The semantics of homelessness.

[LC EFA]

Lost in CT  (1000+ posts)  Tue Mar-10-09 11:35 PM
Original message
Why is Living with grandma or living in a trailer considered being homeless???
   
Christ by that definition I spent some of my childhood homeless...

Why do we broaden definitions to increase the numbers for the news but at the same time make our case weaker overall.

One child homeless is one to many... why cook the books by including mothers that move back in with their parents (for various reasons) as well as people living in trailer parks.

Am I right or am I missing the big picture here?

Please educate me

Source Link

• Sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason (sometimes
referred to as doubled-up);
• Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks , or camping grounds due to lack of alternative accommodations;
• Living in emergency or transitional shelters;
• Abandoned in hospitals;
• Awaiting foster care placement;
• Using a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular
sleeping accommodation for human beings;
• Living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings;
and
• Migratory children who qualify as homeless because they are living in circumstances described above.

So the answer to your question is, "yes". Note that this definition is a lot broader than that used by HUD in its homeless programs; HUD administers the only federal funds being spent on homelessness currently, under the McKinney-Vento Act.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5227512

What you are seeing is the left cooking facts to suit their desire to steal from the productive some more.

Skittles  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Tue Mar-10-09 11:39 PM
Response to Original message
3. if a homeless guy sleeps on my couch
   
he's still a homeless guy who is sleeping on my couch

If you allow him to sleep in your couch as a regular thing, he isn't homeless.

Skittles  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Wed Mar-11-09 12:43 AM
Response to Reply #24
31. but technically he's still a homeless person
   
the numbers need to reflect the true reality of how freaking bad things are when people are forced to live in shelters or with family

Oh noz. Heaven forbid that you'd have to live with your family in hard times.

There was a thread on DU not so long ago about how people should start living as family communes, One wonders if they recall it.

Lost in CT (1000+ posts)  Wed Mar-11-09 12:47 AM
Response to Reply #31
32. Aha thats my point exactly...
   
The numbers need to reflect the truth... there is no comparison between living rent free with a somewhat loving family member and living in a shelter.

We need to help the shelter people and we do them no favors by artificially pumping up the numbers.

Cause when you do that the whole enterprise becomes suspect.

Lets stick with hard data for hardship homeless.

You don't really want that. It would undermine a large part of your motive for soaking the taxpayers some more for piss-on-the-wall social programs.

Skittles  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Wed Mar-11-09 01:15 AM
Response to Reply #36
37. and that would be the problem
   
Edited on Wed Mar-11-09 01:16 AM by Skittles
REAL data reveals the extent of them problem which HELPS GET RESULTS - whitewashing stats does the opposite - it MINIMIZES THE PROBLEM

"Real Data" helps out the cause in soaking those evil richers out of some more coin.

Factual data just makes us look like money grubbing thieves.

EFerrari  Donating Member  (1000+ posts)  Wed Mar-11-09 12:11 AM
Response to Reply #6
15. Exactly. It's not about broadening the category at all but
   
about including the ones where people functionally have no permanent home of their own.

Under that standard it would include people renting their homes, you twit.

readmoreoften  Donating Member  (1000+ posts)  Wed Mar-11-09 02:00 AM
Response to Reply #45
50. If you're adult family has moved back into your parent's house with your family
   
you are homeless. You are likely in a temporary and untenable situation. We don't live in enormous victorians anymore. We live in 2-3 bedroom ranch houses.

You know what? I'm going to leave the analysis to the people with Ph.Ds in social work who made these decisions. I'm sure there's not a conspiracy to drive the numbers of homeless children up.

This sort of logic is why they can continue to come up with new ways to extract money from the taxpayers, and can attempt to scare the electorate into voting because of all the "homeless people" that suddenly crop up at election time.

Pithlet  (1000+ posts) Wed Mar-11-09 03:20 AM
Response to Reply #57
68. Yeah. Because it's so common for people to be able to easily support extra mouths to feed.
   
Edited on Wed Mar-11-09 03:24 AM by Pithlet
It's not as if they don't have their own retirements to save for or anything. It wouldn't be a burden on those families at all. Yes, let's just strain the working and middle class even further by shouldering the burden on them.

That's nuts.

Funny how quickly it goes from a "couch sleeper" to a complete dependent.

readmoreoften  Donating Member  (1000+ posts)  Wed Mar-11-09 03:01 AM
Response to Reply #42
64. Maybe you should go into public assistance and learn these ignoramuses.
   
Why would a recent grad sleep on a friend's couch instead of getting an apartment? Yes. He's homeless. Especially if he can't find a job and he lives 2000 miles away from anyone who can help him.

No, that recent graduate is unemployed, not homeless.

EFerrari  Donating Member  (1000+ posts)  Wed Mar-11-09 02:30 AM
Response to Reply #55
58. Underreporting, not overreporting, is the problem.
   
Some people do not want to admit that they are homeless and will go to great lengths to avoid having to say that out loud to anyone. My ex was homeless for two years and sometimes, he still sometimes says he was not.

So he sometimes tells the truth ? Must be why he is your "ex".

readmoreoften  Donating Member  (1000+ posts)    Wed Mar-11-09 03:51 AM
Response to Reply #69
70. No, I don't owe shit to my homophobic aunt that I haven't seen since I was 12
   
or my cousins that I don't know and we don't need laws that place burdens on extended family. My extended family are complete strangers to me.

Oh I get it. You'd far rather place those burdens on the taxpaying public, because your extended family doesn't tolerate your chosen lifestyle.

[miskie]

Whats confusing you Lost in CT,  is Bubba Clinton handled homelessness differently - with different intention.

During the Clinton years, there were no homeless, creating a false image of happiness and prosperity.
Obama is exaggerating the numbers, to create more dependence on the government for everything, to justify greater spending.

[ScubaGuy]

Crap, according to that definition I grew up homeless!

Now the gubment best pony up and give me something for all those years.

[JohnnyReb]

If stupidity was a commodity DU would have the market cornered.

[Texacon]

I know I've posted this before but I don't think it was here.  I built water towers/tanks all over this nation for several years as a welder/iron worker/foreman.  When the 1990 census rolled around they came into our travel trailer that we lived in and 'surveyed' us. 

When the interview was over the nice lady told me we were considered homeless and I just about fell out of my chair!  I was making about $70,000/year at that point yet here I was going to be a stat for the homeless.

Hear that bobbolink?!  This is why I think you suck.  You are really a millionaire living in your car.  LOL

KC

[Karin]

And they consider trailer parks homeless?  We have lots around here, it's all some people can afford.  Some of these trailers are pretty nice.  They grow flowers outside and keep the area clean and civilized.  There is nothing wrong with those, and I think it's insulting to call them "not good enough" to be called "home." 

[USA4ME]

Gov't control to see that the homeless get what they need as opposed to taking personal responsibility in one's own community.  They simply don't want to get their hands dirty, this is (like everything else with them) just another exercise regarding feeling good about themselves.  The homeless don't stand a dog's chance with primitives in control.

.

[DumbAss Tanker]

You don't really want that. It would undermine a large part of your motive for soaking the taxpayers some more for piss-on-the-wall social programs.

Oh, now that Democrats are fully accountable for the government's policy outcomes, it is indeed very important to the DUmmies to change the way the stats on good and bad things are calculated, i.e. to make the situation appear to have improved, even if that is purely through statistical sleight-of-hand rather than through any objective truth.  To them, creating the impression that a Skittles-pooping unicorn has been in the area is as good as having a real one show up. 

[Wineslob]

Here's real homelessness, DUmpshits;

http://cbs13.com/local/tent.city.brandi.2.952758.html


Living in your parents basement dosen't count.

[BlueStateSaint]

Oh, now that Democrats are fully accountable for the government's policy outcomes, it is indeed very important to the DUmmies to change the way the stats on good and bad things are calculated, i.e. to make the situation appear to have improved, even if that is purely through statistical sleight-of-hand rather than through any objective truth.  To them, creating the impression that a Skittles-pooping unicorn has been in the area is as good as having a real one show up. 

Target, DAT.  Re-engage . . . and H5.

[rich_t]

Boy, will my parents be surprised to find out that they are homeless.

[MrsSmith]

There are people all over the world that live in far worse places than a trailer court...or, for that matter, a tent city.   

I also seem to recall numerous articles bemoaning the fact that children no longer have extended families as grandparents live hundreds of miles away or are shuffled into Nursing Homes.  But now it's a bad thing to live with Grandma? 

I guess it just depends on who wants to throw what money in which direction.    

[miskie]

I feel if living in a trailer is classed as homeless, as is living with relatives, then certainly living in apartment building must also be considered homeless as well.

A) small units.
B) located on someone else's property.