<story><title>“You&apos;re on the verge of losing everything but you don’t understand why”</title><url>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-42789610</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>michaelmrose</author><text>How this would have looked in the US.&lt;p&gt;* Relationship with girlfriend breaks up and you move in with parents.&lt;p&gt;* Parents medical bills eat up everything they have and more when they pass away their creditors swoop in to take anything that&amp;#x27;s left.&lt;p&gt;* You are kindly told you will be moved to the street so you get a job. Your part time job pays enough for you to crash on a couch or at best maybe rent a room somewhere if your lucky.&lt;p&gt;* When you get attacked you have no insurance so you now owe $5000 which you have no way to pay and a prescription for opoids.&lt;p&gt;* You apply for disability but get denied.  No help is forthcoming.  You quickly lose your place to live about 3 days after the rent is due.  Nobody cares why you can&amp;#x27;t pay. Your address is now the street corner where you stick your pile of dirty blankets.&lt;p&gt;* Due to your financial situation and eviction you will never be able to rent anything without substantial money up front and nobody wants to hire you.&lt;p&gt;* After the initial perscription(s) of opoids wear off you now have pain AND an addiction unlikely to be satisfied legally.  You turn to panhandling and use the money to buy heroin.&lt;p&gt;* You get a dose that happened to be cut with something far too strong and nobody realizes your dead until someone complains about the smell.</text></comment>
<story><title>“You&apos;re on the verge of losing everything but you don’t understand why”</title><url>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-42789610</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>dm319</author><text>I know most people here are fairly well-paid, intelligent and many are well-adjusted and stable.  But it&amp;#x27;d be mistake to assume this happens to other people.  Sometimes a series of unfortunate events (lost job, lost child, lost marriage) trigger a series of events, helped by alcohol and poor-decision making and resulting in homelessness and poverty.&lt;p&gt;When I lived in Oxford I came across a book put together of mini-interviews of the homeless there - their stories.  It really surprised me how many of the biographies started off with a well-paid professional job with a happy family and spiralled out of control.</text></comment>