Homeless; How Did We Get Here? 

Most people want to pretend this could never happen to them but I happen to know of a millionaire who went bankrupt in a little over a year. He didn't go on any wild spending spree, he just go sick, the company he had worked at for decades fired him, and he lost his very good health insurance with the loss of his job. He had to sell his house, cars, and all his worldly possessions to pay medical bills.

I've been homeless 4 times; the thing that affected me most is the stigma people associate with homelessness. I had been in England for 9 years in higher education, I earned an advanced counseling diploma and several national vocational qualifications like a teaching certificate. I had begun a private counseling service in England and was slowly accumulating paying clients when my passport expired and I had to return to California. I had no family and many people whom I knew prior to leaving for England had moved away or changed their phone numbers. With no support I had no where to go, and became homeless. Even though I'm highly educated, drug free and not an alcoholic, not a thief, people treated me as thought there was something wrong with me. Otherwise, I would not have been homeless in the first place - right? So my only crime was that I returned to America without a bank account full of money, otherwise I could have rented a nice apartment, bought a good running car and been fine. But the fact that I could not afford to rent a place & no one rents to an unemployed person anyway, I was stuck in the homeless rut. The only two people who offered me their living room floors to sleep on quickly became resentful of my presence and continually gave the message to move on - but for that period, I had no where to go. I discovered that homelessness can be a rut that is extremely difficult to break out of & other's expectations of a homeless person can be unrealistic. But again, it was the stigma that people attached to me... the labels they used to define me were all so wrong and hurtful. Folks should stop assuming that a homeless person must have serious problems to be homeless in the first place. That is not always the case and every person is a human being who should be looked upon with respect and empathy. Because believe me... anyone can be only a step away from being homeless themselves.

Homeless....it could happen to anyone

People make mistakes. We as society shouldn't hold their mistakes against them. Drugs or for whatever reason. God bless them.

Personally, I tried to help homeless on my own little way, I do not judge them at all is not my place, I just have compassion.... why they have to suffer this way when we can help.. yes we can help obviously the rich does not care nor the government so is just us U and Me to help them. I do care.

Just sad man 😢 and very touching wish I could just win the lottery to help u all .... just something mannn very touching never judge a book by its cover cuz u never know it could happen to any1 god bless u all and 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾 xx

After watching other homelessness videos, I read several comments about how many homeless people have well-rehearsed life stories claiming that it was all because of other people or factors they couldn't control - they were fired for no reason, people conspired against them, they were framed for something they didn't do, and so on. And that they had previously been successful or wealthy or had multiple college degrees. Clearly not all of these background stories are honest, and clearly they are not taking responsibility for their own behavior. Having known such people personally, I can believe it.

Old systems that don't truly work are breaking down to finding a new way.

I know this first hand. I have a good job, and am making a wage. But it just barely covers rent and food, and one car payment. At any givin moment, i am one paycheck away from being homeless. All that has to happen is something that prevents me from collecting a paycheck ONCE !

I just read from Wikipedia that the total combined net worth of top 400 US billionaires is US 2.7 trillion in 2017. Homelessness is fixable issue. Yet this is the harsh reality. In a country with most billionaires in the world, there should NOT be an alarming epidemic homelessness at large. Why???

I believe.... *HOMELESSNESS IS AN ADDICTION.

All the people profiled in this story have the same threads running thru their lives: illness (physical or mental - predisposed or unexpected/sudden onset), self-medication w/drugs & alcohol, an arrest record (the young black man). All these things lead to homelessness, bc all of these things lead to being non-functional enough that you lose the ability to earn the income that is required to afford housing. Are housing costs out of control in America: yes. This means that even without having any of the common threads these people had, every one of us w/out at least $20,000 of cash savings in our bank accounts are at risk of being homeless ourselves if we lose our current jobs due to downsizing. I said downsizing, not termination, plain ordinary downsizing if our field or industry goes through an economic downturn & the companies in said field begin to cut costs thru employee salaries. It is scary, because very few people who are "middle class" actually have $20,000 in cash...they may have equity in their homes but it's not the same thing as actual money in a bank account that can be accessed 24/7. This is 2017 & the situation is even worse since this vid date since housing costs CONTINUE to rise...beyond all sane thinking.

So sad but true can happen to anyone...

music way too loud. its aweful for those that dont chose to be. price of rent is robbery

Me thinks Victoria was previously Victor.

I’m about to become homeless. My story is I’ve been in an abusive marriage, sometimes extremely abusive marriage, for 11 years. My kids are grown now and have their own lives. I’ve stayed after my kids left home to protect my pets. It came to a point where I had to choose to save me. I know that sounds odd right. I’ve told my husband I can’t do this anymore. I’ve packed my things. I’ve sold what I can. I have a car but it’s not running and my husband said to me that he won’t help to repair it because it doesn’t benefit him. He does nothing that doesn’t benefit him in his mind and he literally wants to stand in my way and destroy any possibilities I might have to establish security or independence. So in selling my things my intent is to hopefully make enough to get my car repaired so I would at least have some kind of shelter and a way to travel easier. My husband has been in management for years and has many connections in the local industry and community. Everyone knows him . He’s reached out to those connections and suddenly no one locally will consider hiring me. I’ve had a few offers but both called back and said they couldn’t hire me after he called them but no reason was given to me as to why. He was proud to tell me he’d made the calls though. He relishes in that ability to manipulate and control my circumstances. I have to leave the area. I have a lot of personal items left that I held onto but now I have no where to store them when I leave. No way to take my things. No connections friends or family that I can go to or that will help. No car and no way to take or store my belongings. My biggest heart break is that I can’t leave with my pets that have known nothing more than A life with me. I’m scared to death. I don’t know where to head. Out of state though is the plan. I don’t know what resources are available or how to get them. I don’t know what to take with me. 51 years old and I will be completely starting over with nothing and no one. So thank you for your video. I never thought I’d need such information but I do. Soon I will be out there too . No looking back. I just need all of the knowledge I can get ahead of time so I know what I’m in for and what I can do for myself when the time comes.

Inability to pick up one's trash seems like a good warning sign.

I think many of us are just one paycheque away from homelessness

To help the homeless and poor people please pray THAT the price of home depot stock goes over a thousand dollars a share so that they can build new stores everywhere and hire the poor and homeless THANK YOU. Please spread the holy word THANK YOU.

The first day I became homeless was the next day after my 21st birthday February 7th 1995 ----- The only thing that would help me is if the government forced the USPTO too give out every any and all forms of patents and trademarks out free of charge. Anything other than that is worthless to me

RENTS ARE TOO HIGH! It's ridiculous! It's out of control! How can we expect people to come out of homelessness and pay the high rents? My rent just went up..I am 67 on Social Security..I will be on the streets soon! Stop by and say hello!

NOT PAYING NO MONEY LIVE ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bless u all

Some people are not well enough to survive on their own. Others make stupid choices and others are lazy.

The music is too loud.

Where are their families and friends and why don’t they reach out to them? That’s always been my question...I know that if I ended up unable to afford to live I’d have friends and family taking care of me until I could get back...so, are those relationships destroyed due to bad decisions in their pasts? These are very honest questions...sounds so so broken, makes me sad...these people need the Lord.

About 15 years ago economists said 4% of the population is "unemployable". Issues of various types. Since then our economy has shifted to service sector (difficult for many that lack "people" skills, and pays crap wages). Throw in this brutal '08 recession and that dragged a lot more people into the mire. Throw in crooked politicians trying to better themselves and live the good life (not serving their constituents), we have real problems in our socio-economic paradigm. You look at robotics, driverless cars, robot fast-food restaurants, AI technology, I do not see this getting better, but worse.

I am both homeless and not homeless. I do not have a fixed residence. However, I call home a semi truck. I work full time, 60+ hours a week. I served 5 years in the Marine Corps. My time was up and I was free to go. I received an honorable discharge in 2007. I had a home. My wife, and two children, lived in a two story house with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a garage and a yard. I lived in a lobby, or I. A barracks room, or in what is called a Can in Iraq. I have called many places home. Everything I have done, and why I am homeless, is because I pay child support and there is not enough left for me to afford a home. So, I live in a Semi Truck. I get treated like a low life dead beat. It was not my choice to not be in my daughter's life everyday. I had to make a sacrifice. My ex-wife abducted and kidnapped my daughter when she disappeared in California. I found out they were in New York years later when New York garnished my wages, and then California garnished my wages too. Now I have two states taking child support payments, current and arrears, and it doesn't leave me enough to afford a home. It also ruined my credit. On top of that, the arrears has an interest rate. In 3 years, it pricipal balance doubled. Sometime this year, 2018, the balance will be a hair shy of 6 figures. I will be making arrears payments until I am in my 60's, if I pay a majority of my income to arrears. Right now, I do not make enough money to cover the interest. I will be homeless paying child support until I die.

For yrs. Now business have been closeing no money no anything...and this goverment isn't done they'll be more loseing everything...God this is very said...no ones job is fully...fully there anymore.

Is the lady in the stripe dress homeless? Looks like she's not getting enough to eat.

I'm homeless because divorce judge ordered me to be homeless for life it's a condition of my divorce if I get a job the penalty is life in prison if I stay a night in a shelter penalty is life in prison I don't do drugs or drink just severely wronged in a divorce

Bad enough for sad

what are you man or woman I'm confuse

Literally every single one of them just stated the decisions that they made to become homeless. Every single choice they made lead them to this. It is not as if they were living a good virtuous life and somebody just came and kicked him out of their house. Because I’m telling you right now if my husband or I got fired from her job we would have another job within three weeks. It is a very small percentage of the population who are truly unable to keep a job or stable living situation because of their mental illness. Most mental illnesses are treatable but people don’t stay on their medication or except the free therapy. If you disagree please debate me.

And this is how 'The greatest country america looks after their people, what a joke.

Main reason drugs & alcohol. Second bad decisions . third lazyness . people and family can only help you so much .only you can help you .if someone is homeless for more than two years there is a problem . i have been there . i was homeless on and off over 5 years . not a ez life .my problem was heroin . a growing problem in our country .when o started bouncing from job to job i realized 90% of people had a drug problem or had one in the past.

Abusing parents

5:04 "nobody is there for you " dude, I'm not homeless and I live with my family and no one cares about me , no friends interested in me !! It's not about homeless or not homeless . we are all suffering 😆😆😆😆😆😆😆