Homelessness And Loneliness: It's A Deadly Combination

Hi this is steve pomeroy and thank you for joining me for tonight's podcast. It's good to be with you as always. This is my second official podcast around the homelessness crisis people. Some people call it a crisis. Some people call it an epidemic. Some people are urging our president to declare a national state of emergency in the state of California where it's reached its beyond epidemic proportions. I'm gonna share with you some data some research that I've been doing over the last few weeks and even the last handful of months tonight the focus is gonna be on homelessness and loneliness. I'm also gonna talk about the mental health aspect and how so many people are affected with it. Not only in society but people that are homeless that aren't able to get the treatment that they need on a short term and even more important a longer term basis. So many people have experienced loneliness. I've looked at a couple of studies that have been out there for a few years. I'm gonna refer to a few places U. C. L. A. Has done a study signa As well as um some research in psychology today that highlight a number of things. It says that most of us greater than 50% experience loneliness on a regular basis. Social connection is based on not the number of people that we know but the quality of our relationships. I know there was a time where I wanted just if I could have one quality relationship based on emotional intimacy in a non judging on a you know using a non judging platform that I would have, you know, done just about anything. Well I did, I made a decision to get sober. I'm a recovering alcoholic and in the past I've shared about my recovery and I'm gonna share a little bit about that tonight, because when you caught up in active addiction, like I was in alcoholism, it's a very lonely place. I didn't have any social connection, I lived in isolation, moment by moment. I didn't want to feel anything anymore. And all I could obsess about was the next drink knowing darn well, it wasn't going to make me feel any better, but I kept doing it until I had enough courage to get some help again. Relapse is a part of my story. So many of us, I think crave intimacy and connection. I think the vast majority of us do. Maybe some of us just don't want to admit it. My grand, my late gran used to say, if you can count the number of friends on one hand, you're blessed, I still, God rest her soul. I still feel that holds true today. I'm very blessed and I had to put in a lot of effort and I do on a daily basis to maintain that social connection and these relationships with people that I care very much about and they care very much about me. The research also says that social connection is now a determining factor for health and that it really can have a negative impact on our health, health leading to a number of ailments, um substance abuse, we get lonely, we want to feel better. We want to take away that feeling of loneliness. That's what I did. Some call it a an epidemic. Some have referred to it as a disease. Studies now show that loneliness can lead to depression and anxiety. I feel so much better when I'm connecting with others. And we're talking about chronic loneliness here. I mean many of us can feel lonely in any given time, But the studies are saying that over 50% are experiencing loneliness on a regular basis. Studies also say, in terms of affecting impacting the health that it can lead to heart disease, stroke cancer and that there's a 14% increase in risk of death due to chronic loneliness. Studies also say that it can be as deadly as smoking on a regular basis. That sounds pretty serious to me. I know how I felt caught up without hope and despair and how lonely and disconnected I felt when I was in addiction. So what I'm saying here is that while we're going to talk about whether it's a choice or not to be homeless, I'm gonna touch on that as it relates to women specifically and their courageous choice to leave a toxic abusive relationship. That's a choice doesn't mean they want to be homeless, but it's a choice to go to the streets and feel safer on the streets with their young kids than it is to continue to be sexually, physically and emotionally abused. So when you're homeless and I've never been homeless, I'm very blessed. I've had the fortunate experience of working as a volunteer with people that have been homeless and some of them just recently off the street volunteering at a mission for a number of years, actually a couple of different missions and what they tell me is the only person you can really depend on is yourself. It's survival mode, moment by moment trying to figure out how you're gonna stay warm if it's cold and you don't freeze to death, how you're going to figure out how to cool your body down when temperatures are, you know, dangerous and not die of heat exhaustion. I mean, think about it. You know, there's terrible stories about Children being locked in cars when it's hot and dying and animals. I mean, that's, that's tragic. That's awful. Well homeless person is dealing with the same thing. They're trapped in the cold. They're trapped in the heat. They have little to no support from groups like we have access to to friends and family. Many of them choose Children and women choose to escape violence. Studies show that 50% or greater of Children and women cite one of their reasons for being homeless is to leave a violent home. So they're alone. They're isolated. They're separated from society. It's a completely different world and I'm coming from a place of being a volunteer, a blogger and advocate a researcher, but I haven't experienced this firsthand and when I've worked with these people, they're so grateful to have an opportunity to figure out how they can get their life back. We're gonna talk about that here in a moment because when Children are separated and choose to leave a toxic home, they're at such a fragile age, how are they going to be able to acquire the life and interpersonal skills to function in life and be able to support themselves? Some people think they choose to just smoke pot and hang out on the street corner, but nobody's taken the time to really get to know the story behind the story behind the story. You know what they say, everybody's fighting a battle upstairs. Many of us just don't know it. So it's always better to choose and air on the side of being kind and that doesn't cost us anything. So here's a few more just in general, in the homeless topic, in terms of how this can, you know, their studies don't have a direct correlation to other conditions like bipolar and borderline, but they talk about depression. Well, that's a mental health condition, anxiety is a condition. God general anxiety disorder. In the US, 50% of our homeless population have a physical and or mental disability, 50% of the homeless with untreated mental health fall prey to substance abuse, They can't afford to get treated for the mental health. They want relief. I wasn't diagnosed with a mental health condition, but I can tell you my mental health wasn't good, caught up in act of alcoholism. And my only relief at the time was to have another drink until I thankfully decided it wasn't useful for me. Not to mention the fact that doctors told me I was going to die. So they can't even get on the proper medication just to relieve themselves of symptoms just to get some relief from symptoms that doesn't ensure that they're gonna have a quality life. They need longer term care therapy, they need to learn how to develop life skills, inter personal skills to be in a position to where they can get a job, have some consistency in life and be able to, you know, pay some bills and and get a get a house. It's not as simple as they're homeless and let's put them in a house. You can't just build our way out of the problem. Long term care has got to be a part of this solution to put a dent in this epidemic. Now, if you follow me point number three here, federal law provides approximately $800 a month and disability payments. If you're eligible. That factors in food stamps. So $800 a month, you're disabled, maybe physically and mentally. You've got to take care of rent, utilities, other needs. What about treatment for your addiction that maybe resulted from untreated mental health, over 50% of the people that come into shelters and missions are what they call. And even treatment centers now are what they call co occurring co occurring disorder, mental health and addiction. One could lead to the other. That's factual information. Now again, That's if they're eligible, if there's a history of substance abuse, they may not be eligible. So 50% physically and or mentally disabled, 50% with untreated mental health fall prey to substance abuse. And because of that, the mental health is untreated. They're not eligible for $800 a month, I don't know too many places in cities and I haven't visited all of them in this great country where people can get by on $800 a month. As a matter of fact, the poverty line in this country is now defined. It used to be 22,000. It's now defined as 28,000 Around 28,000 approx. I don't have the number right in front of me, that's for a family of two. That's, that's what they're defining our country as the poverty line. So if you follow me here, if you stay with me here, you know, the long term solution, I mean, again, the meds can only help with the symptoms and that takes a kind of a trial and see how it goes period. So let's, um, You know, and if if this continues for people and the studies show if they get into their 50s and 60s, they're gonna struggle to cope and function for the rest of their life. They've been out there on the streets for decades. Maybe you've heard some of the stories, the best they're ever going to do is to be able to stay consistently in some affordable housing that's probably supported and subsidize in some way, shape or form. That's a tough life to live. That's I got that first hand experience volunteering in a couple of missions for some of them, that's the best they're gonna do. It can even be a challenge to get certain work. Like, you know, I don't want to put down any profession, but like custodial kind of work. I mean who, who came out of their mother's womb that wanted to sign up for that, you know? So just moving along here and there's a lot to digest here. Let's just talk about women and Children. I mentioned that, You know, 50% site that the reason that they left and that they're homeless is to escape violence and toxicity. So initially that's a choice and that takes a hell of a lot of courage. They would prefer in the interim to live on the streets until they get the proper long term help and support. They need support just in being able to trust again, when you've been physically sexually emotionally abused, this is my understanding, I didn't go through getting the crap beat out of the and sexual abuse growing up emotional abuse. Many of us know what that means for those of you have that have experienced the others. I'm very sorry, and I would think that you have some some empathy and compassion here, so they need help in just being able to trust again. And I want to believe, and I do believe that women always want to do what's best for their Children. And if you're a mother, I believe You can relate to that. So, you know, we're talking about now in addition to the numbers you're hearing about today and in this country, it's over 550,000 a night that are homeless that are trying to figure out how they're gonna make it to the next meal Now. Some people heard stories and they'll trade in food stamps to get drugs and alcohol. I'm not gonna argue with that if I was out on the streets, I can't even imagine number one, I got lucky I got to go to treatment again. So I'm blessed, I'm spoiled. But some people, that's what they know they're just trying to find from relief from their suffering. So it's not a choice. And you've heard me say this before. In addition to this, we're talking about. Remember what I said about the poverty line of around 28,000, it might be a little higher per year, 4.2 million single mothers are at risk. And because of that, that puts another approximately, I've heard numbers from a million one to a million eight, so let's just say it's around a million 4,000,005 Children at risk. And on top of that, a child is born into poverty every 41 seconds in this country and just summing up wrapping up here on the mental health, imagining some of these Children and their mothers and even men that go through abuse as well, physically, emotionally, sexually. I would say that there's definitely they've experienced some form of trauma, some serious PTSD, I'm not a therapist, I'm not a psychiatrist. So I hope you take the time to listen to this. I appreciate it. Um hope together collectively, we can continue to come more from a place of love instead of fear. Maybe the fear of dealing with the homeless is disrupting our way of life. I talked about that in my last podcast. I used to, I used to be that way, I still sometimes get a little anxiety around people that are homeless that just seem to be really struggling, but I can still pray for him. I can still give them a little bit of money and I've never gone and I've never heard of anybody going broke from doing that. So hoping that we can come collectively together to come more from a place of love than fear to change this stigma. You know, as a society, we can do something about this while the politicians still seem inclined on using the homeless, using them as propaganda, whether it's to bring up the topic of capitalism, immigration changing laws, um, I wonder who all that benefits. Sometimes. You don't hear a lot of talk from any of them about using longer term solutions. Instead there's more talk about the solutions that are out there being deemed as high, high barrier and funding gets cut off. So anyways, I hope we collectively will come around to the fact that helping people should be about doing the right thing. The humane thing, not the, uh, politically correct or uh, uh, selfish thing to do anyways, that's it. And it was not an easy podcast for me to, to give because I um, this is a part of my passion and purpose in life now, and um I'm very blessed and very grateful to be with you all. And I look forward to hearing from you with your comments and of course comments with uh, solutions and ideas to make a difference. Thank you again. Thank you so much. And uh, good luck to you, Look forward to talking to you again, and God bless you.