Autism and Homelessnes

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Yes, they do, but the solution isn't re-segregation, but a massive effort at rehabilitation. Instead of sending people to create refugees abroad, the U.S. government should be sending help to all the people who have fallen through the cracks in the American Dream.

Agreed. But how to rehabilitate someone who just wants to get high and be left alone? How to rehabilitate someone who gets "turned on" every time he sees kids playing? How to rehabilitate someone whose actions are based on whatever the voices tell him to do? How to rehabilitate people like these without violating their civil rights?

It isn't cheap, but in general, you give them as much as possible of what they want without causing harm to others or totally incapacitating themselves. Then there's a chance of learning healthier ways. Mere housing is just a start. One time, a group I was with got a phone call from a guy we'd gotten a room for after spending his teens on the street. He was in considerable distress, because he had some food wrappers to throw away, and didn't know that houses have garbage bags and cans, etc. He just didn't know what to do.

Many cities have done wonders just by providing an area where people can create their own shanties and organize neighbourhood security. Such communities are probably better than bureaucracies at getting compatible people together. My town had two retired nuns. One had no hearing, and the other no memory, but they worked fine as a team. If people begging for food is a problem, provide food, and healthy food, too. Poor diet can be half a person's health problem.

People think hostile architecture will keep people from being homeless but all it does is moves them to other places, it can even cause deaths (one man in Australia was killed by a street sweeper while he was sleeping on the side because he couldn't lay on any benches and we have had some homelessness here freeze to death), plus it punishes home people because we won't have a comfortable place to sit or rest.

We have some hostile structures in my area here like park benches, bus stop benches, we have a stop where the benches are lopsided and you just basically lean your fanny on it. We also have a problem with public urination and I always say leave the restrooms open 24/7 because homeless people also gotta pee too and poo. But we lack public restrooms because lot of them are in public buildings and they close at night. We also have tent cities here. I see them all the time and they always move. People camp on sidewalks, camp under fridges, camp in fields, and they always have a lot of stuff so I figure they must have had a home and then they got rented out because rents here have skyrocketed. But yet lot of them also leave trash all over and I say if they would just clean it up and leave it in trash bags or find a trash can to throw it away in, people won't have a problem with them and if they have a job, they can pay to dump it. But having trash here and there, there are public trash cans they can use.


Lot of people think fixing a issue will make it go away than looking at why we have that problem in the first place and fix whatever the cause of it is.

And for those who are addicts and mentally ill and convicts, disabled veteran, something else need to be done for them because giving them shelter and a job won't get them on their feet.

You have every right to be mad about this because they have trash cans for their trash, they have room attendants who will come and take their trash, what is their excuse? And do any of them have jobs? They can pay for stuff, not steal. They can go to labor ready or go applying for work than begging. Or they can hold up a sign saying they want to work or maybe do a car wash to earn money. People will gladly donate when they see you working to get off the street.

I'm scared me & my girlfriend will end up homeless along with LOTS of other people because Trump & Ben Carson are trying to majorly cut HUD & Trump is trying to slash LOTS of other programs that poor & disabled people like me & Cass rely on. Homelessness is what's going to happen to us & LOTS of other people 1ce we lose housing assistance, Social Security, food-stamps & our health care.

Sigh. This thread went from talking about autism and homelessness to just about homelessness. Very disappointing. The autistic homeless have their own set(s) of difficulties, difficulties not often seen by social service agencies or the general public. We can bicker about schizophrenics, drug addicts and pedos all night till the cows come home, but it still misses the point of the thread which should be about the identification, discussion and, hopefully, the reintegration of the autistic homeless individual (who we should sympathize with) back into having a roof over their heads.

when im eventually kicked out the house because i cant pay towards rent/food, i'll accept that the streets are the only place left to go, i fear it to a degree but mainly i'll have anger towards family that never helped me get into work in the first place which would have enabled me to save for a place of my own. although once on the streets theres nobody stopping me from doing whatever I need to survive like scavenging for food, stealing, trespassing etc.

there but for the grace of god go I...

If I got kicked out of my own home (Mom has threatened me several times) I would sell myself and become a sex worker. I will take advantage of horny guys to get money. I will also make my own videos and put them on my Onlyfans page. That is my plan for solving my money crisis if that ever happens. Or if I lose my job or Trump takes away Social Security.

I wish I had that option.

I don't blame you for that, but I do hope that's not a road you ever have to go down. While many people who work in the sex industry end up there by their own volition, it's one of the riskiest businesses out there. If demand surpasses supply, one can't afford to be picky about their clients, and therein lies the biggest risk when it comes to sex work - some clients can be rather uncooperative, to say the least.

That said, I don't look down on those who work in the sex industry. The way I see it, it's simply another occupation.

Thank you Robin. The connection I see is that autists on the streets are generally not identified as autistic and get lost in the general population. An autist, if caught up in an effort to "help" is rarely diagnosed correctly. Instead they are viewed as psychotic (meltdowns) and drugged up, or as unwilling to be helped, refusing to talk, shutting down, etc. I am not sure how anyone could reach out specifically to autists on the streets.

The better choice would be to provide some sort of path of people before they end up on the streets, whether autistic or not. But in general, people don't want to look back upstream to find out how the babies are ending up in the river. (Old story about the woman rescuing babies found floating in the water...)

Well, first off, did you ever stop to think that a person who is currently homeless might not have regular and reliable access to the Internet (if they have any access at all)? Did it ever occur to you that those who DO have access to the Internet might not actually be homeless (if they ever were)?

And even if they have access to the Internet, they may not know (or even care) about this particular website.

You might have to satisfy yourself with personal testimonies from members of this community who have actually been homeless, and who have recovered well enough to have regular and reliable access to the Internet -- people like me.

So, if you "read between the lines" of my posts, you might find hints of frustration with The System that does little to help homeless people to return to a more 'normal' life. You may determine that unless a homeless person is willing to take any legal job offer, he or she is likely to remain homeless for a very long time (me: 17 months to my first efficiency apartment, and 8 years to my first house).

What I have not posted about was dealing with the sensory overload of crowded shelters and "missions" facilities, the olfactory assault from sleeping rough in or near the same places that other people used for their outdoor toilets, the constant fear of getting beat up, raped, or robbed (some people come out of prison with all kinds of hostility and violent intent). The constant worry that you may be getting sick -- if you're homeless, whatever else you do, DON'T GET SICK! For me, repetitive, back-breaking labor at construction sites was a welcome relief from the sensory overload of being around other homeless people.

Keep in mind that this was about 20-25 years before I even suspected that I had ASD / AS / PDD-NOS / PTSD / whatever. Had I known then, maybe I could have gotten into a program or even a shelter for people with "mental disabilities" (remember, this was the late 1980s -- the "Dark Ages" for people with autism). Then I could have gotten a job (a.k.a., "Vocational Rehab") sorting screws into little bags for 93 cents an hour.

The hardest part was dealing with the rejection from my relatives (who always thought there was "something weird" about me) and the depression of knowing that my recovery was solely my responsibility. Right up there was trying to communicate my needs to the social workers who occasionally came around to count us. How could I explain how I got into my situation when I did not even understand it myself? To everyone who knew me from before, I was just a loser, and no different from any other homeless person with a sad story to tell. The same for the social workers -- I was just another statistic, a big zero, a nobody.

Again, had I known at the time that I was "on the spectrum", I might have had a better idea of what to do -- something better than work, work, work.

But, since I did not know that I was "on the spectrum" until long after I had gotten out of homelessness, there is not much for me to relate on the subject of "Autism AND Homelessness".

Dude, take it from me, it's a big mistake to expect relatives to help you get into work, to help you find a place of your own, or to even help you move. In this country, once a man reaches the age of 18, he is "kicked out of the nest" and expected to "fly" on his own. Up until then, all that your family is legally obligated to do is provide food, clothing, shelter, and medical care. The rest is up to you (i.e., stay in school, stay out of trouble, stay away from drugs, and graduate). After you're gone, you're completely on your own.

Your best bet is to start right now with developing your job skills. Start applying for work wherever there is a business -- don't ever decide that any type of legal work is beneath your dignity or that you should remain unemployed until you are offered the "perfect" job, because it ain't gonna happen.

Failing that, try the military. If your ASD isn't too bad, you may be able to get by as well as I did, as long as you do not declare your ASD to the recruiter. I know, that may be illegal, but if it's your only hope, then it's worth a try. The structured environment of the military was actually more comfortable for me than the cold uncertainty of living on the streets.

Fnord, everything you are saying now is what I was saying all along. Unemployment and poverty are causes of homelessness in addition to mental issues.

There really isn't anything to argue about.