Shades of Homelessness

People who have not been homeless, and have not intimately known the homeless, have some very wrong perceptions about the subject. Those on the far right think that if the homeless would stop being lazy and just get jobs, the problem would be solved. Those on the far left think we should round up the homeless like stray puppies and find good homes for them. Both sides have some learning to do.

I’ve been homeless more than once, and fit in more than one of the below categories. I’ve also done a great deal of volunteer work that involved the homeless. I feel reasonably certain that I am qualified to expound on the subject of homelessness.

TEMPORARY (or trying to be)

These are very low income people who are always a paycheck away from homelessness- so sometimes they are.

If they have children, there are homeless shelters or organizations that help them get back on their feet. But for many different possible reasons, some do not make it into a shelter, and live in their car with their children. They try to keep the children in school, and they try to find a job. They are terrified of being found out and losing their children to the system – and sometimes they do.

People who don’t have children have it rough, since most homeless shelters will not permanently house them. For example, many shelters only allow the same people to stay overnight a certain number of days per month. This is not out of meanness; the shelters are overcrowded, and they try to rotate people so everyone gets a chance for a bed and a shower every so often.

It’s extremely difficult for homeless people to get a job. Not because they aren’t trying: many pound the pavement for hours day after day trying, but most employers just won’t hire someone who’s dirty and unkempt, with no phone and no address.

And yes, they do try to clean up, but when the only way is to try to take a sponge bath in a public restroom with paper towels, it’s just near impossible.

MENTALLY ILL

These are such sad cases. So many are schizophrenic or have other very severe mental conditions. They periodically get picked up by the police, and a judge will order them into a public psychiatric facility. Once there, they are placed on medication and their condition improves greatly. But by law, as soon as the medication kicks in, they have to be released. They have nowhere to go except back onto the streets. Without the medication, they quickly deteriorate mentally, and the cycle continues.

CHILDREN

Homeless children haunt my thoughts more than any others. So many of these have run away from an abusive home, often due to sexual abuse.

Some were kicked out. I’ve known some who were kicked out as young as 13 or 14. Frequently, one or both parents are alcoholics or drug addicts. They can’t deal with a child who’s beginning to think for his or her own self, so they just throw them out.

And then there are those who age out of the foster care system.

Social workers and case workers try so hard to get the children ready for the outside. They try to make sure the child has a job and a place to stay. But more often than you can imagine, the day of the child’s 18th birthday arrives and they have nothing.

By law, when they are staying in a children’s home (what used to be called an orphanage), they have to leave. Sometimes they are in a foster home, and it’s fortunate that some wonderful, compassionate foster parents will let the children stay, but so many don’t. So, these children end up on the street.

Unfortunately, pimps and child sex traffickers have experienced recruiters scouring the streets for vulnerable runaways and aged out foster children. Many recruiters are women who dress and act motherly. Frightened, lonely children fall right into traps baited with promises of food, shelter, and maternal affection. By the time the children understand what’s going on, they’ve already been addicted to drugs by their recruiters, and they’re experiencing Stockholm Syndrome. They want to get back out of their situation, but they don’t know how.

TRANSITS / VETERANS

I lumped these because 90% of the time, one is also the other.

Most of these have untreated PTSD; often so severe they can barely function. They cope by using alcohol and drugs, which just exacerbates their condition. Some also have varying degrees of physical disabilities.

Most will not talk about the horrors they experienced on the front lines, but I learned the details of one case. It’s the stuff of nightmares.

He was in a city in the ME somewhere. He and some of his soldier buddies were grouped together on a sidewalk. From across the street came running a toddler child wearing a suicide vest, as an enemy urged the child to run to the Americans. Without really thinking, the soldier I knew lifted his rifle and shot the child dead while it was still in the middle of the street. If he hadn’t done so, he and his buddy soldiers would have all been injured or killed, and the child would definitely have been dead.

The soldier who shot the child went crazy in his mind. The tragic scene played in a loop in his head constantly. For those who don’t take PTSD very seriously, how would you have handled the aftermath in your mind if that had been you?

So many of these veterans just can’t hold a job, and their self esteem is non-existent. Suicide rates are high amongst this segment of the population.

DISABLED (mentally and/or physically)

These people just can’t quite take care of themselves properly. They are unable to work any but the most menial of jobs, and can’t make enough to get on their feet.

There are many case workers trying to help them get disability or other help, but there’s just so much that anyone can do for them. Some get into halfway houses, but there aren’t enough of those to take care of all the people who need them.

ELDERLY

Like the working poor, many of these are a step away from homelessness. Often, unexpected medical bills are enough to push them over the edge. Or maybe their rent and utilities go up faster than their Social Security checks do. For many reasons, some end up homeless through no fault of their own.

ADDICTS & DRUNKS

These are some messed up people.

Many came from broken, dysfunctional, alcoholic homes. Many were alcoholics their own selves by the time they were in grade school. That may sound unbelievable to some of you, but children in these homes have free access to beer and liquor, and they copy the grownups around them.

I have lived in those slummy neighborhoods, where so many alcoholics reside. I have witnessed with my own eyes, people blowing pot smoke into their babies’ faces to quiet them down, or they give a beer to a toddler because it’s running around making too much noise. These children are addicts and drunkards from a very young age.

By the time they leave home, they are so profoundly addicted, they don’t know any other way to be. They can get help if they want it, but they often don’t. If they do have a desire to change, they just can’t break away from the only thing they know.

They frustrate me, because they KNOW they need to change, and they KNOW ways to get help, but drugs and alcohol have such a powerful hold on them, they don’t really try. I don’t always have an abundance of sympathy for those who have opportunities for an out, but they refuse to even try.

MULTI-GENERATIONAL

There are two classes of these, also called Intergenerational homeless.

One sub group is disturbingly common. The same family will be housed part of the time, and homeless part of the time, generation after generation. Children grow up with no stability, and continue the cycle. It’s all they know.

Then there is the strangest group of all. These are the people who was born homeless, and have never known what it is to live in a real house or apartment. They grow up and have more children. If the cycle isn’t broken, this will continue into the next generation, and the next, always homeless.

I’ve never known any of this latter group. You almost have to be one of them to meet them. So little is known of them. All I know is what has been written by sociologists who have tried to study them, government groups that have tried to count and analyze them, and the charity and church groups which have tried to help them with food and medical care.

Pockets of them live in abandoned areas of large cities. They are like feral cats – elusive, suspicious and wary. It’s almost impossible for any outsiders to gain their trust. When they are found, where they live in a falling down down building somewhere, the whole group vanishes.

Since their children don’t go to school, I wonder if any of them can read or write? How did a given colony of them originally come to be in that situation? I assume they probably eat from dumpsters. Maybe they find their clothing that way as well, or steal them. I suppose there’s little hope of civilizing them- they are just too wild.

Here is a long report (PDF) by the non-profit organization SchoolHouse Connection: Interrupting Generational Homelessness Among Young Families Through A Two-Generation Approach