The often heard, often over-used line when most speak of the homeless person or problem is just go and get a job. In today’s blog we are going to take a brief look at how that is not the right first step and how ineffective that step is. Sadly, getting a job, if it were possible will not resolve the homeless person’s problem nor get them safe shelter. Social engineering has thrown confuse into the water and muddy with this idea of getting a job to end homeless, but it is not the end all be all for homeless people.
Simply Get a Job, Not the Right First Step Howards Final Note Found
Well folks you got to hear a lot from Howard, but he got into some tangle and now has gone back under ground where it is a little harder to be found or seen or heard from. We all have to do this from time to time, because there are seasons that the police have to round us up and move us or ticket us more heavily.
But we found one of his musings, a last note or message from him, he gets pretty intense in this one. He is on one of his topics that ogten gets him quite upset, but it is a topic that no one is willing to face or talk about, and that is why he gets so upset. I mean when I found his note, with his request that I bring it to y’all, I wasn’t sure I should, but here it goes, hold on and enjoy.
Alright for you folks who think us homeless are dumb, let me define frustration for y’all, in means the feeling of being upset or annoyed especially because the inability to change or achieve something. Well, that is my life in a nutshell. I am frustrated, because the misconception and lack of help to move us off the streets and into life again.
You who are blessed with homes, cars, jobs, family and the like think that the easy and quick answer to fix homelessness is this, ‘get a job.’ I surely wish that it was the answer but lets look at it for a moment.
John Doe gets a job the one he can while living on the streets, he goes to work for box store A, and is making a whooping 11.00 an hour and works 28 hours week. That is $308 before taxes, so take home about $245, weekly.
Where is he to cash his check, where is he to keep the money safe, he does not qualify for a bank account, where to hold onto it for an apartment? By the way, an apartment is about $3,500 baseline to move into to get off the street. So is jus getting a job the answer? No, unfortunately, because it will take nearly 18 months of steady work to get there, if they are not robbed, laid off, miss work, and do not need the money for an emergency.
The inability to achieve or change something, I am frustrated, because we are always told to go and get a job, but people are mean when they say that because they are often clueless on just how tough it is to get one and then all the other steps required, it is not the answer without a lot of other steps.
Also remember you have to find employers who will be willing to hire someone straight off the street. Someone with no work history that is current, no references and may be unreliable to a degree due to life. Getting a job is a tough nut to crack, are you will top help me get one? Okay guys, Howard was on one of his deep-thinking tears with this writing, but he is on point, a job cannot fix homelessness.
He would often get thinking real hard then get upset, he does not like looking at something that can be fixed, but no one wants to take the time to fix, they are too comfortable.
A job is just a piece of a larger puzzle and all the pieces of that puzzle have to be in place, food, showers, clothes, sleep, transportation, ability to move about with interference from the police, it is a complex puzzle and yes, it is simply and completely frustrating, help us fix it instead of getting mad at us.
Will You Continue to Assume Jobs Solve the Problem
OR
Will You Simply Slow Down Process Information
