Michigan woman found living inside rooftop store sign with desk and coffee maker (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 week ago by BrikoX@lemmy.zip to c/interestingshare@lemmy.zip

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The woman told police she had been living inside the grocery store sign for roughly a year, and had been able to get electricity

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[-] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 44 points 1 week ago

Just to be clear:

Homeless woman has a job, and a safe place to sleep at night and keep her stuff.

Hasn't been bothering anyone for an entire year.

She had a desk, a computer, and all her clothes there.

Is only discovered by some curious roofers who otherwise wouldn't have known she was there.

They make her leave, but want it known that they gave her suggestions for resources to get help.

But now she has no desk, nowhere to keep her computer or her clothes, no safe place to sleep at night, and she will probably lose her job.

[-] livus@kbin.social 10 points 1 week ago

Those roofers are kind of horrible. If someone homeless is sheltering somewhere weird you don't rush off and tell on them.

[-] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

I wouldn't say they are horrible. They didn't go hunting for homeless people, they found an extension cord and nobody knew what was plugged into it. You wouldn't work on the roof with a random cable plugged in, and you wouldn't unplug it without knowing what it powers. So they had to track it down, and probably couldn't hide what they found.

What's horrible is society, just accepting that this is the good ending, not questioning why people are living in signs just to survive. What's horrible is that we, as a society, could house and feed every homeless person, could provide healthcare to all without breaking a sweat, could provide for the basic needs of everyone, and we simply choose not to because it would be bad for capitalists.

[-] livus@kbin.social 3 points 1 week ago

Well yeah that's the big picture for sure. I live in a country where there is no capital gains tax on houses and consequently no cheap housing anywhere in the country, because capitalism.

We have universal healthcare, but our housing situation creates a huge drain on it. It's infuriating.

I didn't think there was anything wrong with them looking, it was the telling management part that bothered me. As a society we're too quick to throw each other under the bus.

[-] mhague@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

She could always go to a homeless shelter where you're surrounded by crazy hostile energy and shitty staff. I used to roll my eyes when people at the shelter would say things like, "This place will destroy your soul." I was just happy to have a bed and roof over my head.

But when staff keeps makes disparaging remarks under their breath, throwing your fragile possessions around for fun (you can't say anything or risk getting kicked out), doing shit like waiting until it's lights-out and we're sleeping to loudly take out the trash in the dorms, being rude to you if you interact with them... it really eats at you.

And everybody acts like you're subhuman and don't deserve basic respect. You have to be thankful! Gotta appreciate what you get! How dare you ask to be treated with BASIC HUMAN DECENCY.

I used to appreciate the help when I thought they were helping me out of the kindness of their heart. But now I know you pay for everything.

[-] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

My first job out of college, I worked in a homeless shelter for kids. It was an eye-opening experience, but I never met a staff member who didn't bring compassion and decency to the job. Not saying that those people don't exist, and with the payscale for the job being what it is, you don't attract the best people with money. I can only imagine it's worse in the adult shelters, but you don't last long in that job if you don't have a passion for helping people.

I will say that the worst part about it were the parents. Some of these kids never had a chance, never had love, never had people looking out for them, and most of the parents I met should not have had kids at all. And then we had the parents who would bring their kids in like we were a daycare, or a punishment. They would get dropped off with a suitcase, in the middle of a bluff being called on one side or the other.

We would just start the paperwork, get the kids a snack and any toiletries they left behind, while their parents would scream at them (and at us) "You see what its like? You see what happens when you don't listen?"

Ok, any allergies? "She's going to learn respect!"

Sure, hopefully someday from someone she hasn't met yet, but for today I just need to know if she's taking medications. "I'm not kidding, you don't like it at home, you can stay here all weekend!"

Ma'am, I need you to keep it down, we have a movie on in the common room and you're upsetting the actually homeless children who are trying to forget that their existence is so depressing, you're trying to use it to abuse your kids.

[-] Bloobish@hexbear.net 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

“She was homeless,” said Brennon Warren, an officer with the Midland police department. “It’s a story that makes you scratch your head, just somebody living up in a sign.”

Or maybe it's another symptom of cost of living being fucking insane that someone with a job needs to hide out in a God damned sign? No, no one wants to say that? Okay... Also super props to this woman being able to do this lifehack, hopefully she has the money she saved doing this stashed somewhere that they can't fine away from her.