U.S official refuses to help u.s citizen

I can't tell from the picture, but it does sort of resemble him and the descriptions do line up. The guy I picked up didn't speak English well though. I thought he was German and from what I remember (I was a bit tipsy) he seemed to have ATM cards which appeared like they might be from Europe. I also didn't see an ID on him. The PNP did find his place and dropped him off at home. I caught up with them not long after and they told me about it.

I also agree with this. The profile of most of the homeless in the U.S. is that they aren't homeless for a lack of money, but rather from mental health issues. Anyone here with a decent head would figure something out rather quickly.

He got kicked out of McDonald's though? He must have went to the wrong one. You would have to be bat sh*t crazy just to fit in, let alone get kicked out. Maybe the hint of violence was to show off his special forces skills.

This is a good case why I'm not sure the Philippines is the best place for retirement. That's prime time for medical issues and many leave their support behind. Those who come here with wives and a good family situation are okay. A business idea for someone with the right backing would be to setup some sort of retirement community with the staff and the expertise to take care of these sorts of things. This could go right up to end of life management.

Good luck to the guy.

 

Seems like a lot of you folks are as helpful as your embassy, I thought your representative was some sort of aberration, apparently not.
Robert has mental health issues and needs help, not ridicule.
Mental health is not a choice as some of you know (or ought to know). This guy is not capable of helping himself.
Some of the ignorant posts here......and have a nice day.

 

That's how we get things done here on DumagueteInfo. It's a bit messy, but it works. One forum member called the issue to our attention. We have posted phone numbers and other information. We have 3 forum pages of posts where we have discussed the situation and the responsibility of the parties involved. We came to the conclusion that this person is suffering from a mental health issue. So far the conclusion seems to be that there is nothing we can do.

If Dustin is correct and this is the guy I have run into before, then I have gone far out of my way to help this guy already. Though it doesn't matter if this is the same guy because the situation was similar. I woke the guy up on the side of the road. Attempted to get information to figure out where he needed to be. Decided that the best course of action was to take him to the police station. I bought him water, paid for his fare and escorted him to the police station. I then stayed until dawn to assist the police in identifying this man and to figure out where he was staying.

In the thread discussing the death of Phil Prinz I posted contact information for his family and we contacted his father.

What else do you want us to do? Perhaps you should call these numbers if you feel we aren't doing enough?

 

Yes you did a good turn for that German(?) Fellow.
Robert is a different bloke. A lot of members here seem to have a good understanding of how the US government works and I encourage them to put some pressure on the embassy to do something.
Your representatives were not responsive to pleas from the pnp/dswd, maybe they will listen to a fellow American. I seriously doubt they want to hear from a Canadian.

 

That which an embassy will and won't do is a road well traveled. The US embassies across the world have probably received a large number of these cases every day since the US has had embassies.

In short. The embassy will not provide financial assistance. The embassy can't provide treatment for mental health issues. The embassy will not take guardianship over an impaired adult. The embassy can give you information and help you contact friends, family and other resources from the US.

If this person has mental health needs, then he needs to seek a mental health resources in the Philippines.

If this person can't access money, then he's in a b*tch of a place to deal with that problem.

It's possible this guy is just being difficult. He has to be able to help himself. I'm sure the embassy (and the other resources available to him here) were enough to settle on a solution if there were one available.

Lack of money is a hard issue to go up against. There are a maze of rules, requirements, timelines and other things which don't care that you need money for a cheeseburger right this minute. I'm dealing with this myself as my only ATM card was recently stolen. The embassy has no special powers to deal with these processes at home. Even worse, the embassy doesn't have the authority to act on the behalf of others in most situations where such a power would be helpful. Banks and government agencies aren't going to make magic happen just because the embassy is on the phone. You can pressure the embassy, but the embassy is limited in its ability to pass that pressure downstream.

If this guy doesn't have money and can't take care of himself, then he isn't paying his visa. Report him to immigration and maybe they will put him in immigration jail with other foreigners. He'll receive food, a place to stay and an address where he can be reached. Whatever support he has will have adequate time to resolve his situation.

 

From what I can see, you can apply for a "repatriation loan" from the embassy after you have exhausted all other options.

Look in the comments of this link.

http://lifehacker.com/i-learned-about-this-from-an-article-about-someone-who-465491664

I learned about this from an article about someone who was participating in Occupy Wall Street. He was living in S.E. Asia and wanted to return back to the US but was dead broke. He went to the US Consulate, and received a repatriation loan to get back home. Apparently there's a division in the U.S. Department of State called Overseas Citizens Services that is responsible for the welfare of U.S. citizens traveling abroad.

Per U.S. Department of State:

"If destitute, Americans can turn to a U.S. consular officer abroad for help. ACS will help by contacting the destitute person's family, friends, or business associates to raise private funds. It will help transmit these funds to destitute Americans.

"ACS transfers approximately 3 million dollars a year in private emergency funds. It can approve small government loans to destitute Americans abroad until private funds arrive.

"ACS also approves repatriation loans to pay for destitute Americans' direct return to the U.S. Each year over $500,000 is loaned to destitute Americans."​

 

To bad your embassy is as useful as mine.
So where is the next cocktail party?
What's for dinner? (sarcasm).

My wife has forwarded the story to as many US media sources as we could think of. We hope someone can help him.
As stated earlier, this guy can not help himself. I think some sort of dementia has set in. A couple of years ago he was doing okay.

 

I don't know what year those numbers "$500,000" came from or what the original source was. Assuming that's correct and somewhat recent, they obviously don't give many of these things out relative to the numbers of US citizens traveling abroad. It mentions the "3 million dollars" (also a low number) is private funds.

There appears to be some serious resistance in getting direct financial assistance. And what if the guy doesn't want a flight back home? What if the guy has adjusted to being homeless and begging and doesn't want to seek assistance?

There isn't much the embassy can do.