Prophecor, you were homeless?
For a brief momentary period of my life, yes KK. I was witness to the what it is you must go thru to keep yourself alive in the system. From January 10, 1994 until August 1st of the same year. In and out of various homeless shelters, halfway houses and mental health respites.
There's a wealth of places here in the Philadelphia area that are willing to help those who are truly willing to help themselves, unfortunately, there are those who wish to bleed the system dry and try to work around it, continuing in the same energy that caused them to be homeless in the first place. It's an entire subculture that exist out there. Contrary to popular opinion, however, everyone in the system is not there because of drug / alcohol / and mental illness. many are there because of relationships having gone south, the loss of one's job, unassociated with substance abuse, as well as for folks just giving up on themselves as well as having been given up as lost by thier families. The most disheartening thing to see these days are the women who are becoming a part of the homeless population, along with mothers with thier chidren.
There is help available to anyone that want's it. Though you may have to suffer the ignomy of having to be stereotyped, disrespected in many instances because you won't always be able to keep a good face on when homeless, finding public places to quickly and subtly wash yourself off, train stations, malls and other places like that, running to get yourself to the nearest feeding station as you wait in long lines of folks who are in desperation just like you, but even in all that, I was still able to be witness to beauty that was struggle, and come to realize how adaptable we as humans really are. And how resillient. We can take a lot more than many of us would ever give ourselves credit for. You hear folks say, " Oh I could never do that " in the middle of a moment in desperation, you'd be surprised to realise just what it is you can & will do!
I learned more in those 8 months about myself, than could be done in any other situation.
There's a world out there willing and at the ready to help those who are homeless, but it takes determination to get thru the system, that can be seen as a huge beast to those who can often take the victim role. I was determined enough to say, " I'm going to jump in here, and do it once and get it over with, I'm not going to be a revolving door statistic, I'm going to try and never be placed in this situation, again " That was my mind set for those 8 or so months. Even if I should find myself in a situation as such again, I know there's help, and I know I could handle it.
It was one of the greatest learning experiences of my adult life. At the end of the game, I was blessed with my first apartment, a beautiful place with hardwood floors and just a wonderful envioronment. Section 8, and other programs were available to assist in continuing to ensure that I remained no longer a part of the homeless envioronment.
There's help if the homeless want it bad enough. Most, if not all of them know the rules of engagement, it mostly comes down to whether or not you want to play fair or get played out.
