<story><title>As cities grow in size, the poor &apos;get nothing at all&apos;: study</title><url>https://santafe.edu/news-center/news/new-study-prosperity-cities-benefits-few</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>cubano</author><text>Due to my BG check issues, I am currently quite poor.  I can&amp;#x27;t really afford housing so I sleep outside on land owned by the Post Office.&lt;p&gt;Why they don&amp;#x27;t kick me off is something I haven&amp;#x27;t been able to figure out, but I&amp;#x27;m grateful they let me stay so I clean up their parking lot and common area 3-4 times a week.&lt;p&gt;Trust me...the poor get the barest of scraps already, so of course they get nothing &amp;quot;when cities grow&amp;quot;. What I&amp;#x27;ve seen is that a few people with very large hearts and a ton of compassion make regular stops with a big pot of pasta and ice cream and maybe a pack of socks, under ware, and t-shirts.&lt;p&gt;To be honest, I&amp;#x27;ve always been very much a loner so I don&amp;#x27;t really make friends with other poor people as most poor do in order to keep up to date on where the free places to eat are and all that kinda stuff.&lt;p&gt;I really don&amp;#x27;t want to be poor like this, but I guess it&amp;#x27;s no one&amp;#x27;s fault but mine why I&amp;#x27;m in this predicament.&lt;p&gt;What I want more than anything is a job, but at last look I have 7 felonies (6 possession charges and a 2nd degree &amp;quot;Escape&amp;quot; charge that&amp;#x27;s always kind of fun to explain), but when you run a BG check on me thru some of the very popular and cheap apps out there, due to bugs in their systems and the way I&amp;#x27;ve moved around a lot, it literally looks like I have about 50 felonies because apparently these sites create duplicates that are missing info and then since they don&amp;#x27;t &amp;quot;match&amp;quot; to the &lt;i&gt;real&lt;/i&gt; charges, the database logic inserts them as different charges.&lt;p&gt;I tried contacting the companies, but they refuse to even look at the issue and I&amp;#x27;m sure think I&amp;#x27;m a super junkie who has 50 felonies.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t really think it&amp;#x27;s fair to not give me a chance to work because of stuff that&amp;#x27;s happened 30 to 8 years ago.  Don&amp;#x27;t you guys feel like a totally different person than you were 8 years ago?  Like aren&amp;#x27;t we supposed to forgive people who have been through a lot of pain and suffering and who have learned new ways?&lt;p&gt;I mean...these possession charges are a life fucking sentence!&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s SUCH a shit grind to go thru 3 to 4 long interviews, and to feel like you did well enough to get hired, and then never get called back about what happened.  The last 10 jobs I&amp;#x27;ve applied for I&amp;#x27;ve gone through this same exact thing, and even though I hate being poor like I am more than anything, being the victim of a silent discrimination is worse.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Clewza313</author><text>For most employers 7 vs 50 felonies will make no difference, any number that&amp;#x27;s not zero will disqualify you.&lt;p&gt;Being upfront about your criminal record (including that it looks worse than it is) and&amp;#x2F;or explicitly targeting companies that have signed up to Ban the Box and&amp;#x2F;or the Fair Chance Pledge might help.</text></comment>
<story><title>As cities grow in size, the poor &apos;get nothing at all&apos;: study</title><url>https://santafe.edu/news-center/news/new-study-prosperity-cities-benefits-few</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>cubano</author><text>Due to my BG check issues, I am currently quite poor.  I can&amp;#x27;t really afford housing so I sleep outside on land owned by the Post Office.&lt;p&gt;Why they don&amp;#x27;t kick me off is something I haven&amp;#x27;t been able to figure out, but I&amp;#x27;m grateful they let me stay so I clean up their parking lot and common area 3-4 times a week.&lt;p&gt;Trust me...the poor get the barest of scraps already, so of course they get nothing &amp;quot;when cities grow&amp;quot;. What I&amp;#x27;ve seen is that a few people with very large hearts and a ton of compassion make regular stops with a big pot of pasta and ice cream and maybe a pack of socks, under ware, and t-shirts.&lt;p&gt;To be honest, I&amp;#x27;ve always been very much a loner so I don&amp;#x27;t really make friends with other poor people as most poor do in order to keep up to date on where the free places to eat are and all that kinda stuff.&lt;p&gt;I really don&amp;#x27;t want to be poor like this, but I guess it&amp;#x27;s no one&amp;#x27;s fault but mine why I&amp;#x27;m in this predicament.&lt;p&gt;What I want more than anything is a job, but at last look I have 7 felonies (6 possession charges and a 2nd degree &amp;quot;Escape&amp;quot; charge that&amp;#x27;s always kind of fun to explain), but when you run a BG check on me thru some of the very popular and cheap apps out there, due to bugs in their systems and the way I&amp;#x27;ve moved around a lot, it literally looks like I have about 50 felonies because apparently these sites create duplicates that are missing info and then since they don&amp;#x27;t &amp;quot;match&amp;quot; to the &lt;i&gt;real&lt;/i&gt; charges, the database logic inserts them as different charges.&lt;p&gt;I tried contacting the companies, but they refuse to even look at the issue and I&amp;#x27;m sure think I&amp;#x27;m a super junkie who has 50 felonies.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t really think it&amp;#x27;s fair to not give me a chance to work because of stuff that&amp;#x27;s happened 30 to 8 years ago.  Don&amp;#x27;t you guys feel like a totally different person than you were 8 years ago?  Like aren&amp;#x27;t we supposed to forgive people who have been through a lot of pain and suffering and who have learned new ways?&lt;p&gt;I mean...these possession charges are a life fucking sentence!&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s SUCH a shit grind to go thru 3 to 4 long interviews, and to feel like you did well enough to get hired, and then never get called back about what happened.  The last 10 jobs I&amp;#x27;ve applied for I&amp;#x27;ve gone through this same exact thing, and even though I hate being poor like I am more than anything, being the victim of a silent discrimination is worse.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>metiscus</author><text>Have you looked into expungement? I&amp;#x27;m not super familiar with how it works and it does vary state to state but you may be able to fix some of the issues via that route. There might be some public legal aid available to help because I have heard the process can be expensive and time-consuming.</text></comment>