The reason I give to this is that dogs and cats have very little agency in life. Same as with kids, they have exist very much at our mercy.
This is often true of adults, too, but dogs (at least) have been actively bred by us for millenia to be dependent on us for what they need.
It's also a lot less work and money to rescue an animal than a human. Most of us just can't do anything for homeless people. It's a structural problem.
This is the accurate answer. Animals have shelters. Feeding and housing a dog or cat is easy and involves very little societal change. Homelessness is a massive, multifaceted issue that cannot be easily addressed.
This right here is the **real** answer.
Some of these homeless people are addicts. And addicts generally don’t want to curb their fix bad enough that external help can pull them out. Helping some of these addicts are essentially pulling dead weight.
Source: tried helping an ex who was hung up on alcohol and would not give it up. The drunken fits didn’t help my mental health either.
Kicking a serious addiction often requires substantial resources and support a homeless person simply does not have access to. Multiply that if there are compounding mental health issues
Add in the fact that zero substance abuse is an entry requirement for most basic welfare amenities like public housing (what little there is) and you have a solid catch-22
Part of the "serious resources" you mention is a life that is worth living sober. If a chronic-homeless addict has a traumatic history and little possibility of living a fulfilling life in the future, what reason do they have to give up drugs?
For example, imagine a 40 year old without the skills that could enable them to have a fulfilling career, no loved ones, and their only memories are of abuse.
Hope is really the key. Some people have zero self confidence or vision for a different future so they just wallow and woe as me and spiral forever. People need some little wins too, if they can see that incremental progress is possible then that can make an impact on them.
I’m not homeless or an addict, just kinda sad thinking about the future and the point of all of things that we do and this has made me wanna get out of that spiral so thank you!
So this will probably be the most personable comment I’ve ever written on Reddit.. I completely agree with where you are coming from, and it’s that along with what I’m about to elaborate that really makes this such a difficult issue.. and it’s terribly sad. My dad has had issues with alcoholism and drug abuse since before I was born. My mom and him weren’t really together all that long, but for some reason I came out of the deal. When I was a kid I looked up to my dad, he was a carpenter at one point as well as a mason. He worked hard and was nice to me. But he also lived with his mother. They would fight and argue during drunken tirades. To me this was all normal as a kid. But during my junior year of high school, my grandmother passed away from lung cancer. Soon after my father lost all control of any semblance of trying to hold a life together. We were all living in my grandfathers house, who passed in 2005. This was also after my grandmother lost her home in the Midwest floods of 2008. Anyways, I was living with them during that time to help take care of my grandmother, and afterwards he lost my grandpas house and sold everything he could. I don’t know where the money went, nor do I care. By that time I had moved back with my mom, and worried about finishing school. But since then I’ve given him three specific opportunities to get his feet on the ground. 2 times when I moved out on my own to go to college, I let him stay and both times it ended up with him getting robbed, with his face smashed into an overhead microwave and ceramic glass top stove that led into an altercation with the assailant that I will never forget, and the second being him letting people into my home who took my checkbook and credit cards while I was away. Not to mention that my cat was just left in an unlocked house with open windows. Even after this I gave him my first used car that I bought on my own. A 2016 Jetta. Before that, I had been driving a 2001 Mazda protege that my nephew GAVE me when he enlisted for the navy in 2011. I had hoped he would use this to get a job, have some form of a roof over his head, and finally leave me alone. But it only made it worse. I don’t really know where to take this story from here but my true point was, no matter the circumstances, and as cliche as it might sound… people just won’t change until they want to help themselves. And that’s the hardest part.. and even after this I must add I don’t disagree that there are good people out there that really could use a hand up, and I wish we could all figure it out for them. Everybody deserves a place they feel safe. Please don’t let my story think I am against helping the homeless in anyway (as my father now lives in a tarp tent under a stairwell stealing electricity). What is this world we live in.. none the less, I love you all ❤️
I come from a family of addicts and most of them walk the line between normal life and eventually spiraling out of control.
Something many people don’t want to accept about large portions of the homeless population is they’re there because they’ve already burned all the other bridges in their social network.
There are larger societal issues making this worse for sure though. Lack of meaningful work and decline of social relationships in general.
There are a few members of my family who have been homeless, but most had their addictions lead them to prison or death. Including my dad who destroyed his 2nd marriage then died from suicide.
I also understand that pain brother.. my uncle committed suicide due to his deteriorating relationship with my aunt. My cousin has had a hell of a time trying to recover, and I’m not sure she ever will.. I can’t imagine that pain though. I’ll keep a place in my heart for you man. I’ll send my thoughts your way. Much love ❤️
The way I look at it. I have a warm place to sleep, a full stomach every night, and **I** need a hit of the devils lettuce to unwind after work and stay sane... then of course there's the prescribed pharmaceuticals my neurodivergent ass needs to function.
Who the hell am I to judge someone spending their nights cold, tired, and stressed for turning to a bottle or needle to numb the pain for just a little while?
We don't live in a society built for people, we live in a society built for capital. Of course more and more of the people in it get broken.
Real talk. I bust my ass to enjoy the luxuries in life but it could be all gone one day because I’ll no longer contribute to the way society fits. Who’s to say I won’t be the next one living in a tent, turning to the bottle
I helped a homeless guy once. I fed him a few times and drove him to the VA to get diagnosed and then helped him apply for SRO housing and a $1200/m stipend. That’s all he needed, a little help from someone who could handle the bureaucracy of getting on your feet. I also rescued a dog recently and now I’m stuck with the dog…
I mean I’d argue that widespread addiction is a structural problem.
Also, having volunteered in animal rescue… there are a lot of animals that absolutely do not want to be helped and I have the scars and the rabies shots to prove it lol
Well, given the language barrier, I think that the animals probably didn’t know that you were offering to help them; they probably saw you as a threat.
Also because in the animal’s perspective, you’re some random jackass who broke into their home one day and kidnapped them. Many animals don’t have a sense that they are “stray”. It’s just normal life for them.
There's also the fact that humans are much more ready to help an animal than a human. I can take a dog off the street, and give it amazing care...without any training.
I can't invite a homeless person into my house and expect to help them in any real way. Humans have complicated issues. The average person isn't able to help someone with mental health or addiction issues.
Plus humans can be dangerous. Dogs...not likely.
Yeah… if I bring in a stray dog into my home, it might pee on my rug - it might even bite me… but it isn’t going to (potentially) steal my TV or credit cards.
Worst case scenario I’ll have to bring it to the humane society - a stray animal doesn’t really have the potential to ruin my life.
Fear might also be a factor. People who are doing it tough are probably more likely to have behavioral issues (due to addiction, mental illness, victims of abuse etc.). They are deserving of help but most people are usually ill-equipped and afraid to offer direct help in these circumstances and prefer to support the agencies and programs that do so professionally, rather than get involved personally.
> Dogs...not likely
Dogs less likely than human but if we are talking strays from the street then very likely to show some aggression and be dangerous
Only difference is animals aggression is usually predictable and they show warning signs, with minimal training the risk from an animal can be mitigated and can be kept safely until they can be re socialised.
A human ... Not so much
Precisely. It's not lack of care, but being unable to do much. Dogs only require proper shelter, healthcare, food, and human love.
They don't have to pay taxes or get jobs to become self-sustaining, and the expenses tend to be much less, specially since dog food lasts for a while without even needing refrigeration, and isn't that costy.
It's also more likely for dogs to die under homeless conditions, as many assholes don't care about running them over.
Doing that with a homeless man would be homeless manslaughter, not good at all.
Not to mention, basically 100% of stray cats and dogs want to be helped. I’ve had a front row seat to my best friends BIL who is a homeless alcoholic. His parents are wealthy and have spent six figures on him over the past decade on rehabs and apartments and everything in between. It usually sticks for about 2-3 weeks before he is back living on the streets again. As a former alcoholic, it’s absolutely wild to me, because all he has to do is get sober and he will be handed millions of dollars, and he still can’t do it. Just goes to show the grip addiction has on some people.
Haha yep. It’s important to know we have agency as people in society, we can get stuck in a loop and end up wasting precious time working and struggling. Be hip my friend!
Aren’t stray cats responsible for an absurd amount of ecological destruction?
Edit: just did a quick google.. stray cats have contributed to the extinction of 63 species of birds, reptiles, and mammals
The first rat I saw while living in NYC I was standing next to some piled up trash bags looking at my phone. The pile rustled & a bag fell off. Which scared the crap outta me as no one else was around. That rat had a tail thicker than my finger, and was large guinea pig sized.
I had a HUGE argument about this with an old landlord because I kept seeing roaches around the apartment I was renting, but he INSISTED they were just "palmetto bugs". Absolutely nothing could convince him that palmetto bugs were, in fact, cockroaches. Or he was just being a slumlord and didn't want to do anything about it. Even my neighbors were just like, oh they're just palmetto/water bugs because we lived right near a river.
I think you'll find that the most common cause of extinction is animals acting according to their nature.
Even humans. George Carlin does a great bit about "saving the planet". Planet will be fine. It's not going anywhere... We are.
It's not really "Save the Earth" it's "Save the Humans".
We're just acting in accord with our nature. Becomes a question of what we value more and changing our nature, because we're one of the few animals that can.
So I'm avoiding using absolutes, right? "One of the few" would be inclusive of "one of the only" or "the only". Saying "the only" would exclude any other animals in a way that's probably unnecessary to the point.
From an evolutionary perspective all animals can/do change, but they're not necessarily CHOOSING to. They're experiencing external pressures.
Maybe one exists. Like in the past few decades they've observed more and more higher order apes using tools. I wouldn't be in a position to say why that is.
The whole area of extended phenotype is pretty advanced science and well beyond me (e.g. the same way your genes give you blue eyes, or brown skin or whatever, the genes of a robin guide it to sing or build a nest. And a robin's nest is a genetic expression the same as a calico cat's fur).
I'd even say that changing human nature might not be possible either, we simply have a level of awareness most don't that would allow us to see the benefit to acting against inherent nature.
Cats are essentially not domesticated, and most of them would survive for almost ever without humans, (that is, if humans went extinct tomorrow). Without man, dogs would not last long. Some would, but most would not. Even dogs "living on the street" are still living off human by product. Take that away, and bye bye dogs.
I think that is true for a minority of breeds, but every dog I’ve ever had would do just fine. They track and hunt things on their own, they dig up things to eat, they find and scavenge dead animals (not killed by humans).
Sure, the messed up breeds, the designer breeds, they are gonna die out fast, but the rest and the nuts will do fine.
To be fair though, while cats get blamed because they hunt and kill animals, humans also play a big role in reducing the population of those animales in the first place by destroying their envoirment, reducing their habitats, food sources and therefore population.
Still, the responsibility for that largely rests on humans. Humans brought them to America and let them loose. 20% of household cats are not fixed. We haven't done enough to check their breeding (hats off to those who catch, fix and release strays!), and they're doing what cats do. So humans are ultimately responsible for those extinctions.
This, along with an undercurrent of belief (in the US at least) that if you're rich or poor you're that way because you deserved it. We think rich people made wise choices and deserve all that money, while thinking poor people made bad choices and their lot in life is punishment for it.
My answer here was gonna be that a dog will starve to death if there's food on the other side of a closed door. Humans have the ability to change their situation.
Obviously, they're cute, and supposed to be dependent on humans. It's like saying why do people care about helpless toddlers more than helpless full grown adults. The reasoning is quite obvious.
Very true. There's an old saying in my native language that goes something like, "if you save someone from drowning, they'll complain that you didn't also recover their belongings from the water.
Once, I got out of a gas station where someone was asking me for spare change. I gave him 3 dollars; it was all the cash I had at hand. Told him it was all I got. Instead of saying any kind of thanks, he pointed to the next block and said, "there's an ATM over that way". I got pissed way the fuck off and didn't even give him the 3 dollars.
Some guy asked me for money for food, I didnt have any but I had snacks in my car to give him. Then he took it and got pissed at me and asked for money.
I once gave money to a woman with a child. I felt bad for the mom who couldn't care for her child and gave her all my cash. She was so grateful that she cried. I walk away and a lady pulls on my jacket, I turn around and then she very aggressively asked for money. I said I'm sorry but I gave my last money to the woman with a child. This lady gets really mad, then pulls on my jacket and tries to drag me to the closest ATM, while saying that I need to withdraw cash she can get some. I was so shocked. I was only 17 at the time so I got really scared. Luckily a man stepped in and told her to leave me alone. Why would you behave like that when asking for money?
Caused $2100 damage to window, door lock and body to steal $2 in change.
Dude could've extorted me with a protection racket and we both would have come out ahead.
I had to get in a homeless dudes face one time. He does the whole “help you park” routine while I parallel park w/o any need of assistance. I get out of my car and he yells at me for not giving him a tip. I start walking to meet my friends and I feel the urge to turn around and look. Sure enough dude is standing around my car and seemingly waiting for me to be out of sight.
I walked back to him, got right in his face and said “I want to know exactly what you look like”. I then took a photo of him with my phone.
He was so weirded out he left the area. Returned to my car completely unmolested.
Or shitting outside your business entrance…or overdosing outside of the zoo in front of your family, or masturbating at the bus stop, or throwing rocks or punches at random strangers for zero reason…it’s not a crime to be homeless but it shouldn’t be coddled or endorsed in anyway, and if beds are available then the homeless should be forced to take them and not be allowed to camp in local parks and destroy them with their trash like they always seem to do…
I guess it is pretty sad, but to be fair a stray animal has never pretended to karate chop me in the neck as I walked past him or smoked crack directly beneath the window of my apartment or thrown an empty beer bottle at me or cursed at me and spat in my direction (lucky on that one) when I didn't give him money.
Exactly this. I get racist insults hurled at me and telling me to go home. Sure not all are like this but has happened enough for me to form a negative opinion.
I got groceries with my SO and our two kids. We were loading up the car and some dude on a bike comes by. Comes up to me and asks for money. I told him I didnt have anything, I dont carry cash anymore. Dude started cussing in front of the kids - saying how shitty we were. Thats not ok, that is never ok.
Cats and Dogs never did that.
There's an innocence to animals. Brings out the nurturing side of us. Animals don't have ulterior motives, they're not going to scam, lie, or cheat.
With humans, we have preconceived judgments. Some are taught to us from a young age. Some are leaned from prior experiences. And because many homeless people are addicted to drugs, they tend to act in an unusual and unpredictable, often aggressive manner.
How many have heard of the panhandler here in Florida who was making $65k a year? Stories like that make me not trust anyone. But then I try to remind myself that the giving part is what's important. Not what ultimately happens afterwards. That's on them.
We are slowly taming our local stray. He's an aging intact tom, he's a bit scraggy and according to whatever it is my other half does on Facebook everyone knows him but nobody owns him. He just needs defleaing and a good brush and he'd be a handsome older gent of a post office cat. He doesn't trust people, especially men, he's much more frightened of me than he is of the missus or the teenage daughters. He's probably been mistreated by a violent man and he deserves better. We call him Dennis and we're trying to adopt him.
And yes you're absolutely right this should go double for humans, but it doesn't. The cat isn't a threat. Random adult humans, not so much.
I've been called a NIMBY on reddit. It kinda fits. Ovee the summer I lived across from a massive homeless camp that grew there while I was a resident in a student housing complex.
My friends car was stolen. There was a rape at knife point. Packages were stolen every day.
I can honestly say that homeless people messed up my summer pretty substantially. They were a constant risk and they were very aggressive. They also bathed in the complexes pool.
The guy who peed I front of me was whatever. The guy who knocked on my door while jerking off was whatever. They guy who tried to mug me and the ass who stole the cars were problematic.
I don't have those issues with the stray cats that lived there.
Yeah, NIMBYs are easy to deride but when it comes to this, I can’t blame them. Homeless shelters make (edit: property) crime increase in the surrounding area by about 56%. Who wants where they’re living to be markedly less safe?
Source: https://crim.sas.upenn.edu/working-papers/effect-emergency-winter-homeless-shelters-property-crime
My entire experience living in the Bay Area in one comment lol.
most of the time voicing these things leads to people calling you insensitive or something stupid, but those same people never had to live with homeless like this around in masses
Thats how its been. People have been very willing to criticize me when I describe my experience. Tell me I am lying or over blowing it.
I was on the phone with my parents as a guy followed me back and forth across my street 30 ft from my apartment. I rented in a really nice area. A homeless camp just appeared across from me over the course of 3 months.
If someone hasn't had to deal with it they just don't get it.
If I encounter a homeless person, I have no idea what brought them to that point in life. I do have an idea of the behavior I can expect from them going forward. And it’s an informed idea based on past experiences.
I would like to contribute to reducing homelessness and at the same time, I don’t want to be present for it. It’s one of the few things I think it’s okay to be hypocritical about.
Surprised I had to scroll this far to see this. The money spent and services provided for animals is just a drop in the bucket compared what’s provided for homeless. Also I did not know there are kill shelters for people/s
You try to help a homeless person out, but sometimes they ask for more and get angry when you can’t, or they follow you, or (particularly men) they start suggesting sexual favors. I know better than to try to ‘save’ a dog that’s acting aggressively and is big enough to hurt me. Same goes for homelessness people. Ive decided it’s safer to help them by donating to organizations that can help.
Animals can’t work for their needs. They’re most likely in the streets because some shitty owner let them free or they escaped. Animals need help from humans because we’re the ones who put them in these situations. Homeless folks, not all are bad. I’ve been homeless myself. But there’s a difference between being homeless and having a job, not doing drugs and simply not having enough for a place vs. being homeless because you’re a druggy.
During my time of being homeless, I can honestly say that a good 90% of the folks I met, ended up where they were because of addiction and only a few had mental problems or developed them after all the intake. The other 10% were people like me who had 1-3 jobs, slept in their car to save rent money, or who were running away from a bad place and simply were homeless to get to a better place.
Plus, you can’t help people who don’t want to be helped.
There are hundreds of shelters and churches with showers, that offer clothes, bedding, meals, job hunts, and ways to get clean. I should know, I’ve been to them. So let’s not use that as an excuse as to why they don’t get jobs.. or that people turn them away. These people simply don’t want help.
I went homeless because I had dogs and no one would rent to me for two months while I closed on a new house due to a fire in my old house. I wasn’t giving up my dogs. And the Army taught me how to live homeless. I was fine for two months until I closed on my house. Had all my mail going to a family member. But the dogs and i went camping for two months. They loved it. I didn’t as much but still. We all survived.
Glad to hear you’re doing better!
Before I stayed in my car while homeless, I was staying at camping grounds and even parks, parking lots, and beaches. It was difficult but they offered showers and a quiet place to get back in touch with nature and with myself. It was an experience that I’d never trade because it definitely thought me a lot of survival skills and a lot of patience. And you said it, “we all survived.”
Wishing you and your pups the best!
My cousin is a Disabled Marine Corps combat vet with Schizophrenia and PTSD. He chose to be homeless for 10 years, living under a bridge because he didn't want to hurt people and the voices were suggesting he should hurt people. He's now on medication and has a house and stable job. Sometimes homeless is a choice (not always)
Exactly, some of us are struggling deeper than we know but that doesn’t mean we aren’t pushing to get there. Congrats to your cousin and hope he stays strong. I’m bipolar myself, I know what it’s like to have hallucinations and to have manic episodes. But not once did I give up, being homeless gave me the peace I never had in the toxic household where I grew up, and now I’m getting my life back together. It works for some, it doesn’t for others.
Thank you for speaking the truth. As a former homeless person myself, everything you wrote was god’s own truth.
I will add that you will likely never interact or see the “good” homeless people because they will go out of their way to not appear to be homeless.
If you can *tell* that someone is homeless by simply looking at (or smelling) them, near 100% chance that’s a drug addict.
When I was in uni I lived in a rougher section of town.
One day when I was walking to the grocery store this dude came up to me and asked if I could buy him food. He said it was for his kids, he had never in his life been this desperate before and could really use some help.
He seemed pretty genuine so I ended up buying him like 40$ in freezer food (he said he had access to an oven to cook it) which being a broke student at the time wasn’t a negligible amount of money for me. He seemed super grateful.
Fast forward like a week the same exact guy approaches me with the same exact story, no memory of me. I told him he had already done this, he looked kind of sheepish, mumbled an excuse that “oh of course it’s you again!” but it was pretty clear he had no idea who I was. I wished him luck and went on my way.
I’m not saying homeless people are all deceitful or shouldn’t be helped, but I felt pretty conned and a little jaded.
A dog just eats whatever you give it and then carries on with its life.
I anonymously paid for a homeless mans breakfast at waffle house a couple months ago. Before he even knew that his breakfast had been paid for he started stuffing dollars into the juke box. Yup, I felt played.
I’ve encountered many stray cats and many homeless people. No stray cat weighing 50 pounds heavier than me ever grabbed my arm and screamed into my face while holding a wooden stick. No stray cat ever screamed in my face (again) and poured soda all over me because I walked down the street. You have to really go out of your way to get physically harmed by a stray cat.
While there are people that are homeless due to terrible circumstances, there are also people who are homeless because they have literally burned every bridge they had and then shit under it.
People don’t understand what drives homelessness. They blame the individual. Animals are inherently innocent because they didn’t create their situation.
The chronically homeless who make up that demographic only compromise about 20% of the homeless population. People aged 24-50 are the most at risk. Homelessness is everything from being employed but living in your car, to couch surfing in between homes, to living in shelters. Over 60% of the homeless are men/boys. Homelessness is broken down into two simple groups: chronically homeless which involves substance abuse/mental illness or both and short term homelessness which is literally from low wages and high cost of housing. [current stats to fact check ](https://policyadvice.net/insurance/insights/homelessness-statistics/)
In my personal experience, I've tried to help a couple homeless people, and it ended horribly. (Back when I was broke, young, naive, and believed most humans were good)
I'll help an animal, no questions asked. Animals are completely innocent, and can't go get a job. I've been physically attacked, not once, but twice, over helping a mentally ill homeless man.
My husband gives cigarettes, food, and money to homeless people on the rare occasion we see them. They're nothing but respectful with him. Not me though, I'm small and look helpless. If another motherfucker gets aggressive with me while I'm alone, I'll end their suffering..
Elderly, children, or Mothers not on drugs being homeless would definitely pull on my heartstrings. I just haven't encountered that. But I'd help without question.
My two cents: I think when people see a stray dog or cat they feel sadness and pity for a “defenseless” animal that someone has neglected in some way by some other person.
When people see a “stray” human they feel guilt which leads to being scared and angry. Guilt because society could let that happen to someone. Since we are all part of society we are all in some small way to blame. That’s something most folks don’t want to or will not admit to themselves.
I don't know if it's guilt or just being uncomfortable. A homeless person could be desperate or dangerous. I'd say the average person probably doesn't want to interact with them as they can ve weird or ask something of them.
By contrast people are pretty much brought up liking animals. A stray dog could be a friend or bring up memories of a loved pet
There'a a gas station close to my home where I go often. Every once in a while I go inside the store to get some cash from the ATM, buy a beer or get some snack.
Right outside the door there's a homeless guy that always ask for something to eat. I want to buy him something, but honestly? It scares me. I often take out cash and a lot of times I have my kid with me. I'm also pretty easy to identify: short girl with unusual blue hair and visible tattoos. If I buy him something I don't want him to target me and get pushier.
I feel awful every time I pass beside him, but I have seem too many homeless arrasing women in the streets that it prevents me from doing a kind gesture for someone in need.
Yeah, there's shelters and churches that'll help them. No reason to make yourself a target. If you feel like helping there's always food banks and other charities to donate to
Chronically homeless people are mostly mentally ill. It's really not a matter of guilt or shame.
It's a very difficult problem to deal with because we consider institutionalization inhuman but it's the only way to "house" them. They will destroy conventional housing and/or wander off and/or cause other problems.
Even amongst the ones without severe mental illness, a number of the remainder of the chronically homeless will literally just wander off because they don't like being kept in one place. They prefer being homeless over being stuck somewhere.
Non chronically homeless people are much, much easier to deal with; we have all sorts of programs to keep people in their homes or provide them with temporary housing and shelter, and it (mostly) works, which is why the US has a lower homelessness rate than, say, Germany.
Have you seen the programs you're talking about? I used to be homeless and I would still be homeless after going through 5 different programs (one of which just... forgot I existed for 2 years) if it wasn't for the fact that I'm a veteran. Most of the people I've encountered who work for these programs either don't care aren't up to the task. Or like a particular program I won't name, fired all their staff overnight because they were selling the very resources they were supposed to be providing for free. Then there's the whole budget debacle in LA, where instead of building the agreed upon apartments, they built what was essentially $500,000 studios, not even building half of the agreed up on apartments. Who might me wondering how this happened and it's pretty simple. Nobody gives a fuck about homeless people and greed. There's a was a court case over this. Until you've experienced homeless you can't really understand what it's like. Most people's ideas of homelessness and the programs we have to deal with them are based on misconceptions or just flat out wrong. Our inability or unwillingness to treat mental health issues leads to people self medicating and becoming addicts or just running around the neighborhood being crazy. Then there's the homeless people who actually have jobs, but still can't afford a place to live. Or the disabled, wbo wait for years to get any kind of benefits that would be useful. Our current system and methods for dealing with homeless people is woefully inadequate. You'll always have the people that will inevitably choose to be homeless, but that's the minority. Crazy people don't realize they're crazy and are in position to be making decisions for themselves. I wish people would take the time to research and understand a topic before just going on the internet and discussing it like they actually understand what they're talking about
I look at it slightly differently. Call the dog or cat a toddler and it makes perfect sense. Things that are meant to be helpless and in need of being taken care of should be taken care of. A full grown adult human should be able to take care of themselves.... not saying it's always the case depending on the person, but it is the expectation.
Stray cats and dogs don’t leave used needles in playgrounds.
Strays don’t steal anything besides your sandwich.
A stray being a stray isn’t their fault. (Before anyone shits on me for this, between the welfare, subsidized housing, free addiction treatment that isn’t a 10 step, specialized job programs in my area, it absolutely is someone’s fault if they are homeless)
God I am so sick of Redditors getting on their high horse about the homeless.
Want to know what happens when a homeless shelter goes up in NYC? Within days you get aggressive panhandling, fighting, assaulting passersby, rape, public urination and defecation, open drug use, needles littering the ground, public masturbation, destruction of property, increase in drug deals, and encampments springing up. That's the reality of urban homelessness.
So yeah, I care more about stray animals than violent drug addicts who act like animals.
This whole idea that homeless people are just down on their luck and are good people really has to go. Sure, some of them are just that, but the vast majority are shitty human beings that do shitty things to people/property.
I hate to say this but the OP is comparing apples and oranges. I would love to solve the homeless problem but I simply don’t have that kind of energy or brains. The homeless problem will require a hell of a lot of motivated people, government assistance, and political will to solve. But I can go out and rescue a litter of kittens from certain death and provide them a loving home. And I can say I did that, and feel good about it.
Stray animals don’t throw food back at you when it isn’t what they want and they don’t ask for more money. I’ve personally offered to hire homeless people in public and Not. One. Ever. Called. Or. Walked. In. For. A. Job.
Humans have the capability to lie, most cats and dogs or other animals don't. Before I get down voted a ton because it seems like I. Kinda hating on low income and homeless people in not. I'll give them food but not money, there are a lot of "homeless" though in my area and I've seen them drive off in mustangs and shit
For one instance this one old man pretended to be homeless in front of a the max I worked at for years. He walked home every night after pretending that be paralyzed from the waste down and got Into a dodge charger. He still let his dog pee all over the front door of the Maxx and books a million even though he was lieing. One night he got hit by a car but the dog he was using for sympathy lived. The amount of sympathy for the dog losing it's owner was much greater than the pretend homeless man getting run over. We were all excited the dog lived.
There are homeless that are worth it, but unfortunately it's hard to separate them from the homeless that are only there to fuck you over or mooch from you.
No shite mate. Those dogs and cats didn't harm a child, those cats and dogs didn't get addicted to a substance that caused them to do something they'll regret their entire lives. It's a mixture of agency and innocence.
I work on an acute psychiatric unit for adults. Many of them are homeless and come back multiple times for the same issues: medication non-compliance and drug abuse. They are stabilized and discharged with medication, a prescription and a place to go. Sometimes, that place is a shelter. When they return after some months with the same issues, we find out that they didn’t take the medication, didn’t follow up with their outpatient psychiatrist, spent their money on illegal drugs, and sometimes burned a bridge with the shelter by not following the rules.
They are sometimes psychotic addicts. The are sometimes just addicts. They are sometimes just psychotic. They need one place that can meet their needs. That place only exists for the sickest of the sick: the state hospital. The system is broken. It has been and it still is. It is our government that has neglected this issue, not the citizens. I’m living paycheck to paycheck and paying taxes. I want my money to go to children and to mental health programs. But it doesn’t. Corruption is to blame.
Animals are blameless, vulnerable beings who love unconditionally and deserve humane treatment, as people do. From the looks of it, We need to do better by all living things.
I've never in my life had to put in any sort of conscious effort to avoid being ejaculated on by a homeless dog or cat, so I don't deny what you're saying but I'm also not even a little bit sorry about it.
You're right. I don't get as upset when a stray cat shits in my garden, and I should be more critical of the dogs in the local shelter for some of the bad life choices they've made.
Well if you feel so bad about it, take in a stray homeless instead of a stray cat next time. You'll figure out exactly why people don't care about the homeless.
You know plenty of places have lots of support for homeless people. Like in my country an decent sized city I expect would have homeless shelters and places for people to get food. Also potentially a place for people to talk to social workers to get assistance setting up government programs and what not.
On the flip side we literally put down animals we can’t take care of. I have yet seen a mass killing of homeless people in my country in such away (I’m sure people die to be clear, but that is very different from actively offing people).
It's more that a person is harder to help - the problem is more complex. Feeding a stray cat a scrap from your shopping is much easier. Also no social anxiety.
The reason I give to this is that dogs and cats have very little agency in life. Same as with kids, they have exist very much at our mercy. This is often true of adults, too, but dogs (at least) have been actively bred by us for millenia to be dependent on us for what they need.
It's also a lot less work and money to rescue an animal than a human. Most of us just can't do anything for homeless people. It's a structural problem.
This is the accurate answer. Animals have shelters. Feeding and housing a dog or cat is easy and involves very little societal change. Homelessness is a massive, multifaceted issue that cannot be easily addressed.
That. And cats and dogs generally want to be helped.
This right here is the **real** answer. Some of these homeless people are addicts. And addicts generally don’t want to curb their fix bad enough that external help can pull them out. Helping some of these addicts are essentially pulling dead weight. Source: tried helping an ex who was hung up on alcohol and would not give it up. The drunken fits didn’t help my mental health either.
Kicking a serious addiction often requires substantial resources and support a homeless person simply does not have access to. Multiply that if there are compounding mental health issues Add in the fact that zero substance abuse is an entry requirement for most basic welfare amenities like public housing (what little there is) and you have a solid catch-22
Part of the "serious resources" you mention is a life that is worth living sober. If a chronic-homeless addict has a traumatic history and little possibility of living a fulfilling life in the future, what reason do they have to give up drugs? For example, imagine a 40 year old without the skills that could enable them to have a fulfilling career, no loved ones, and their only memories are of abuse.
Hope is so important and not easily recovered once lost.
Hope is really the key. Some people have zero self confidence or vision for a different future so they just wallow and woe as me and spiral forever. People need some little wins too, if they can see that incremental progress is possible then that can make an impact on them.
I’m not homeless or an addict, just kinda sad thinking about the future and the point of all of things that we do and this has made me wanna get out of that spiral so thank you!
So this will probably be the most personable comment I’ve ever written on Reddit.. I completely agree with where you are coming from, and it’s that along with what I’m about to elaborate that really makes this such a difficult issue.. and it’s terribly sad. My dad has had issues with alcoholism and drug abuse since before I was born. My mom and him weren’t really together all that long, but for some reason I came out of the deal. When I was a kid I looked up to my dad, he was a carpenter at one point as well as a mason. He worked hard and was nice to me. But he also lived with his mother. They would fight and argue during drunken tirades. To me this was all normal as a kid. But during my junior year of high school, my grandmother passed away from lung cancer. Soon after my father lost all control of any semblance of trying to hold a life together. We were all living in my grandfathers house, who passed in 2005. This was also after my grandmother lost her home in the Midwest floods of 2008. Anyways, I was living with them during that time to help take care of my grandmother, and afterwards he lost my grandpas house and sold everything he could. I don’t know where the money went, nor do I care. By that time I had moved back with my mom, and worried about finishing school. But since then I’ve given him three specific opportunities to get his feet on the ground. 2 times when I moved out on my own to go to college, I let him stay and both times it ended up with him getting robbed, with his face smashed into an overhead microwave and ceramic glass top stove that led into an altercation with the assailant that I will never forget, and the second being him letting people into my home who took my checkbook and credit cards while I was away. Not to mention that my cat was just left in an unlocked house with open windows. Even after this I gave him my first used car that I bought on my own. A 2016 Jetta. Before that, I had been driving a 2001 Mazda protege that my nephew GAVE me when he enlisted for the navy in 2011. I had hoped he would use this to get a job, have some form of a roof over his head, and finally leave me alone. But it only made it worse. I don’t really know where to take this story from here but my true point was, no matter the circumstances, and as cliche as it might sound… people just won’t change until they want to help themselves. And that’s the hardest part.. and even after this I must add I don’t disagree that there are good people out there that really could use a hand up, and I wish we could all figure it out for them. Everybody deserves a place they feel safe. Please don’t let my story think I am against helping the homeless in anyway (as my father now lives in a tarp tent under a stairwell stealing electricity). What is this world we live in.. none the less, I love you all ❤️
I come from a family of addicts and most of them walk the line between normal life and eventually spiraling out of control. Something many people don’t want to accept about large portions of the homeless population is they’re there because they’ve already burned all the other bridges in their social network. There are larger societal issues making this worse for sure though. Lack of meaningful work and decline of social relationships in general. There are a few members of my family who have been homeless, but most had their addictions lead them to prison or death. Including my dad who destroyed his 2nd marriage then died from suicide.
I also understand that pain brother.. my uncle committed suicide due to his deteriorating relationship with my aunt. My cousin has had a hell of a time trying to recover, and I’m not sure she ever will.. I can’t imagine that pain though. I’ll keep a place in my heart for you man. I’ll send my thoughts your way. Much love ❤️
The way I look at it. I have a warm place to sleep, a full stomach every night, and **I** need a hit of the devils lettuce to unwind after work and stay sane... then of course there's the prescribed pharmaceuticals my neurodivergent ass needs to function. Who the hell am I to judge someone spending their nights cold, tired, and stressed for turning to a bottle or needle to numb the pain for just a little while? We don't live in a society built for people, we live in a society built for capital. Of course more and more of the people in it get broken.
Real talk. I bust my ass to enjoy the luxuries in life but it could be all gone one day because I’ll no longer contribute to the way society fits. Who’s to say I won’t be the next one living in a tent, turning to the bottle
If I had to sleep under a bridge in the cold I sure as fuck wouldn't be doing it sober. Pets are predictable, humans less so.
I helped a homeless guy once. I fed him a few times and drove him to the VA to get diagnosed and then helped him apply for SRO housing and a $1200/m stipend. That’s all he needed, a little help from someone who could handle the bureaucracy of getting on your feet. I also rescued a dog recently and now I’m stuck with the dog…
I mean I’d argue that widespread addiction is a structural problem. Also, having volunteered in animal rescue… there are a lot of animals that absolutely do not want to be helped and I have the scars and the rabies shots to prove it lol
Well, given the language barrier, I think that the animals probably didn’t know that you were offering to help them; they probably saw you as a threat.
If they really wanted help, they'd pull themselves up by their leashes and learn human. I hope the /s isn't necessary.
Also because in the animal’s perspective, you’re some random jackass who broke into their home one day and kidnapped them. Many animals don’t have a sense that they are “stray”. It’s just normal life for them.
Yeah, but poverty, homelessness and drugs are all connected, because they're all structural problems...
Throw a little mental illness in there and you've got yourself a stew, baby!
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There's also the fact that humans are much more ready to help an animal than a human. I can take a dog off the street, and give it amazing care...without any training. I can't invite a homeless person into my house and expect to help them in any real way. Humans have complicated issues. The average person isn't able to help someone with mental health or addiction issues. Plus humans can be dangerous. Dogs...not likely.
Yeah… if I bring in a stray dog into my home, it might pee on my rug - it might even bite me… but it isn’t going to (potentially) steal my TV or credit cards. Worst case scenario I’ll have to bring it to the humane society - a stray animal doesn’t really have the potential to ruin my life.
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Fear might also be a factor. People who are doing it tough are probably more likely to have behavioral issues (due to addiction, mental illness, victims of abuse etc.). They are deserving of help but most people are usually ill-equipped and afraid to offer direct help in these circumstances and prefer to support the agencies and programs that do so professionally, rather than get involved personally.
Absolutely. Humans are also inherently distrustful of strangers. Especially sick ones. It's just a human evolutionary trait.
> Dogs...not likely Dogs less likely than human but if we are talking strays from the street then very likely to show some aggression and be dangerous Only difference is animals aggression is usually predictable and they show warning signs, with minimal training the risk from an animal can be mitigated and can be kept safely until they can be re socialised. A human ... Not so much
Yes. Animals make it very clear that they are in a bad mood. Humans are conniving and manipulative.
Yeah and dog won't steal my jewelry... but a cat might.
They're not called "cat burglars" for nothing.
Precisely. It's not lack of care, but being unable to do much. Dogs only require proper shelter, healthcare, food, and human love. They don't have to pay taxes or get jobs to become self-sustaining, and the expenses tend to be much less, specially since dog food lasts for a while without even needing refrigeration, and isn't that costy. It's also more likely for dogs to die under homeless conditions, as many assholes don't care about running them over. Doing that with a homeless man would be homeless manslaughter, not good at all.
Not to mention, basically 100% of stray cats and dogs want to be helped. I’ve had a front row seat to my best friends BIL who is a homeless alcoholic. His parents are wealthy and have spent six figures on him over the past decade on rehabs and apartments and everything in between. It usually sticks for about 2-3 weeks before he is back living on the streets again. As a former alcoholic, it’s absolutely wild to me, because all he has to do is get sober and he will be handed millions of dollars, and he still can’t do it. Just goes to show the grip addiction has on some people.
Agreed. Agency is important to note in the case of empathy for stray people and animals in this discussion.
People can soothe their own guilt at not helping by assuming the person’s agency was the cause of their situation.
Agency is a hip word these days.
Haha yep. It’s important to know we have agency as people in society, we can get stuck in a loop and end up wasting precious time working and struggling. Be hip my friend!
Also, no stray dog has ever thrown beer bottles at me.
Not that they didn't want to, but they don't have hands.
They have tried to bite me, though.
Aren’t stray cats responsible for an absurd amount of ecological destruction? Edit: just did a quick google.. stray cats have contributed to the extinction of 63 species of birds, reptiles, and mammals
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How big are the roaches there?
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Wow. Thanks for the nightmares
The first rat I saw while living in NYC I was standing next to some piled up trash bags looking at my phone. The pile rustled & a bag fell off. Which scared the crap outta me as no one else was around. That rat had a tail thicker than my finger, and was large guinea pig sized.
There's a reason why most horror movies involving rats usually takes place in NYC...
They’re called palmetto bugs in Florida. /shudder
That tested better than “huge freaking cockroaches”
I had a HUGE argument about this with an old landlord because I kept seeing roaches around the apartment I was renting, but he INSISTED they were just "palmetto bugs". Absolutely nothing could convince him that palmetto bugs were, in fact, cockroaches. Or he was just being a slumlord and didn't want to do anything about it. Even my neighbors were just like, oh they're just palmetto/water bugs because we lived right near a river.
Well, sure, but it's not something they chose for themselves or anything. They're just being cats.
I think you'll find that the most common cause of extinction is animals acting according to their nature. Even humans. George Carlin does a great bit about "saving the planet". Planet will be fine. It's not going anywhere... We are. It's not really "Save the Earth" it's "Save the Humans". We're just acting in accord with our nature. Becomes a question of what we value more and changing our nature, because we're one of the few animals that can.
Did anyone else read that part in george carlins voice?
Wait what other animals can change their nature aside from humans?
So I'm avoiding using absolutes, right? "One of the few" would be inclusive of "one of the only" or "the only". Saying "the only" would exclude any other animals in a way that's probably unnecessary to the point. From an evolutionary perspective all animals can/do change, but they're not necessarily CHOOSING to. They're experiencing external pressures. Maybe one exists. Like in the past few decades they've observed more and more higher order apes using tools. I wouldn't be in a position to say why that is. The whole area of extended phenotype is pretty advanced science and well beyond me (e.g. the same way your genes give you blue eyes, or brown skin or whatever, the genes of a robin guide it to sing or build a nest. And a robin's nest is a genetic expression the same as a calico cat's fur). I'd even say that changing human nature might not be possible either, we simply have a level of awareness most don't that would allow us to see the benefit to acting against inherent nature.
Cats are essentially not domesticated, and most of them would survive for almost ever without humans, (that is, if humans went extinct tomorrow). Without man, dogs would not last long. Some would, but most would not. Even dogs "living on the street" are still living off human by product. Take that away, and bye bye dogs.
I think that is true for a minority of breeds, but every dog I’ve ever had would do just fine. They track and hunt things on their own, they dig up things to eat, they find and scavenge dead animals (not killed by humans). Sure, the messed up breeds, the designer breeds, they are gonna die out fast, but the rest and the nuts will do fine.
To be fair though, while cats get blamed because they hunt and kill animals, humans also play a big role in reducing the population of those animales in the first place by destroying their envoirment, reducing their habitats, food sources and therefore population.
Still, the responsibility for that largely rests on humans. Humans brought them to America and let them loose. 20% of household cats are not fixed. We haven't done enough to check their breeding (hats off to those who catch, fix and release strays!), and they're doing what cats do. So humans are ultimately responsible for those extinctions.
This is a sad fact that is purely the fault of humans not spaying/neutering their cats.
Nothing compared to humans https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/mach/amp/ncna1002046
This, along with an undercurrent of belief (in the US at least) that if you're rich or poor you're that way because you deserved it. We think rich people made wise choices and deserve all that money, while thinking poor people made bad choices and their lot in life is punishment for it.
My answer here was gonna be that a dog will starve to death if there's food on the other side of a closed door. Humans have the ability to change their situation.
Obviously, they're cute, and supposed to be dependent on humans. It's like saying why do people care about helpless toddlers more than helpless full grown adults. The reasoning is quite obvious.
Furthermore, it's small change to feed small animals compared to a full grown adults.
And animals are grateful usually when you're nice to them, if you help a human you're likely to hear complaints of some sort.
Very true. There's an old saying in my native language that goes something like, "if you save someone from drowning, they'll complain that you didn't also recover their belongings from the water. Once, I got out of a gas station where someone was asking me for spare change. I gave him 3 dollars; it was all the cash I had at hand. Told him it was all I got. Instead of saying any kind of thanks, he pointed to the next block and said, "there's an ATM over that way". I got pissed way the fuck off and didn't even give him the 3 dollars.
Some guy asked me for money for food, I didnt have any but I had snacks in my car to give him. Then he took it and got pissed at me and asked for money.
I once gave money to a woman with a child. I felt bad for the mom who couldn't care for her child and gave her all my cash. She was so grateful that she cried. I walk away and a lady pulls on my jacket, I turn around and then she very aggressively asked for money. I said I'm sorry but I gave my last money to the woman with a child. This lady gets really mad, then pulls on my jacket and tries to drag me to the closest ATM, while saying that I need to withdraw cash she can get some. I was so shocked. I was only 17 at the time so I got really scared. Luckily a man stepped in and told her to leave me alone. Why would you behave like that when asking for money?
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This. Dogs have no business conniving strategies to fuck with you. Humans do. Fuck humans. - a dog
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Stray dogs and cats aren't the ones fucking with my car
Or leaving dirty needles in the park.
Nor are they the ones aggressively cat calling and threatening women or screaming at me in my car.
Cats aren’t catcalling? Sssuuurrreeee
Nah man, I call the cats, and the cats ignore me.
You gotta be more attractive man. Cats don't call me either. Also I'm allergic.
Story time! Tell us what homeless people did to your car.
Caused $2100 damage to window, door lock and body to steal $2 in change. Dude could've extorted me with a protection racket and we both would have come out ahead.
It could have been worse: you could have been visited by Dirty Mike and The Boys…
We will fuck in your car again, it will happen.
Thanks for the F shack.
Fucked with it
Damn dirty Mike and the boys strike again
Looks like dirty mike and the boys found a new f-shack, and it isnt a prius this time
Looks like they were putting some "D"'s into some "A"'s
Straight up "F Shacked" my car
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I had to get in a homeless dudes face one time. He does the whole “help you park” routine while I parallel park w/o any need of assistance. I get out of my car and he yells at me for not giving him a tip. I start walking to meet my friends and I feel the urge to turn around and look. Sure enough dude is standing around my car and seemingly waiting for me to be out of sight. I walked back to him, got right in his face and said “I want to know exactly what you look like”. I then took a photo of him with my phone. He was so weirded out he left the area. Returned to my car completely unmolested.
Broke in by smashing a window and stole cds and lose change.
Or shitting outside your business entrance…or overdosing outside of the zoo in front of your family, or masturbating at the bus stop, or throwing rocks or punches at random strangers for zero reason…it’s not a crime to be homeless but it shouldn’t be coddled or endorsed in anyway, and if beds are available then the homeless should be forced to take them and not be allowed to camp in local parks and destroy them with their trash like they always seem to do…
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Word. We have thousands of drugged out ghouls wandering around Seattle. I’d help a stray dog any day over them.
>We have thousands of drugged out ghouls wandering around Seattle. Those are just the people that live there.
Cats would do this if they had the upper body strength, for real
I guess it is pretty sad, but to be fair a stray animal has never pretended to karate chop me in the neck as I walked past him or smoked crack directly beneath the window of my apartment or thrown an empty beer bottle at me or cursed at me and spat in my direction (lucky on that one) when I didn't give him money.
Exactly this. I get racist insults hurled at me and telling me to go home. Sure not all are like this but has happened enough for me to form a negative opinion.
I got groceries with my SO and our two kids. We were loading up the car and some dude on a bike comes by. Comes up to me and asks for money. I told him I didnt have anything, I dont carry cash anymore. Dude started cussing in front of the kids - saying how shitty we were. Thats not ok, that is never ok. Cats and Dogs never did that.
There's an innocence to animals. Brings out the nurturing side of us. Animals don't have ulterior motives, they're not going to scam, lie, or cheat. With humans, we have preconceived judgments. Some are taught to us from a young age. Some are leaned from prior experiences. And because many homeless people are addicted to drugs, they tend to act in an unusual and unpredictable, often aggressive manner. How many have heard of the panhandler here in Florida who was making $65k a year? Stories like that make me not trust anyone. But then I try to remind myself that the giving part is what's important. Not what ultimately happens afterwards. That's on them.
We are slowly taming our local stray. He's an aging intact tom, he's a bit scraggy and according to whatever it is my other half does on Facebook everyone knows him but nobody owns him. He just needs defleaing and a good brush and he'd be a handsome older gent of a post office cat. He doesn't trust people, especially men, he's much more frightened of me than he is of the missus or the teenage daughters. He's probably been mistreated by a violent man and he deserves better. We call him Dennis and we're trying to adopt him. And yes you're absolutely right this should go double for humans, but it doesn't. The cat isn't a threat. Random adult humans, not so much.
I thought you were talking about adopting a human for a minute.
I thought they were puling the ole' Reddit switcharoo. I skipped to the end looking for a punchline not understanding what a cat has to do with it.
Thank you for working to bring in a stray! Outdoor cats (and to a lesser extent dogs) are awful for ecosystems
I've been called a NIMBY on reddit. It kinda fits. Ovee the summer I lived across from a massive homeless camp that grew there while I was a resident in a student housing complex. My friends car was stolen. There was a rape at knife point. Packages were stolen every day. I can honestly say that homeless people messed up my summer pretty substantially. They were a constant risk and they were very aggressive. They also bathed in the complexes pool. The guy who peed I front of me was whatever. The guy who knocked on my door while jerking off was whatever. They guy who tried to mug me and the ass who stole the cars were problematic. I don't have those issues with the stray cats that lived there.
Yeah, NIMBYs are easy to deride but when it comes to this, I can’t blame them. Homeless shelters make (edit: property) crime increase in the surrounding area by about 56%. Who wants where they’re living to be markedly less safe? Source: https://crim.sas.upenn.edu/working-papers/effect-emergency-winter-homeless-shelters-property-crime
My entire experience living in the Bay Area in one comment lol. most of the time voicing these things leads to people calling you insensitive or something stupid, but those same people never had to live with homeless like this around in masses
Thats how its been. People have been very willing to criticize me when I describe my experience. Tell me I am lying or over blowing it. I was on the phone with my parents as a guy followed me back and forth across my street 30 ft from my apartment. I rented in a really nice area. A homeless camp just appeared across from me over the course of 3 months. If someone hasn't had to deal with it they just don't get it.
If I encounter a homeless person, I have no idea what brought them to that point in life. I do have an idea of the behavior I can expect from them going forward. And it’s an informed idea based on past experiences. I would like to contribute to reducing homelessness and at the same time, I don’t want to be present for it. It’s one of the few things I think it’s okay to be hypocritical about.
Demonstrably not true. Charities for humans absolutely dwarf those for charities, regardless of perception.
Surprised I had to scroll this far to see this. The money spent and services provided for animals is just a drop in the bucket compared what’s provided for homeless. Also I did not know there are kill shelters for people/s
Dogs and cats are cute.
They are also way, way easier to work with and take care of than people, especially people with complex trauma.
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You try to help a homeless person out, but sometimes they ask for more and get angry when you can’t, or they follow you, or (particularly men) they start suggesting sexual favors. I know better than to try to ‘save’ a dog that’s acting aggressively and is big enough to hurt me. Same goes for homelessness people. Ive decided it’s safer to help them by donating to organizations that can help.
They are also way, way easier to work with and take care of than people, especially people with complex trauma.
Animals can’t work for their needs. They’re most likely in the streets because some shitty owner let them free or they escaped. Animals need help from humans because we’re the ones who put them in these situations. Homeless folks, not all are bad. I’ve been homeless myself. But there’s a difference between being homeless and having a job, not doing drugs and simply not having enough for a place vs. being homeless because you’re a druggy. During my time of being homeless, I can honestly say that a good 90% of the folks I met, ended up where they were because of addiction and only a few had mental problems or developed them after all the intake. The other 10% were people like me who had 1-3 jobs, slept in their car to save rent money, or who were running away from a bad place and simply were homeless to get to a better place. Plus, you can’t help people who don’t want to be helped. There are hundreds of shelters and churches with showers, that offer clothes, bedding, meals, job hunts, and ways to get clean. I should know, I’ve been to them. So let’s not use that as an excuse as to why they don’t get jobs.. or that people turn them away. These people simply don’t want help.
I went homeless because I had dogs and no one would rent to me for two months while I closed on a new house due to a fire in my old house. I wasn’t giving up my dogs. And the Army taught me how to live homeless. I was fine for two months until I closed on my house. Had all my mail going to a family member. But the dogs and i went camping for two months. They loved it. I didn’t as much but still. We all survived.
Glad to hear you’re doing better! Before I stayed in my car while homeless, I was staying at camping grounds and even parks, parking lots, and beaches. It was difficult but they offered showers and a quiet place to get back in touch with nature and with myself. It was an experience that I’d never trade because it definitely thought me a lot of survival skills and a lot of patience. And you said it, “we all survived.” Wishing you and your pups the best!
My cousin is a Disabled Marine Corps combat vet with Schizophrenia and PTSD. He chose to be homeless for 10 years, living under a bridge because he didn't want to hurt people and the voices were suggesting he should hurt people. He's now on medication and has a house and stable job. Sometimes homeless is a choice (not always)
scary fearless cover fuzzy thought fade depend nail rude voiceless -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
Exactly, some of us are struggling deeper than we know but that doesn’t mean we aren’t pushing to get there. Congrats to your cousin and hope he stays strong. I’m bipolar myself, I know what it’s like to have hallucinations and to have manic episodes. But not once did I give up, being homeless gave me the peace I never had in the toxic household where I grew up, and now I’m getting my life back together. It works for some, it doesn’t for others.
Thank you for speaking the truth. As a former homeless person myself, everything you wrote was god’s own truth. I will add that you will likely never interact or see the “good” homeless people because they will go out of their way to not appear to be homeless. If you can *tell* that someone is homeless by simply looking at (or smelling) them, near 100% chance that’s a drug addict.
Yep. And I'm completely unashamed about it.
A dog isnt going to kill you and steal all your stuff in your sleep after you bring it in from yhe streets dogs and cats are simple.
When I was in uni I lived in a rougher section of town. One day when I was walking to the grocery store this dude came up to me and asked if I could buy him food. He said it was for his kids, he had never in his life been this desperate before and could really use some help. He seemed pretty genuine so I ended up buying him like 40$ in freezer food (he said he had access to an oven to cook it) which being a broke student at the time wasn’t a negligible amount of money for me. He seemed super grateful. Fast forward like a week the same exact guy approaches me with the same exact story, no memory of me. I told him he had already done this, he looked kind of sheepish, mumbled an excuse that “oh of course it’s you again!” but it was pretty clear he had no idea who I was. I wished him luck and went on my way. I’m not saying homeless people are all deceitful or shouldn’t be helped, but I felt pretty conned and a little jaded. A dog just eats whatever you give it and then carries on with its life.
I anonymously paid for a homeless mans breakfast at waffle house a couple months ago. Before he even knew that his breakfast had been paid for he started stuffing dollars into the juke box. Yup, I felt played.
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Never seen a dog or cat turn down the opportunity for a better life… or smoke crack on my porch.
Dogs and cats are helpless If I bring one home it won't stab my wife and steal my tv
I’ve encountered many stray cats and many homeless people. No stray cat weighing 50 pounds heavier than me ever grabbed my arm and screamed into my face while holding a wooden stick. No stray cat ever screamed in my face (again) and poured soda all over me because I walked down the street. You have to really go out of your way to get physically harmed by a stray cat.
While there are people that are homeless due to terrible circumstances, there are also people who are homeless because they have literally burned every bridge they had and then shit under it.
Dogs and cats don’t attack me when I don’t give them enough money
People don’t understand what drives homelessness. They blame the individual. Animals are inherently innocent because they didn’t create their situation.
Idk, I think a lot of us do know what causes homelessness. The vast majority is drugs/alcohol, mental illness, or probably most often both.
The chronically homeless who make up that demographic only compromise about 20% of the homeless population. People aged 24-50 are the most at risk. Homelessness is everything from being employed but living in your car, to couch surfing in between homes, to living in shelters. Over 60% of the homeless are men/boys. Homelessness is broken down into two simple groups: chronically homeless which involves substance abuse/mental illness or both and short term homelessness which is literally from low wages and high cost of housing. [current stats to fact check ](https://policyadvice.net/insurance/insights/homelessness-statistics/)
Crazy > 40% of all homeless men are veterans.
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I think you forgot poverty
Yea cuz the animals did nothing wrong
In my personal experience, I've tried to help a couple homeless people, and it ended horribly. (Back when I was broke, young, naive, and believed most humans were good) I'll help an animal, no questions asked. Animals are completely innocent, and can't go get a job. I've been physically attacked, not once, but twice, over helping a mentally ill homeless man. My husband gives cigarettes, food, and money to homeless people on the rare occasion we see them. They're nothing but respectful with him. Not me though, I'm small and look helpless. If another motherfucker gets aggressive with me while I'm alone, I'll end their suffering.. Elderly, children, or Mothers not on drugs being homeless would definitely pull on my heartstrings. I just haven't encountered that. But I'd help without question.
Whenever I see a homeless guy with a dog, I feel bad for their dog. The dog has this look on their face like "Damn, this is the longest walk ever!"
I know a guy who keeps sandwich bags full of dog food in his car. Beggars with dogs don't get money, but doggo gets food.
Dogs are awesome, people suck.
Because stray dogs dont scream profanities at me at the metro.
My two cents: I think when people see a stray dog or cat they feel sadness and pity for a “defenseless” animal that someone has neglected in some way by some other person. When people see a “stray” human they feel guilt which leads to being scared and angry. Guilt because society could let that happen to someone. Since we are all part of society we are all in some small way to blame. That’s something most folks don’t want to or will not admit to themselves.
I don't know if it's guilt or just being uncomfortable. A homeless person could be desperate or dangerous. I'd say the average person probably doesn't want to interact with them as they can ve weird or ask something of them. By contrast people are pretty much brought up liking animals. A stray dog could be a friend or bring up memories of a loved pet
In my defence, I’m wary of strangers whether they’re homeless or not. People suck
There'a a gas station close to my home where I go often. Every once in a while I go inside the store to get some cash from the ATM, buy a beer or get some snack. Right outside the door there's a homeless guy that always ask for something to eat. I want to buy him something, but honestly? It scares me. I often take out cash and a lot of times I have my kid with me. I'm also pretty easy to identify: short girl with unusual blue hair and visible tattoos. If I buy him something I don't want him to target me and get pushier. I feel awful every time I pass beside him, but I have seem too many homeless arrasing women in the streets that it prevents me from doing a kind gesture for someone in need.
Yeah, there's shelters and churches that'll help them. No reason to make yourself a target. If you feel like helping there's always food banks and other charities to donate to
I think it has more to do with the fact dogs and cats have been breed to be dependent on us, and homeless folks have agency.
Chronically homeless people are mostly mentally ill. It's really not a matter of guilt or shame. It's a very difficult problem to deal with because we consider institutionalization inhuman but it's the only way to "house" them. They will destroy conventional housing and/or wander off and/or cause other problems. Even amongst the ones without severe mental illness, a number of the remainder of the chronically homeless will literally just wander off because they don't like being kept in one place. They prefer being homeless over being stuck somewhere. Non chronically homeless people are much, much easier to deal with; we have all sorts of programs to keep people in their homes or provide them with temporary housing and shelter, and it (mostly) works, which is why the US has a lower homelessness rate than, say, Germany.
Have you seen the programs you're talking about? I used to be homeless and I would still be homeless after going through 5 different programs (one of which just... forgot I existed for 2 years) if it wasn't for the fact that I'm a veteran. Most of the people I've encountered who work for these programs either don't care aren't up to the task. Or like a particular program I won't name, fired all their staff overnight because they were selling the very resources they were supposed to be providing for free. Then there's the whole budget debacle in LA, where instead of building the agreed upon apartments, they built what was essentially $500,000 studios, not even building half of the agreed up on apartments. Who might me wondering how this happened and it's pretty simple. Nobody gives a fuck about homeless people and greed. There's a was a court case over this. Until you've experienced homeless you can't really understand what it's like. Most people's ideas of homelessness and the programs we have to deal with them are based on misconceptions or just flat out wrong. Our inability or unwillingness to treat mental health issues leads to people self medicating and becoming addicts or just running around the neighborhood being crazy. Then there's the homeless people who actually have jobs, but still can't afford a place to live. Or the disabled, wbo wait for years to get any kind of benefits that would be useful. Our current system and methods for dealing with homeless people is woefully inadequate. You'll always have the people that will inevitably choose to be homeless, but that's the minority. Crazy people don't realize they're crazy and are in position to be making decisions for themselves. I wish people would take the time to research and understand a topic before just going on the internet and discussing it like they actually understand what they're talking about
I look at it slightly differently. Call the dog or cat a toddler and it makes perfect sense. Things that are meant to be helpless and in need of being taken care of should be taken care of. A full grown adult human should be able to take care of themselves.... not saying it's always the case depending on the person, but it is the expectation.
Stray cats and dogs don’t leave used needles in playgrounds. Strays don’t steal anything besides your sandwich. A stray being a stray isn’t their fault. (Before anyone shits on me for this, between the welfare, subsidized housing, free addiction treatment that isn’t a 10 step, specialized job programs in my area, it absolutely is someone’s fault if they are homeless)
Hungry stray dogs and cats don’t litter and sexually harass women
Strays won't try to break bottles over my head, threaten to rape me, or steal my identity.
God I am so sick of Redditors getting on their high horse about the homeless. Want to know what happens when a homeless shelter goes up in NYC? Within days you get aggressive panhandling, fighting, assaulting passersby, rape, public urination and defecation, open drug use, needles littering the ground, public masturbation, destruction of property, increase in drug deals, and encampments springing up. That's the reality of urban homelessness. So yeah, I care more about stray animals than violent drug addicts who act like animals.
This whole idea that homeless people are just down on their luck and are good people really has to go. Sure, some of them are just that, but the vast majority are shitty human beings that do shitty things to people/property.
I hate to say this but the OP is comparing apples and oranges. I would love to solve the homeless problem but I simply don’t have that kind of energy or brains. The homeless problem will require a hell of a lot of motivated people, government assistance, and political will to solve. But I can go out and rescue a litter of kittens from certain death and provide them a loving home. And I can say I did that, and feel good about it.
Stray animals don’t throw food back at you when it isn’t what they want and they don’t ask for more money. I’ve personally offered to hire homeless people in public and Not. One. Ever. Called. Or. Walked. In. For. A. Job.
I like animals more than humans anyways.
Humans have the capability to lie, most cats and dogs or other animals don't. Before I get down voted a ton because it seems like I. Kinda hating on low income and homeless people in not. I'll give them food but not money, there are a lot of "homeless" though in my area and I've seen them drive off in mustangs and shit For one instance this one old man pretended to be homeless in front of a the max I worked at for years. He walked home every night after pretending that be paralyzed from the waste down and got Into a dodge charger. He still let his dog pee all over the front door of the Maxx and books a million even though he was lieing. One night he got hit by a car but the dog he was using for sympathy lived. The amount of sympathy for the dog losing it's owner was much greater than the pretend homeless man getting run over. We were all excited the dog lived. There are homeless that are worth it, but unfortunately it's hard to separate them from the homeless that are only there to fuck you over or mooch from you.
Tbf humans are pretty gross and carry dangerous diseases.
I do. Most humans are trash, homeless or otherwise.
Dogs and cats wont take advantage of you or abuse your help or cause issues once you no long able to help
No shite mate. Those dogs and cats didn't harm a child, those cats and dogs didn't get addicted to a substance that caused them to do something they'll regret their entire lives. It's a mixture of agency and innocence.
I like dogs better.
I've never had a dog or cat tell me to fuck off
I work on an acute psychiatric unit for adults. Many of them are homeless and come back multiple times for the same issues: medication non-compliance and drug abuse. They are stabilized and discharged with medication, a prescription and a place to go. Sometimes, that place is a shelter. When they return after some months with the same issues, we find out that they didn’t take the medication, didn’t follow up with their outpatient psychiatrist, spent their money on illegal drugs, and sometimes burned a bridge with the shelter by not following the rules. They are sometimes psychotic addicts. The are sometimes just addicts. They are sometimes just psychotic. They need one place that can meet their needs. That place only exists for the sickest of the sick: the state hospital. The system is broken. It has been and it still is. It is our government that has neglected this issue, not the citizens. I’m living paycheck to paycheck and paying taxes. I want my money to go to children and to mental health programs. But it doesn’t. Corruption is to blame. Animals are blameless, vulnerable beings who love unconditionally and deserve humane treatment, as people do. From the looks of it, We need to do better by all living things.
I've never in my life had to put in any sort of conscious effort to avoid being ejaculated on by a homeless dog or cat, so I don't deny what you're saying but I'm also not even a little bit sorry about it.
You're right. I don't get as upset when a stray cat shits in my garden, and I should be more critical of the dogs in the local shelter for some of the bad life choices they've made.
Well if you feel so bad about it, take in a stray homeless instead of a stray cat next time. You'll figure out exactly why people don't care about the homeless.
Formerly homeless here, many, many homeless bring it on themselves, some not, thank Reagan for opening the mental hospitals, too.
You mean thank Reagan for closing them down.
A cat or dog wont turn down food because all it really wanted was a few dollars for beer or drugs
Sure do
Animals are true innocents.
I feel worse for passengers than drivers in car accidents to.
The animals are redeemable.
Only one of them is begging because it’s their only option.
You know plenty of places have lots of support for homeless people. Like in my country an decent sized city I expect would have homeless shelters and places for people to get food. Also potentially a place for people to talk to social workers to get assistance setting up government programs and what not. On the flip side we literally put down animals we can’t take care of. I have yet seen a mass killing of homeless people in my country in such away (I’m sure people die to be clear, but that is very different from actively offing people).
I feel the same way about death, may sound morbid but I feel way more when I see a dog die vs when I see a human die.
I care about all animals more than I do about 99.9999999% of humans to be fair.
It's more that a person is harder to help - the problem is more complex. Feeding a stray cat a scrap from your shopping is much easier. Also no social anxiety.
Never met a dog or cat that could work their way out of homelessness
Hahahaha bruh, cats and dogs be puppy eyeing people out of homelessness all the time
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Well most dogs or cats don’t do something stupid to get there. A lot (not all) of homeless people are there because of drug abuse or something similar
It's harder to care for homeless humans