Some single woman with no intent to marry collect stray cats. I seem to collect stray homeless people to use my privilege to help them overcome significant barriers to regaining housing by meeting their basic needs, providing stability, lending an ear, & helping with paperwork.

Honestly think anyone who can do this should because it will open your fucking eyes to how many barriers exist & how little people can address therm when all their spoons are being spent on surviving. And the system is too overwhelmed to help. Connie's caseworker has 200 clients.

How the fuck is one man supposed to help 200 people when he can't provide 80% of what they need to move forward and caring for one person is at least a part-time job? It's fucking impossible. No one can get anywhere.

Here's a fun rabbit hole we've gone down since last night: Having a bank account would remove a lot of barriers. To get a bank account you need ID. To get ID you need an address, proof of address, birth certificate, and money.

To get a birth certificate you need an address, a phone number, an ID or 3 alternate documents from a list of 19, one of which must show your current address including permits, employment records, personal check, and court papers, may or which would require an address.

And you'd have to have held onto those papers when your stuff is constantly getting stolen or destroyed, including by police. So because there are so many hurdles to getting a bank account, she has to trust I'm not going to steal her fundraiser money because it has to go to me.

Okay, so let's forget the bank account for today. We talked to her case worker and he's gonna get those balls rolling. Now let's look for apartments. The going rate for a 1 bedroom 1 bath 500 square foot apartment is around $650-$800 a month, but under $725 is rare.

There is also a massive shortage of "affordable" housing, and mobility issues restrict her to ground floor only. SSI pays $771 per month (and you cannot have more than $2k in assets or they cut you off. Another reason the fundraiser money has to go to me).

So this is where Section 8 subsidized housing is supposed to come in. All available Section 8 housing in the metro area is a 4 page long horizontal table, and again, ground floor only cuts that down significantly. And you still have to pay application fees and deposits.

And then you get into issues of being approved for rentals. They often ask for a current address. They ask for phone and email address when prepaid plans can run out and internet access is rare. They ask for credit history and many homeless people have bad credit.

Which may have gotten worse while homeless from unpaid fines and hospital visits. And how and you supposed to pay those off with no money? How do you monitor your credit at all to see if someone's stolen your identity when you can't carry papers or access the internet?

So even if you have someone willing to help cover part of the cost of housing until you can get into Section 8, how do get approved? And then Connie has a doctor prescribed support animal that makes finding a place even harder because no one wants pets.

And even if you get as far as an interview, how are you supposed to show up with a mobility impairment trying to carry all your stuff or leaving it knowing it'll probably all get robbed? And you can't look presentable because you can't bathe or wash your clothes anywhere.

You can't even ride the bus if you smell too bad. And there's so much stigma around being homeless that people just write you off at first glance. And then there's exhaustion from not being able to sleep anywhere or and constant fear even when you can.

Background checks also pick up the number of times you were jailed for trespassing because it's basically been made illegal to loiter and rest anywhere at all. And that's if you avoided theft just to survive in a world that wants you dead.

And then there's executive function and attention problems from not being able to reliably stay or necessary psychiatric or other meds meds because you can't reliably get to the pharmacy to fill them out the doctor to renew them.

Plus most disabled people have medical trauma, which makes doctors visits really had and scary. And a lot of homeless people end up with institutional trauma from the horrible ways they're treated trying to get help, which makes all those visits scary and tiring.

So it's one barrier after another after another, and every time you try to do one simple thing it's like it opens a portal to the Endless Maze of the Abyss you have to traverse first in a system that treats every barrier like a personal failure because you don't care.

How DO you keep caring about yourself when practically everyone you interact with treats you like you're a worthless lazy burden & they'll be glad when you go away? No one's mental health can survive that. Which is why so many people succumb to any temporary escape they can get.

Homelessness is a trap that almost no one can get out of without substantial help and someone giving a shit enough to really help you because it robs you of every resource and all your energy until you have nothing at all to fight with.

Homeless people aren't lazy; they work so damn hard and get no where at all because the system is impossible to navigate. And it wears people down until they're too burned out to fight anymore. It's traumatizing being alone, scared, harassed, and victimized constantly.

This is why it should absolutely terrify you that a tsunami of evictions is starting to hit. The US already can't deal with the homeless crisis and millions more people are about to hit that system and these barriers. This will destroy the economy and people's lives.

BTW, I did write this with Connie's consent. She wants people to understand what homelessness is really like to motivate them to help and help people understand the actual barriers in place.

I can't fix the system, but I can be a friend & help one person at a time. If you'd like to help Connie, please consider donating to her GoFundMe for housing fees, basic medical equipment, furniture, and other basic needs. We're 42% of the way to a $2.5k. https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-connie-get-a-home

With the amount we've raised so far we've already been able to get a couple basic medical devices and furniture essentials that have substantially improved her comfort, productivity, and dignity.

Ah! I almost forgot food stamps! You can't get food stamps without an address and it mostly only pays for food that requires some cooking. Food boxes also require cooking. So being homeless mostly means no food assistance.

What social workers can get is small value gift cards to grocery stores and fast food chains, which means even when homeless people can get food, it's nutritionally poor, leading to more (expensive) health problems.

And medicaid doesn't cover vision, so vision impairments become another needless barrier to paperwork and survival. Because apparently eyes aren't part of the body, right?

And they only cover the most basic dental care which means a lot of homeless people end up with a lot or all their teeth pulled, which is another barrier to nutrition, and dignity. It pays for dentures, but how do you care for them when you're homeless?

Poverty is expensive and destructive. And it's totally unnecessary. We choose to structure our society to do this to people, even though it's a drag on the economy. All so the rich and ultra rick can live out their dragon fantasies.

I hope this thread helps you better understand why housing-first is the only viable model for tackling homelessness. People can't get their shit together before getting a home because homelessness creates too many barriers. House people, then solve their problems.

And it's worth noting: these are the barriers for an allocishet white woman with no evictions whose worse crime is trespassing. Just imagine how much harder this is for queer people, PoC, people with evictions, anyone with a worse criminal record, or any combination of those.

And if you want to support the broader organizations fighting this fight, consider a donation to @WhiteBirdClinic, @svdplanecounty, @foodforlc, or @Habitat_org.

Electricity! Even if you manage to have a working phone and a bit of pre-paid data (which is an expensive scam that preys on poor people), where are you gonna charge your phone and any backup batteries? Not many businesses will let you loiter, let alone use their power.

You can't hardly find a public restroom, let alone a public power outlet. So how are you supposed to fill out forms online, especially when the library is closed for a pandemic? And how's anyone supposed to find you to help you if you move all the time & your phone doesn't work?

Another person you can help out of homelessness with a donation.
https://twitter.com/alchemistknight/status/1285603329754767360?s=21 https://twitter.com/AlchemistKnight/status/1285603329754767360