pippi longstocking: At least the good thing is now he'll get a job at $0.50 an hour.


Is that before or after he's taxed to death?

Jim_Callahan: Cincinnati doesn't have homeless shelters? It's not exactly a small town.

Eh, well, I guess making good decisions isn't the hallmark of the homeless.

You're an idiot.

/shelters have limited beds, and nights where the temp drops to 14 F are likely to be nights they're all full up
//tried to find shelter housing for two people (not self, knock on wood) before and it's surprisingly f--king difficult even with a internet connection

You're ...doing it right?? I donno. :-/

Jim_Callahan: Cincinnati doesn't have homeless shelters? It's not exactly a small town.

They fill up awfully fast...

Even Presque Isle, a dinky little town of 10,000, has homeless. It's supposed to be -15 F tonight.

O.o

If you're sick and don't have money for health care, at least you won't die on the street alone.

KrispyKritter: i'm sure there are many houses of worship that run shelters for the homeless. i've not seen this outside of the most hard hit need areas. all houses of worship should open their doors to the hungry and the cold. spread around some of that love & humanity that fills the collection baskets every sunday.

Touchdown Jesus' home church was near Cincy, if they can afford giant flammable idols they could spare some cots for the homeless.

mike4688: When you're at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on. This guy threw in the towel when times got tough. His actions are hardly praise-worthy. Life is hard. There are always people who have it worse than you who don't throw in the towel. A lot of us are wondering how we're going to make ends meet nowadays. This guy should've swallowed his pride & asked for help from his family, local church, homeless shelter, friends, etc. Our society might have a lot of a-holes in it, but there are also some really cool people out there willing to help. Now he's right where the stockholders for companies that profit from prison labor want him, by the short & curlies. Going to prison is never a good idea. Also there's that whole chance of getting raped or killed thing.

tldr; if it's cold & your homeless ask for help.

The local homeless shelter throws people out in the cold in the morning, with all their stuff, and opens up the doors at a set time each night. So if that's the only place you've got to stay, every day you have to find someplace you and your stuff are allowed to be where you won't freeze all day. And every day you have to be back to line up and hope you get a place for that night.

Day in, day out.

With pretty much the same people you'd be hanging with in prison, just no rules or order during the day to protect yourselves from each other, and you have more to worry about where your next meal is coming from or where you will get help or care if you're sick---any number of things.

Asking for help isn't as easy as you think it is. Actually asking the various different agencies, charities, and people for help, filling out their forms, meeting their proof of eligibility, waiting in line for this one and then getting back across town to wait in line for that one, coordinating all of it----it takes as much time and organizational skill as a full time job, and most of the people who need it aren't that functional.

The other thing about prison is that a central authority coordinates all those services at once---food, shelter, clothing, medical care, basic protection from other people about as dysfunctional as you.

The US has more people incarcerated per capita than damn near any other country because our prisons are our social institutions of last resort for people who can't take care of themselves.

You know what they say, "Home is the place that when you have to go there, they have to take you."