is talking about is the fact that
| there is an even larger population of temporarily
| homeless. although the statement is true, i don't think
| it is a useful distinction, because what most people mean
| by 'homeless' is those chronic cases, anyway, and that is
| the problem society, government and homeless charities
| are trying to solve. acknowledging there is another set
| of people with similar problems is great, but as pointed
| out, these people generally are getting the support they
| need, and are a 'solved' problem (in some sense) unlike
| the people you have been interacting with, who still need
| some kind of help and are not receiving it...
|
| the skepticism is justified by simply defining
| homelessness as being without a home for more than a few
| weeks (the 'usual' definition, tbh) thus making gp's
| statement obviously false, i suppose.
| noasaservice wrote:
| > Because I'm pretty sure that the people going through
| the trash would stop in an instant if they were offered a
| better alternative.
|
| Mostly, yes. Having been homeless myself for an extended
| period, I saw just how much mental illnesses impact so
| many people experiencing homelessness.
|
| In my completely unscientific lodgings with them, I'd say
| its probably around 30% of the people have some sort of
| debilitating mental illness. I had other reasons for
| homelessness (lost job, eviction) which are much more
| mechanical and easier to fix.
|
| I've talked with my SO about the mentally ill on the
| streets, and the only plan that seems to might work is to
| forcefully treat them, get them mentally sound, explain
| their whole situation, and have them choose. It would be
| in writing, and sealed with a palmscan. And I get that
| forcefully treating them once may be considered
| abhorrent, but they are not able in their state of mind
| to make decisions for themselves.
|
| Once they're of sound mind, they should then have
| complete agency to choose to remain on the streets, or to
| obtain emergency services to get out of homelessness.
| watwut wrote:
| AFAIK, it is kind of cycle. Being mentally ill makes you
| more likely to be homeless. Being homeless makes all your
| mental health issues much much worst.
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| > AFAIK, it is kind of cycle.
|
| For folks who need meds, getting them to stay on them can
| be hugely difficult. It's even harder when that person
| lacks shelter and support.
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| I was homeless for less than a year. In my case, my mom
| (term cancer) and I were tossed from our long time family
| home.
|
| The way - the only way - my homelessness ended is I had
| help.
| ficklepickle wrote:
| I know it is a tempting idea, but forced treatment is an
| oxymoron. You can't force anybody to get healthy,
| unfortunately. As usual, prevention is worth a metric
| shit ton of treatment. Apart from that, all you can
| really do is reduce harm and marginally improve quality
| of life through housing, etc. Not that a marginal
| improvement in QoL is anything to scoff at.
| trulyme wrote:
| Or maybe just offer them some basic food for free, so
| they don't need to dig in trash cans for it? At least the
| western societies (I don't know and have no opinion on
| others) are producing enough food that there is no reason
| not to offer some basic nutrition to everyone.
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| > At least the western societies are producing enough
| food that there is no reason not to offer some basic
| nutrition to everyone.
|
| I live in one of the southern US states that tends to be
| hostile towards people in need. My kids and I had on-and-
| off hunger 2008-2018.
| yesasaservice wrote:
| (created alt cause of HN's idiotic "posting too fast" -
| how dare I have a conversation with people online)
|
| I don't understand what I said somehow excludes helping
| in other ways.
|
| My views are probably a bit more radical, in that I think
| that everyone should have free food. Homeless, homeful,
| working, unemployed, citizen, foreigner. Everyone. No
| exceptions. And, we already have a basis to maintain this
| system - SNAP.
|
| So when I talked about how to help those whom are
| experiencing homelessness combined with debilitating
| mental illnesses, I'm talking of making that program...
| Not by destroying other programs.
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| My 1 second old idea is for their psych clinic to offer
| free food in trade for checking their blood levels. It
| the meds are insufficient, they get Rx food.
|
| Can't tell if I'll offer that idea again, once I think
| about it.
| kirsebaer wrote:
| There are very few mentally ill people wandering the
| streets in Oslo, Norway. I have seen one guy with unkept
| dredlocks who seems to enjoy hanging around and chatting
| to passers by, but he almost certainly has a public-
| funded apartment and generous disability pension.
|
| The difference is very striking compared with Boston (a
| city with similar climate to Oslo) where there are many
| obviously mentally ill people wandering around talking
| nonsense, begging for money, carrying their things in
| plastic bags, and sleeping on the ground.
| lisper wrote:
| > there, but for the grace of god go I
|
| You might be interested in this:
|
| https://graceofgodmovie.com/
|
| [Disclosure: that is my movie.]
| SmkyMt wrote:
| I look forward to viewing it this evening. And FWIW: It
| could motivate me to _buy_ ($20) rather than _rent ($4)
| [from Amazon] if I knew the respective portions that go to
| (your) production company rather than just to Amazon.
| lisper wrote:
| Yes, I get a cut of every sale and rental, thought I
| don't recall exactly how much. It's a very small income
| stream and I don't really need the money. So much as I
| appreciate the gesture, you should feel free to rent.
| Frankly, a good review is worth much more to me than a
| sale.
| julianh95 wrote:
| +1 on this. I'd much rather spend more money if I knew it
| directly supported the creator/maker/etc. I often do this
| with my purchases where I look for their direct website
| and purchase from there.
| yann2 wrote:
| Offtopic but I feel I must add, sibilant sounds are an
| effective way to get boring meetings to end quick.
| mc32 wrote:
| They are also tropes in old movies and cartoons when
| someone wants to pretend "there is nothing to see here, I'm
| just whistling in the wind... minding my own business"
| maybe throw in some foot shuffling.
| elcano wrote:
| I would assume that you would have to very mentally stable to
| resist all that humiliation without going nuts.
|
| I have a friend that wasn't homeless, but all unemployment
| money was used on rent required to keep his shared custody
| (without an apartment to house the kids, you cannot have
| custody). He always was clean and used good clothes, but he
| made the line with homeless people to get free food daily.
| Otherwise he wouldn't have money to eat.
|
| He said that the worst part of all was the look from
| voluntary women that were working on the food delivery
| organization. Each woman reacts differently to men. But he
| says that this is completely different. The look is like if
| he wasn't even a man - it's like they are feeding a lesser
| species. He says that he have never experienced the same
| reaction from women in other contexts, and that it hurts. It
| steals away all feeling of manliness. Luckily he got out of
| that situation many years ago.
| throw1234651234 wrote:
| Pro-tip on charity - see someone eating out of the trash?
| They could probably actually use your money. Much more
| effective than giving it to panhandlers.
| bbarnett wrote:
| They're looking for recyclables (for deposit refunds), and
| other things of value.
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| I have been wondering how I'd feel if someone cleaned out
| our recycle bins, before the truck picks them up. Our
| house alone goes thru a lot of aluminum.
| nobodyandproud wrote:
| In NYC a few years back, old women and men (elderly,
| often Chinese?) would regularly go through the trash
| refuse bins and collect cans and bottles. It was
| apparently a way to feel useful and busy while also
| earning some money.
|
| One of my passing thoughts is that recycling could be a
| way to keep people occupied and also perform an extremely
| useful service. That is, expand on this.
|
| The cynic in me, however, feels that this would turn into
| a dystopian nightmare rather quickly.
| pbourke wrote:
| Or at least a meal from the restaurant.
| throw1234651234 wrote:
| Yea, there is that aspect of it. Ideally, I will go buy
| them a meal, so they can't use the money for other
| things. I personally don't indulge in "other things", but
| I don't know how concerned I am about them using the
| money for that either. I think it's very, very difficult
| for someone digging through trash to get their life
| together, so if they indulge, they indulge. Note that
| it's not a comment on their character or anything of the
| sort, just the sheer number of things needed to re-adjust
| in society from zero, with zero real help.
|
| Another point is that in most countries outside of the
| US, panhandlers are either "working for themselves" and
| make decent money, perhaps better than at a low-end job
| while having proper living arrangements, etc (and thus
| "rob" the true poor from the donation). It can also be
| worse, with situations where panhandlers are actually
| curated by an organizer who pays them a salary and takes
| a profit. The latter schemes are also mixed up in
| exploitation.
|
| Now that I type it all out, I am realizing that buying a
| meal also prevents the second scenario too. Good stuff.
| ipaddr wrote:
| From a logical point of view from a resource management
| perspective you giving them money is better and allows
| them to get more bang from that gift.
|
| You buy a McD combo drop it off and feel good. They have
| to eat it right away. There stomach will not be able to
| handle it all. They cannot save split the food.
|
| If you give them money they could still dumpster dive for
| food, keep the money and buy other things they need like
| (maxi pads, or 1 food bar every morning for a week or a
| stamp to mail someone or quarters to make a call). They
| can buy a smaller meal or food in a form that will allow
| them to space it out over time. Most importantly they can
| buy the type of food that works best from them.
|
| 5 dollars could have multiplier effect. A pre-purchased
| fast food meal will leaving the homeless person craving
| for days.
|
| The homeless are drinking/doing drugs less than homed
| people drinking/doing drugs because they don't have the
| resources. I would be concerned with salaried beggers.
| throw1234651234 wrote:
| That's a valid point as well.
| grkvlt wrote:
| if you give someone begging on the street with a drug
| habit money that they use for drugs, they either won't
| have to steal to fund their habit or they won't suffer
| through painful drug withdrawl, neither of which is good
| (the first for society, the second for them) so there's
| that. whether it'd be the ethically correct thing to
| refuse just because you don't approve of drug use is a
| complicated question...
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| I had a guy ask for $5 to buy cigarettes and beer. I gave
| it to him. Too often, I can't buy honesty at any price.
| bshimmin wrote:
| If you have nothing better to do, many of the "Experience" series
| in The Guardian are a fun read:
| https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/series/experience
| Zababa wrote:
| I like how honest the titles are, especially with the
| "Experience: " before everything.
| davidwritesbugs wrote:
| Many many years ago I got kicked out of student halls at
| university. I used to keep my stuff in my lockers and sleep in
| the bathing rooms all night. If people tried to use one I'd yell
| "In the bath". One time I slept in a student lounge behind some
| sofas and very late a couple came in and made out, and I remained
| as still as I could. As they left the girl said "I could swear
| there was someone else in there" haha.
| bserge wrote:
| Wasn't there a similar story in Japan? Also multiple stories of
| people secretly living in office building and warehouses. Gotta
| make do, I guess.
| TigeriusKirk wrote:
| At one company I worked for, a new hire started living on a
| floor under construction in the building. He thought no one
| knew, but we all did. Stayed up there for months since
| management was afraid of confronting him about it for some
| reason. He did do good work, I guess.
| newsbinator wrote:
| How did everybody know? What gave it away?
| marcinzm wrote:
| At my university a student lived in the physics building for a
| while since they didn't want to commute. I've also heard that
| at my high school, after I graduated, a kid was found sleeping
| in the drop ceiling due to likely an abusive home.
| dhosek wrote:
| After the first time I dropped out of college, I had a three
| week period of homelessness. Since students had the keypad
| codes for after-hours access to the academic buildings, I
| slept in the math department lounge. There was a visiting
| professor from Germany, I think, who would come into the
| lounge every morning, see me sleeping and leave. I then would
| hide my pillow and blanket behind the sofa and walk to a dorm
| at the far end of campus where I could take a shower (most of
| the dorms on campus had bathrooms accessible only from dorm
| rooms but the one farthest away had a more traditional
| bathroom down the hall arrangement--and also a keypad whose
| code I knew).
|
| I like to imagine that the visiting professor would come back
| with some other faculty/staff member in tow saying, "I tell
| you, he's HERE! sleeping in the lounge!" only to be treated
| like Big Bird trying to show people Snuffleupagous.
| selimthegrim wrote:
| I lived in my office for a month or two when I was a grad
| student at a UC about a decade ago. I just put cardboard all
| over the windows.
| gumby wrote:
| RMS moved into his office after his house was burned down in an
| insurance fire.
| jmclnx wrote:
| Many years ago this happened in my area, it was in a grocery
| store (part of a large chain), but not as bad as in her house.
|
| When workers showed up, they would be 1 or 2 wrappings on the
| floor and other minor things people would not take major notice
| of.
|
| He got caught because the night crew schedule was changed and
| never posted, he was found walking in his night cloths.
|
| He was a in his (low 20s) lived in a forgotten attic above the
| main store. Seemed he was an ex-employee who had setup a nice
| small apartment up there. Had a bed, small frig and a TV. He
| lived there for years.
|
| They never prosecuted him because the company would be
| embarrassed.
|
| These days I would think that would be very hard to do with all
| the cameras around.
|
| I know this because I worked at that store right after he got
| caught when I was very young.
| tompazourek wrote:
| The critically acclaimed South Korean movie "Parasite" has a
| story like that.
| guyomes wrote:
| Another recommended Korean movie with a story like that is
| "3-iron". It has a more poetic approach.
| tomcooks wrote:
| When I was cycling between Lisbon wnd Istanbul I made sure to
| either sleep far from view or to be as obnoxiously visible as
| possible (calling the local municipality, cleaning around
| campsite, knocking doors of farms nearby) precisely to avoid
| scaring people. I was lucky enough to do my homelessness as a
| choice, I can only imagine how many persons do this in city
| environments ourbof need of a shelter.
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