I just finished reading your piece on YUTs: young urban travelers. You’ve got that article, in my opinion, all wrong. I have been on the road for 18 years by choice, not consequences. Most travelers hold to strict codes of behavior and are self-regulating in this. However, homebums are the opposite. Like your Jeremy, claiming to be hungry day after day after day, all the while there is an over-abundant amount of free food made available, showers, laundry, free clothes, you name it, homebums have no standards, expect everything, even demanding respect because they haven’t gone anywhere.
“I’ve been here for 40 years,” I overheard one homebum mutter proudly as he butted into a food line. I understand that this is a drag on any city, a full-grown “man,” been here for 40 years on your dime and your dime alone. Hasn’t picked up a piece of litter but made plenty of it. These are the incontinent, alcoholic types that don’t have control of their own bladders and bowels.
I personally have no issue finding and using a public restroom, eating at normal times, going to bed early, rising early, etc. I do not panhandle, unlike homebum Jeremy. I instead seek jobs on craigslist; I am personable and respectful so as to make real local friends and connections wherever I may be. Unlike Jeremy selling “kindness” and “smiles,” sitting all day blight, beg beg beg beg beg beg bah beg beg beg, Using an animal for sympathy’s sake.
YUTs, as you put it, usually have ways and means. They show the propensity to travel, have proper camping gear and a thirst for new experiences and knowledge, and consequently they quite often move on in a relatively short time. I have been here for six weeks myself and had a rental car reserved in three. I have roughly spent $2,000 in Santa Barbara since being here. And I do have plans to return. It’s a nice town. In short YUTs are the very spice of life that makes a place special or not, and homebums are the source of misplaced bodily functions and the blights that they are.