This YouTuber interviews homeless people in my city

One of them just passed away from an overdose & I knew her from high school. Her & her boyfriend. They both ended up homeless addicted to smoking Percocets (it's like the modern version of heroin).

I find it so sad because her mom kicked out all of her kids years ago while they were still in high school. Her brothers are still out on the streets as well, one of them in prison. He still doesn't even know that his sister has passed & he was the closest to her.

I know everyone makes their own decisions but it's upsets me seeing her mom out here asking for money now... & seeing how emotionless she looks talking about pulling the plug on her daughter so quickly.

This is her & her boyfriend's interview from a month ago. It's right across the street from where I used to go to school at. If anyone's interested at all.
[media=https://youtu.be/mm3t7peF_Ug]

& This is the interview with her mom from a few days ago. Shortly before Gabby passed.
[media=https://youtu.be/h1S1pr6SNTc]

I know a lot of people don't feel bad for some of the homeless but I try to understand. My grandfather died homeless on a sidewalk before I ever got to meet him. & He was a highly respected marine vet. The way I look at it, everyone on the street used to be somebody too, just like any of us. It saddens me because I still knew her when she was full of life

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HootyTheNightOwl

This is why I tend to talk about the time I spent homeless... because, not every homeless person sleeps rough or is an addict. I am trying to change how people see homelessness.

You never know which of your friends or colleagues came to work from their hotel room this morning - or who will be spending tonight in a car. It only takes one thing like abuse or redundancy and you're homeless.

ChiefWalksWith40oz · 26-30

@HootyTheNightOwl when I was homeless I wasn't addicted to drugs but I did do a lot of them. Learned a lot of shit from just seeing it firsthand or being in that life myself. I've definitely met a lot of homeless people who were actually very intelligent & just in a hard part of life.. sometimes they end up getting out of it but I've seen a lot who get deeper & never come out of it. Shits sad but I don't judge because I was there too

HootyTheNightOwl

@ChiefWalksWith40oz I've always been very anti recreational drugs - even cannabis. In fact, after the recent death of my mother, my younger siblings put an insane amount of pressure on me to smoke weed with them. I didn't need to be battling them for my beliefs at a time when I was already grieving my loss.

I know that homelessness, in general, tends to be worse for men than women because there tends to be less help out there for homeless men. Women and women with children are more likely to be placed in emergency accommodation because of their vulnerability - while the men who are unlucky enough to get a bed in a shelter are left to fend for themselves unless there's a risk to life out on the streets that night.

ChiefWalksWith40oz · 26-30

@HootyTheNightOwl I don't agree with talking people into smoking weed. I think if anyone wants to do it they'll do it 🤷 it's just not for everyone so I don't blame ya at all.
But true, because I'm general men are seen as stronger & honestly I get why women would be put first. They're the ones who carry the children & who have the kids no matter what whether the father leaves or not. But it definitely leaves the truly helpless ones out there alone without help & it's messed up

HootyTheNightOwl

@ChiefWalksWith40oz It wasn't a simple invite, though. I must have spent half an hour telling my sister that I don't want to join them and explaining why - like no still means no even when it comes to someone not wanting to smoke with you.

She knows my reasons well enough... both my mother and I have been telling her about them for years. In some ways, it feels like I'm eleven years old again and being pressured by a bunch of bullies at a party to smoke a cigarette again. They left me with no choice, too.

Usually, when there are deaths among the homeless in bad weather, it is typically a guy who has frozen to death trying to keep warm overnight. The fact that a homeless man died should not be used as a marker that it's too cold for the homeless to be out there on the streets this December.

We all know that the coldest months of the year are cold for anyone to be outside, never mind the fact that there are people (usually, but not always, men) who are still living out there.

We have the ability to provide homeless shelters and take them to the "unseen homeless" (the areas that don't seem like they have much of a problem with homelessness, for those who may be wondering) - but no one thinks to take shelters to the people rather than having the people come to the shelter.

Then, when they get to the shelter, no one can help them because they don't have a "local connection" to the area. They had a problem with begging in the cities, so they made begging illegal and tried to force the homeless into shelters.

We wouldn't have big issues with begging in cities if we spread the homeless out and enable them to find shelter in their own towns where they have local connections and are more likely to be helped.

We had a homeless shelter here in town one winter a few years ago - so it is possible to set up a shelter... though funding it and making it accessible to all might be a bit of a problem as I found out recently when I spent 3 hours back out there.

Even if the shelter had been open... it was still out of range for someone with limited mobility to walk to. I couldn't have made it to the only homeless shelter here in town.