Trying and Helping

 I’ve written before about “trying to help,” specifically about the homeless population. To sum up the previous essay: Trying is a cockroach- and bedbug infested flophouse for five dollars or a voucher. Trying is making it illegal to be homeless, so they get arrested, lose all their belongings, get thrown in jail for a few days, then tossed back onto the streets with nowhere to go. What’s the point of that?

Now I’ve seen “helping.” There is an outfit called Urban Alchemy here in Portland that helps you get into a tiny home and then into real housing. They approached our little group and asked if we’d like to be in their system. I spoke with one of them briefly just to get an idea of what they do. They’re helping, well and truly.

I also got to witness something called the “free store” giving out clothes, hot food, water, even cigarettes and joints, on a first-come first-served basis, but the crowd I saw was relatively small. (I asked my friend Rose about this, and she says there’s usually a bigger group.) This is a purely voluntary effort, and isn’t highly organized. It’s just a street-level little market handing out necessities to anyone who shows up.

I’ve also observed something that I have seen before: Homeless people have nothing, but they will share it with you.

Of course, drug use is pretty high among the homeless population. A common misconception, however, is that people’s drug and alcohol problems put them in the situation they are in. I got to talk to some interesting people with different stories as to how they became homeless. None of it was triggered by drugs or alcohol; it came from family problems, bad luck, the death or separation of a spouse. Some are escaping domestic violence. (Men in this position are out of luck as far as resources are concerned. Their options are living with abuse or becoming homeless. There are no shelters for men who are fleeing abusive relationships.) The drugs came later.

Opiates and meth are in high demand on the street. Opiates suppress your appetite and make you sleep a lot. Meth also suppresses the appetite, gives you energy, and helps your body seem warm.  One man explained that he started using meth to keep himself going, but would get clean if he had somewhere to go. This was the case for a few people I had a conversation with. Most people don’t want to suffer from addiction. They have no choice. Lessons on how not to be on drugs don’t help homeless people in any way. The drugs are not the problem; housing is the problem. We need to put more resources toward affordable housing and less on classes about drugs. 

So helping homeless people get housing will mean fewer people doing drugs. Funny, that.