Life in Homeless Shelters

For most, it would seem like homeless shelters are an obvious solution for providing homeless individuals with a place to stay, but there are still many people experiencing homelessness who live and sleep unsheltered outside or take shelter in areas unfit for habitation.

While reasons for this may vary for each person, it also points to ongoing issues common in many homeless shelters.

Hopefully, in examining these issues, a deeper understanding can be reached in regards to people experiencing homelessness and the hardships they must face.

Some of the barriers that homeless individuals must face can range from navigating through how to get help from a shelter and having to be compatible with the schedules specific to each shelter.

For some, the times at which a shelter does check-in, check out, meals and more can make it difficult to look for and apply for a job or to tend to family.

In some cases, there is a set time someone has to be back at the shelter in order to get their spot on a bed back, demonstrating the difficulty in holding a job as well as a spot in a shelter.

The poor living conditions in a shelter can also be a major deterrent. Beds may be riddled with bedbugs and there may be a lack of clean restrooms.

Of course, not every shelter has poor conditions, but in the case that the shelter is adequate, a problem that arises is overcrowding.

The lack of ventilation from many people being packed into a small space further can worsen pre-existing health issues or lead to them.

Overcrowding is also an issue in that not enough services nor supplies can be provided to meet needs. This is especially notable in bigger metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles.

In an environment with many people experiencing high levels of stress, violence can be an unfortunate outcome. For women, the threat to safety is a serious concern.

With inadequate conditions such as these being prevalent in many shelters, many individuals may find themselves with no other options.

Although it is not a shelter, there is an organization called the Downtown Women’s Center that is located in Los Angeles and focuses exclusively on helping women who are experiencing homelessness.

It aims to help homeless women transition into permanent housing. There are many factors to be taken into account when it comes to someone’s situation, and gaining an understanding is the first step towards creating solutions that can appropriately target populations that are being under served.

Want to learn more? Check out these articles.

https://www.npr.org/2012/12/06/166666265/why-some-homeless-choose-the-streets-over-shelters

https://capitalandmain.com/living-homeless-in-california-the-uneasy-sanctuary-of-shelters-0523

What do you think?
Every week, we will invite you all, our general members, to engage with these topics that each board member offers. Consider reflecting on the following questions and sharing your opinions with us via social media. With your permission, we will add your responses/opinions in the following newsletter to further develop the conversation (and it totally can be confidential too!)

Please feel free to expand or ask other questions, and let us know what you think, here.

1. Do you know anyone who has stayed at a homeless shelter? If so, what was their personal experience like?

2. Have your thoughts changed on homelessness and homeless shelters if you previously held certain opinions on either subject?

3. Do you have any other thoughts on homeless shelters?

Spotlight Writer

Dana Nguyen, Intern

Dana Nguyen is an intern for the club. She is currently a second-year Public Health Sciences major and minoring in Digital Arts. Her favorite pastimes include drawing, making jewelry, and playing League of Legends. Recently, she has started rewatching Arrested Development.