r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Garey_Coleman • 8d ago

Where are the homeless supposed to go?

Cities have been cracking down on homeless people so they can’t have encampments or stay on sidewalks. At the same time usually the shelters are full. So those who are unable to get into a shelter, where are they supposed to go?

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u/Possible_Resolution4 8d ago

I don’t think it’s because shelters are full, it’s that they don’t want to live in the shelter.

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u/Ok_Cod4125 8d ago

I have found it is a mix of both those things. Some don't want to go to the shelter because their stuff can not be stored and it is at risk of being stolen or trashed. Shelters also can be dangerous, so some folks would rather risk being in a hidey hole they have made for themselves in the woods or a building. And some do not want to abide by the shelter rules, so stay on the street. However, where I am, the teen shelter and women's shelter is full. Teenagers and women have to risk getting to the shelter and finding out there isn't a space, and then try to get back to their previous spot, hoping it hasn't been taken.

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u/Name213whatever 8d ago

Many will not go to a shelter because they can't take their pet as well. Tough choice when it's their only companion, who also keeps them safe

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u/According-Raspberry 8d ago

Shelters are generally awful places. Having known mentally ill and homeless people, nobody I know wanted to go to them. They were scary, uncomfortable, no privacy, smelly, dangerous. Being stuck with a bunch of strangers, at least half whom have a variety of different problems like addiction or mental illness, people with maladaptive behaviors. Going to a shelter was an absolute last resort just to get away from bitter cold or snow or rain, otherwise, no way. Nobody wants to relinquish their autonomy, personal freedom, be around other people where you feel constantly threatened and on guard. When you're already struggling with life and likely with mental illness, you don't have the skills and coping mechanisms to deal with other difficult people and difficult environments, on top of your own problems.

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u/RememberTheKracken 8d ago

I hear this a lot on Reddit, that shelters don't fill up because they're dangerous, but it doesn't really make logical sense. I believe homeless people say that, but how is living in a tent city with trash, addicts, and literal human waste on the ground cleaner or less dangerous than a shelter? At least the shelters don't allow obviously drugged up people to disturb the others and they'll call the cops if someone gets violent. It seems the real difference is being able to do drugs. I'll give you that shelters are more dangerous for someone who normally sleeps in their car or a group of friends that found a hiding spot together but what about the tent cities?

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u/StormMaleficent6337 8d ago

You are absolutely correct

The shelters are NOT more dangerous than the streets themselves

Workers at the shelter were pretty vigilant in calling the cops whenever a violent situation broke out or someone with mental issues was going absolutely apeshit… the cops are used to this and show up ASAP and the situation boils over and is dealt with

And the shelters are pretty good about drugs and alcohol… they won’t tolerate drunks for long and if you do hard drugs, you’re gone ASAP

The bathrooms are horrific, but it’s a sink, toilet, and shower… you’re not getting that on the street

You’re not getting 3 hot meals a day (and shelter cooks usually go outta their way to cook as much as they can, to help out the people living there)

You’re getting cabinets 24/7 filled with milk, juice, coffee, tea, oatmeal, cereal, and assorted snacks… shelters get this from the state and Uncle Sam easily covers these costs

The issue is homeless people, especially if they are over 60, or have been homeless for a while, usually prefer the streets over a shelter

They just want to smoke cigs, shoot dope, get drunk, and fuck whoever is as lonely and desperate as they are, until they pass out one day and die

They prefer their tent, or alley space, or the building they are squatting in

I’ve seen this 100s of times… if you’re gonna be homeless, might as well be able to fuck, drink, and shoot up without the threat of being “kicked out” somewhere

Staying at a shelter also requires paperwork and going through government services… a lot of times the homeless person won’t have ANY I.D. at all, not even a driver’s license… forget them getting a birth certificate or a SSN card… you need these things for Social Services to allow you to stay long term at a shelter... a lot of times you also need a bank account, so the shelter knows you are indeed broke as fuck and have no source of income

And even if they have these things… they simply hate the government and Social Services, and even tho they’d get shelter, food stamps, and free healthcare through Medicaid, they simply refuse to enter the Social Service offices and fill out the necessary paperwork

If they are in NYC, there are ALWAYS food options… fresh out the dumpster after it was dumped, or people just handing out food and coffee everywhere

Soup lines at the park, food pantries all over, churches of all denominations with a kitchen and canned goods to disperse

You don’t need much food to make the pangs of hunger go away

These people don’t care about their health, so not getting Medicaid isn’t a deal breaker for ‘em

The shelter system combined with Social Services can really work out well and help people get back on their feet, but it happens maybe 10% of the time… 90% of the people who enter into this cycle stay there forever, much to their own behavior and attitude

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u/According-Raspberry 8d ago edited 8d ago

The people I know that were homeless did not live in tent cities. They were loners. They were also not addicts. They either had mental illness and/or were just poor and/or disabled. They did not want to be around other people. They wanted to be left alone.

I do see people around here and there who live in groups, and a common theme I do see with them is that they all seem to be on drugs (usually meth heads with the obvious outward symptoms and behaviors.) So yeah, there are differences. People who are on drugs don't care about their health or their safety or their privacy as much. They wouldn't care about grouping up in a shelter. But they would want to keep engaging in unhealthy and unsafe behaviors, and drama. Those were the people that the people I knew were afraid of being around.

Those groups also seem to collaborate together to function. Like in my medium sized area, there are encampments around some grocery stores and fast food restaurants. You see them all hang out together and taking turns panhandling and approaching people in parking lots and local businesses. Occasionally they get up money and get cheap motel rooms nearby. Everyone knows the motels are for drug addicts and prostitutes.

One of the people I know did live in a slovenly, unclean, unhealthy way. It was about control, autonomy, power, safety, paranoia, fear. It was a mess, but it was his mess. He knew where everything was and controlled the area and all of his things. He felt safe there. He did not feel safe around strangers or exposed to other people or having to work within systems and rules.

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u/StormMaleficent6337 8d ago

Yes, the non-addicts usually just want to be left alone and don’t want squatter groups or shelters

Shelters a lot of times also require people staying there to enter work programs, unless they are a vet who gets monthly income from their service time

Many homeless people, addicts and non-addicts alike, simply do not want to work, and will prefer to live and die on their own rules and in their own controlled area (as you put it)

The couple shelters I stayed at in NYC would eventually make any non-disabled person enter a work program, and if you didn’t show up or complete the training, you lost housing and food stamps

The amount of people (single men and women but also families) who didn’t care about this at all and purposefully never did these programs, was astonishing

They’d eventually get kicked out, blame the shelter or say the work programs was a scam, and then start squatting somewhere until their sanction was up and could return to a shelter

Even with kids in tow, they just didn’t care

The employment programs weren’t perfect, but as long as you showed up you got to keep shelter and food

I remember when I went to mine, people from all walks of life were there to keep benefits, include a doctor who lost his license and was now shit outta luck

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u/robertbieber 8d ago

It's wild how harshly people will judge strangers for not wanting to go to a shelter that they themselves would never in a million years want to sleep in

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u/Wampalog 8d ago

Most people make decisions so they don't have to make that choice.

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u/Ambtastic98 7d ago

Yeah, just "decide" not to get laid off and you won't be homeless! Just "decide" not to get cancer. "Decide" not to lose your home in a fire.

Most homeless people have jobs. Most homeless people are just in bad scenarios or unlucky times. There are no decisions you can make that will protect you against bad luck. Savings run out, "good" jobs lay off thousands without notice, medical debt builds up fast.

Count your blessings you've been so privileged as to be this ignorant.

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u/Possible_Resolution4 8d ago

You also can’t get high in a shelter. On the street you can do what you want.

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u/Ok_Cod4125 8d ago

That's what "some do not want to abide by the shelter rules," means.

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u/FrankNumber37 8d ago

A lot of homeless folk are addicted to drugs because doing drugs takes the edge off the horror of living in the streets. We would never expect a housed person to kick drugs cold turkey with no support, but then we act like it's a choice to not go to the shelter.

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u/Ok_Cod4125 8d ago

When package/liquor stores status was changed to essential during Covid, I had hoped some folks would become more aware of the issues most alcoholics face when quitting. I'm both shocked and jealous that people have never had to process what withdrawal looks like AND how dangerous it can be.

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u/StormMaleficent6337 8d ago

I was homeless in my early 20s after college

Let me tell you, you don’t want druggies and drunkards in homeless shelters

Mostly because it’s very unfair for the non-addicts who are just homeless and have to live there

The drunks start drinking around noon, every single day… they puke in the bathrooms, they puke in the kitchen and dining area, they puke in the hallways and the lobby… they puke outside on the steps and surrounding sidewalks… they piss all over the bathroom floor and then stumble out, sometimes just passing out in the hallway and not even making it back to heir bunk

The addicts are probably not as bad… they just want to shoot up dope and enter their self-medicated state of bliss in their bed and be left alone… but the problem with them is once they start using again, when they start to get withdrawals, it can be really bad… they’ll be ranting and raving all day and night about crazy shit, they’ll do anything and steal anything to get money for their next needle to feed their arm, and they beg and cry to social workers 24/7

Usually the drunks and addicts get kicked out quickly enough and enter rehab programs somewhere else… then after rehab they are back in some shelter, and they repeat this process forever until they die or by some miracle they get subsidized shelter after being on the list for a while

Human life, this is it… I’m just glad I never had kids and added to all this insanity

0

u/Mr_Tetragammon 7d ago

Some of the same people are homeless because of the drugs they use to take the edge off being homeless

1

u/FrankNumber37 7d ago

Perhaps. But would that change anything? Even if you have no compassion for human suffering, it would remain bad policy for addressing concerns of blight.

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u/Mr_Tetragammon 7d ago

There is nothing I said that suggests a way to "fix" homelessness. You said some homeless people get addicted to drugs to ease the pain of doing drugs. I pointed out that some homeless are homeless because of an addiction to drugs and they're still using the same drugs. BTW, homeless people do have a choice wether or not to go to a shelter. I'm not aware of anyone forcing homeless people into shelters. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

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u/FrankNumber37 7d ago

Not saying this to rude, but this is a threaded conversation. Each comment assumes what is written above it.

Literally no part of this conversation is about fixing homelessness. It is about the immorality of sweeping encampments. Any suggestion that the homeless can leave the camps and go to shelters ignores that they can't go in dirty and they can't get clean there. It's not a real option, it's just something people say to justify the brutality.

Whether they got hooked on the streets or ended up on the streets because they got hooked is immaterial to the fact that they cannot go to the shelters.

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u/rain_upahead 8d ago

Alot of homeless are youth escaping abusively overbearing families so of course kids are going to not want to have to follow strict rules that's why they ran away from home to begin with

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u/HungryIndependence13 8d ago

If you work with the homeless you will absolutely find addicts. Some became homeless because of the addiction and others got so depressed by their situation that they accepted drugs as an escape. 

You will also find a lot of people who aren’t crazy or addicted to drugs. 

They aren’t the enemy. They are people who need help. 

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u/SprawlWars 8d ago

Would you stop with that bullshit narrative? It's not true that most homeless people are addicts. I have already shared this elsewhere on this thread, but here: https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf

Read something with facts and stop fucking spreading disinformation.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

[deleted]

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u/SprawlWars 8d ago

Take your lazy ass to the link and find it yourself. lol

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u/HeadUnderstanding859 8d ago

Think! You're SO close!!

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u/ExcitingMoose13 8d ago

Shelter straight up don't exist in many regions, and many towns and cities will actively resist even private construction of them 

New Jersey just had a whole legal battle that ended in a church attempting to build one giving up, which would have been the only actual homeless shelter in two neighboring counties 

There's no real question why so many end up in New york, Or San francisco, or anywhere else that isn't actively chasing them off the streets 

It's because so many suburban and rural areas drive them out

https://www.nj.com/ocean/2025/08/church-drops-homeless-shelter-plan-after-nj-township-rejects-idea-and-threatens-to-condemn-the-property.html

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u/crazycatlady331 8d ago

A lot of shelters have sobriety requirements.

-1

u/TwistyBunny 8d ago

And religious requirements.

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u/HungryIndependence13 8d ago

No. You’re extremely wrong. Much of the time, the shelters are full. 

You aren’t the only one who thinks this. I encounter this all the time, people saying that women who are being beaten can go to shelters. “There are shelters for that!”

The shelter is full. And frankly, many of them are wasting the funds in ways that enrich their own lives while accepting the admiration for doing so much. 

If she cannot go to family/friends because there isn’t any or they’d be endangered or they’re not going through it again, she has to be homeless. It happens a lot. 

When you hear people saying, “Why did she stay there and allow herself to be hit like that?” remember that she may have had nowhere else to go. 

And before you give to battered women’s organizations, find out how much money they take in and see how many women they help and how they help them. 

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u/NSawsome 8d ago

This thread isn’t about battered women, it’s about homeless who in many cities have plenty of space but refuse to try and get sober and are therefore disqualified from being in most shelters

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u/HungryIndependence13 7d ago

This thread is absolutely about battered women. These battered women leave their homes and BECOME HOMELESS. 

It is false that all the homeless people are crazy or addicted to drugs. 

If you want to discuss the problem intelligently you must drop this delusional “Homeless people are either crazy or addicted!” horseshit. Some are, some are not. 

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u/NSawsome 7d ago

Literally nothing in the post says anything about battered woman and the majority of homeless are men, it’s a true fact that in many major cities all the homeless who aren’t addicted to drugs or have mental illness issues are in shelters and there are enough spaces for the rest if they were sober.

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u/HungryIndependence13 5d ago

Shelters are almost always full. 

You just don’t know what you’re talking about. It is so obvious. 

Good luck to you. 

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u/NSawsome 5d ago

In the dmv area around the capital they’re not but red states like Texas do seem to have problems, neither here nor there and a more nuanced conversation with not enough data to be sure.

More importantly the vast minority of homeless are women and a small portion of that is battered women, wild thing to hyperfixate on and makes me heavily question if you are heavily biased or just are one of the classic Reddit man haters lmao

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u/HungryIndependence13 4d ago

I know this subject. I didn’t just go online to spew horseshit. 

And I can tell that you don’t. You don’t work with the homeless. You don’t help the homeless. You don’t know where the homeless camps are. 

You didn’t get your info from experience. You got it by hearing about it second-hand. 

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u/--sheogorath-- 8d ago

In order to go to a shelter when I was homeless I would've had to give up any possessions I had managed to keep after losing my home, convert to Christianity, quit my job, and live with a curfew that precludes basically anything goes that wasn't day labor for the company the shelter had a contract with.

Tell me again why anyone should have to go through those hoops just to get basic help?

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u/DetroitLionsSBChamps 8d ago

Shelters are also often full. People generally assume resources are open and available for homeless people and it’s just not true. 

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u/Pm_me_some_dessert 8d ago

Here it’s a combo of shelters being full, sobriety requirements, prohibition of pets, or (minimally) not wanting to / not being able to comply with the rules once they’re there.

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u/extralyfe 8d ago

shelters in my area won't take you if you're a young man and not disabled. I was homeless several times in my 20s and they just told me no, every time.

so, shelters are only available for the elderly or disabled.

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u/IArePositivitymagnet 8d ago

My impression was that shelters were logistically terrible. That you had to leave the building by (all times are SWAGs) 8 am, no possessions may remain return between 3:30 - 5 to apply/register for the next night, last entry at 8 pm.

Lockers required for personal item storage. Restrooms & Lockers close from 9 to 7:30, with restroom courtesy windows at 1:15 & 4. That sort of jazz.

Difficult to call that 'living' in a shelter, lol.

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u/FunLife64 8d ago

The hard truth is there is a subset of homeless who have no desire to live in shelters or some that don’t even get to a better place.

That’s really the subset that brings “bad rap”. There’s this group of 3 people who are in my city that every summer they show up and encamp themselves under a nice gazebo along a river walk adjacent to classrooms at a university. they show up in the summer like clock work and nobody does anything - campus or local police. The whole area has a stench, pedestrians avoid it in a beautiful area, etc. they aren’t there because they have nowhere else to be. They’re essentially camping on waterfront property because they’re allowed to.