Why some homeless avoid shelters

Mayor Bates stated emphatically that the homeless do not like living in homeless shelters.  I wanted to find out the reasons why some homeless avoid shelters.

It is true that some homeless tend to avoid shelters.  The reasons for avoidance vary and depend somewhat on the homeless person’s demographics and idiosyncrasies.  Some of the reasons I found were derived from responses by the homeless to inquiries from news reporters.  Those reasons are therefore anecdotal.  Still, I believe we can learn something from their responses.

First of all, some homeless have developed social communities on the street and find it difficult to leave their communities for homeless shelters.[1]  To put it more directly, life on the street has its own appeal.[2]

To continue, common complaints about shelters across the entire homeless demographic are (1) the fighting, (2) lack of personal space, and (3) having to be near crack-heads and other worrisome people.[3]  Other less common complaints include abusive shelter staff—although it is unclear whether the abuse is real or only perceived—and stifling rules and regulations.[4]

Families and women with children avoid shelters because they fear the “rough element” (e.g., single males) and poor conditions at many shelters, and they may prefer to live with other families or to live outdoors.[5]

Even men find shelters unfriendly and unsafe.  Shelters may be populated with a mixture of criminals, the mentally ill, addicts and other troubled people. [6]  In New York, for example, hundreds of men fill the shelters after working, panhandling, or collecting cans, and just hang out or use drugs and drink.[7]  The atmosphere can be intimidating, and many residents compare the atmosphere to that of prisons, where the strong often prey on the weak. [8]  Furthermore, “fights and petty thefts are common.”[9]  Indeed, a homeless man in New York opted to sleep outside rather than in a shelter, even in the middle of winter.  He exclaimed, “Trust me, these shelters are trouble. They get crazy there and maybe they steal your sneakers.”[10]

“Young [homeless] people often avoid adult shelters because their pets are not allowed entry.  Also they feel threatened by adults.”[11]  In addition, many youths dislike the rules and regulations of the shelters.  They would rather live a barrier-free life, and that often entails snuggling up in nooks and corners all over the city, or just about anywhere the cops won’t be able to get a hold of them.[12]

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[1] C.W. Nevius, Tour of homeless shelters contradicts unsafe image, The San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 18, 2007, B-1.

[2] Id. at B-1.

[3] Brian Feagans, Walk a mile in the shoes of Road Dog and Peg Leg; Life's a constant struggle for survival when you're ON THE FRINGE, Star-News, Dec. 27, 1998, A-1.

[4] Nevius at B-1; Riya Bhattacharjee, Program Aims to Remove Homeless Youth from the Streets of Berkeley, The Berkeley Daily Planet, Feb. 28, 2006, at 1, 14.

[5] Edward F. Vacha and Marguerite V. Marin, Informal Shelter Providers: Low Income Households Sheltering the Homeless, Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1993, at 117, 119.

[6] Josh Barbanel, Still on the streets: New York’s homeless avoid shelters, New York Times, Dec. 17, 1988, A-1.

[7] Id.

[8] Id.

[9] Id.

[10] Somini Sengupta, Despite Cold, Some Homeless Devise Strategies to Avoid Shelters, New York Times, Jan. 4, 1999, B-5.

[11] Bhattacharjee at 5, 14.

[12] Id. at 14.