Homelessness is a complex situation.
With financial, personal, and often emotional resources spent, the homeless person suffers high degrees of discouragement and depression. This can lead to mental illness, addictions and addictive behavior. A homeless person who has given up is caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Without resources to improve his position, he is likely to remain stuck in his environment for an extended time.
Instructions
1. Offer a homeless person material resources, not money. Homeless individuals often do not make wise choices with money. He is also often a master storyteller who often asks for money for some immediate crisis. In reality, the money may be spent on a purchase of alcohol or illegal drugs. When offering material help to homeless person, always offer to buy him what he's asking for, if it is within reason, rather than giving him money.
2. Gain the homeless person's trust by building friendship over time. Homeless individuals' lives are complicated by their inability to form lasting relationships. Genuine helping happens because the helper chooses to win the homeless person's trust through small acts of kindness over a long period.
3. Visit the homeless person in his environment, on his terms. Homeless individuals often feel left out, kicked to the curb and discarded by society and their self-esteem is nearly nonexistent. By visiting him in his environment, the helper is demonstrating that the homeless person has value and that the helper's offer of assistance is genuine.
4. Offer rides and limited physical assistance. Homeless individuals can be masters of manipulation, asking for things just to test a helper's willingness to become involved. Yet at the same time a homeless person has genuine needs which he cannot meet, such as being transported to doctor appointments and social service agencies. A helper who is willing to offer limited assistance while maintaining healthy personal boundaries can demonstrate genuine concern to the homeless person .
5. Set personal and compassionate boundaries. Because homeless individuals have been taken advantage of and let down often, they often take advantage of others without even thinking. A person seeking to help a homeless individual must set personal and compassionate boundaries which he does not allow the homeless person to cross. By demonstrating self respect and consistency, the helper models for the homeless person a different, and safer lifestyle from which the homeless person can learn.
6. Connect a homeless person with available social services and resource organizations. Many communities have a wealth of resources available to homeless individuals. By becoming familiar with these agencies, an individual can connect to the homeless person to the resources he needs.
7. Become a stable friend in a person's unstable life. A homeless individual's mental and emotional well-being is likely the deepest need in his or her life. However these needs are buried underneath a mountain of physical priorities such as food, shelter, clothing and medical services. While you cannot meet all his physical needs, by demonstrating willingness to become a stable friend, the helper will also meet the homeless person's emotional needs.
Tags: homeless person, homeless person, cannot meet, compassionate boundaries, help homeless, homeless individual