“I spent 90 minutes on my phone trying to get some help,” said the homeless man. “After 90 minutes of bouncing to a different person or group, I was told to call the first place I called. There’s no real help anywhere.”
The man, call him Mike, is not alone when it comes to frustrating experiences with what are sometimes called “systems of care” for the homeless. Anyone unfortunate enough to have fallen into the pachinko universe that purports to offer help for the homeless won’t forget the experience anytime soon. Ricocheting from pillar to post and then down the dumper leaves lasting memories.
Aside from the mind-numbing and anger-inducing effects from trying to access help for the homeless, the really hard lesson comes when you realize that most help is temporary. Getting into drug rehab is hard enough. Getting a 90-day stay is the jackpot. Most programs are short term and out the door. Problem is, even after 90 days you’re back on the streets with nowhere to go. The programs that offer lasting help are overwhelmed and have long waiting lists.
Last June, when the United States Supreme Court ruled on City of Grants Pass vs Johnson — enabling sweeps of encampments even in cases without alternative sleeping sites — California authorities from Gavin Newsom on down joined a chorus of calls for homeless people to take advantage of offers for beds and services. Governor Newsom said in part,
“California remains committed to respecting the dignity and fundamental human needs of all people and the state will continue to work with compassion to provide individuals experiencing homelessness with the resources they need to better their lives.”
With fewer than half the needed beds available for California’s 180,000+ homeless people, promises of “resources they need” ring hollow. In fact, instead of providing real help, several cities and counties have rushed to enact draconian ordinances that amount to “get out or else” mandates.
In San Joaquin County, county supervisors have proposed an ordinance that would make sleeping in a vehicle for more than hour a punishable offense. According to Stocktonia, a nonprofit news organization, the ordinance would also prohibit camping in any one place for more than an hour or remaining within “300 feet of a previous camp within any 24-hour period.”
In Fresno, a new city and county anti-camping ordinance includes penalties of up to six months and jail and fines up to $1,000 for violations. The ordinance went into effect on September 23.
Promises of beds and services when there aren’t enough beds and services have been a feature of state and local tactics for managing homelessness for years. It’s almost as if authorities realize they need to provide cover for harassing the disabled, destitute, and desperate people who make up a large percentage of the homeless population, a tactic that amounts to “cruel and unusual punishment,” as determined by the Ninth Circuit Appeals Court in Martin vs Boise in 2018. That ruling has been superseded in City of Grants Pass vs Johnson by the same court that overturned Roe vs Wade and later ruled that the President of the United States has virtual immunity from prosecution for crimes committed while in office.
The truth is that the root cause of homelessness in California and throughout the nation is a housing shortage no one denies. It’s also undeniable that this fundamental fact has been overshadowed by false memes about people who don’t want help.
Yes, it’s true that many people don’t want to stay in a shelter for months and even years on end, waiting for housing that never arrives. How could the situation be otherwise, given the facts and numbers?
Based in Modesto, Stanislaus Homeless Advocacy and Resource Enterprise (SHARE) is an award-winning nonprofit in Stanislaus County, widely applauded for its members’ ability to provide tangible assistance for homeless people in need. Its three members, Lynelle Solomon, Steven Finch and Frank Ploof, form a rare combination of on-the-ground experience and navigational skills that enable them to maneuver through the bewildering maze of nonprofits and government agencies that constitute California’s fractured systems of care.
Solomon and Finch are successful business people based in Modesto. Ploof is retired from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he worked with some of the nation’s greatest scientists. Among the three, there are more than twenty-years’ on-the-ground experience with homeless people. They’ve seen cases like the grandmother stranded in her car while taking care of her Down’s syndrome grandson. They’ve seen a motel so full of families with children that it’s a regular stopping place for the school bus.
Last year, it took Ploof nine months to find housing for a blind homeless woman in a wheelchair. During that time, he took her on trips to UC Davis to help diagnose her vision problems. She had been evicted from a local shelter for creating a disturbance. Evictions are common in overcrowded shelters, one more of many reasons homeless people don’t want help if it means staying in a congregate shelter.
When asked via email to comment on impediments to help for homeless people, Finch wrote,
“Right now we have an extreme shortage of all forms of housing, emergency, transitional or bridge housing and long- term supportive housing. Once we clear through all the hurdles to get someone eligible for services, we have no place to put them, either temporarily or permanently in many cases. There is definitely a tight bottleneck in that segment of the system of care and that backs us up on everything else.”
Those homeless people who say they don’t want help have oftentimes had enough trips through the pinball systems of care to realize that any real help is years away, at least if it’s in the form of housing. That realization, compounded by the fatigue and frustration stemming from being blamed for failing to become self-sufficient would be enough to make most anyone despair.
Like other falsehoods about homelessness, the “they don’t want help” slur is an oversimplified exaggeration that diverts attention from the many homeless people who do want help and can’t get it. While it’s true that a great many homeless people will refuse help if it means a long term stay in a congregate shelter, that does not mean they won’t accept an offer for a safe place to sleep that provides them at least a minimum of safety and privacy. What’s offered most often is not the help they want and need.
The multitude of factors we’ve already mentioned that influence refusals for help — mental illness, trauma, cognitive challenges and discouraging experiences over time — should always be understood within the context of a grievous lack of services, housing, and shelter for people in dire need. Until state and local authorities respond to those shortfalls with emergency measures that would at the very least offer homeless people safe sleeping options, criminalization of homelessness will prove to be yet another case of squandered dollars in service to cruel and unusual punishment for the just recently constructed “crime” of extreme poverty.
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Good article. This is all very sad, given all the help our government is giving to illegal immigrants vs. our own people. The time to act is now- at the ballot box.
Unfortunately and most Americans already know this the powers that be don’t care about the average struggling working Americans they only cater to the politicians and the mega rich.
Yeah they say no to help because if they hold out they think they will end up with a free house, you can’t have all these people, some who really do want help thinking they deserve a free house because they messed they’re lives up now demand we take care of they’re needs no matter what our needs are
Very good article and its so true! I fully agree with Damon Woods STOP supporting illegals and help “OUR” homeless.
Valley Citizen: You have created a new, brilliant descriptor of our endless homeless processing: A Pachinko game! I hope that our powers-that-be read this and see its truth.
You get it. Finally, the truth. I’ve been in the situation of becoming homeless after my mortgage illegally foreclosed on me. We slept in our cars. As I searched for help calling every government agencies, private agencies, at the time they had rapid housing being what it was in 2008. I got absolutely no help. I did it all my own I was homeless for 6 months. The help is in very little temporary short term help and you are usually worst off, wasted time with no resources for permanent housing. The people getting help is very small or they have been waiting for help 3 to 10 years. These triage centers and emergency stays is nothing more then a bandaide postponing the inevitable of no closer to housing. They need to exceed the need to build permanent housing. It will keep growing due to poverty and unaffordable places. Even the slum yards are profiting big off the housing crisis.
Exactly this
Unbelievable! What happened to the millions of dollars that was given to California for the homeless situation?! And, is it not discrimination against the poor, to make being homeless illegal? This goes against being humane! I’m ashamed of anyone that thinks this is good for this country! We help other countries and yet we do this to American citizens? God have mercy on us all! This is NOT a solution! If anything, this will cause riots and many other protests because this is so wrong in many ways! This country is really getting worse in the way it treats human beings! And the governor of California should spend a day being homeless to know what is going on! Making laws for something you have no experience of is just stupid! This is just crazy! I do NOT agree or support thus decision of making it illegal to be homeless! I protest and will fight for what is right and as God has made clear,” Love one another as I have loved you!” Are we not one nation under God? Or, are we now communists? So ashamed of our Governor! Just ashamed of this entire idea! What is wrong with this world?! Really!?
Very good spoken well!!! You should start something to help the issue I will back u bc I feel the same way. I am homeless and it is si hard I’ve been in the phone everyday since they mentioned the money’s coming to Oceanside ca bc that where I have had my tent for a very long time now and I have not seen anything even close to some form of housing for us. I have tried and I do want help to get my own place bc right here we flood out everytime it rains. But this person sends me to a other then agian another and another. Why is it so fkn hard to get a number where they can and will help me. I’ll back u 100% if u decide to start a protest bc Gov Nucance needs to hear from the ppl he is criminalizing …
Thank u for taking the time to read my lil rant hopefully us homeless can get some actual help and not just jail time…
I homeless and what your ignoring is jail is housing. There’s plenty of room in jail for these people where they can get food 3x a day, warm showers, medical care, protection, it’s called jail we used to use to get people off drugs and to get them food and medical, it and it’s a lot safer then leaving people on the streets but people like this guy who wrote the article who don’t understand most these people are his drug addicts or booze hounds who don’t want to get clean so they fight help. Why should they be allowed to live outside not work, use free services and get free food and get high all day? Btw where do they poop? Where ever they want. It’s gross and they need to be put in jail. We will all be more happy with all the homeless in jail including them. Plus you get tv in jail! It’s win win.
That is absurd. Jail is not a safe place for anyone. Why don’t you try spending a week or two there and then, let us know how you feel. Jail is scary. It gives you a cold hard bed, barely enough clothes, very small yucky meals, even less privacy than you have outdoors, little to no hygiene, you lose any self respect you may have had left, and a disrupted sleepless night. You must be on guard for attack by inmates or guards at all times. They might let you see a nurse if you’re lucky and drugs are still available to most. Jailing people is more harmful and way more expensive than just fixing the real problem. Believe it or not, building housing and providing services is less expensive than jailing them.
Amen
We can make a separate jail system for the homeless. They can even bring their own tents, drugs, alcohol, needles, etc. all day long like they do all day on the streets. They get free 3 meals, free clothing, and all utilities paid. But one thing they must do in this new jail system is work to benefit others in society like the rest of us living in this country called USA.
You are Zachary right. And we can put their children in orphanages and their pets to sleep. If they are elderly people, just put them to sleep, permanently. We have no room in this society for compassion for humanity. Adolf Hitler would have been proud of you, sir
If you are homeless why would you even say this?‘You don’t even always get TV in jail either. To put all these people in jail would cost taxpayers alot of money too. The same money could be spent on probably housing them if they used not the Construction companies hired by the same people they have been using to hire them.The people in charge of hiring the companies get campaign contributions too by those companies.You are also so wrong, there’s not plenty of room in jail and hasn’t been for quite some time. There’s not even enough beds sometimes for regular inmates. They are all overcrowded as it is. They shouldn’t be treated as criminals either because they can’t afford the outrageous price of housing in California. Bring poor should not be criminalized.It costs alot to have a person in jail too.The medical care in jail can sometimes not even be there. Sometimes the inmates are taken as a joke if they are really ill.Jail doesn’t get people off drugs. You must live in a cave really. People can get drugs easily in jail. People don’t get off drugs unless they want to get off them. Being in jail isn’t going to come close to making them want to. In fact the first thing when they get out they will want to use them. This guy gets it and you don’t. You are living with no progressive thinking. You are probably uneducated.
Thank you, Ms Michael for your attempt to describe what living in jail is like. You stated most of what it is truly like on a daily and nightly basis. I will go into a little more detail.
I expect that many reading this will think it serves people right for doing something to go there in the first place. Others may have some preconceptions that it is better than it is. I thought I would clarify some thinking, that was misrepresented by Zachary. I will start perhaps at the least important details and build up to most important facts, and return to any I leave out if they come to mind later.
At the local Stanislaus Co Safety Center on Hackett this is what inmates are faced with, guilty or not, no one gets better treatment once there: There is always cold air pumped into every cell, winter or summer. During winter, on a first come first basis, inmates can ask for 1 sweatshirt, but seldom granted. Weekly clothing is 1 striped short sleeve top, 1 t-shirt, 1 pair of striped pants, and 1 pair of rubber thongs, the size of which could be huge for your feet, causing tripping up cement stairs or falling on cement floor. Once a week you change your clothes, not your thongs. Inmates are supposed to be let out per cell, for 1 hour per day, every other day. During that hour they may be able to shower. There is a glass window in the shower stall so Correctional Officers can supervise, whether they do or not is questionable. Too often, for no known reason to inmates, they are kept in cell for longer than 2 days.
The toilet is stainless steel even the part you sit on to use the toilet, it remains cold to the touch. The bunk bed is cold metal. The person who ends up with the top bunk has a 3′ x 5′ multi florescent tube light on the ceiling, 1.5′ from their face, 24 hours a day. That light never goes off. Plus a hall light glows into the cell through the metal door 24 hours. Even the lower bunk is bathed in artificial light, not nearly as bad as the top bunk is. Correction Officers come by every night approximately every 1.5 – 2 hours to rap on the metal door to wake inmates and shine a flashlight all over the cell until the inmate(s) waves a hand or foot to show signs of life and prove inmates are not sharing a bunk.
As for a television, there is 1 on the far side of the long single pod, inmates cells are located within. The television can only be viewed by approximately half of the inmates and the volume during the day is kept very low. No one changes the channel. At night, the volume goes up so loud it is impossible to sleep, no matter where an inmates cell is located within the pod. When the television finally goes off, some inmates start to howl and make animal noises at the top of their lungs, for literally hours. Correctional Officers do not intercede to lower the television volume or stop the inmates’ noises. The closest that comes to mind can be described as the Twilight Zone.
Inmates have no pillows so one cannot bury their head under one. The 1 thin sheet and 1 thin blanket are not even enough to warm an inmates body due to the cold air streaming into every cell, especially winters. So they are of no use to dull the all night noise.
When the Correctional Officers come by and wake you from any semblance of sleep, some say nasty things and laugh loudly. Things such as, “You know you did it, admit it.” Mercifully, some Correctional Officers just move on and go about their tasks. If they did not there is no record of anything reported, even a report on a terrorizing cell mate.
As for requests to see a doctor, or a psychologist, inmates are told there are only 2 for the entire Stanislaus County. Inmates names go on endless lists. Meals are empty calories, full of fatty, highly processed substance, slapped between 2 pieces of bread, or sitting in a blob on a plate, other than the one apple or orange served daily. I can imagine long term inmates will need lots of doctoring and psychology sessions, they may not receive.
I did not exaggerate. The cost to incarcerate those who are homeless and/or mentally challenged, as well as to ship them back and forth to court, plus, all the record keeping, is a fool’s errand on tax payers’ dollars. And, the problem seems certain to grow, leaps and bounds. Our problems are not going away on a wish. Trusting government to solve this is not conducive to anymore than all the trust placed previously was the solution. They sure know how to spend money but not put it to efficient use.
It has long been time for we the people to stop placing human beings, our neighbors, on government chopping blocks. Government is supposed to work for the good of all mankind.
The author has hit the nail on the head here. Speaking from experience is hard to take an offer of help if in a couple months you’re going to be in the same spot all over again. And if that doesn’t sound like an issue, “at least you had somewhere to stay” is what people say. Reality is that when you’ve been inside you lose that way of thinking that keeps you alive out there. And your body isn’t adjusted to being outside anymore, which makes it that much harder going back outside. Plus, it’s really hard emotionally to be back outside after being inside, it feels like you’ve failed again somehow. The back and forth really takes a toll on a person’s mental health and maybe even physical health as well. That adjustment period is hard and you have to do it everyone you go inside and wind up back outside.
And usually whatever it was that happened to move you back outside adds to your trauma making it even harder on you mentally. It’s just easier on people to stay outside till they have something more permanent to avoid that adjustment period. From experience that’s the hardest part of being homeless those few weeks it takes to readjust again.
Yes that is Soo true and very right. Ive been there. Even also when you do get some kind of housing that’s supposedly permanent many of the housing has 40 hours a week caseworkers there five days a week when they don’t even tell you it’s going to be like that kind of housing and then living there too feels almost just like living at the shelters again because they are in your business often or bothering you by coming to your door here and there randomly and calling or texting you. They are pretty much giving their opinion of you to someone higher up. All of them too all these so called failing agencies are making tons of money off you the homeless too if they get you into their shelter or program too but mostly all the programs fail you in one way or another and just go make it through even one of them long enough to get any type of perm housing can really be hard. You have to put up with mentally ill people that may have a bed near yours and people stealing from you or messing with your pet if they even allow them, and also the shelter employees actually throwing out your belongings when alot of them are actually keeping them worse than people on the streets actually stealing them even. Most of them take any donations from places that were meant for you not the shelter employees. This is very much how it is in the shelters people sadly.
You know what the problm about the homeless is that no one will talk about is on all the city and towns are ..the homeless are there cash cows .. millions in funding every year in every state and for a fraction of of the funding each state gets in funding they could house all the homeless there .. but the homeless funding is the easy to steal from look at Oregon they got 200 million and they did not get anyone off the streets.. when for less than 50 mill 1/4 if that would have put every homeless person in a home for a full year and with electric payed..but the number of homeless went up ..The same in the so-called shelters a shelter gets from 1 to 3 mill in funding a year and they are not healthy to stay at.. with all that funding well you ever wonder why they got 16 people on staff but there are only 3 or 4 there at any time and they managers also most of thes places make the homeless do all the cleaning so where dose all that funding go?
Stay away from Next Move in Sacramento.
9 months and no job and no housing and back on the street. Screw that place
I have been on the waiting list for 8 years and because I’m not mentally incompetent or a part of domestic violence or I have no sexual assaults then I can’t get housing. They denied me.
I am currently homeless in the state of SC, there is one shelter in eastern SC for women and children, but 8 or more for Men. The state defunded the shelter for domestic violence victims two years ago and even though they should legally get rapid rehousing, it doesn’t exist. The effect on these women and children is horrific, and prosecuting these predators is few and far between. When these women beg for money online they are met with opposition, the average person can look up several “shelters” that are no more than phone processing centers. I’m an architect w a graduate degree, lost my entire family, and then survived cancer. I never ever expected to be in this situation. If it weren’t for a few non profits I would not have survived. The big issue here is the “boarding house” owners who take in homeless disabled “victims” without extended family and charge then their entire social security check for a worn mattress in the floor. They hide under a tax shelter as “religious” and receive food from food pantries, keeping most for their personal use and having disabled residents caring for seriously handicapped residents while still taking government money from them. It’s is a detestable but evidently legal practice in South Carolina.
Hi my name crissey I am homeless and there is no help here in Corcoran cal. That is king country by freedom there is so many homeless ppl here in Corcoran that don’t have no were to go and no family to there is no building for use to sleep in or stay in when it is hot or cold so it is getting to get cold now so maybe u could come here and here somw of the other homeless ppl and friend that I have her
Wow so sad 😭
California has spent $24 billion on homelessness with little to show for it. Nor does the state wish to be audited. Developers, non profits and state and local government are benefiting off the backs of those less fortunate.
The one group you failed to mention at the end of the piece who refuse help are addicts.
Unfortunately, they are the most visible face of homelessness.
Meth and fentanyl are willpower and mind destroying drugs and their hosts don’t care about anything but the next fix.
Drugs flowing over the border, easy access, cheap drug prices and lax laws have created an addiction tsunami.
$24 billion should have bought shelter, easily accessible mental health and drug programs. Instead, we are just shuffling the homeless from town to town.
Homeless programs are still getting funded but without clear and consistent guideline and no accountability by providers or those getting services, the cycle of homelessness and addiction will continue to spiral out of control.
It was a really good read and I appreciate it. I am someone who has struggled with homelessness my entire adult life. currently I am living in a cab over camper with my toddler and we have the things we need, I do have a job. rent is just too expensive. My monthly expenses went down buy $400 since moving into this RV. It enables my child and I to be able to do fun things more often but it’s not easy. being harassed by police, passerbys and the general population that has a jaded perspective of homelessness makes living really difficult. having to move around so frequently to not be harassed or have my vehicle impounded for whatever reason.. It’s just not really fair. All I’m doing is minding my business and living my life. I’m not harming anyone, I just don’t live conventionally because I am disabled and cannot work enough to pay The rent prices they are demanding.
Here is a story for you how about all of the people who are sober all of their lives and aging out of the foster care system and put out on the streets and then trying to get a job but yet being labeled as a drunk or a druggie and therefore being told they are not wanted and they continue to get turned down for jobs.
I’ve lived as hidden and chronic homeless for years. The main reason being biased employers who one day tell me I’m the best and the next getting a call to trun in my things without warning. The next has been trusting in relationships that isolated me from everyone and once vulnerable, kicking me out. I’ve tried to save, change my ways, do everything differently, yet it ends the same way. Homeless, staying with strangers or in my car or a tent. It’s nowhere near easy. I’ve tried to get help from services but am always told I make too much money or some other BS. I make a certain amount that barely covers anything but that’s only for one to 6 months at a time. I have horrible luck. Most of my former supervisors have either terrorized me or worse. One drugged me at a so called client meeting and did what he would in a restroom. The state I lived in didn’t care. I was fired after that. Another screamed at me sending me into a seizure and then fired me the next day. One made me lift my top on an interview. A week after telling one that I had cancer, they fired me.
I tell people the same thing over and over, I just want a job that pays enough to survive and have my own place because it’s very hard to always have to stay with others or on the streets. Shelter life has proven harsh as well. I was also assaulted in those. On top of all the bouncing around, there’s the fact that I’m older now and completely ashamed of my life because I have nothing but broken dreams and am alone. My children don’t speak to me. family tossed me in their backyard over a pile of dog crap for months during the summer. I have no one aside from a stranger who lives across the country. I’ve been here for 9 months. While it has been better than a car or street, it also has it’s scary parts. My host thought that I was a “special ” homeless person and has invaded every aspect of my life. I am in that gilded cage. I can’t breathe without being told I’m wrong and why.
Every day I hope for something stable and better but still it does come. I wormed 6 months for a huge company and after the boss had them give me a new laptop, he had them fire me. Leaving me homeless again. My former temp landlord actually threated my life and sent horrible messages about how I’m delusion. That ended up with a police report. So I’m back with the stranger who brought me 3k from home to help. Control daily and by the minute. Once she figured out I’m not that kind of homeless, she started to become mean and controlling. I can’t order food, I can’t buy necessities for myself, I can’t stand up for myself, pretty much hit a wall at every turn.
If I could just get a job that would get me on track for long enough I would be ok. I’m lost and afraid. I’ve been in a VW van pregnant and beaten. I’ve been through so many things in life. Yet I am nothing. I am an old homeless woman hidden and bullied with no other options. It’s a humiliating life. I’m seen as mental when I’m not. Damaged but not worth listening to or helped to support myself. Idk there have been so many times when I have thought the only way is the one that’s unacceptable nexus the cycle hasn’t changed. Worthless from birth. No matter how hard I try. Oh yeah, gov help doesn’t help those who have a job, even if that job doesn’t pan out. My annual income is less than poverty but while working that month or so is way above. Can’t get ahead, can’t save, gotta use every cent to survive. They don’t care.
As well stated in your article
“Promises of beds and services when there aren’t enough beds and services have been a feature of state and local tactics for managing homelessness for years. ”
We must update allowable rents covered.
Stop asking the people below poverty level to pay funds back for housing, and incentives cheaper housing.
Also the term “affordable housing” means affordable by average income earners, not the lowest income earners. This needs to be fixed.
Keep voting Democrat. Fools.
Santa Monica community college started a pilot program this fall 2024 for a year – it’s a certification in homelessness and all the other issues that go with – so people know to deal with the people on the street and directly get them services – programs etc mayor Bass is aware and hopefully get more programs started else where- homeless, social workers, college graduates degreed people are doing the program – please support and homeless issues are necessary to educate and have a educated workforce and understanding for individual. Each case is different!! Thank the board of directors at Santa Monica College
Objective article. Thank you.
This was an excellent article. It hit the nail on the head. I was homeless, living with a friend on a school bus in Los Angeles. I have been diagnosed with myriad health issues. I lived on that bus for a year. I knew my health was not great, I hadn’t seen a doctor in that entire year. I went to the Rand was told I needed to see a specialist. I ended up being hospitalized for over a month. I informed the doctor of my living situation. I was discharged into recuperative care, then to a shelter where I lived for over a year. I signed up for section 8 while there. Just over a year of living in this shelter I was told that I no longer needed their level of care. I was awarded section 8 and sent to another shelter. Being a recent transplant to California I had no idea where to begin to look for a place. With the help of The People’s Concern, and PATH(People Assisting the Homeless) I am no longer homeless. I have a beautiful apartment in a brand new building in Koreatown. If I had given up, which I almost did many times I would likely still be homeless? There were some setbacks, my voucher just about expired and I was getting restless. The last shelter I was in, while it had recently opened and it was clean for the most part, the staff did not let you forget that you were homeless and they controlled every aspect of your life. I put up with their bs. I moved in August 2023 and while it hasn’t always been easy, all that I went through was worth it for me. I came out better than when I went in. So, yes, there are hoops to jump through and trust me, being in a wheelchair makes hoop jumping exponentially harder. I’m safe, housed, and extremely grateful for the help I received. My story is not typical I know, but seeing something through until you get what you need from it. Priceless.
Well, 1 more thing. The mentality of “Becoming a productive member of society” also falls on deaf ears. I lived on the streets for 4yrs. Got clean and sober 28yrs ago. Being productive took time! It’s one thing to supply shelter .. it’s another to say, ok, now its time for you to work and become responsible for your life, instead of making others responsible for your life