The Homeless Mindset

Chapter 2 – The Homeless Mindset

Much like the alcoholic or drug addict will use their drug of choice to avoid their problems, the homeless person will use their homelessness much the same way, to avoid facing the REAL problems that we have created for ourselves. That’s what I was doing.

The mindset of the homeless person goes something like this. First there are no decisions to be made or responsibilities beyond the day to day. Free food for the most part, free housing, free medical. What more could one ask for. We use our disabilities both real and imagined as a crutch to gain the sympathy of those who are better off than we are or those who have more stuff. If not that then we just take what we want or a combination of both using and taking.

It’s not much different than being an addict. Even the functional addict like me would play on the sympathy of others to overlook my own failures or at the very most I would turn things around in my own mind and convince myself that I was not at fault but someone else was. That’s what we do.

We learn to work the system. Not all of us but enough to clog up the system in order to get what we want. We learn how to lie, to exaggerate, to do whatever it takes. Most times money is the main goal because most of us do have an addiction to take care of. But if it’s something else like a special service or a free ride then that’s what we do.

There are many homeless people out there whom I call professional homeless. They have been out there long enough to  know how to work the system by whatever means. Some of them will just try to talk you to death until you give them what they want just to make them go away. Others will work with an imagined or minor disability. Some have no shame at all and will even push someone out of a line just to get what they want.

We learn how to play up to others sympathies. Here is where the various groups who help the homeless get taken advantage of.  The homeless people know who is new and who is not when it comes to the people who are trying to help or give out things. That poor person will be the target for whatever the homeless person can get.

Then there’s minimum work for maximum pleasure. Job opportunities are few and far between but there is no lack of people who find the means to get the money they need for their pleasures. Just for fun sometime go to one of the places that feed the homeless on a regular basis. On the 1^st of every month there will be large and noticeable lack of attendance. Why is that? Well those people and a few who hang with them will be off spending their monthly SSI or disability checks. The local motels will be full, the corner store sells a lot of beer and the drug dealers are busy. The question here is, if they get this monthly check, why are they still homeless? One reason is that they did whatever it took to start receiving the check every month to continue their chosen lifestyle.

We become pretty good liars too. Some of the stories I hear from them can change on a daily basis.

All to get what we want and to avoid having to face our own realities. Just like the addict. Most of the homeless people I personally know are addicts in one way or another and are using the substance of their choice as a way to avoid the REAL problem. That substance of choice does not have to be drugs or alcohol but usually is. Just so long as we can avoid our problems.