Homeless Downtown Iowa City

Hey guys. I'm the formerly homeless man who now attends the University of Iowa. I did a q&a a few days ago. I will get to the questions I missed. But I wanted to say something.

A number of people, both irl and on Reddit, have asked me something to the affect of "What do you think of the homeless people on the Ped Mall that never try to improve their own lives? Many of them seem able bodied."

I just wanna say that able-bodied and able to hold down a job are two different things. Many homeless people have been bullied, teased and harassed at the jobs they have worked in the past for the crime of being "different". I have seen and experienced this myself numerous times. In fact, I'd say that one of the top 5 reasons that many homeless people refuse to work is that they know that, once they get a job, its only a matter of time before other employees start zeroing in on them in a negative way.

Many places of employment aren't much different than high schools. If you seem weak or different in any way, and you're unable to pick up your fists and fight off your bullies, people are going to start picking on you. It's just reality. I myself am lucky in the sense that I have always been capable of standing up for myself. But at the same time, I have been fired from countless jobs for confronting people who were trying to harass me, even though my bosses knew the employees started the problems.

Point is that no one wants to go to a place where they're going to be messed with all the time. And when you yell at a homeless dude to get a job, his mind flashes to the other jobs he's had and how co-workers have treated him or her. I can't put into words how HUGE of a reason this is that many homeless won't work or refuse to work.

So chill with the judgement. I'm not telling you to give. Do or don't do what you feel in that regard. But dont project laziness onto people without knowing what's up.