Street sleepers

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on July 21, 2016 at 20:13

One question. Is it right or fair to extrapolate from the reported behaviour of some people, the motivations of everyone else and would you do that in other circumstances?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Antoinette on July 21, 2016 at 20:19

I haven't extrapolated at all. I have referred only to these specific individuals.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Finsbury Park Ranger on July 21, 2016 at 21:57

If it's a question of morals, car drivers and plane flyers would have to consider their own environmental foot print before any moral judgement could really be made on the lifestyle of someone who lives mainly on poppies and fermented fruit and other peoples rubbish.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by JJ on July 22, 2016 at 2:11

My whole point is that it is not for us to cast moral aspersions against anyone, be they homeless, renters, owner occupiers whoever, who cares? We all reside in Harringay, we need not be down on others.

Why would you want to speak to the council about your neighbours? Particularly if they are clearly in distress. We live in London, live and let live. they don;t bother you, why would you want to make life difficult for them? Leave them alone.

If your only gripe is them shooting up, then on the scale of badness it's right down there at the bottom end of criminality, why do you care so much? i agree it aint great, id rather me and my kids didn;t have to witness that on our way to the supermarket, but still. It's mild stuff. 

There's so much to be cross and angry about at the moment. why bother and waste your energies about some poor homeless people? rage against the machine, not the people. It's about structures and policies not blaming individuals 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Finsbury Park Ranger on July 22, 2016 at 11:56

The machine that entrenched and deskilled so much of our underclass was the foolish nature of the welfare state
that created generations of people to live in their pyjama's by paying people to do nothing at the prime of their life.

All the answers can't be found in the wisdom of the welfare state left, they've equally been bereft of ideas for decades.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on August 5, 2016 at 17:23

We recently met a friend from the northeast U.S. who told us about the increase in imprisonment of poorer white people for drug offences. The traditional jobs in their areas have shrunk - often exported abroad. A small number replaced by expansion of jobs in private prisons.
And isn't there also a pattern that in an economic downturn the overall numbers of homeless people increases? Jobs are lost. That's the expectation of forecasters including Mark Carney. In any real life game of musical chairs the weaker and unlucky lose out.
This was something observed in a documentary film from 1989 which I've mentioned before. The person who made the film was Don McCullin who started life in Finsbury Park when it was a lot poorer and rougher.

For the reasons mentioned above by different people - other than FPR's view of the Welfare State - but adding the worsening current economic forecasts, I'm inclined to think that homelessness will steadily and perhaps rapidly increase. So the key questions become understanding the complex reasons and working with other boroughs, and with agencies - state, and voluntary sector  - to formulate an effective programmes which could increase the help on offer.

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 3
• 4
• 5
• Next ›
• Page