Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe C.
No matter what, is there any reason that she couldn't get a job?
Even washing dishes ...... she'd be inside, not socializing with many people and she'd be safe AND making money that she EARNED. There's a lot of places looking for help.
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Many homeless have mental disabilities that make it impossible for them to work. They might be eligible for (and might even be collecting) disability payments, but the thing that makes them unable to work might also make them unable to handle finances.
People with brain injuries - especially battered women - are not always CAPABLE of being responsible for their own lives. Some live in shelters, some live in tents. Some live in abusive households, some live in small homeless camps where everyone pitches in to help each other as best they can.
This particular woman is not alone, no idea who the guy is, or his relationship to her. But he sometimes picks her up. I've seen her walking down 441 from 42 with her dog, but I've also seen the guy pick her up in his old car that looks like it could use some repairs. Her shoes aren't brand new designer shoes. Her dog's collar is not a fancy one. There are "tells" with homeless. She brushes her hair. So she does try to at least appear like she engages in self-care practices.
As for tattoos, I have two of them. I got them 40 years ago. I used to hang out with homeless people and some of them had many inks, most of them acquired while they were serving in the military overseas, some got theirs in jail, and one of them used to be an ink artist, before she became homeless, and had all hers done by her partners in the shop (which went out of business and she lost her investment, couldn't pay the rent, lost everything except her car, which she ended up sleeping in).
Sure this woman with the dog could very well be some nasty lice-ridden drug-addled no-good trampy "scallawag." Or she could be one of the millions of homeless in this country who had opportunity, and for whatever reason, lost the opportunity, and are now down on their luck and trying to subsist and survive a world where people make assumptions about them and refuse to give them any opportunity, thus keeping them down as dirt under the feet of the rest of humanity.