Are homeless people really happy?

The majority of homeless/transient people suffer from some form of mental illness. Some at severe levels and others at minor levels.

Most people who end up homeless are not happy with their circumstances but really are not able to change them because of their mental illness or access to money, proper health care and medications.

In the past 20 years more people are homeless due to substance abuse/addiction. When they are addicted at levels that they can not manage they end up poor and without many options. A lot of them have "given up" and although they may regret their lives, circumstances and choices, they do not see any options due to their clouded judgment.

The numbers of transient are much greater than we imagine due to people not actually living on the street in cardboard boxes but sleeping on couches with friends and family. These people may have the luxury (if you can call it that) of foregoing responsibility; however, I would assume that they would like to have stability.

Most of homeless feel helpless but do not have the personal strength to try to fight on. Nothing in life, not even a home, is promised to any of us. Material things mean nothing in the grand scheme of life but we can all agree that having a safe place to live is the foundation of it all.

Think of this way: would you give up your feet just so you didn't have to worry about tying your shoes? No. And most homeless, drug addiction, mentally disabled people would really rather have a home.

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RE:

Are homeless people really happy?

It's true that a lifetime of striving for things isn't happiness because you're constantly struggling for what's not there.

And you want it there because you think it'll make you happy so you're obviously not happy if you work hard for something you think may make you happy.

Homeless people go...

I want to be happy and financially secure. I have never been in poverty but growing up my family couldn't always afford food or hot water or clothing and even though it wasn't unlivable it made my parents very unhappy which in turn made me and my siblings miserable. If they would have been more optimistic then we would have as well. Now we have more money and a stable home and food to eat and clothes and yes we are happier, it's not for the money. It's for feeling stability and peace emotionally, not so much financially. I think that i you had to live on the street, not be able to bathe or eat and not having a computer to tell everyone you don't care about not being able to afford a home or have a job, you'd be changing your mind about having money.

Depends on which ones you ask.

Don't ask us about a homeless persons feelings. Ask them. We don't know how they feel. We only know what they tell us.

So if you really want to know. Go out there and ask them.

Happiness has nothing to do with the struggle. It is how you feel in your psyche that makes you happy or unhappy. And ask them. You'll get just a many answers as you ask questions.

Peace. - Very happy me

It depends. If a person had a poor but happy upbringing, those tend to be happy with what God gives them. Even if it is a curve ball. Now the ones I meet that had everything (house, good job, car, wife, kids, credit cards, etc) then lost it all when the job was outsourced oversea etc, tend to be very unhappy. But not all, some are happy cause all the crap that sometimes goes with it is gone. A food for thought: if you have shoes on your feet, clothes on your back, food in your belly, and any kind of shelter come night you are doing better than 75% of the population of the entire world is doing.

Quite frankly, the person who has 'best answer' has no clue about homelessness.

I'm homeless. have been for 3 years, and in that time have traveled to 7 countries and 4 states - without a penny to my name.

Yes, I am unusual, I enjoy traveling and exploring, something I did when I had money, and with my options and choices severely restricted due to lack of financial support, I sleep in a tent, and play games and write at local coffee shop all day long where I get free wifi.

Let me clear up some misconceptions about homeless people:

1) Most homeless are NOT homeless because of mental illness. WHY? It's been my experience about one out of thirty homeless people have clear mental illnesses, but these tend to be the most visible people and the ones who are regularly interviewed and/or statistically sampled to provide a wrongful public misperception about who is homeless and why. Most homeless you wouldn't know are homeless. We hide our stuff. we kick back at Starbuck's with our laptops or cell phones and drink coffee. Some drive cars. We wash and bathe regularly and take care of ourselves and our belongings. And quite frankly, most of us refuse public aid for a myriad of perfectly valid reasons not the least of which your society will try to place us into shelters and institutions alongside drug addicts and alcoholics and real mental stability issues. We're smarter than that, and have no desire to be alongside people like this. Our situation sucks as it is, knowing your disdain and statistical refusal to understand our situation is a no win situation for us.

2) MOST homeless are NOT homeless because of drugs or alcohol. WHY? Ok. Let's do the math. I eat once a day if I am lucky, and am not unusual for a homeless man. I dont ask for handouts. But if someone offers a sandwich, you bet I will take it. I have no money, and we - the collective homeless - walk to our REALLY predictable places we stay the night at - a public park hidden behind trees out of public's view, in an old house that's been for sale forever, alongside a canal, hidden in trees by or under an underpass - the fact of the matter is - we have no money for drugs or alcohol. Now do you want to know who comes to HANG with us homeless people? Drug addicts and alcoholics who HAVE money who HAVE a home who somehow think that it's cool to hang out with with the homeless people and they will be accepted. More often than not, this winds up being an annoyance. Because they wind up passing out and puking or pissing on our stuff we try so hard to keep out of public view when we're not hanging in places that make us feel respectable during the day.

In any case. I'm homeless because I had all my assets seized by the US Government. I used to be a multimillionaire until I stepped on the right toes. Now I'm homeless. Without any assets. And because of seriously stupid logic like 'the best answer' above who assume this is my fault, I have absolutely no credibility - people assume I'm a drunk drug addict and alcoholic without listening to my story, and lawyers absolutely refuse to do pro bono work for the guy they themselves refuse to believe in.

Why am I homeless? For the same reason you're going to wind up homeless unless you change your ways.

Because you ask the questions. but don't want to hear the answers.

I have been to 40 countries. I have two degrees, a Bachelor's in marketing and a Master's In Business Administration. And in 2011, I had 3 million USD in the bank and 8 million owed to me - all seized.

By all means. I should be traveling the world and living in a nice, air conditioned house with a few gorgeous women on my arm.

Instead. I'm writing this with my bags sitting next to me, and wondering if I will go to bed hungry again as I fall asleep in a public park here in downtown Los Angeles.

And now I can't help but wonder if Robin Hood ever considered that those who had achieved wealth actually worked hard for what they got - they deserved it - before he stole it from them and then redistributed it.

So to your question

Are homeless people really happy?

No. In fact. I hate this f*cking world now. And want nothing more than to see it burn.

30 years of IT and programming experience, with 8 years of government service. So guess what I am spending my time doing with these skills now that I have all the time in the world?

Not every homeless person is as pissed off as I am. But my story is sadly not unique.