Things I've Learned From The Homeless

by Glen Dunzweiler

Oftentimes we attach conclusions to others that may or may not be accurate. For example, if I give you money for a bus ticket and then see you buy heroin, I might conclude you lied to me. However, all I really know is that buying heroin is more important to you than buying a bus ticket. You still may need a bus ticket (and therefore did not lie to me), but I don’t know that. I then get distracted with solving “the truth” and focus on uncovering the lie and the quality of your character. But my reality does not need to be that complex. All I need to focus on is my choice about giving money to people who may use it for something with which I disagree. I still do not wish to give you money for heroin, but I can’t control what you do with that money. If the unknown bothers me, I don’t give you money. If the act of not giving bothers me, I give you money.

Even though people are poor, depressed, and desperate, they still have worth and deserve to be heard.

There’s a story called Million Dollar Harry about a chronically drunk homeless guy who would pass out on the streets of Reno, Nevada. An ambulance would take him to the emergency room, but the ER would find out he was just drunk and transport him to the jail, where he’d get booked and sleep it off. This would happen over and over, and one year, the city of Reno learned that they had spent a million dollars in city services on Harry. Homeless service providers like to tell this story to city officials to try to get money for programs. The argument is that it’s cheaper for cities to help the homeless rather than rescue or punish them. This is a lovely argument and quite valid, but I don’t think it will ever win over city officials or the public at large. Cities spend money on unneeded things all the time—sports stadiums and beautification projects are costs cities value, and they are often not done out of fiscal responsibility. They’re not into saving money. They are into spending money to keep constituents happy, to give them what they want. People do not want to help the homeless; they want to hire more cops to arrest the homeless and more medics “to save those poor SOBs.” I think the only way a city would pay for homeless services would be if homelessness became a valued cultural experience worthy of preservation. This may sound cynical, but there has to be a perceived value gained by a certain expenditure, and charity only goes so far in the United States. It is not seen...

The United States supports things that support capitalism, and homelessness never supports capitalism. For homelessness to be looked at without disgust, it somehow has to make money.

If a panhandler spits in your face or throws your sandwich back at you, know they do not speak for “The Company.” I know shaking off that disrespect is hard, but for the sake of the kid sleeping in the tent down by river, please try.

Religion can be an amazing thing, but it’s ultimately one path of many to what I believe is the answer to homelessness: stability. The true key is to provide stability for unstable people while helping them to find their center. This may sound New Age, socialist, and soft, but trying to force people through a predetermined path doesn’t work for everybody. The ones it doesn’t work for just keep lining the curbside. We can try, fail, and learn, or we can keep ignoring people while hoping religion will “save” them.