Shelters: Why Are Some Homeless Not Choosing Them?

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There are shelters open both locally and across the country and they’re doing their best to let in as many homeless into the shelters but some of those individuals who are sleeping out in the streets choose not to stay in the shelter and rather sleeping on the cold concrete than inside a shelter. Why is this? For the most part, most shelters are just big warehouses where they just cram a bunch of homeless inside big buildings like warehouses, and they kind of just let them do what they want. One of the issues mentioned is that while big shelters let in a lot of homeless into them, the issue is that there are some of them that have serious mental issues, which causes problems because of the chance of violence rising in the shelters. Another issue with overcrowded shelters is the lack of sense of security in some of those places, some examples are that shoes have been one of the few items stolen from other people inside of the shelter community. Another issue is the lack of ventilation in the shelters that are placed in large warehouses because with 300+ people being placed inside a big building like that means that the air will not be clean or safe for the homeless staying inside these large shelters, with one instance being that the air was so bad that people were coughing and hacking due to how bad the smell was with the overcrowded space. 


Along with these, some homeless preferred to be in their own private because the idea of sharing a big space with more than one person is already stress-inducing as it is but when personal space violation is thrown into the mix, it makes people not want to stay in the shelters, even it’s to give people a place to sleep and away from the cold. More than ever, a sense of security and personal space would be needed in order to put more homeless people into shelters so that not only can they be out of the streets, but they be in a safe place to sleep and food, without needing to worry to about their security and personal spaces violated.


To learn more about this issue, listen to NPR’s podcast about the issue here:

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


By Victor Cheung


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