That’s it, really. It gets so cold out I feel bad for them, and I wonder, why do they stay here? I hope this isn’t a terribly stupid question. If I became homeless I think I’d head somewhere where I wouldn’t stand the chance of freezing to death in my sleep. 
Not a stupid question, but then again I don’t have an answer. But I can say that it isn’t necessarily because “they can’t afford it”
Several years ago, in Burlington VT I believe, the local merchants put together a fund that would purchase one-way bus tickets to Florida for homeless street people. It was revealed that their intentions were not borne from genuine kindness, but from the desire to see that their doorways and storefronts were not putting off Christmas shoppers by the sight of homeless people huddling in them during peak spending season.
The simple fact was that few of these people opted for the bus ticket to Florida and elected to fight the harsh elements instead.
So, I too, look forward to some answer for this one!
Uh, maybe 'cause the cold northern city they’re living in is their home?
Makes sense to me.
Many homeless also suffer from mental illness. It could be that they stay on a freezing cold street because they aren’t thinking very clearly. Or perhaps they lack the resources to move to a warmer climate. I would venture a guess that most of the homeless that freeze to death are suffering from some form of mental illness. There are many shelters they could go to, so if they realized they were in some danger, they could have gone to one of those. It’s pretty sad that society doesn’t take better care of them.
As cold as it today in Mississippi, I don’t think you are talking about them coming here, so where? I’m sure that southern Florida doesn’t want that many homeless people invading their territory. They probably have their share already. I don’t think that Phoneix would be good, since the heat would work in reverse. They could go to the temperate regions of Mexico and even the Caribbean. With enough donations they might enjoy the French Rivera or the northern coast of Africa. Bali is most likely hurting for tourists, as are the Fiji Islands. Things being what they are I don’t believe the northern part of South America would advisable. The problem may be that they just don’t know how to decide where to go and how to get there. How about a Travel Agency for the homeless? Maybe something along the lines of Time Share.
In the early 1980s I worked in a large shelter for homeless men in St. Louis. The weather in St. Louis is extremely variable, and during some winters it is be very, very cold for extended periods of time. On Thursday of this past week, ofr instance, the wind chill factor was reported at 14 below zero, Farenheit, around noon.
I recall listening to experienced homeless people advising people new to this condition to give up on thinking about moving south for the winter. Some of these men spoke from bitter experience.
They said that police and people generally in southern cities were afraid of a large influx of homeless people during the winter months and, as a result, were much more hostile to the homeless than people up north. (St. Louis, for the purpose of this discussion, is considered “up north”.) Some of the men were fairly graphic about how the police in some large Southern cities would be willing to beat your ass as soon as you showed up in town.
A couple more points:
One reason homeless people end up freezing to death on the street during the winter is that the cold weather increases the demand for space in shelters. In St. Louis, at least, occupancy limits tend to be strictly enforced in shelters and it is not uncommon for the last people in line at night to be turned away. This is especially true when the weather is bad.
From what I can recall, I only overheard white men discussing the advisability of heading south during the winter. While one can find racism anywhere, I expect that the prevalence and intensity of racial intolerance some black people would anticipate meeting farther south encourages some black people who are homeless in the north to stay where they are for the winter.
Even though a person may be homeless, he may still be receiving certain benefits from the state such as medicaid. Some homeless may have relatives living nearby and receive other benefits such as food stamps and welfare payments at those addresses. In other words, the “system” doesn’t know they are homeless. It is not so easy to “transfer” these benefits to another state.
In a big city like New York City, it is easier to keep warm than it seems. Subways, street gratings, building walls, even passing motor vehicles, all provide heat. The sidewalks themselves are warmer than in smaller towns because of the number of warn utility lines that run beneath them. Building walls and stairwells often provide a “windbreak” of sorts, and you’ll tend to see homeless on one side of a building in preference to another for this reason.
Familiarity is probably the biggest reason why the homeless stay where they are. Most do not aimlessly wander the city, but stay within a certain radius of “home.” The neighborhood people (street vendors, store owners) get to know them, and may even pass the time of day with some of them, allow them to earn a little coin for peforming small tasks and/or give them some food.
I can believe it. Southerners really are very hospitable, but not when it comes to the homeless. There were major scandals in Birmingham, AL, and Atlanta, GA, over how they handled the homeless problem while beautifying their cities for the Olympics. B’ham officials quietly paid many homeless people to go to Huntsville (a mid-sized city an hour north of B’ham whose officials needless to say weren’t consulted on this) and Atlanta adopted a very strange “keep them walking” plan of strategic shelter placement.
The actual reason is cold is more bearable than heat. Think about this for a minute. Places like Phoenix, Houston, Miami did not take off till Air Conditioning came in big time.
I lived in Florida and until I got a place I figured “Oh I’ll just sleep in my car.” No way it was way too hot. You can’t even sit on a bench. You can’t sleep at the beach the heat is horrible. You can put on clothes to stay warm but you can only take off so much.
Further more when I was in NYC this week the homeless simply were riding the subways and the Staten Island ferry. (it’s free).
Southern cities don’t have mass transit to keep cool. You can buy one ticket on a Chicago EL and ride virtually forever. Just transfer a lot.
Why didn’t factories move south till the 50s and 60s? Simple no air.
Actually, a lot of people don’t stay up north in the winter here in Canada. They actually migrate to warmer places like Vancouver. As a matter of fact, when I lived in Vancouver I witnessed a swelling of the city’s homeless population during the winter months.
However, I would hazard a guess that those who do stay, do so for a number of reasons that might include the following:
- they have lived here all their lives, and despite being homeless they have loved ones and friends they don’t want to leave
- they can’t actually afford to leave.
- fear of change - a quality that is shared by people with homes who never move
- they don’t see their situation as permanent and hope things will take a turn for the better
- drugs/alcohol/mental illness take away the ability for them to move
- hopelessness, depression and despair can kill all motivation and desire in life.
I am sure there are also people who really just like it here and don’t want to go. Having never been homless, however, I can’t really speak with any authority.
bee
We had a homeless man have his legs amputated at the knee (and I think he may have lost a hand too) because of frostbite he recieved last week. It got to ~-11F here. He was invited multiple times by the police to go to a shelter. He wouldnt go. The shelters here don’t allow drink or drug. Rumor is thats the reason he turned them down (very unsubsantiated). This has little to do with the OP.
Just a hypothesis: I overheard a conversation the other day from somebody who actually once begged, he said that most of those begging at intersections can make a lot of money (over a hundred dollars an hour) and that the true homeless either have mental disoders, alcohol or drug addictions) and that the rest were generally fakes, and that many of them stay out longer when its cold out (as it has been over the past few days here near D.C.) because people feel more generous and they make more money, so the hypothesis is they stay north 'cause they’re mentally unable to move south or because they make more money this way.
The homeless freeze to death every year even in L.A. The basic dilemna is, that they are offered a shelter, but they can’t shoot up heroin or drink at a shelter, so they decline and go freeze to death.
Don`t feel bad for them, they could all get help if they WANTED it.
I live in AZ and I see my fair share of homeless people all the time. I don’t see how some of them can stand out there begging for money in that heat. I would pass out or something.
Teebone
the funny thing is that there are people in nice warm homes typing what they think about the homeless. if they only knew…
…the homeless that is