Losing my home was one of the scariest things that ever happened to me, and I had a safety net of well-off friends and family.

I packed my bag and slept on one couch after another as I looked for housing. I was escaping an emotionally (and sometimes physically) abusive relationship with my jealous ex-husband.

When I posted on Facebook, "I've lost my home, I'm looking for a place," my ex-husband's relative replied violently, "Why don't you just shack up with the person you've been cheating with, you slut" or something like that (my ex had spread false allegations of me cheating)

After years of enduring emotional abuse, I was deep in depression and fighting off suicidal thoughts. The loving intervention of a friend warded off alcoholism. My relationship with God kept me from throwing myself on the BART tracks, even though I felt like it.

I wasn't much good at work for awhile, but I had been for years at the same company that believed in my talent and potential. They waited patiently for the old Charlotte to check back in. Eventually, I regained functioning.

My economic and social support and privilege kept me from being on the streets. If I hadn't been white, educated, employed, and privileged, my romantic relationship could've easily put me on the streets.

So when the anti-homeless hate speech callers to #oakmtg said things like, "homeless people are thieving lazy criminals who can't hold down a job," I was thinking the whole time, "This could have been me."

The generous help of friends and family is what kept me on track during my dark time: not guts or talent or hard work or responsibility or anything like that.

So when I hear people talk like the suffering of the homeless is their own fault, it's unbelievably horrible. It returns me to my memories of the time I couldn't get up on my own. What would it have felt like to be treated with scorn and contempt back then?

We need to have compassion and grace for those who are struggling to get by. Whether they are victims of injustice or their own mistakes or both, they deserve love and a place in society just as much as we do.

And to those hate-filled trolls making sure the city's money is spent on homeless oppression rather than homeless help: GOD DAMN YOU.

It takes a lot for a universalist to say God Damn You. But in this moment, I understand why the Old Testament is so full of rage.