WE ALL NEED A PLACE WE CALL HOME

If you’re not a supporter of homeless people, please just skip this.

I read another post on NextDoor today that broke my heart. A homeless guy’s stuff was cleared out of a land parcel with nothing on it, was give a time limit to recover his stuff (where would he put it??) and by the time he went to reclaim it, it was ALL destroyed. (He has brain trauma and struggles.)

The post was compassionate. 95% of the replies were not.

Here’s mine:

Thank you to all the folks who understand what homeless people are dealing with.

Reports indicate only about 15% of the homeless population have addiction/mental health issues. And yet we throw them ALL under the same NIMBY bus.

Teens leaving abusive homes, young people aging out of foster care, people living with abusive partners, single moms, vets with PTSD, people who have lost their jobs, are all lumped together as “losers”.

Many of us (especially renters!) are a month away from being homeless. And we comfort ourselvesd by believing this would never happen to us, and therefore it s all THEIR fault.

Our SYSTEM is at fault.

Facilities to address addiction and mental issues are far and few, and studies also show that what really helps getting people back on a better path is….being homed!

Did you know that almost every work space requires a HOME ADDRESS for hiring employees? If you don’t have a home address, you cannot get a job. (There are a few agencies that work through this. But not enough.)

Yes, they can be scary. Yes, they can be troublesome. Yes, they create a mess–because they have NOWHERE ELSE TO GO.

Please have tiny bit of compassion and donate to non-profits that do the work to address these issues. Even a small monthly donation of $5-$10 can help, if enough of us care enough to do something.

Any derogatory comments will be deleted. I don’t have any patience for people who don’t have any compassion.