RLSH Work: Homeless Assistance

Compassion and empathy are big players for those RLSH who do homeless assistance.  There are a variety of goals with homeless assistance: draw attention to local homeless to potentially increase local funding for support (housing, soup kitchen, etc), handouts for homeless (food, water, tampons, etc), listening and talking to the homeless, helping the homeless get somewhere they need to go, and moving homeless people from dangerous camp areas to safer camp areas.

There are 4 types of homelessness:

• Transitional homelessness - This is homelessness due to a major life event that leaves a person(s) homeless for less than a year.  Such major events may include career loss, a divorce, escaping domestic abuse, a result of drug/alcohol addiction, health issues, a family crisis, or a natural disaster.

• Episodic homelessness - This is usually 3 bouts of homelessness within a 1 year time period.  This is typically due to a combination of people having a health issue, mental health issue, or addiction issue paired with low annual income or only seasonal work.

• Chronic homelessness - This is defined as “an unaccompanied homeless individual with a disabling condition who has been homeless for more than one year”.  It is suspected that they make up 17% of the homeless population.  They typically require assistance and counseling to get out of being homeless.

• Hidden homelessness - You may refer to these people as “couch surfers”.  This type of homelessness moves from friend to friend, staying on their couch or in a spare room until they outstay their welcome; typically this is done by younger people.  They have no permanent home and generally go unnoticed while in this state.  They may no longer be able to pay their rent due to inflation, job loss, or some other reason.  While they may be able to make changes to get back on their feet, it can also lead to sleeping on the street or in dangerous situations.

RLSH who tackle a regularly scheduled weekly patrol aimed at homeless assistance find that people start to look for you.  They need clean water and uncontaminated food.  They also start seeing the RLSH as an ally.  Typically handouts for homeless are funded by the RLSH and the homeless will figure that out and appreciate you even more for going out of your way.

What goes into handouts for homeless?

• Bottle of water

• Sandwich or foil-wrapped hot dog

• Food bar - protein bar, granola bar, fig bar

• Chips, pack of nuts, piece of fruit, or something else - hopefully with some nutritional value

• Bandaids

• Hand sanitizer

• Tampons

• Toothbrush and toothpaste

• Socks

• Gloves/hats (in cold weather)

Handouts should be considered almost like a brown bag lunch: water, main food item (like a sandwich), a food bar (for now or later), and a snack item. Additionally, some other limited items may also be included for better general health conditions such as 2 bandaids, travel size hand sanitizer, travel size toothpaste with a toothbrush, 2 or 3 tampons, etc. The idea here is to find stuff you can buy in bulk to put together your handout packages.

What to avoid in handouts:

• Medications of all kinds

• Fire-making items

• Alcohol

• Knives or things that could be formed into weapons

You want to avoid anything that could be construed as drugs, alcohol, a tool of arson, and weaponry. Weaponry includes items that could be formed into shivs like plastic utensils. You don't know what anyone is going through. They could be at a breaking point and these type of items could lead to bad things.

Be Aware

You need to remain vigilant if you do homeless assistance.  There are many homeless who deal with mental health issues, drug and alcohol addiction, and who are highly-stressed due to their situation.  This could cause some violence or angry outbursts towards you. Additionally, there are crimes committed against the homeless community since they are often perceived as invisible, persons with low-value, etc. You may want to look up serial killers that target homeless (such as Skid Row Stabber, James Dale Ritchie, and Luis Garavito).

Suggested training: de-escalation training (homelesstraining.com or endhomelessness.org), self-defense, first aid/CPR/AED training

Knowledge: It would also be great if you knew the locations/contact information for local shelters, soup kitchens, AA meetings, and other places that could help. If you wanted, you could always have some information printed up, ready to pass out.

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If you have further questions or comments, you can leave them below or join in the discussions on the forum.