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SLOWDIVE | KISSES [MV, JUN 2023] EVERYTHING IS ALIVE — SEPT 2023 >> DIRECTOR: NOEL PAUL >> EP/PRODUCER: DANNY HERMAN

Tell me your the best thing, I tell you that’s what you need Rolling on those good looks Maybe it’s just enough I know you dream of snowfields Floating high above the trees Living for the new thing Sometimes the new won’t do...

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left-reminders

artificialsugarsubstitute

Click here for a link to the thread

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This is a series of 10 tweets posted on August 20th 2022 by user "Housing 4 All is Hot" (Twitter Handle @ahouse4all)

That thread asking people how they would get out of homelessness if they only had $20 is literally people saying "I would simply just'" and then saying something that is literally impossible, unavailable, or has been made illegal by local city governments.

"I'd find a minimum wage job and save up money while I stayed at a shelter!" Who is hiring you when you don't have an address, your ID, or a car? Shelter is full. Also you have to leave the shelter at 6am and show up at 1pm to get a bed. You also have to pay to stay there.

I would panhandle and save!" Panhandling does not pay. Most people don't have cash anymore + are hostile to unhoused ppl. It's illegal in a lot of places = huge citation or in jail. You also have to buy food and supplies daily. They get stolen or thrown out by the cops.

All while this is happening your mental health deteriorates. People don't respond to you when you speak to them and you're kicked out of shops and restaurants constantly. Your stuff is constantly getting stolen. Assaults are common. You have to stay awake at night to stay safe.

There are more people falling into homelessness every day than can be lifted out because of skyrocketing rents, low wages, lack of healthcare, mass incarceration, domestic violence, etc. There is no "just" getting out of it when you're in it.

Also to all these scenarios add more layers of oppression: Being disabled, woman, elderly, LGBTQ+, a person of color, and the more difficult it is. It's not a coincidence that even though Black people only make up 8% of the population they're 40% of unhoused people - it's racism.

LA has made it illegal to sit, stand, lie, sleep in 20% of the city. If you don't know all those areas by memory you could get arrested or fined at any moment if a cop comes by. Sweeps are constant so you have to memorize that schedule or all your stuff gets thrown out.

How do you go to any appointments for benefits if places don't let you come inside with your tent/backpack/belongings that will get stolen the second you leave them unattended? What do you do when you don't have the $35 for your ID that's been thrown away every time you get one?

Also you're unhoused in this scenario which means your credit and rental history is probably bad. Even if you miraculously saved up the $5,000 you need to move into an apartment- a landlord is never going to rent you one with bad credit/eviction history.

I could go on and on but it's terrifying how uninformed people are about how little help there is for unhoused people when the vast majority of people are just a couple paychecks away from being unhoused themselves.

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crashtestjeffy-deactivated20240

This is such an important post. I was homeless. I know homeless people. There are a hundred more reasons why "I would just" doesn't work. And the people who think they know are two things. First, incredibly arrogant and assuming and have no idea how hard it is. And second, the biggest victims when the end up on the street. The predators smell their blood from a mile away and attack. I cannot stress this enough. The people who talk online about how they know just what people should do are the weakest of the weak on the skids. They know everything and think they have it all sorted out. These are the people that end up destroyed by the streets. Because out there...The world doesn't give a shit about how you think things should work. Nobody gets off the streets without help, from friends, social agencies, grass roots charities and sometimes family. But family is usually the least likely help. And the big charities with CEOs and boards of trustees and infrastructure help no one. They may try to convince you they help. But there is no one who can say "Oh yeah I was helped by Homeless Co.". Don't donate to them. Give to the people who work in store front charities and little offices in the shit. If they have a nice boardroom in a shiny tower, that's where your money is going. We need to reach out and help each other. I cannot help financially, but I can tell my story and advocate and offer the real story. And not the edited 3 minute blurb on the 6 o'clock news.

stilljewelss

Reblogging again for Jeff’s valuable insights.

Knowing a few people who work for those big agencies in shiny towers myself, I can tell you that very little actual assistance makes it to the people who need it.

The lower and mid-level employees working for these agencies might be very well-meaning - the people I personally know who do that kind of work do genuinely want to help, but the whole structure of the orgs they a part of works against their efforts. And that is by design, because the higher-ups are not in it to help.

The system is fundamentally broken. If you think you as an individual could help yourself via some “I would simply just” thing, you are wrong. And you are closer to being on the streets than the folks who are trying to convince you that homeless folks are there because they are somehow “lesser” human beings. We all need to be fighting this heartless, broken system.

lippenimnebel

guerrilla-operator

Chat Pile // Why

Why do people have to live outside In the brutal heat or when it’s below freezing There are people that are made to live outside Why

Why do people have to live outside When there are buildings all around us With heat on and no one inside Why

Why do people have to live outside In tents, under bridges Living with nothing and horribly suffering Why Why do people have to live outside We have the resources We have the means Why

Why do people have to live outside I couldn’t survive out on the streets Why

Why do people have to live outside I couldn’t survive out on the streets I’ve never had to push all of my shit around in a shopping cart have you Have you ever had ringworm Scabies? Have you ever had to live outside I don’t want to live outside Why Why do people have to live outside

Horror story Real American horror story And it’s a fuckin’ tragedy Every day Everyday, people have to live outside Why

kaos-teorema

la montaña sagrada (alejandro jodorowsky, 1973)

amethystm00n

Letter from Nick Cave to Anita Lane, 1980

From the Book „Stranger than Kindness“

outofthegarden-deactivated20230

discoelysiumtxt

limnalhymn

Met a stranger on a train Bumped right into me Swear I didn’t mean it Swear it wasn’t meant to be Must’ve been a dream From a thousand years ago Kiss me