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SheilaT

(23,156 posts)

16. It's probably true that they turn

Reply to Cleita (Reply #5)

Sat Mar 30, 2013, 11:55 AM

Mar 2013

to those things because of despair. I sincerely doubt it helps any of them live longer.

And when you add lack of health care to those other things, I'm surprised that the average street person can possibly survive to age 64, unless perhaps they became homeless only a few years earlier. I suspect that many of those on the street, if they can't get off, simply die at a relatively young age.

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The coming homeless die-off [View all] Paul E Ester Mar 2013 OP

I suspect that's part of the plan. PDJane Mar 2013 #1

They will just be replaced by MORE unwanted, unemployable 50-somethings. kestrel91316 Mar 2013 #2

"Life expectancy on the street is about 64". SheilaT Mar 2013 #3

Look at it this way. They turn to the cigarettes, alcohol and drugs because of despair. Cleita Mar 2013 #5

Probably not smoking. eom Blanks Mar 2013 #14

No, not the smoking, but with the price of cigs today, they probably Cleita Mar 2013 #15

Finding butts to smoke isn't as easy as it used to be but it's still not that difficult Fumesucker Mar 2013 #18

It's probably true that they turn SheilaT Mar 2013 #16

Not a single person needs to be on the streets, who doesn't want to be, not a single one. Cleita Mar 2013 #4

Would a mentally ill person be an 'other societal drop out'? HereSince1628 Mar 2013 #6

Don't know where you lived, but where I lived the state hospitals took care of the Cleita Mar 2013 #7

The movement to community based care actually gained steam shortly after WWII. HereSince1628 Mar 2013 #11

I doubt you have ever known a cronically homeless person. L0oniX Mar 2013 #17

That's because it's become institutionalized and many of those who are mentally ill Cleita Mar 2013 #19

3 or 4 of my homeless patients are in their 70's. Aristus Mar 2013 #8

guys like that fascinate me datasuspect Mar 2013 #9

He seems like a burned-out husk of a man. Aristus Mar 2013 #10

they don't make tough like that anymore datasuspect Mar 2013 #12

He's my generation and back in his twenties he would have had what Cleita Mar 2013 #13