Five Things Everyone Should Know About Homelessness

Over a million people have read my blog since I began writing it five years ago. Still, there are many more people who have never heard of me, so an introduction is in order. In a world where nearly everyone claims to be an expert on many subjects, it's easy to become skeptical of a person's claim of knowledge.

I first became homeless in 1982. I was 21 years old. Since then I have lived half my adult life homeless, in one way or another. I count having experienced homelessness in at least 7 separate episodes. They ranged in time from just a couple months, to several years in length. And I've experienced many of the gray areas, where a person is not completely homeless, yet not completely homed, either. Everyone seems to have their own ideas about what actually constitutes homelessness. For example, some people say that Couch-Surfing is a form of homelessness, others would not. Couch-Surfing is a method of visiting different people, usually friends, but not necessarily, and plying them for permission to stay in their place of residence for temporary periods of time - usually with limited obligation to that of only sleeping there, and on a couch. If a person has enough friends, or enough interpersonal skills, they can keep themselves from spending time on the streets indefinitely.

When not homeless, my life has been rather mundane and "normal" - and I take "normal" as, being in a state of conformity to that of the majority of other people in society - or having more in common with the majority of people, than not. I've enjoyed times when I've had regular employment, owned a home, paid bills, raised kids, experimented with matrimony, etc. So, I have had opportunity to see life from both sides.

During the time since I began blogging, people have asked me about homelessness, what it is "really like," how to prevent it, is it preferable to having a home, etc. So, I know curiosity exists. And with times as they are these days, with the economy taking a dive, and life generally feeling unstable for many people, it is natural that people would begin to wonder, and worry, about such things.

You, the reader, should also know that I am not writing this article as some casual pursuit. I am by no means trying to limit the serious dilemma that is homelessness. The information I am providing in this list of things to know has been thought over for years. But also know that this is by no means a complete list of important knowledge on the subject. It would require an encyclopedia sized publication, to truly do it justice. And for the most part, these ten things are not in any particular order of importance, except for perhaps the first point I make. But, enough of the introduction - on to the list.

1. The longer a person is homeless, the more difficult it is for that person to overcome homelessness. Just as there are currents in the ocean called rip-tides, or in rivers and lakes called under-tows, there is a current that runs along the streets that will pull you under, if you stay too long. So, it is to the benefit of all that a person get off the streets - out of homelessness - as quickly as possible. To survive on the streets, without totally losing one's mind, a person much assimilation to the culture of homelessness. And to do this, a person must shed his or her ideas and beliefs and customs of the homed life, in exchange for the ways of the street. So, to come back off the street, the same kind of assimilation must take place. And this leads us to number two and three on the list.

2. For a person to completely overcome homelessness he/she must reassimilate to "normal" life. Getting a person off the streets and into some housing isn't enough to cure that person of homelessness. There is a process involved. The best example of assimilation would be that of the boat people back in the 1970s. They were being rescued at sea from make shift rafts attempting to escape the chaos their country had fallen into. These were people from a totally different culture. Yet they no longer had a home, or a country. And so America welcomed them in. These people were scattered all over the 50 states. Groups, many of them churches, hosted refugee families, and helped them learn our ways of living. Everything was new to these people and everything had to relearned, the American way. And not just basics, like how to speak English, or how to conduct business with a bank, but also the smaller things like how to behave in an acceptable manner to the expectations of Americans. I recall stories of these people, who had been living in poverty much of their lives, being taken to one of our grocery stores and having an emotional brake down at the abundance of food. From these kinds of situations it was learned that assimilation must be a gradual process. And that leads to number three.

3. Recovering from homelessness takes a lot longer than most people would expect. For those people who feel led to help the homeless, they must have realistic expectations. And most people just have no idea what to expect. The idea that homeless people choose to be homeless still persists. And it leads people to assume that all that is required to end homelessness is a new, non-homeless choice. If it were that easy, there would be a lot fewer homeless people. At the beginning of recovery a homeless person needs to escape the homeless environment. And once in a safe, homed place, the homeless person needs time to decompress - time to just get use to not being homeless - the distance of time between the homeless person and the streets must be significant, especially to prevent the homeless person from attempting to return to the streets. Yes, it seems odd that a person would return to the streets while being provided a home, but it does happen. And no, this is not some indication that the person wants to be homeless. The situation is not unlike a woman who has been recently removed from the home of an abusive husband or boyfriend. Sometimes the woman feels the urge to return to that abusive relationship. She can't help herself from thinking about doing so. That does not mean the woman likes or wants to be abused. Obviously, there is more going on, and going wrong with the woman's thought processes. And she needs to be healed of those. In the book, "Living with Loss," author so and so tells us that even when good things happen to us we experience loss. All change provides losses with the gains, and those losses need to be dealt with. And, time is a part of solution to that. It is not uncommon for a homeless person, a couple weeks into a homed situation, to go through a period of depression.

Yes there are people who travel among the homeless and yet have a place to live. I think it would be best to categorize those people as tourists. They may call themselves homeless, but they are no more homeless than the girl taking a vacation in the Bahamas is an Islander, or the guy spending time at a Dude Ranch is a Cowboy.

4. All homelessness begins as a financial crisis, but that does not mean the solution to homelessness is a matter of economics. Here is a good place to explain that there are two very distinct kinds of homeless people, those who become homeless strictly because of some kind of financial catastrophe, and those who become homeless because they suffer from a psychological ailment which triggers their financial catastrophe. For most people, homelessness is strictly an issue of finances, and in short order they get their financial situation straightened out and are out of homelessness. Also, these people usually have only one homeless experience in their lives. This is way the average homeless experience is three to four months in length. But, the cause of all other homelessness is an issue of mental illness. And for these people to overcome homelessness, they must deal with that illness. And mental illness is an odd thing, in that the illness takes away a person's motivation to seek a solution, if not to be in complete denial of their mental problems. And so it is that you will hear many chronically homeless people talking about how close they are to getting out of homelessness cause they are about to get a job, etc, and yet they continue to be homeless, year after year.

5. The more services that are offered to the homeless, the better the chances are of homeless people finding a way out of homelessness. There is some crazy and twisted notion that's been around for along time, that if you provide services to the homeless that they will never want to leave homelessness. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. The motivation to leave homelessness, is homelessness itself. There is nothing pleasant or enjoyable about being homeless. Despite claims to the contrary, there are no real benefits to being homeless. Sure, from the outside it may seem like a life of carefree idleness, but it's not. There is notion carefree about being homeless. Actually, a person living homeless has more cares and concerns than a person who has a home. Homeless people are more susceptible to crime and abuse, must constantly consider where their next meal is coming from, and where they will sleep. They must constantly watch out for the police, who are more likely to consider homeless people as criminals about to commit a crime, than citizens in need of protection. Without taking into consideration any other concerns, these few issues will prevent a homeless person from "enjoying" his life. In fact, these things can so consume a homeless person that he does not have much time or energy left for doing those things that would actually lead to him getting out of homelessness. With more services, even beyond food and shelter, a homeless person can get his life back in order. Without services, I would say it's nearly impossible.

Ok, well this is my first list of five things everyone should know about homelessness. I hope they have given you something to think about, even if you don't understand or completely agree with what I've written here. At least you are considering the situation, and that is the first step in doing something constructive towards ending homelessness. Look for another list of five things you should know about homelessness every Monday, here at Associated Content.