<p>What is up with all the homeless people in Ann Arbor these days? I've been in Ann Arbor this summer and I've noticed a very large amount of homeless people. I swear I can't walk more then 10 feet without some homeless guy coming up to me with a sob story about how he "lost his bus ticket and can't get back to Dearborn and needs 20 dollars." I was out the other day on State St. and I was literally asked 3 times for money. There also seems to be a large contingent of "campaigners". A few days ago a man came up to me asking me to sign some extremely shady, clearly illegitamite sheet to "end poverty." Being the good-natured person I am, I readily accepted. But then the man proceeded to ask me for a CASH donation, making sure to emphasize the CASH. I said I didn't have any (which I didn't) and he snarled at me and walked away.</p>
<p>In another instance, an obviously inebriated homeless man, stumbling all over the place, stops, unzips his fly and takes a **** literally right in the middle of the sidewalk, in front of a group of people, including myself (near Betsy Barbour house). It was really bizarre.</p>
<p>Basically just don't make eye contact, and if they still try and talk to you make it clear you're not going to help them in as few words as possible and keep going on your way.</p>
<p>I always wondered why there was such a large presence of homeless people in Ann Arbor, which is, despite having its disparity, a seemingly relatively uniformly wealthy (wealthy as more than lower middle class). I come from a mid-sized city with a "bad" side of town, but even there, I never noticed that much homelessness. I pondered about it in my writing right before I left Ann Arbor last year, actually (you can read it in my blog, in my profile). Having read a little about Ann Arbor's homeless, I've learned that a lot of Ann Arbor's homeless don't fit into the "homeless" stereotype: They have jobs, eat at some of the same restaurants that many students do, and so on. Last year, I almost volunteered at a school for homeless kids, babies and elementary school age, on White Street (I decided not to because I was already tutoring kids in Detroit a few hours each week...I have a bf who <em>constantly</em> reminds me of my limits =P)--I doubt many students are even aware of the school.
That said, maybe the large amount of noticeable homeless people is because of the poor job market and declining economy in Michigan are effecting Ann Arbor in different ways than what sets most people into economic-crisis panic attacks? (mostly UofM funding, laying off / not being able to obtain good profs, etc...things that seemingly haven't happened) Maybe the homeless / poor who have jobs have lost them, just as it's increasingly hard for students to find jobs? (I know a couple people who didn't want to quit their jobs because they knew they wouldn't find new ones) Those are just hypotheses, but yeah.</p>
<p>I worked with the homeless all summer, and I like got a whole new perspective on the homeless, but seeing them in the street, I don't know what to expect. I don't think I can count on them being the type of people I worked with (people trying to get their lives on track (not the bums that homeless people are normally perceived to be). I grew up in Boston, and I went to school near Harvard Square. Harvard Square is in a really nice area, and probably the nicest parts of Cambridge are adjacent to it. Needless to say, there a ton of homeless people there. May be it has something to do with universities, may be it doesn't.</p>