Is Jimmy’s Homelessness Caused by Jimmy or Something Else?
By MR.PENSET
Hello, how are you today? I hope you are well. I call myself ‘MR.PENSET’ and I have been invited to write an article or two for the HOLISTIC HOME OFFICE located at ‘www.homeoffice.studio.’ I am told to write something useful, interesting and entertaining about homelessness but to keep it short. To start with, then, I shall say this, not everything I say will be useful to you but some things that are new may be of interest to you. It is up to you to decide which is which. This said, and keeping the article short, I want to answer the question “Is Jimmy’s Homelessness Caused by Jimmy or Something Else?” Let me begin my article by saying this:
The homeless congregate at certain corners of the city, and in the city of Seattle it is no different. And, because I was asked to write an article on homelessness, I decided to actually talk to someone standing at one of these city street corners. That is to say, instead of guessing why they are homeless I decided to have a face-to-face discussion with one of them; and so I began talking to a 28 year old male who was standing at one of these corners, and asked him about how to solve the homeless problem; and I will identify this homeless person in this article as “Jimmy”. Clearly this is not his name.
On the one hand the discussion with Jimmy did not last very long, maybe about 3 minutes or so; but on the other hand I quickly clued-in to what Jimmy was saying. This said I would like to present to you the insights and findings of this conversation, and importantly ask and answer the question: “Is Jimmy’s Homelessness Caused by Jimmy or Something Else?” However, I have taken the liberty of strengthening his point of view, and therefore have supplemented his point of view with very similar and additional or complementary insights that he himself did not mention but would completely agree to. In a word, not all the ideas that I am presenting here were spoken by Jimmy, but the central idea was completely his. This said let us get-on to answering the question as to whether Jimmy’s homelessness is caused by Jimmy or something else?
Let me say this: When I asked Jimmy, who was standing on a very undesirable street corner, how can he prevent homelessness, he said this: “I’m not homeless, I have a free apartment not far from here.” I then asked him the same question but in another way: “How would you stop homelessness?” Jimmy said this: “I’m not homeless, but I will tell you one thing, I can’t smoke in my apartment, so I smoke here. They won’t allow my friends to visit, so I meet my friends here.” Now, in all honesty this is all that Jimmy said; but I quickly grasped his point of view. This said, let us magnify and present his point of view and discover whether Jimmy’s homelessness is caused by Jimmy or something else.
Suppose the government gave Jimmy a free apartment, which in this case is actually true, then we can say that Jimmy isn’t homeless, which is actually true as well. But it is actually true that Jimmy does not sleep or dwell in the free apartment, but instead prefers to sleep and dwell on the streets. Now, all of this is true. So we must ask whether Jimmy is homeless in this instance? But we can clearly say he isn’t. But if he prefers to sleep on the streets, then isn’t he homeless? We must answer that he isn’t homeless, but rather he prefers to sleep on the streets. But now we can ask the follow-up question: why does Jimmy prefer to sleep on the streets? So far, Jimmy has hinted as to why he prefers to sleep on the streets, namely Jimmy said this: “I’m not homeless, but I will tell you one thing, I can’t smoke in my apartment, so I smoke here. They won’t allow my friends to visit, so I meet my friends here.” Let us now magnify what Jimmy is saying by common-sense experiences, and discover whether Jimmy’s homelessness is caused by Jimmy or something else.
Let us put ourselves in Jimmy’s situation: He is an able bodied man who has been given a free apartment by the government, but he still prefers to sleep on the street. Let us follow and construct his reasoning for doing so: If he lives in the apartment, then he cannot have any visitors. Suppose this is true. Then he goes to the street corner where he visits his friends.
Now, what I am now going to do is offer or magnify or list the reasons that makes Jimmy prefer to sleep on the streets. Follow along and see if you agree or disagree to Jimmy’s line of reasoning.
We may suppose he would agree to this list of reasons, namely, Jimmy would say …I am homeless and prefer it that way because (1) I can’t have visitors in my room. (2) I can’t smoke in my room. (3)I can’t have loud music in my room. (4) I can’t play my guitar in my room. (5) I can’t sing without complaint in my room. (6) There is a 10’0 clock curfew, which is horrible on a summer’s day. (7) I can’t have a sleep-over partner. (8) The bed has bed-bugs. (9) I can’t nail a picture to the wall without planning permission. (Isn’t THAT valid!) (10) The downstairs lobby girl knows too much of my business. (11) My bags have to be searched for beer and drugs every day. (12) It smells bad because the air conditioning doesn’t work that well. (13)Whatever we buy they ask us where we get the money from. (14) We can’t paint the walls of our room. (15)We have to have a I month room-rummage inspection. (16) We can’t have pets. (17) They keep asking the question “Who is that?” when it is none of their business. (18)There is no garden. (19) Someone’s got fleas in the apartment. (20) The refrigerator is too small. (21) The real action is on the street. (22) I can’t bring my bike into the apartment. (23) I can’t feed the birds. (24) The window doesn’t open. (25) It’s too claustrophobic. (26) I am used to the outdoors. (27) The smell of bad cooking in the hallways. (28) You have to have six keys and four passwords to get into your apartment. (29) My dad can’t stay overnight. And now we will stop here.
Yes it reads fast, but take time to read it again, it is all true. It is sometimes onerous for independently-minded and creative people to live in such micromanaged apartments. And therefore we can say this: “Is Jimmy’s homelessness caused by Jimmy or something else?” I think Jimmy would answer it in this way: “Sometimes, homelessness is caused by rejecting the onerous, draconian and intrusive compliances, which are inherent in a government free-rent residence.”
I have written this article carefully, and I can see no objection to the thread of Jimmy’s original argument, especially if Jimmy is a younger and creatively minded resident. A free-apartment supplied by the government is not to be confused with an army barracks; and in many cases they are. Anything free usually comes with strings attached, on this we all agree; but in some instances the strings end up being a frustrating and organized experience of human bondage.
In summary, in this article I have offered an answer as to whether “Jimmy’s Homelessness is Caused by Jimmy or Something Else?” I have presented observations to suggest that “sometimes, homelessness is caused by rejecting the onerous, draconian and intrusive compliances, which are inherent in a government free-rent residence.” In closing I always say this: not everything I have said in this article will be useful to you but some things that are new may be of interest to you. It is up to you to decide which is which.