Except it isn't

I'm living in a city with a housing situation that's fucked even if you have a halfway good income, and my lease will end this year.

I am lucky enough to have a safety net of friends and family, but if I didn't, I could very much face homelessness this year, as someone who's employed, and "functioning" in the eyes of society.

Sometimes I have half a mind to go to spend the rest of my existance in some remote monestary, but I feel I am not quite religious to the necessary degree. Or at all.

If homelessness was a choice, ~~no one~~ very few people would be homeless because why would someone choose to be homeless?

I have a friend who chose it. Had a job with early retirement pension, was buying a house he could afford. They made a minor adjustment to his contract and he snapped, quit the job, abandoned the mortgage and let the house go back to the bank, and took his son and moved to California to live in his car. Ten years later he's still doing that. He works occasionally as a delivery driver when he feels like it.
- When you only are responsible for yourself this is a legit thing in my eyes. If this is the life he prefers and he is happy, go ahead.
  
  Doing this when you have a child is an irresponsible asshole move in my opinion. You are forcing your child into a live that just can't be as healthy for them, physically and mentaly, then a more secure setting (that he had before) would be.
Being a free range human has its perks...it's the way we are meant to be
There actually is a very small group of people who do it willingly. Emphasis on very small

I am disgusted that poverty continues to be considered a failing of the individual when it should in reality be considered a failing of the group, and that group is America as a whole.

Seriously, do other countries struggle with homelessness anywhere near this badly?

Yes. Parts of Canada have serious homelessness problems and many cities like mine like to pretend we don't. Our mayor routinely gets the police involved to relocate them and then is just like see problem solved!
In Germany we have had a significant rise in homelessness lately. Hompless people are present in every city. France feels very much the same when I visit. Britain has loads of them.

We as a group maybe is not just US-Americans after all, but the minority world (the "West") as a whole.

It's a systemic issue, that is for sure. It just not on my the US system that is fucked. Maybe a bit more fucked, as Homelessness is more widespread that in Europe. But defenetly not exclusive to the US.

It is a choice though, a choice by the oligarchs and policy makers who run this shit show of a planet. It just isn't a choice on behalf of the people who are actually suffering.

will smith burned a town to the ground with a single hadouken and it's still going

Does somebody to actually say that? I'd like to ask whether somebody worth listening to is actually saying that, but in this place that filters out way too many people.

Yes, My friend,

When I was homeless,

I had “chosen” to be disabled,

“chosen” to live in a country where applying for benefits takes years,

“chosen” to live in a country where healthcare costs weren’t covered after I lost my job,

“chosen” to live in a country where the landlord’s profit was more important than my survival.

It's still a choice.

It's just not a choice you made.

It’s a choice, just not a choice made by the homeless.

It is a choice. An intentional policy choice. Made by our government on behalf of an oligarchy of parasitic oxygen thieves who should all be killed.

But most of yall aren't ready for that discussion.

Ooh. Me, me, me.... I am.

The government doesn't work for you. You vote then in, sure, but they work for the lobbyists of large corporate interests.

Any policy you want will only pass if the corporations want it to, or they don't believe it will make a substantive difference in their ability to exploit your labor for profit, and take from you every dime, nickel, and dollar they can. They'll only keep you happy enough to not revolt, and beyond that, you're entirely fucked from all angles.
- Absolutely
But most of yall aren’t ready for that discussion.

Do you know where you are
- This is a .world comm, anything that doesn't repeat CIA introduced facts is usually banned for misinformation, and anything that threatens or challenges the world is that US capitalism is the best thing for humanity is banned and suppressed.
The government isn't a monolith.

Yes, there are oligarchs influencing policies that make a standard of living hell on earth.

There are also great people within the government who are actively trying to improve the state of things.
- it's all about possession of power. the good people working for the feds have to do their good work despite their bosses handing our value over to the greedy parasites

If it's a legitimate fire, the house has ways of shutting that whole thing down

You saw how that house was decorated. It was asking for it.
- Those hedges were quite flammable. It was bound to happen.
jesus... slow clap with deeply disgusted look on face i had all but mercifully forgotten about that
You know, I've heard that quote a lot and it never occurred to me to ask before. What's the difference between a rape and a legitimate rape? Is there a form to fill out or something?
- I think that the way it works is if you have no proof then it didn't happen if you do in the most irrefutable form its convenient if it somehow magically proves their innocence instead of their guilt.
  
  Also a lot of them identity more so with the perps
- It’s just another form of Christian guilt. She actually wanted it and enjoyed it, etc.
- It's ultimately just more shit he imagined to be true. He claimed it was a law enforcement term used for reported rapes but law enforcement disagrees it's a term they use.
  
  But basically he's saying of you are raped and you report it to law enforcement the body suddenly is able to shut down the ability to pregnancy.
  
  Best outcome is he is really really stupid and was told about the morning after pill they offer with the rape kit and didn't understand. Probably because his congnitive dissonance as an America Christianity(tm) kicked in and replaced the science with magic.
- You gotta leave a tip for the rape to be legit.

Homeless increased 18% last year, 13% in 2023. Source: AP news

There’s still time to donate to Trump’s inauguration fund in order to get federal disaster relief.
/s

it- it understands dark humour and sarcasm? huh
Can't read that

BOOTSTRAPS, PEOPLE. BOOTSTRAPS!

As some ~~wise~~ famous guy once said: Just sell your house and move!

Sell to who Ben? A fucking dragon?
- yeah, or a non-fucking dragon would be possible too

I don't love the implication that those displaced by disaster are somehow different than "normal" houseless people, though I'm sure that wasn't the intent behind the meme.

I think it's more about "these rich people will finally get some little taste of how hard it is to live without a home."

Except some of them won't. Those who are truly wealthy will already have other houses, or be able to buy or rent a temporary home while waiting to rebuild. If they already had empathy they'll realize how comparably " inconvenient" rather than"desperate" their situation is. The others will whine, and use it as a reason to be even shittier to the homeless.

There's a lot of people also who aren't wealthy, they have just owned a house in the Palisades from way back when it wasn't so expensive, or lived in the trailer park. They too already have attitudes re homeless people, which may or may not evolve.

I think anyone who's unhoused, it's the result of a disaster, whether a public or private one.
Well most of them were living in million dollar plus homes in this case, so they are very different then people who were left homeless in Appalachia due to Helene.
- This is just completely untrue. Quit it with the fake narratives.
- Which honestly might ACTUALLY force insurance reform because this time it’s not the poors who are suffering.
- Speaking of Helene, who knew there were so many gays in Appalachia?
  
  /s
- I don't think they were just talking about natural disasters