Homelessness/Empty Buildings

BodyButter

BodyButter

Vital Football Legend
Sorry to be a downer but I've had something on my mind for a while now. It's a rather dour topic so I'd rather not bring it up with the lads in the pub. Hopefully it's more appropriate for the enlightened minds of Vital Villa but if you'd rather not get bummed out (excuse the pun) it might be best to move to another thread.

For the past while, I've been helping out with a charity which feeds homeless people on the streets of Kuala Lumpur. For anyone who hasn't been around the homeless much, they are mostly addicts and people with other mental health issues. There are also hardcore-poor people who need a hand just getting by.

I can't say that the homeless in Kuala Lumpur have it harder than anywhere else. They don't have to deal with the cold like they do in Europe for a start. Still, seeing them queuing up in long lines for food that probably costs less than 50p to make does make you think. Most of them won't look you in the eye with the shame of their position in life. It's hard not to have sympathy for their plight.

Less than 5 minutes from where I live there is a whole office building completely empty. It must be 25 or 30 stories tall. It's been that way since I moved to this neighbourhood more than a year ago and I'm sure there are plenty of other buildings just like it. I'd imagine the situation is similar in every city in the world.

So I'm struggling to put those two ideas together, homeless people sleeping on the streets and empty buildings. These are poor people desperately in need of help and we as a society have the means to help them but we choose not to.

Stephen Fry recently got all the headlines calling God monstrous and capricious. He talked about God allowing insects to exist that burrow into children's eyes. My first instinct upon watching the video was to turn the accusation back on Stephen Fry. Is he so monstrous and capricious that he allows insects to burrow into children's eyes? Are we so monstrous and capricious that we force people to live on the streets when there are empty buildings within walking distance?

For me, it's a symptom of a society that has gone horribly wrong.
 
Trouble is society doesn't own the empty buildings.

But it is a sin, buildings could be bought by governments, maintained, manned and used for the homeless.

The downward spiral these folks get into is sad and frightening.

Well done for doing your bit to help them mate. :1:
 
Agrees with what you have said BB and re Stephen Fry. Not so much in York, where we live, though if you go into the cities you can see empty housing and I think why are their such long housing lists and people homeless when we have empty properties. Bureaucracy ofcourse.

I do my bit to help others, as the majority of us do. It will never be enough and it is disheartening, at times
 
It's something I have thought of for many years. , like the old centre point complex in London empty for many years and in Dudley the old HMRC building that has been empty for at least 15 years.
 
The Fear - 18/2/2015 21:43

Trouble is society doesn't own the empty buildings.

But it is a sin, buildings could be bought by governments, maintained, manned and used for the homeless.

The downward spiral these folks get into is sad and frightening.

Well done for doing your bit to help them mate. :1:
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I think you might be right. I never had you down as a communist though. Fair play to you.
 
Who owns the buildings? Are they bothered that a building lies empty when so many people need shelter? Can the government afford to compulsorily purchase the buildings and how much would it cost to convert it into habitable accommodation? Greed is one of the more distasteful attributes we humans have a capacity for. It is sadly a situation repeated in almost every capital city of the world and many large cities in the so called affluent west. It needs the combined efforts of those who can utilise a small portion of their wealth to ease the problem financially and the people with the expertise in creating habitable dwellings (builders, plasterers etc). Sadly most people don't like to do something for nothing. When 1% of a nation's population own 99% of it's wealth then there is always going to be a divide in health and social class. I recall a conversation I overheard a few years ago when one guy said "Money is the root of all evil" and the other guy replied "Money is an inanimate object with no conscience and is therefore incapable of emotion. It is the man with the money that has the capacity to use it for good or evil"

We need more people like Bill Gates who have begun to realise they have the ability to invest in great causes to ease suffering, to eradicate diseases through investment in prevention and cures. With great wealth comes great responsibility. I think most of us, if we won the lottery, would be more than happy to give to worthy causes whether they are local, national or international.
 
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