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Guest Column Homeless won't be able to live with new shelter's rulesBy JANINE LITTLE © St. Petersburg Times, published April 3, 1998 The perpetually homeless, the street people, make up the majority of the homeless population here. They could most benefit from the new facility but will not be attracted. They share these traits: dysfunctional upbringings, addictions to drugs and/or alcohol and low self-esteem. They are a rebellious lot and will not respond well to being forced to get regular jobs, attend counseling sessions, obey a curfew and go daily to AA/NA meetings. The street people are a subculture of our own larger society. Their "laws" are few, the most-enforced being "don't steal from the family." On the street, people are ruled by fears, the illusion of freedom and alcohol. They are beset with insecurity, physical problems and hot anger that is always bubbling close to the surface. In the shelter they would be forced to get a job, but most could not stand the restrictions of full-time labor. Eight hours is too far away from the necessary drink. A day or two weekly, working through a day-labor service (where a drink can be hidden nearby), or recycling copper wire and aluminum cans, provides for scant needs -- beer and cigarettes (or "rip," which is a pouch of tobacco). Some are "wet brains," those whose excessive use of alcohol has destroyed their ability to function. Counseling is unlikely to work. Street people don't want it, don't want to relive the past even in their heads. Besides, they are masters of observation and intuition. They have all the answers. Having drifted in and out of treatment and detox centers, they know what "authority figures" want to hear -- and will feed it to them to get them off their backs. An imposed curfew is another drawback. Time -- except for "Meet me at the Jazz Festival at 7" (which means anywhere between 6 and 10) -- is a loose concept. Street people abhor regimentation. Wandering through the day, hooking up with friends, sitting in the sun-dappled shade on a park bench, hunting for brass or copper wire to sell, panhandling for a quart of beer and walking to a feed is a normal day. People with such a lackadaisical lifestyle could not adhere to a curfew. AA and NA meetings are extremely effective for those who truly desire sobriety. Most street people prefer to remain inebriated, though, and are so heavily addicted that morning shakes accompanied by vomiting and even seizures (after six hours of restless sleep with no alcohol intake) are preferred to the horrors of detoxing completely. Forced meeting attendance could not change that. The homeless spend a good deal of time "beetling about" in order to avoid police confrontation. Many have warrants for their arrest, so they remain low profile to keep out of jail. Others have been rousted from their sleeping "hole" so often and hassled so frequently that they keep on the move to avoid the "bubble monsters" (as police are humorously nicknamed). The fact that police will be stationed in the shelter will act as a deterrent to these homeless. St. Vincent de Paul's soup kitchen feeds many now. It offers showers and the use of washers and dryers, accepts mail for those who have no address and more. There the homeless also have the opportunity to make use of the medical van for sickness and injury. If the service of the soup kitchen is limited only to the residents of the shelter, the street people will suffer a great loss, because most are dependent on it. It is the hub that street life revolves around now. There seems to be no solution to the plight of the street people. Many want, even need, to live outdoors with little or no restrictions or obligations. A shelter with few rules to house and feed those who want a place to stay would only serve to enable the street people. They would be on the public dole as long as possible, never having the desire to learn to stand on their own feet. Jail is not the answer either; it is merely a temporary discomfort of "three hots and a cot," not a solution. Enforcing anything, be it sobriety, counseling or job placement, is not feasible, because the change is not desired by the participants. There are hundreds out there in desperate need, but they will not make use of the new facility. The new shelter, with its stringent rules, may be able to house 48 people . . . but will it?
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he nearly completed homeless shelter run by the Clearwater Homeless Intervention Project may work for the temporarily homeless, who will naturally regain their footing anyway. Then again, even they may resent the mandatory Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings and refuse what the shelter has to offer.
