HOMELESS IN ATLANTA, social/economic/cultural trap or personal choice?

[Chris Creech]

Just to give a personal flavor to this. I'm actually about to lose my home and go into bankruptcy, and am actually facing my only housing option being moving to a homeless shelter. I've been a member of this board for years and many of you have seen my posts over that time. Two years ago I was making a decent $55,000/yr, actually managing a large production facility with about 20 people under me. I was actually brought on board to help get a company ready for sale, so I was also looking at a big closing bonus there as well. As the economy tanked so did the sale. I have two degrees, I'm very sharp, I have a wide variety of business background. I've had national positions with marketing, advertising and consulting firms. I've opened offices for companies all over the world. I've helped close on many million dollar deals. I can't count the resumes, the networking meeting, etc. And before anyone makes any suggestions on trying this or trying that, trust me I've proably already done it. I've had to sell off tens of thousans of dollars in artwork I'd collected over the years for ten cents on the dollar on ebay. I've yard selled and ebayed literally all my possessions where whole rooms in my house are now empty. This spring both my hot water system and heating/AC died so I've done without all summer. I've been living on a $30/week grocery budget. I've gone through all my savings. My family (which is actually quite well off) threw a couple of hundred dollars my way, but then since they're all good republicans said doing anymore would just discourage me from looking for work. I'm about to lose my insurance, and due to a preexisting condition I will be totally uninsurable, working or not. All this for someone again, who isn't one of these guys you keep talking about that make up the homeless. I have two degrees, for christs sakes, I even have a MENSA card. I've on the same day been told I was "runner-up" for a position with both the Federal Government that would have paid $80,000/yr and a cashiers job at Trader Joes that would have paid like $9/hr. I didn't get either one. Across the board in most industries I've worked in jobs that used to pay $50,000/yr now pay $35,000 and they're only looking at people with Doctorates (not because the job requires it, but just to cut down on the job pool). My biggest draw backs seem to be age (50) and my salary/work experience (way over qualified) I now have something like 12 different resumes, one of which completely skips my two degrees. I've gotten dozens of interviews, and in FIVE different situations now, I was told I had the job. FIVE different times when they put it up to the front office for final okay. I was told they no longer had the salary for the job, or that they were going to let it stay open. One company even called me up and told me "Congratulations you have the job!" only to be told that they hoped that in a week or two they would be able to call me back with a start date. It never happened. I had another job just fall through this past week, after six weeks of interviews. Then I have a job that is supposed to get back to me next week "for sure, because they want to move ahead ASAP", there I went from applying for a support job to them wanting me to run the department, but this process has now taken six, going on seven weeks now, and I've interviewed HR, 5 diff Department heads, CEO and COO, all of which said they wanted me on board.

Either I get this job next week and suddenly everything is OK again (though it will take me years to dig out), or if it falls through there's no backup plan. They start cutting utilities off and the Bank says they're talking the house.

I NEVER, NEVER dreamed I would be in this situation. I mean I do everything you're supposed to do, the education networking, all the volunteer work. If I'd every suspected it would come to this I would have done something earlier like move or go to some six-month course for something. However, it's been a slow bleed, with just enough of an interview here or there, some glimmer on the horizon, that I kept feeling this would only last another month or so, then another - now it's going on almost two years.

[Fiorenza]

There are many in the same situation. Thank God I'm self-employed, and nobody can fire me. For years I envied employed people, envied the steady paycheck. But it turns out to be false security, even government jobs are false security. The basic problem is, it's too expensive to hire employees. I actually need to hire 1 or 2 people but will not do it because the cost and risk are too high.

[Fiorenza]

I have contractors working for me at $15 per hour, but I have to keep them at below 20 hours per week so I don't have to carry them as employees. To be honest, even at $15 they're barely break-even. Because of the time I have to spend training and reviewing them, I can't make any real money from them. The real money I make is on my own billable time and effort. I am working 18 hours per day, and that's the only way I can survive and pay the overhead.

[Chris Creech]

Fiorenza -

I WISH I could be self employed, but if anything one of my main problems I can actually find fairly steady contract work, but no benefits, no insurance. Then even if it pays well it's four weeks working, two weeks between jobs.

We're facing a huge problem with so many companies now just hiring "contractors", I actually went to work last year for five months for a company I had worked years for, years ago. They knew I was really needing work, and made an insulting low ball offer, but when I tried to negotiate was told that or nothing. The management job I used to have there, had been outsourced to Mumbai, so I actually reported to a manager doing my old job (badly).

Now from my own management experience I know you just can't go "🞵🞵🞵🞵 you're a contractor" and make it so. The state has a long list of conditions any handful of which means you're NOT a contractor. Stuff like are you working in the company's office, are you working on their hours or yours, do tell you "how" to do a job and the priorities, do you have a business license, do you advertise? I was in no way a contractor. When they started bringing in temps making 2X as much as me through a temp agency, I pointed out again that I wasn't really set up for being a contractor, and how about if they brought me through the agency like the other employees - within an hour of that conversation I was let go.

When I went to file for unemployment, just the listing of "contractor" on that last job, automatically kicked the states legal department in. The state has let this slide for years but the unemployment trustfund is so low they're having to police it for the first time. It tied my unemployment up for 6 weeks while they tried to fight it (unsuccessfully). Then not only did the state go after them for the unemployment insurance they should have paid, on top of some really serious fines, but once they were in the system, they went after all sorts of state taxes and fees, then that raised flags with the Fed and they went after SS, all that stuff, plus fines. I think them trying to sneak me through as a fake "contractor" ended up costing them HUGE bucks. Last I heard too they're being audited on every employee they've every listed now as a contractor going back for years. So the end of the fake "contractor" is definitely over.

[Fiorenza]

That's true, but in my case the contractors really are contractors. They work intermittently as needed - less than 20 hours per week, they have total control over when and how much they work, they can even work from their own home if they wish.

However, you basic thesis is correct. Part of downsizing involved replacement with contractors. Now, even that is no more because of the reason you mention, as well as the fact that even US contractors are not competitive on the global market. The outsourcing that is happening is amazing. I have three major, labor-intensive clients that are now 90% offshore. Every country is hungry and they are going to look out for their own best interests. The US has no competitive advantages anymore, except maybe resale of recycled metal and limited agricultural exports which are competitive only because the government subsidizes them.

You can blame either political party, but the results are the same. Personally, I blame the Democrats for a number of policies that made US non-competitive. But the GOP (the go-along party) is not without blame. I would suggest you join a nearby tea party.

The solution starts with you. It may involve relocation. It may involve learning how to be self-employed. It may involve moving in with relatives....they're not going to let you live on the street if you pay them a little money. The main thing, nobody is going to help you in 21st Century America. Those who are temporarily living off the government 🞵🞵🞵 will find out the truth very soon. You must help yourself.

Hope this is constructive.

[cybele]

Well, I am mighty sorry to hear about your troubles and we will be pulling that it works out for you. The working man has been getting stuck from both sides for a long time and there isn't much to help out unless you are one of the rich or the poor. Many don't get the unemployment even if we paid it in and most of your jobs don't have the benefits anymore.

I will say this, you are real smart and it sounds like you are a real hard worker so it will pay off in the long run. But it makes you wonder should we pick up and move to Australia or Canada where they don't let people fall in the ditch like they do here. Over here it seems like a man can work his whole life and end up with nothing whereas the poor get Section 8 and food stamps and free this-that-and-the-other and the rich just keep on getting richer.

Fiorenza has got a point on this thing, too. It's better to pay a man $15 an hour for 20 hours and let him pay his own benefits and whatnot than not to hire him at all.

[PedestriAnne]

What a mess. I really hope you get that job.

All that changing of start dates, then having jobs just get de-funded and disappear right before you were told you were going to start - I've had that happen probabably three times. SO ridiculous.

[netdragon]

All the homeless can now have guaranteed jobs if they move out to rural areas to work on farms since our state's leadership just declared war on immigrants and farmers are losing crops.

[PedestriAnne]

Originally Posted by netdragon

All the homeless can now have guaranteed jobs if they move out to rural areas to work on farms since our state's leadership just declared war on immigrants and farmers are losing crops.

Alas, I don't think this will help anyone who's chronically homeless. Unless these farmers are willing and able to come into the city, pick people up, drive them out to the farm, feed and house them while they work AND pay them, this is a no-go.

Besides, living on the street is very hard on your body and agricultural work in Georgia's summer weather is brutal. Hardly anyone who's been living outside for months or years is going to be in robust enough health to make it through even a week of outdoor manual labor this time of year.

Maybe some of the same people who wrote and voted for that legislation will help some non-profits establish programs to connect the farmers with able-bodied workers and get them out to the farms.

[echinatl]

Originally Posted by PedestriAnne

Maybe some of the same people who wrote and voted for that legislation will help some non-profits establish programs to connect the farmers with able-bodied workers and get them out to the farms.

This is a really good idea. I understand most shelters offer employment placement services, and I'd assume they'd be all over this already.

[harnagk]

I've seen a lot of remarks about the homeless I do not like, unintelligent, drug atticks, etc. I was married for 32 yrs and lived in a $200,000 home, 2 kids in college, things going well, then "BAM', my ex steals everything we had, sets me up to get me fired, imports an 18 yr younger chinese girl (with STD even) and leaves us w/nothing. We lost our home. I've moved back east (born in Tampa but knew no jobs there) so I came to Cobb Co. where I also have family. I've very intelligent, worked for Presidents, supervised warehouses, know all the computer programs, payroll, acctg, you name it but I have not been able to get a job since Oct 2010 and am now fixing to lose my apartment and have to tell my kids (who get no help from their 'so-called" father) that they are not going to have a home to come to as in about a month or two I will be evicted and sleeping on the street. I think the best word you could use for someone who is going to be homeless like me is "SCARED TO DEATH".

[harnagk]

..........

[harnagk]

I sent this quote to our so called President from Ed Schultz who is with MSNBC: "We don't have a tax problem, we have a revenue problem. We've told American workers they're not valuable anymore, that it's better to do it overseas than it is right here. That's wrong. We need to reinvest in people, reinvest in manufacturing. That's how we're going to turn our economy around."

[echinatl]

Wat?

[TarHeelJ]

Originally Posted by harnagk

I've seen a lot of remarks about the homeless I do not like, unintelligent, drug atticks, etc. I was married for 32 yrs and lived in a $200,000 home, 2 kids in college, things going well, then "BAM', my ex steals everything we had, sets me up to get me fired, imports an 18 yr younger chinese girl (with STD even) and leaves us w/nothing. We lost our home. I've moved back east (born in Tampa but knew no jobs there) so I came to Cobb Co. where I also have family. I've very intelligent, worked for Presidents, supervised warehouses, know all the computer programs, payroll, acctg, you name it but I have not been able to get a job since Oct 2010 and am now fixing to lose my apartment and have to tell my kids (who get no help from their 'so-called" father) that they are not going to have a home to come to as in about a month or two I will be evicted and sleeping on the street. I think the best word you could use for someone who is going to be homeless like me is "SCARED TO DEATH".

There are government programs designed for "people like you". Use them.