Some things that you may not think about when giving to the homeless.

[HamstersFromHell]

84. Having been homeless myself last year, I can give you a few reasons why...

During my 3 weeks on the street, I found out a lot I never knew about the homeless, as well as totally changing my own opinion.

Many shelters are tied to religious organizations, and often have a "catch" to being able to stay the night...you have to sit through prayer services. I can see why some would not care to have that shoved down their throats, as they already feel like they have been abandoned by "the powers that be".

Another is shelter "rules" only allowing one "bag" into the shelter. I lost better than 3/4 of my clothes due to such rules...it's either get it packed down to one bag to get in and abandon the rest, or be denied entrance.

The one thing that really chaps me is people who have no idea of how the system works complaining about the homeless...I have a dear friend online who works at a convenience store and she went on a big Facebook rant about homeless buying candy and chips with food stamps when they "obviously" could have bought "more nutritious" things. In my case, no food allowed in the night shelters, period, and where are you going to put sacks of groceries so you won't have them stolen from you during the day? In my case, the quick marts were right around the corner from the shelters. The grocery stores? 2 mile walk one way. The entire system negates trying to do anything more than surviving.

I guess I should pull my thoughts together on this as well and make a lengthy post about it. I felt I managed to slip through every damned crack in the system.