In my classes and posts I quote a lot of statistics about homeless folks, and most of them are only worth the paper they are printed on. (Get it? They aren’t printed on paper… ). We want statistics, because we want to quantify “the problem”, which is homelessness. If we...

To Whom It May Concern: Tim and Sam are people who have struggled to improve their lives. And they have succeeded. Tim struggled through his addiction with drugs and homelessness. In the midst of his lowest points, he was in jail and he failed in treatment programs. In the midst...

Every other year, main metropolitan areas do a “Point in Time” count of the homeless. It always occurs near the end of January, and the idea is to physically count folks on the street, so the government knows how much to spend, to find out if certain strategies are working....

When we are working with homeless folks, there are times when there are… problems. Perhaps you will see someone using drugs in the bathroom, perhaps a fight will break out, perhaps someone will be drinking on the property. Some facilities will immediately call the police to deal with the situation....

I posted on Facebook recently that homeless folks were just as worthy as other folks, just in a different situation. I received a rebuttal from another person, having met at least one homeless person. His response could be summarized thus: All homeless folks use drugs. Drug users are weak and...

Here’s a new podcast of Nowhere to Lay His Head! This month I interview… myself (well, I talk for a while) about how sweeps kill and how I worked this last year to try to get the city to stop killing sweeps. Anyway, here’s the podcast: http://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/4904050#sEMBQwzEx5DQqkAz.01 And here’s some...

Marie lived with him for years. Sometimes he would get angry and lash out, but it was only occasional. The yelling wasn’t too bad. And the bruises and scars would heal up. The worst part was the embarrassment when her friends would ask about him. She would deny his abuse...

In our worship, people are allowed to speak up in the middle of the sermons. I had just made a statement, “As opposed to the misconceptions of many who are housed, homeless people do not choose homelessness as a lifestyle.” As is typical, Theo speaks up, “I did.” “Really? Because...

Mark is an organized, clean young man. He also happens to be houseless. He created a large tent area with a BBQ grill, a separate space for friends to stay over, and decorated his area with flowers and ribbons. Really nice. Until someone burned it down. He saw the smoke...