On Monday night in Atlanta, we served at the Central Night shelter. After visiting San Francisco two summers ago I had my own ideas of what homelessness looked like in large cities. I experienced people constantly asking for food or money and sometimes yelling and calling me out specifically. It was easy to become part of the crowd and ignore them. I knew there were also many mental health issues that accompanied homelessness in that area, but I never really understood what caused what, or what the larger social implications of homelessness and poverty were. Nevertheless I knew it was a complicated issue with no single solution, and I had never really engaged myself with people who experience it.
In the Central Night Shelter, around 60 men sleep on this floor (pictured) every night. We joined them and experienced their typical nightly routine. Each of the people who come here have struggles, stories, and interests that are unseen at first glance. We were able to share moments of artistic expression, or simply leisure, with them and their peers. They returned the favor with nothing but friendliness and a welcoming sense of connection. They had built belonging in the shelter but didn’t truly belong. Nobody deserves to be homeless, and nobody wants to. It felt good to be serving in the shelter, but the greater feeling was the knowledge that the shelter served as part of a larger program to get them out and over the several other roadblocks keeping them from obtaining a job and a home.
Whether they are trying to get a job and are unable to contact employment without a phone, or need to store their belongings somewhere when their employment won’t let them, it has become clear that homelessness is a pit that can be a mountain to climb out of. These men are lovers of art, culture, and family, and they all want to rise out of their situation. There was distaste for the system and it’s barriers to them, and for good reason. While others may say they just need to get a job or stop being lazy, that is clearly not the answer, nor is it the correct way to approach the issue of homelessness.
I cannot imagine what homelessness is like, and we simply cannot offer oversimplified answers from the position that many of us have. We do need to remember that being without a home does not make someone less of a human. Homelessness is a complicated societal problem, but we can alleviate it on a small scale by first being a human to a human. The shelter was very different than the stereotypes I had seen of homeless shelters, and offered many surprises. I believe that the shelter is doing a great good for the community and is bringing people together to expand their world views and eliminate stereotypes.