You run the risk of being sexually assaulted in some cases, or physically assaulted in some cases. You run the risk of having just negative interactions with staff, negative interactions with people. That can be a lot. Also, some people suffer from PTSD and other childhood traumas. And so being in those types of environments where you're around a lot of strangers in close quarters can be quite triggering
Angela Kaye
@AnngieKaye · 3:06
But I hear so many people who I call bleeding heart, right, who take it upon themselves to assume that every unhoused person wants to be housed. And I get the idea that they think, well, no one should live outside, right? So they make it their life's mission to get everybody off the streets. But they're missing a key factor. How about ask the person what they want to do and where they want to live?
Yolanda Thornton
@Yogottima · 1:58
Because the people that are put in these situations where they are to be here to serve the public and help people out are not really focused and are not really geared or they really don't want to help people. You got to have a passion. It has to be in your heart to really hit the ground running to help someone out of a situation. And I guess they just don't have that real passion sometimes. Like I said, a lot of homeless people don't trust
Brian Foreman
@BKFOREMAN69 · 4:50
And for the most part, you had mentioned some of the bad things as far as the barrack style sleeping, but for the most part, a lot of shelters do have people that patrol the shelters I've been involved in. You can't enter if you're obviously intoxicated or on any substance. The one shelter I know, you couldn't go in it until between the hours of seven and nine at night, and you would have to be out by 09:00 a.m
Erica Jean
@HeyItsErica · 4:55
Um, thank you for this topic. Yeah, this is Erica here, and I'm coming from the angle as someone who did not have her own place for a while, I can honestly say that when me and my husband struggled financially years ago, many years ago, I can honestly say that we were never out on the streets. We were able to roommate with people in nice homes, actually, as well as hotels from time to time
Erica Jean
@HeyItsErica · 2:48
They didn't have to pay anyone's rent. They didn't want to pay bills. And that may seem kind of weird to the workaholics out there, but some of us just wanted to we just want to live comfortably. I was able to work at the grocery store. Me and my husband, we worked at the same job, and we would come back, watch movies and anime, and, um, I would write you know, I wrote some of my poetry and fiction and such
Moe Johnson
@NeophyteSavant · 2:55
And everything that you said, you're spot on as well. The thing is that some people don't want to be helped. Actually, you can help them by leaving them alone. Some people don't particularly care to be helped. They don't want anything. You can give them money, they'll take that, you can give them food, they'll take that. They'll definitely take some drugs
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Moe Johnson
@NeophyteSavant · 4:40
This reminds me of several years ago, quite a few years ago, in fact, I was walking with my son's mother, the mother of my son, and she has another child from a previous relationship. So this was a while ago. So we're walking, and I remember her child was a little guy at the time. I'm not even sure if our son was born, but I remember he asked his mother, why was the bum on a floor?
Angela Kaye
@AnngieKaye · 2:38
And he did what he wanted to do just to honor him. He did what he wanted to do. So this is a great topic. It is near and dear to my heart as I think a lot of the replies, like we're not just pulling stuff out of thin ear. We got a lot of experience with this. And I love this conversation. I just love the way it was presented in the way it's going because it's all about that human factor
Tanya Coles
@MsColes77 · 3:38
And I have seen the students that are typing papers on their smartphones and gosh, I couldn't imagine doing that. I remember in college typing 15 page papers, and I couldn't imagine doing that on a smartphone. It was hard enough doing that on a computer. I couldn't imagine doing it on a smartphone where all you have is, like, your iPhone Notes application to help you write
Tanya Coles
@MsColes77 · 2:27
They just might as well stay the way they are and try to make it the best way they can in the state that they're already in, instead of trying to get help from everybody and just to be turned away or just to be told, you got to meet all this criteria before we can give you anything. I was reading another post and this guy said, you're eligible for government assistance, but it's really not enough for you to make it. There's a catch 22 to everything
Tanya Coles
@MsColes77 · 2:39
All these things, all these coles and guidelines, I think they would be good for some homeless people to have their own living space temporarily so that they can get on their feet and so that they can experience life and having their own place and what that was like. I had a friend who was homeless for about a year or so, and she just airbnb. That's how she got along. But it's hard when you can't put down roots
Tanya Coles
@MsColes77 · 1:41
And now she has her own apartment and everything, but, yeah, she roughed it for a while, but God continued to cover her and keep her as she was staying in all these places, and he continued to protect her, and he eventually blessed her with her own. And so it's been really a blessing to watch. And like you said, if we trust God, he will provide. He always does provide. Absolutely
Tanya Coles
@MsColes77 · 4:00
These are clean and they keep them clean during the day. That's why they tell the homeless people to leave, so they can clean up, get everything freshened up and changed and everything, so that when they come back, they have nice bed linens and stuff. Like, it's very nice compared to other places. Thank you so much for your input
Alie Hunter
@AlieH · 2:27
And I think that might be one of the saddest things that we're seeing right now. So it really is a combination of the amount of resources, the requirement, and like you said, the willingness, the willingness for homeless people to just say, you know what, I'm going to give up this bad habit that I have to give up in order to have the opportunity to take a space in a homeless shelter. But it's so hard and it's really sad to see it going on
Augustine Hicks
@GODISTHRIFTY · 4:54
And that you understood where your help came from and the fact that you knew that your creativity came from God and your vision was a Habakuk vision, though the visionary, you waited for it and it came to pass. That is the way that we are structured as kingdom people. We can do nothing outside of Him. And when we do the process in his hands, the great thing is that no one can take us out of his hands
Tanya Coles
@MsColes77 · 0:44
And so it can make it easier for somebody to survive, especially somebody that has an addiction, something that they would not be able to feed if they were living in a shelter, where there are rules and guidelines and where there's just no access to drugs. And so I agree with you 100%. That totally makes sense why a lot of homeless people choose to not take advantage of resources. Thank you so much for chiming
Kitha Larie
@chitchatwithkk · 4:57
I worked in mental health before and I still work, in a way, in that field. But when you're dealing with these shelters and you're trying to help people and they don't want to be helped and you see them struggle, that takes not only a burden on that person, but it's a burden on you too. And people like us have good hearts
Tanya Coles
@MsColes77 · 3:18
Challenge is with having family members who are mentally ill and just completely disconnected to the world we live in. When I worked downtown, there used to be a homeless lady that would push a cart around and everybody kept saying, this woman comes from a wealthy family, she comes from a wealthy family, she comes from money. She's not poor, she has plenty of money