Beyond the streets: the struggles of transitioning to a shelter

Homelessness is a difficult situation. But a common misconception is that going to a shelter will end all of your troubles. While shelters do provide immediate relief and a safe place to stay, past trauma from past shelters, the shock from transitioning, and the anxiety with acclimating to a new setting can bring a unique amount of struggles that work against the efforts to help the homeless transition back into society.

Throughout my own experience with multiple homeless shelters, the biggest issue continues to be a lack of beds for new clients. However an interesting problem that they all brought up was how much people struggled to move into shelters. They told me how even when everything was provided to them such as bedding, food, and even resources to help their clients reintegrate back into society, people often took months to adjust to this new setting, with some even refusing to sleep inside at night while continuing to stay on the streets.

Lets examine why these struggles are so prevalent with homeless who are in homeless shelters, and how solving this could increase shelter efficiency, and maybe even bed availability.

Three things plague the transition: Shock, Past Traumas, and Anxiety from a new living space

Shock

The shift from living on the streets to moving into a shelter brings with it the shock of now having to become a functioning part of society for individuals experiencing homelessness. When you live on the streets, you often worry about survival and trying to simply survive enough to make it to the next day. However when provided with stable housing, individuals now have to think long term, often towards bigger goals that can shock and even discourage those who are transitioning from homelessness to even try.

Even after adjusting to the environment of a shelter, the next hurdle often involves re-entering the workforce. For many, this involves apply for jobs, which can be stressful enough on its own, and preparing for interviews, a social skill usually lost on the streets.

Past Truama’s

Transitioning from the streets to stable housing can also bring back past traumas of bad experiences with other shelters. Too many shelters are often overcrowded and underfunded, leaving the living conditions worse than what would be found on the streets. Domestic violence can also plague poorly run shelters, bringing more violence in a shelter than what could be found on the streets

People often will leave shelters with bad conditions, and will forever be cautious of ever returning to a shelter in the future. This trauma often discourages people from returning to shelters, and even if they do, makes the transition occur over a longer period of time as they now need a long time to adjust to the shelter before they trust the shelters resources.

ACCLIMATING to a new setting

One of the saddest reasons why people refuse to sleep in a shelter is that people live on the streets for such a long time that the streets become in a sense their home. They lose all familiarity of any place but the streets, and the streets provide, even minimally, a bit of comfort to them. To leave the streets, the only real home to them, becomes a huge struggle that can hinder their transition from the streets back to society.

If we can address these issues facing the homeless more often, then we can ease the transition from the streets to housing for them. And it is my hope that by easing this transition, people can get back on their streets at a faster rate, which can hopefully allow for more people to be served by shelters without actually having to purchase more beds.