[Taltarzac725]

Orange middle school teacher vows to go homeless for 30 days - Orlando Sentinel

This should be a real education for this teacher as well as for his middle school students. He starts his odyssey after tonight's fireworks. You can follow him on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/hungryandhomeless/info

[buggyone]

Interesting but idealistic. The venture into the homeless community of Orlando could be a very dangerous feat.

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by buggyone

Interesting but idealistic. The venture into the homeless community of Orlando could be a very dangerous feat.

That's quite true. He will have to be real careful about arguments and the like.

[Topspinmo]

I agree bad thing could happen. Desperate people will spot right off that he's not Sorority member.

[DougB]

He can sleep in the streets, abandoned buildings, and woods if he wants, but he will not be "homeless". He will have piece of mind knowing his wife and children are safe in their cozy home with proper clothing, food, and comfortable bed. He will also have piece of mind that his little adventure, dangerous as it may be, is temporary and will end in only a month or sooner if he so wishes.

[tippyclubb]

None of you really could ever understand the plight of homelessness. Unless of course you had spent some time volunteering in soup kitchens, or taking bags of food, clothing, shoes, and toiletries to them.

People have a huge misconception homeless people are drug addicts and drunks. The truth is many of them do not start out that way but some end up that way living on the streets. How many of you know over 50% of homeless people are Vets and women?

Most of us sit in our beautiful homes thinking being homeless could never happen to us. The reality is it can happen to anyone. Prime example, the people who lost their pension and have no electric or water right here in TV.

I tip my hat to this teacher for doing this. Perhaps we all should so we can truly appreciate how fortunate we are. Although, I have not spent one night homeless, but I have been into their community many times and I always leave feeling grateful and humble.

[44Ruger]

I worked an average of ten hours a day for 50 years but always liked my day off much better. Could it be that homeless like not workingbetter than going to the salt mine?

[BarryRX]

Originally Posted by 44Ruger

I worked an average of ten hours a day for 50 years but always liked my day off much better. Could it be that homeless like not workingbetter than going to the salt mine?

Yup, you nailed it. I mean who wouldn't prefer sleeping on the ground in filthy clothes without access to even the most basic human necessities. Who doesn't enjoy hunger and the constant threat of violence. Who doesn't just love seeing their kids go hungry. Throw in the pleasures of lice, freezing in the winter and heat stroke in the summer, and these lazy bums have got it made! It's probably just as you said in your post, that being homeless is just like your day off from work. And add to that.......oh never mind.
In an effort to discuss this rationally, let's look at the reasons for homelessness. If a person is a member of a family, the top reasons for homelessness are lack of affordable housing, poverty, and unemployment. For singles, the top reasons are substance abuse, mental illness, and lack of affordable housing. About 1.5 million children are homeless. About 40% of homeless men are veterans (those darn lazy veterans).
I have been quite fortunate in my life. But there were many times when We were starting out with young children that I could have been laid off from a job and lost health care coverage. Then I was just a few months away from trouble. If I had suffered a heart attack or something else health related, then we were only a few pay checks away from trouble.
Perhaps what this teacher in the article is doing will help stimulate some real talk on this subject with a true understanding of the reasons for homelessness.

[Taltarzac725]

https://www.facebook.com/hungryandhomeless

I hope people will follow his experiences being homeless.

This touches home for me (pun intended) because I could easily have wound up homeless without the safety net of my parents. I have told my story repeatedly on Talk of the Villages so I will not bore you with it but just touch on the highlights of being painted as mentally ill after putting up a rigorous and very well documented fight to be honest about my interest in doing something about a glaring niche in the access to practical information for survivors/victims of crimes. I discovered this niche the last weekend of February 1976 in libraries in Reno where I was looking for practical information about victims/survivors rights and whatever else I could find after the murder of Michelle Mitchell in Reno, Nevada. Michelle was murdered on my birthday of 2-24. ( The case was re-opened a few months ago http://www.rgj.com/story/news/crime/...-case/2140206/ ). I got four degrees after this but checked in all the institutions I attended or visited to see what they had from the eyes of someone personally affected by violent or other crimes. I rarely found much of any real practical value and started writing everyone I could think of to help address this problem while also talking about the danger of putting advocates mental health at issue when you do not like the content of their ideas. I tried to get public health and other medical professionals involved after talking about this effort while a subject (613) at the University of California San Francisco Health Campus study on stress on the unemployed over 17 weeks in late 1992-1993 with interviewer Myra Young. I was basically kicked out of Law Librarianship starting the Summer of 1991 at the New Orleans Law Librarian convention for challenging powerful people about how instead of addressing the issue of this niche in practical information they attacking me personally by putting my credibility at issue when all you really needed to do is check their libraries' holdings to see I was being honest. I still see a problem with many libraries' holdings with respect to practical information for victims/survivors of crimes but with the Internet and Google and other search engines it is a lot easy now to just find this kind of information from your computer, cell phone, Facebook friends, etc.

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by tippyclubb

None of you really could ever understand the plight of homelessness. Unless of course you had spent some time volunteering in soup kitchens, or taking bags of food, clothing, shoes, and toiletries to them.

People have a huge misconception homeless people are drug addicts and drunks. The truth is many of them do not start out that way but some end up that way living on the streets. How many of you know over 50% of homeless people are Vets and women?

Most of us sit in our beautiful homes thinking being homeless could never happen to us. The reality is it can happen to anyone. Prime example, the people who lost their pension and have no electric or water right here in TV.

I tip my hat to this teacher for doing this. Perhaps we all should so we can truly appreciate how fortunate we are. Although, I have not spent one night homeless, but I have been into their community many times and I always leave feeling grateful and humble.

some skipped over the COULD happen in sentence. For us that can adapter, do other jobs that we don't want to, and was not born with the silver spoon in our mouths some how found jobs to put roof over our heads. NObody said we didn't care. But, drugs and alcohol does play pretty big role in the problem. Not being able to adapt and mental problems also may play role. Now notice the words "may" and "could". Thanks for the scolding From someone that has worked since I was 14 years old and didn't have mommy and daddy to pay my way through college and beyond. When you have to you learn lots of skills or you drop off the face of the society.

I still think high risk involved IMO a lot goes on after midnight. MY point is what's the point so he said he done it and conversation at the party?

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by Rc Moser

some skipped over the COULD happen in sentence. For us that can adapter, do other jobs that we don't want to, and was not born with the silver spoon in our mouths some how found jobs to put roof over our heads. NObody said we didn't care. But, drugs and alcohol does play pretty big role in the problem. Not being able to adapt and mental problems also may play role. Now notice the words "may" and "could". Thanks for the scolding From someone that has worked since I was 14 years old and didn't have mommy and daddy to pay my way through college and beyond. When you have to you learn lots of skills or you drop off the face of the society.

I still think high risk involved IMO a lot goes on after midnight. MY point is what's the point so he said he done it and conversation at the party?

My problem had been that mistakes you make in whom you write and what you say on the Internet often stay there for what seems like decades. So, they closed a lot of doors to employment in many other areas.

In 2000, I tried volunteering in two Palm Harbor public libraries to get a foot in the door to public libraries, for instance, but a fight I had been involved with getting the Florida Victim Services Directory linked to libraries across FL made this door shut in 2004. I had trouble seeing eye-to-eye with the Director of one of these libraries who insisted they had a link when his reference librarians and I told him otherwise. My fight for the FL Victim Services Directory was state-wide back in 2000 through 2007 or so.

I was not about to just agree with this Director that there was a link to the Florida Victim Services Directory http://myfloridalegal.com/directory when anyone with a computer could see that there was not. Probably would have made mine and my parents' life a lot easier in Palm Harbor if I had just agreed with this Chairman of the Palm Harbor Board of Commerce back around then.

I did continue fighting for a link to the Florida Victim Services Directory from the Villages' area libraries when we moved to the Villages in 2005. Gary Corsair, a Villages Daily Sun reporter, wrote a short piece about my efforts with Villages' area libraries. The article is from Memorial Day weekend in May 2007.

I have managed to avoid being homeless but finding any kind of work has been very difficult mainly because of my Internet presence.

[perrjojo]

Originally Posted by Taltarzac725

My problem had been that mistakes you make in whom you write and what you say on the Internet often stay there for what seems like decades. So, they closed a lot of doors to employment in many other areas.

In 2000, I tried volunteering in two Palm Harbor public libraries to get a foot in the door to public libraries, for instance, but a fight I had been involved with getting the Florida Victim Services Directory linked to libraries across FL made this door shut in 2004. I had trouble seeing eye-to-eye with the Director of one of these libraries who insisted they had a link when his reference librarians and I told him otherwise. My fight for the FL Victim Services Directory was state-wide back in 2000 through 2007 or so.

I was not about to just agree with this Director that there was a link to the Florida Victim Services Directory Victim Services Directory when anyone with a computer could see that there was not. Probably would have made mine and my parents' life a lot easier in Palm Harbor if I had just agreed with this Chairman of the Palm Harbor Board of Commerce back around then.

I did continue fighting for a link to the Florida Victim Services Directory from the Villages' area libraries when we moved to the Villages in 2005. Gary Corsair, a Villages Daily Sun reporter, wrote a short piece about my efforts with Villages' area libraries. The article is from Memorial Day weekend in May 2007.

I have managed to avoid being homeless but finding any kind of work has been very difficult mainly because of my Internet presence.

Thanks for posting the link.

[perrjojo]

Unfortunately many homeless suffer from mental illness. Have you read The Soloist or seen the movie? It is very enlightening. We have good friends who are well off financially and good parents of 4 children. One of the children has been homeless for years, not because of a lack of a support system. He drifts home occasionally and his parents have tried numerous ways to get him help. It breaks their heart and they worry constantly but he has made the choice and it seems not much can be done. A very sad situation.

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by perrjojo

Unfortunately many homeless suffer from mental illness. Have you read The Soloist or seen the movie? It is very enlightening. We have good friends who are well off financially and good parents of 4 children. One of the children has been homeless for years, not because of a lack of a support system. He drifts home occasionally and his parents have tried numerous ways to get him help. It breaks their heart and they worry constantly but he has made the choice and it seems not much can be done. A very sad situation.

I have seen a lot of movies and read books about mental illness. I had a nervous breakdown due to long term stress (and probably another matter but I have been trying to get that investigated by the ObamaCare people) in late March -April of 2000 and spent maybe a week in the hospital and then in a mental ward. I have tried to get the National Alliance on Mental Illness involved with my work as painting someone mentally ill often has the affect eventually of making them so. http://www.nami.org/

[perrjojo]

Originally Posted by Taltarzac725

I have seen a lot of movies and read books about mental illness. I had a nervous breakdown due to long term stress (and probably another matter but I have been trying to get that investigated by the ObamaCare people) in late March -April of 2000 and spent maybe a week in the hospital and then in a mental ward. I have tried to get the National Alliance on Mental Illness involved with my work as painting someone mentally ill often has the affect eventually of making them so. NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness - Mental Health Support, Education and Advocacy

I know from reading your posts that you have suffered a lot of stress. I am glad you have wonderful parents to stand beside you through your difficult times. I follow NAMI on Facebook. It is a wonderful educational and support organization.