Societal shame degrades self-esteem; makes it hard to get off the street
By Andy Pope on Often, society’s expectations of unhoused people are degrading, and do nothing to help get people indoors.
Homeless No More
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Homeless No More is a column that features the stories of people making the transition from homelessness to housing.
‘Belonging nowhere’: how homelessness let me come home to myself
By Ari Wolf on What do you lose when you move indoors? Friendship, amongst other things.
Holding onto housing requires confidence, healing
By Andy Pope on Mainstream expectations make some people feel trapped on the street, Pope rights.
Dodging the mainstream has kept me indoors
By Andy Pope on The pace of a “normal” life simply does not fit for some, Pope writes, and those who can’t keep up are often resigned to homelessness.
The weight of shame: a common burden on the street
By Andy Pope on How the shame associated with homelessness can become something like a mental illness.
The lingering feeling of homelessness
By Andy Pope on Even after moving inside, one may never stop "feeling" homeless—as if they might be "found out" for their past at any moment.
To make change, we must listen to the voices of the streets
By Andy Pope on All we really wanted down there, any of us, was to be treated with normal human respect and dignity, and treated as equals—not as inferiors. We wanted to be listened to, we wanted our voices heard.
How shelter in place helped me feel more at home
By Andy Pope on During many years of homelessness, I lived in a place where there is no shelter. Now that sheltering in place is required, I am living a lifestyle that is the direct opposite of my previous manner of life.
You can’t leave PTSD at the door
By Andy Pope on When I was homeless, I was in a constant state of shock. Now the “shocks” are only intermittent. This is the essence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Use caution when telling people you were homeless
By Andy Pope on When I was first trying to get inside, I made sure my prospective landlord wouldn’t know I had ever been homeless. Why? Simply put, I didn’t want to jeopardize my chances. It was enough to tell him I was on a fixed income, which at the time was Social Security Disability
My read on Street Spirit changed when I moved inside
By Andy Pope on My relationship to many things has changed since I’ve been living indoors. Obviously, my association with homelessness and with homeless
Homelessness taught me gratitude
By Andy Pope on When one lives outdoors, and weather conditions are less than favorable, one sometimes wakes up freezing and soaking wet—not to mention flat broke. Under such circumstances, you can’t imagine the feeling of grati- tude that would overwhelm me as I succeeded in scraping up 63 cents for a senior cup of coffee at a Mac- Donald’s. At the store most frequented, they wouldn’t let us in if we didn’t have coffee change.