Hard Time Valentines

February 15, 2015 6:05 AM

Four couples, who are homeless and living in New York, talk about their lives.
posted by roomthreeseventeen (5 comments total)

It's just terrible, thinking about how many people (56,000 sleeping in shelters in NYC in 2014) are homeless and we keep reducing programs for them.

It was interesting seeing the different ways in which the couples interact with one another and rely on one another. The latter two knowing each other for a long time (I wonder if the youngest couple are more on an adventure than anything, as he said, "I want to keep doing this for a while longer" or something) and the first two seemingly together more out of safety reasons than anything else.

Right now, we in Boston are experiencing one of the heaviest blizzards ever, and I wonder about the people who don't have anywhere to go. When I lived in the city proper, my apartment building was right next to a methadone clinic, and every winter, an ambulance would come by our stoop at least once to pick up someone who had frozen to death.

I don't have anything of substance to say. Thanks for posting this.
posted by xingcat at 6:25 AM on February 15, 2015 [5 favorites]

It's just terrible, thinking about how many people (56,000 sleeping in shelters in NYC in 2014) are homeless

the thing is, for each officially "homeless" person there is a number X of people sleeping on couches or in closets or other temporary arrangements: X is the homelesness multiplier. so, saying 56,000 people in NYC are homeless is less important than the change in that number which likely reflects the change in the overall people without the ability to purchase housing.

There has been almost a 25% increase in homelessness in NY[pdf] from 2007-2013.
posted by ennui.bz at 7:06 AM on February 15, 2015 [6 favorites]

so, saying 56,000 people in NYC are homeless is less important than the change in that number which likely reflects the change in the overall people without the ability to purchase housing.

Same in SF, among myriad other reasons, one of which is a complete and utter paralysis of local leadership. There has been no substantial decrease in homeless population in SF in at least 15 years if not longer, through a succession of mayors, including Gavin Newsom, who set about at the start of his time in office claiming that homelessness in SF would be largely eradicated in 10 years. Didn't happen, big surprise. The current mayor doesn't even pay lip service to the notion of eradicating homelessness, and meanwhile home prices in SF from 2011 to 2013 increased 33%. Salt Lake City, say whatever else you want about it, also promised to radically decrease homelessness in 10 years -- and it appears to have gone a long way toward doing so.
posted by blucevalo at 11:03 AM on February 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm glad these folks have each other; in fact, their love for each other is really beautiful and very appropriate for Valentine's Day. Nice post - thank you.
posted by aryma at 6:39 PM on February 15, 2015

Anyone here watch Love is Strange? Nice film about the Catholic church's treatment of gays and house prices in NYC.

American local politicians like mayors care about pushing up property values, which increases inequality and homelessness, simply because they represent that moneyed classes that elect them.

Individual working poor could presumably improve their situation by moving where their skills sets earn closer to a living wage, like say Detroit, but migration cannot address the systemic problem.

SF's new $15 minimum wage partially attacks the systemic problem, but obviously you cannot live in SF or NYC on $30k per year either. A $20 to $30 minimum wage in NYC would wreck many traditional businesses but those businesses are already unsustainable if they cannot pay a living wage.
posted by jeffburdges at 3:38 AM on February 16, 2015