Prompted by this thread.
I spent most of 1990 in this shelter, which was run by Salvation Army at the time. This was a couple of decades ago but if anyone has questions regarding what it was like, I’ll do my best to answer.
Was this a nightly shelter or did you know you could count on a bed there for a few days in advance?
Were you friends with the other Falls Church regulars?
What did you need the most? What would have been the best thing a local Good Samaritan could have done for you? (This is not just a theorectical question- there are some homeless guys I know in my college neighborhood, that I sometimes buy food for, and I wish I could just help them).
How did you manage to get out of being homeless? It must have been very difficult, from the impression I get from things I’ve read.
Little of both. I got there at exactly at the right time; there was an open bed. Having sprained an ankle the day before probably helped. Those who weren’t so lucky were stuck with an overnight cot in the meeting room until a bed was available and they had to be off the premises after breakfast.
Some. Not much to do during the day except play Spades, Rummy, or Scrabble. There also were a few educational games for the couple of Commodore 64s in the meeting room.
New eyeglasses! Fortunately, one of the staff social workers got in touch with a local Lions Club and they covered the bill. New shoes would have been good, too. A bunch of donated ones arrived one day but none of them really fit me.
I had been in touch with a social worker who was helping me get into her group home program when my housing situation changed. Drove me to the shelter herself.
I believe the Salvation Army has a religious basis. Did they require you to participate in services, bible studies, etc?
-D/a
What led to you getting out of the shelter?
Do you donate/give change/have more sympathy for the homeless now that you’ve been through it?
Jobs were nice. Sometimes people would come by with offers to hire a few of us for day labor. Made like 50 bucks one afternoon as part of a crew helping a guy clear his very overgrown garden.
Only participation requirements were a Monday morning mental health meeting and, for alcoholics, the Wednesday (IIRC) night AA meeting.
A spot finally opened in the group home program I mentioned in post #6. Prior to that, one of the staff social workers had been trying to get me into the young adult portion of Job Corps. Turned down because Dad made too much.
If I encounter a nice panhandler, more often than not I’ll give them some spare cash. Had a regular near Pentagon City Metro until my commute took me in a different direction.
Hope it’s okay to add our stories.
I was homeless for several months too, with a child. We slept in our car and at a friend’s barn when I couldn’t get someone to let me spend the night. I stayed with a relative off and on until I could afford the deposit and 2 months rent for our apartment. The hardest part was not having good credit so I had to convince my aunt to let me get everything in her name. It was the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever had to beg for but at least we had a place to ourselves. If she hadn’t done that for me I don’t know how I’d have ever found a place I could afford where the owners didn’t mind bad credit. I had no rental history because I’d lived for years in the house I grew up in, not in my name and then in my ex-husband’s name.
I never bothered going to a shelter but I did go to a church for a food basket and I signed up for welfare. They signed me up for section 8 but they never had the funds.
Not a problem. 
My first place after the group homes was an apartment subsidized by section 8, until I got tired of the bureaucracy keeping me away from work twice a year. I was reaching the upper earnings limit by then, anyway.
What were the circumstances that got you into your situation of being homeless?
What’s your take on what (mostly) causes homelessness?
What one thing or handful of things could the government or private individuals due to best combat homelessness?
I’m pretty passionate about homelessness and have volunteered to build houses and have helped at shelters, but I’d like to try and get to the root of the problem.
Were you offered drugs a lot? Ever? Did you ever take up any such offers? I know that addiction and homelessness are often comorbid, although that seems to be changing in the recession. It seems that lots of the recently homeless aren’t addicts or losers or uneducated, they were simply unlucky. I’m wondering if there are significant temptations to fall in with the “addiction lifestyle.”
Being homeless several times in my life has really helped me.
I am willing to take financial and other risks I would never have done otherwise. As being homeless is about the worst thing that can happen. And it ain’t that big of a deal. It is slighly better than almost homeless. Much more assistance and the fear of losing everythign is gone. As it is already gone, almost liberating.
When things get really bad in my life I sometimes fantasize about being homeless or finding a way to go back to jail.
Other than saving money, staying healthy, and making good friends (who could help you out in times of trouble), what are some good things a non-homeless person who is making ends meet can do right now to help prevent them from ever becoming homeless?
While you were homeless, how did you spend your days? How hard is it to hold down a job when you are homeless?
Lost - technically encouraged to quit by Personnel - my job just before Christmas. Ended up crashing with my brother while I looked for work but got fed up with my prospects, and he got fed up with me when he came home early after a bad day.
Lack of affordable housing. Some of us aren’t cut out for subletting rooms from others and my little 1BR apartment was $650/mo in 1999 when I was notified that my lease would not be renewed.
All I can think of at the moment is “Don’t go all NIMBY on proposals to build low-income housing.”
Nope. Salvation Army runs very clean shelters. Anything stronger than nicotine required a prescription. Anyone caught with illegal substances were quickly removed, and there were a few when I was there.
What really helped me when I was on the verge of losing my apartment was a first-time homebuyer’s program run by my bank. Still had to come up with three grand for a down payment but one of my sisters gave me that.
Those who have a mortgage need to keep abreast of which lender owns it and don’t fall for anything that says to stop making payments, even if it comes from your lender.
When not looking for work, or hired as a day laborer, I found ways to keep busy. When not playing games, I had a Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball and spent most of the time making notations in it for use with a computer baseball game, which I never got around to.
After a couple of months, I started making sure I was elsewhere on Monday mornings in order to avoid the mental meeting.
Surprisingly easy for those who can use a shelter as a permanent address. The majority were employed somewhere while I was there. One of my friends was a security guard and another was a night stock clerk at a nearby hardware store.
What do you mean by this? Are you saying there is some fraction of homeless people who could afford to sublet a room or something, but choose not to?