Whenever the word “homeless” is said, there is an image which seems to come to most people’s minds.\u00a0 Not a specific image, mind you, but a general one:\u00a0 Somebody with dirty, ragged clothes and a dirty body underneath.\u00a0 People think of somebody smelly who begs on street corners for money.\u00a0 Many if not most imagine these people take what money they get and buy booze with it.\u00a0 A lot also imagine the homeless as smoking abandoned, half-smoked cigarettes.<\/p>\n
This last part baffles me.\u00a0 Now, I understand being dirty.\u00a0 Sure, there are places to go and get clean, such as a shelter or the YMCA or something.\u00a0 And the booze is bad, and is (so the story goes) often responsible for the person’s homelessness.\u00a0 I can see, however, somebody going for a day or seven and not showering.\u00a0 It’s nasty, but it may mean going somewhere people may give you ugly looks and it definitely means abandoning your few worldly possessions for a few minutes, and that can be frightening.<\/p>\n
Alcohol, of course, is a serious addiction.\u00a0 Also, I would imagine that somebody who is homeless might get drunk so they can forget they’re homeless.\u00a0 On top of that, the drunken high produced by alcohol can last for hours.\u00a0 It only takes a few minutes to drink a beer (or something stronger), and when it’s gone its effects continue.<\/p>\n
Smoking is also a significant addiction.\u00a0 Drug addicts in rehab have described it as a harder habit to break than any of the illegal drugs they use.\u00a0 Still, I would like to think that if I were a smoker and life went really bad for me and I found myself homeless, the first thing I would give up would be cigarettes.\u00a0 Yet, by my own observation, most homeless people appear to be smokers.\u00a0 Many times somebody appearing homeless has asked to bum a cigarette from me.<\/p>\n
Now, I admit my perspective is skewed.\u00a0 I have never smoked, not even once.\u00a0 I see the tobacco companies as evil monsters which should be slain.\u00a0 (Not literally; I just want the companies to slowly go out of business.)\u00a0 I have yet to have somebody tell me one positive thing tobacco does for somebody.\u00a0 The closest reasoning I have gotten is (1) it satisfies a craving for tobacco which would not exist if the smoker had never taken up smoking in the first place and (b) it looks sexy \/ hot \/ cool.\u00a0 The second reason is hard to argue as this is a matter of perception.\u00a0 Even I can see some sexiness in a hot babe with a cigarette.\u00a0 But that’s a lame excuse at best; I would rather see the hot babe without<\/em> the smoke.<\/p>\n Anyway, anti-smoking preachy stuff aside, it seems to me that a homeless person’s biggest concerns should be (1) food and (b) shelter.\u00a0 Not just the next meal and where one is going to spend the night, but how to get through the next week or so at least.\u00a0 I am terrible at saving money, but in such a situation I would hope I would try to save some up for future meals and to help keep me clean so hopefully I can find a job and get back on my feet again.\u00a0 Nonetheless, the panhandlers seem to like getting cigarettes.<\/p>\n All of this leads me to a word somebody once gave me in relation to the homeless:\u00a0 Enabling.\u00a0 If you give a homeless person money, you might as well be handing them smokes or booze or whatever unhelpful thing they might get.\u00a0 Even if they do get food, you’re still enabling<\/em> them to remain homeless.\u00a0 If you lead them to or provide them with shelter and non-monetary assistance, you’re enabling<\/em> them to improve their situation.\u00a0 Mind you, many homeless will shy away from the better stuff.\u00a0 Many have gotten comfortable with their situation.\u00a0 By my understanding, some make quite a living by panhandling.\u00a0 It can be a decent, untaxed, responsibility-free income by many accounts.\u00a0 Pride is sacrificed, but the benefits outweigh this cost to some.<\/p>\n Anyway, I am still baffled by the smoking thing.\u00a0 I know it’s a heavy addiction, one that’s hard to kick, but it is possible to break it.\u00a0 I would think somebody headed for homelessness would hopefully start cutting back on their smoking due to its high cost and thus, by the time they were actually homeless, actually be able to quit.\u00a0 I know, I am applying logic to a situation which often defies it and certainly I am making some very broad generalizations, something I hate to do.\u00a0 I just hate seeing people’s lives going up in smoke, pun intended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whenever the word “homeless” is said, there is an image which seems to come to most people’s minds.\u00a0 Not a specific image, mind you, but a general one:\u00a0 Somebody with dirty, ragged clothes and a dirty body underneath.\u00a0 People think of somebody smelly who begs on street corners for money.\u00a0 Many if not most imagine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions\/63"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}