Reply #73: Too often the homeless ARE seen as problems and not people

[AngryOldDem]

Don't get me wrong -- the work that I do can be stressful and I literally have to pray for patience some nights. That's especially true when we happen to have a particularly volatile mix of people, which happens from time to time. But overall, I'd say that I have been blessed to do the work that I do. I have met some really fascinating and neat folks.

I guess my biggest frustration right now is the community's attitude, which has only gotten worse. There are basically just two shelters in my city -- the emergency overnight shelter (where I work) and the day shelter. Through a lot of bureaucratic sleight-of-hand and weight-pulling by business leaders, the majority of the care for the homeless is falling on the overnight shelter's shoulders. We have very little support and very little money. The city is trying to squeeze the homeless into a very narrow "ghetto" and it is taxing us to our limits. I could go on but the whole discussion literally exhausts me. I've seen your posts on this issue here and elsewhere on DU, so I think you probably have a sense of where I'm coming from anyway.