Quote:
Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby
Yes that's definitely one reason for not wanting to sleep on a cot in a large auditorium or basement with other homeless.
Another reason is that some of those homeless are not mentally healthy. Some have PTSD - are untreated veterans who aren't able to communicate their needs - but are very cable to slit throats in the middle of the night when they have night terrors and think the guy sleeping in the cot next to them is the enemy infiltrator. Some are addicts who will steal your shoes, your pants, your belongings. Some are truly depraved and will rape you.
Shelters are not places of peace love and crunchy granola. And some people would rather sleep in the open air, where there's a chance they can escape the horrors of homelessness, rather than be stuck in a shelter with locked doors and volunteers/social workers/guards who aren't able to watch each person in there simultaneously, every moment that the shelter has occupants.
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You have just made a case for mental illness in which cases PTSD patients need counseling, support, medication and even accommodations if necessary. They don’t recover on their own by “sleeping in the open air” with night terrors. They can be helped, it requires time, money and facilities.
Addicts need prison with rehab and people sleeping in the streets face the same dangers as in shelters. If there is no line in the sand, there is no incentive for a better life.