Thought I'd share this here, seeing how there's always such an astonishing number of homeless people all around:

 

Saw this on chive, he is a great guy.

 

its sad that in SF that some don't even want help because its just the life they've become used to. It's a shame that some who want change can't get any.

 

It's awesome. I think most people don't take the time to get to know what's out there. Hell, I've done it myself. You walk by and you try not to look at them because you feel bad but you don't want to stop and talk or you don't want to toss any money away.

But the truth is, there are a lot of good people on the streets. A lot of crazy stories. Usually you ended up there because you made some poor choices in your life. Addictions and things like that. Sometimes you just didn't have the chances some other folks have had or just simply the support.

I've been damn close to being in the streets myself but I have always had family and friends there to catch me. After my mom was murdered I bounced around for a while. If my family didn't take me in who knows what would have happened.

My father passed away last week. Saw him for the first time in 20 years a few weeks back. He vanished one day when I was visiting family. I was 13 years old. My father has always had a very bad drinking problem. He can't handle the day to day tasks. He's smart as hell but left to his own devises he ends up in a bar from open to close. He spent my SS checks and got me kicked out of school. He spent my allowance money. He drank his way out of a $90k engineering job... and this was in 1990. Dude was crazy smart. Drank his way out of 3 families.

Turns out when he split he went back to southern cal. Worked for a little bit and then drank his way on to the streets. He was homeless. Pushing a cart. A family stopped on day to offer him some food. 14 years of friendship later they got him a job and stayed by his side through all of his bull**** until he died. Who does that...



I met a dude on the street one time. Had a suit on. A real one. I walked up and asked him his story. He had a 6 figure job 6 months before. Made a bad mistake. Cheated on his wife. Got caught. His wife took him for all she could. Lost his wife, family and house. Started drinking to stop the pain. Ended up drinking himself out of his job and on to the streets. 6 months time...

Met another dude. Was reading an advanced math book. I asked him if he understood it. He gave me a lesson on it... mind you I'm no fool when it comes to math. Turns out the dude had a business in virginia making custom wood instruments. Was nearly finished with a math masters at rudgers. His parents got killed in a car accident. His family started fighting over the money. He couldn't handle it. Started drinking and doing dope. Progressed his way to opiates. Lost everything. Made his way west on trains and hitch hiking. One day he asked me for $20 to get cleaned up. I gave it to him. He got in to a flop hotel. Took a shower and got cleaned up. Went to an interview with the city. They had a program... if they felt like you could get your isht together they'd help you finish whatever schooling you had started. Get back on track. He got the grant. He finished his degree. Saw him a while later carrying a guitar and talking on his cell phone. He got off the phone and stopped me. Bought me a cup of coffee. Turns out he finished his degree. Started teaching kids math and english. Got married.

Met another dude. Young kid. ****ty parents. Partied too hard. Didn't finish high school. Couldn't get a job. Was living in the street by 111 minna in S.F. Nice kid. The owner of 111 one day asked him if he wanted a job cleaning up the bar and running bottles and what not. He took it. Worked his way up. Got a place to live. Bought a little CB350 to ride around S.F. Last I heard he was going to school and doing well. But that was a long long time ago.

Met another dude. Dude's family turned their back on him and the state wasn't helping him the way they should. He had some serious mental illnesses. Unmedicated he was very unstable and quite frankly dangerous. On the meds he was mellow and an interesting conversation. Maybe with the support of his family he'd stay medicated and be a productive citizen. Maybe not. Pretty sure he's dead now.

Met another dude... POS. Milked the system. Collected every benefit he could. I used to watch this dude ride up on his $3500 mountain bike. Park it around the corner and then walk up and stake his corner. Ask for quarters all day. Then get up and jump on his bike and ride away. There are a lot of these.

Hell I met one dude that told me every winter he'd do something to get locked up. **** on a car. Break a window. Jaywalk. Whatever. That way he'd get his 3 square meals. Get fed. etc.

 

^Dang, met a lot of people. Goes to show that not everyone is the same

 

I did a couple inner city outreach things when I was younger and then I worked in S.F. for almost 8 years.

I like to meet people. So if I saw the same people on a regular basis they'd usually get to know you and say hello. Sooner or later you talk to them. Find out what they're about. I think it's interesting. And I think it's good to know how close to the streets most of us truly are. We are a pay check to pay check generation. I've been damn close a couple times.

Plus you meet some super cool people in places you'd never expect. Met this dude in S.F. one time. Playing music in BART. Went by Toofless Sean. Really enjoyed his music. Bought his CD one day.

Hell sometimes you don't have a choice. LOL! Had a dude on BART one time.. HAMMERED at like 7:45 in the morning. Dude starts telling me he can't believe his lady left him like that. She never cared that he cheated on her before. Etc etc. This whole sob story for like 15 minutes. Dude finally passes out... ON ME. About 15-20 minutes later he wakes up and starts his whole story again. I wanted to shoot myself in the face.



Think of it like iclub. If you ever go out to a meet and actually talk to the people who's screen names you see all the time... every now and again you're surprised. Might make some life long friends. Might even find out the guy you thought was an ******* is cool as hell. OR... you might find out they're a bigger ******* than you thought. LOL!

 

wow ray...longest thread ive read. worth it though.

good stuff

 

Lol you've met a lot of dudes I will give you that...nice read bro. Sorry about your Mom and dad, I'm glad you got to see him one last time.