What Is The Real Cause Of Homelessness?

Last week I volunteered for an organization called Hands on Hartford.  I've volunteered with them before in different capacities but this time they were working along side a group who was doing a survey of the homeless in Hartford.  They were trying to assess which people were most at risk of death so that they could expedite services like medical intervention or housing.

They hit the streets and interviewed as many homeless as possible.  They found people under bridges, on the streets and in shelters. They interviewed them, asking a variety of questions.   My job was to enter some of the data collected into a database.

I've always had a heart for the homeless.  I'm not sure why.  I've never personally been homeless.  I've just never been able to look away from them.  Every time I see someone on the street I wonder about them.  What is their name? What kinds of things make them smile? What went wrong in their lives to make them homeless?  What are their hopes and dreams?

I've made strides to help as many people as I can.  I've helped people find jobs.  I've helped others move into housing.  There was one woman I helped that had not had a place to call home for five years and the joy at seeing her get her life back on track was intoxicating.  I was second hand drunk from her happiness for days! 

I'm not naive.  I know that many people contribute greatly to their homelessness.  Perhaps they are addicted and have spent every dime trying to chase a high.  Maybe they have mental illness and can't keep a job.  Maybe they don't have family and nobody ever taught them how to be in the world. Perhaps they are ex-convicts and nobody will hire them.  They could be dangerous. Maybe their spouse abused them and their only option for survival was to live on the street.  They could be a disabled veteran who has lost everything.   Or maybe they were living in the suburbs and lost their job.   They couldn't pay bills, got evicted and as fast as you can say "bad economy", they were tossed on the streets.

The point is, every person is different.  We cannot assume that because they are on the streets they are addicted to drugs.  Most importantly, we can't assume that because they are homeless, they are somehow different than us.  I think of this every time I drive through Middletown and stop at the light on Main and Liberty and see the people standing outside of St. Vincent De Paul.  They are in plain sight yet at the same time totally invisible.

Homelessness is like a giant vortex.  The entrance is large and you can get sucked in easily.  The slightest mishap can send you  tumbling downward.  You swirl around in it, slow at first.  But as you go further into it and your options dwindle, the funnel gets smaller and you are enveloped.  The smaller the funnel,  the faster you go down until you are sucked in so far into the pit of blackness that there is little hope left.

I only know this because I've walked along side people going through it.  They have no place to live so they stay in shelters or on the street.  They can get a job but not locally and they can't get to work because they have no vehicle and no money to pay for the bus.  Even if they could get there, the shelter doesn't provide a place to wash their clothes so they are filthy and unpresentable.  Or maybe they can't work at night because the shelter will only allow them in at a certain time and after that they are locked out.  If they can't get a job they can't find a place to stay and the circle starts again. Slowly, the life is drained from them as they fall deeper and deeper into hopelessness.

It's easy to dismiss homeless people as being at fault for their situation but the truth is, you don't really know that unless you ask.  Being part of that survey, I got to see first hand the answers given by the homeless in Hartford and I was stunned at what I saw.

Sure, some of them had a history of drugs, but not the majority of them.  Some had medical problems, but most didn't.  A few had a history of mental illness but not as many as you would think. 

The one thing these people had in common really surprised me.  It wasn't the economy or lack of money or drugs or health or any of the reasons we might think of first.  No, the singular commonality with all of them was that when asked if they had any person in the world that they could trust, they all said "No".

I know it's a huge stretch to say this but what if the fundamental reason for homelessness is being alone in the world?  Think about it.  What if there was nobody in the world that you could go to if you got in a bind?  What if there were no family, no friends, no community?  What if you were invisible?  Would YOU ever be able to pull yourself out of a hole if you had nobody to offer you a hand?  I'm not talking about someone giving you money.  I'm talking about someone to talk to you, give you advice.  Someone to pick you up from work if your car is dead.  Someone to rush you to the hospital during an emergency.

As far as homelessness goes, I of course don't have any major solutions to the problem.  The issue is simply too big to understand or explain with simplicity and the solution seems nearly unreachable.  Even the smallest efforts seem futile, like trying to throw drops of water on a raging fire.

  I just think we're looking in the wrong places when trying to find a cause. Like combing through the ashes of a burned down house trying to blame it on a half-empty bottle of spilled fingernail polish remover in the bathroom and ignoring completely  the exploded electrical box in the basement.  Was the fingernail polish remover flamable? Most certainly.  It problably even contributed to the fire, making it bigger.  But the cause?  Probably an electrical issue, no?  

It's the same with the homeless.  Could their addictions or medical issues or mental health problems contribute to their problem? Absolutely.  But the cause? I'm not so sure.   After all, to assume that someone's drug problem made them homeless is to assume that nothing, not depression or lonliness or anything else contributed to their turning to drugs.

As for me, I will be putting out fires the only way I know how, trying to be the one person in the world that someone can trust.