This is too true, I was a jail chaplain for 20 years, and the psychiatric problem was huge and under staffed. But God! I have seen healing that boggled my once drug addled mind. Men set free from "the voices". Able to leave jail with hope in Jesus, our only hope.
My family kicked me out at 17 and I struggled through periods of homelessness until I was 21 and living in my car became the only viable option for me because of exactly what you’re describing, but for women. As a single young woman under 25 my options were shelters of “young adult group homes” which were populated with the same kinds of individuals. Living in my car became somewhat of an adventure at times, but lodging with mentally unwell and the violent was not reasonable.
Thanks for putting the unhoused situation in such clear words. I wish people on FB would bother to read things like this. I happen to be an LCSW and a huge advocate of the homelessness problem. I build an app called Homunity (www.homunity.org) for cohousing which I think would be the perfect solution for the “normal homeless people”;)
Wouldnt it be great if you could have hopped on that app and found a room for super cheap or free in exchange for some chores til you got back on your feet? Or even stay there long term because the situation was beneficial for both the homeowner and you? Anyways, Im cursed w seeing solutions but to get society away from shelters for everyone seems so far out of reach. Anyways, love your writing and the humor makes me lol at times. Keep it going! You and what you write matters!
Exactly! I lived out of my car for two years from '90 to '92; and, just as you said, sometimes it was an adventure, and not a lonely, dangerous, "drive-one-insane" situation, sometimes living in fear. I wish now that when I was again homeless from '18 to '19, I hadn't stayed in the shelters at all, where I got infested, threatened, had my property stolen, and had to sleep on the floor in the "Mission" next to people who smelled to high heaven, etc.; and where, in the main shelter in ABQ, I was poisoned by a racist, gang-banging Hispanic kid and almost died! And in another shelter there, I was attacked in the bathroom [I guess because the gang(s) heard about my standing up to that kid---he kept staying up all night with the other meth addicts and banging around right next to my head, intentionally disrespecting me and waking me up every night, multiple times per night; and, of course, the "ex"-con and/or addict staff did absolutely nothing to stop it]!
God forbid that I ever have to do it again; but, if I did, I would refuse to stay in the shelters at all, even if it meant riding the buses until they stopped running, and I had to walk around half asleep until they started running again, with people eyeing me from across the road thinking of attacking me and doing me harm. And I wouldn't hang out at all with any of my fellow-homeless ("guilt" by association---if they're sex offenders and you don't know it, even if you're not you'll be treated like you're one too)! Instead, I would stay to myself completely; because those who one thinks are "cool" are likely extremely-evil sex offenders, undercover cops, informants, and/or extremely-dangerous people to say the least. I knew there were good reasons why most of the homeless people in Portland, Oregon refused to even get on the waiting list for the main shelters (not counting the Mission), but I had to find out those good reasons the hard way(s).
The NGOs that they send you from one to another of, passing you on to yet more discouragement over and over again; and, in my case because I was on Social Security (without receiving enough to get re-housed), being told there was nothing they could do for me, and that all I could do was get on HUD Section 8 waiting lists (which I did, thank God; otherwise, I would have still been homeless after sixteen months of what I truly thought was going to drive me insane if I didn't get out of it soon), and wait to get offered an apartment, even though that could take years! They did absolutely nothing to get me off the street, not even to get me in a shelter; and, when I understandably got frustrated and angry to the NGO staff because homeless people are stressed out to the max(!), they treated me like I had even less coming to me, except illegal retaliation(s) [turns out that they are run by Zionists, so that's not surprising; in fact, other than so-called "Christian" shelters, all the rest, everywhere I went, were Zionist-run, which wasn't all bad, but we shouldn't be trusting them at all, whatsoever].
I did finally get a Case Manager of one of those NGOs in ABQ, and he was really kind and helpful (as long as I was helping him get paid), all the way up to my getting housed there (with no help from them to get there), and beyond, taking me to food banks, taking me out to lunch, etc., even after I moved into the apartment there. But as soon as I got offered an apartment in Portland, and stupidly thought I wanted to get back there [not that ABQ was any cup of tea, and was much too hot in the summer, and freezing cold in the winter, to continue living there---plus, it's an extremely racist place against white people; but, my Case Manager was Hispanic too, and he treated me with nothing but kindness and respect (as far as I know anyway---who knows what he was saying about me behind my back)], and I wasn't helping justify his paycheck, he dropped me off at the train station, and then wouldn't return any of my calls after I got to Portland (he was so kind that I just wanted to keep in touch---plus, I sincerely liked him, and I don't have a racist bone in my body, unlike most "Americans"; the Zionists being the worst racists)!
If we weren't in a time when the police are getting more and more out of control, and murderous, and I had a car to live out of again [I'm now without a driver's license (D.L.) because I let my Colorado one expire in 2005, because I thought the Real I.D. Act was going to go into full force and effect, and there's no way I'm ever, even under threat of death or imprisonment, getting a national I.D., since it's completely unconstitutional(!), I haven't owned a vehicle since 1996, and I can't afford to buy one even of I got a D.L. again], I would be seriously tempted to become homeless again, this time by choice, rather than having to continue to deal with my completely-evil Zionist apartment management here, and having to deal with subsidized housing (/imprisonment) ever again! [Sorry for the run-on sentence(s).]
During the two years I lived out of my car thirty-five years ago, I only had one run-in with a "cop", a ranger who had been falsely told by a Food Stamp and Medicaid "social worker" that I was living at the campsite where he tracked me down; but, after I told him the truth(!), that I was NOT living there, and was already set (before he contacted me) to leave the next morning to go to Oregon to visit "friends", he said "no problem", and I never saw him again. But, today, I would likely have been shot dead, or jailed, presuming me "guilty" of being a "dangerous" homeless person.
Why do parents have to reproduce I wonder and expect that the kids be grateful that they have been given life. To do what?? Eat drink pray and reproduce on unemployment ??
I’m saying your last sentence wasn’t my life then or now. Ingratitude played a part to be sure, but mostly I was not a member of their tribe and we both knew it.
i know the feeling. my entire family are all freemasons. soon as i started getting popular online from writing anti-masonic essays and videos - my family turned EXTREMELY hostile towards me. fuck family. you don't need them. i hadn't talked to mine in years and my dad had cancer and a heart attack all in the same month and my mom called begging me to come back home. i regret doing it because all they did was try and hit me up for money the entire time i was there. that's why i am in a motel right now. i was told if i moved back 'home' i could live in the log cabin they have in the woods near the state forest. absolutely gorgeous place. i get there and my dad says 'i never said you could stay there'. i moved all the way to buffalo from freaking key west florida to do this. i honestly should sue them but they don't really have much so there's no point.
Our Lord takes care of us, don’t ever stop trusting him.
He will use all your hardships and pain for good. He has a plan for your life and he will bring it to pass. You are being refined now, someday you will look back on it all and be grateful. Bless you brother ❤️
I get that. Thirty years ago, I was a mother with 3 boys aged 3, 5 and 7, living in a van in south central Ontario. We also lived in a woods for a few weeks. The kids just thought we were on an extended holiday. They are now all in their late 30's, and ask me how we survived that time. I told them.....I don't know. I can't remember now, it was so long ago. I just tried to make our emergency seem like a holiday. Some good people helped us out along the way with fresh food. The director of the Art Gallery of Ontario let us "camp out" in the forest next to the art gallery, and we had access to the bathroom facilities, which helped a lot. Other than that, it was a blur. I was never more afraid in my life. There isn't much that can scare me, now.
And YOU just became the bright light in what has been one of the worst days of my decade, so thank you SO MUCH for raising my hope and spirits, because, five minutes ago, I could not be sadder. I have a 38 year old mooching son who lives with me, or rather lives to torture, demean and sabotage me. All needed was ONE KIND WORD to get me out of my funk, and YOU gifted me with that, and I am SO GRATEFUL, and I wish you all goo things hereafter, for your random kindness that really hit the mark, for me. THANK YOU! Love, Rosemary B-C, Newmarket, Ontario
I'm sorry to hear about your son. It sounds like you've done so much to care for your children. I urge you to set a realistic timeline for him and his circumstances to become independent of you. Then work with him to map out how he will get from here to independence. Or to work with a counselor to do so, such as a job counselor. Too often, parents don't provide realistic timeliness, get impatient, and kick their adult child out. Realistic may literally take at least 4 - 6 months or more to get a job and save up for first, last, deposit, and perhaps a car. My best wishes to you and to him.
I've been there myself. My husband and I lost our apartment in 2002. We lasted about 10 days in a shelter. (Not together of course) And out into a Boston winter. Working when you have no home is nearly impossible. After a year in the street we got a 17 foot camper that didn't run. But we made it work for us. No phone. No home. No money. No family support. Nothing. This article is spot on.
its literally hell. you think that there are protections for bad luck events but there really isn’t. if you don’t meet certain ‘criteria’ the government isn;t going to do a damn thing for you other than refer you to some understaffed, overpopulate shelter that is filled with junkies and thieves. that shelter i was in, i had about 4000 dollars worth of tools in a bag locked under my bunk, the staff claimed they were going to make sure no one stole anything since this was my livelihood. i came back from work one day and they were all gone and when i complained about it the shelter person was like ‘well then i guess maybe you should have been more responsible with your money and you wouldn’t have found yourself in this situation?’ this was a NUN that said this to me. a freaking NUN.
Excuse my language, but the sams fkn thing happened to me. During a blizzard I asked if I could leave my things behind, as I hadn't been able to secure a locker. I got back and staff chucked everything I owned into the bin. I walked out and cried my head off. Fuck you, staff. And the ironic thing? I was a social worker who was in residential. I would NEVER dismiss someone's humanity like that. I'm so glad that you got out of that situation. 💗
How condescending, certainly not tactful or even kind! Throwing the condemnation darts of the enemy right at you in a dark low time in your life. Thank you for shedding light on this societal need for chronic psychiatric care for those in need, as well as the unavailability of encouraging and resourceful short stay recover and replan your life options when the 'rug gets pulled out from under' good people who never thought they'd need a hand up, to get back on their feet, with housing and job assistance. A friend in Maryland is currently facing eviction with 3 small children after domestic violence, she called police, but 'because of all the illegals' using up financial emergency money in Democrat sanctuary cities, there's no money left for help for her, a legal citizen, nor her 3 small children, not for childcare so she can go to work, nor for rental assistance 😳🤔
i wouldnt point the finger at 'illegals'. its not them stealing all the money. its politicians and corporations. 10 billion dollars is all it'd take to end homelessness coast to coast. 10 billion dollars that these crooks can't steal 70% of with their legalized theft.
I'm very sorry to hear about your friend and her children. This is in no way to blame her. I think the cold hard reality is that even for people with seemingly stable relationships and jobs, in contemporary American society, for reasons you and men here have pointed out, it's no longer financially safe and reliable to have children. There are just too many children and people in the world, not enough resources to sustain all of us equitable, and on top of that, we have massive income inequality due to people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. My best wishes to your friend and her kids. We all need to vote in.people who will prioritize safety nets for humans and the environment, not the GOP.
There's no doubt that there are many hands in the money pot. It's hard reading all these posts. I've helped both immigrants and family with a garage apartment, but that's just a drop in the bucket. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the 2021–2023 immigration surge cost state and local governments an estimated $19.3 billion in additional spending in 2023, offset by $10.1 billion in taxes generated, for a net taxpayer cost of approximately $9.2 billion that year. cbo.gov
Hi Colleen. It's so hard for me to understand that although I've been out of this situation for years that there has been little change in how shelters work. I remember the first day there and was asked to go to meet with staff. They asked nothing about my mental health or physical health. Nothing. As I worked in residential for so long I know that there are cues and hints about how a person is doing mentally. However, it was not any type of intake that I would have done on a resident. It's maddening. And it's dangerous.
Oh nuns yep went to school with them all mean (except one Elizabeth Crump… hope SHES alive n happy) nuns would beat berate ridicule racist strap and throw hard things at kids heads for “not paying enough attention” and St Boniface school in Edmonton had scenes of hell painted along one wall of entire length of hallway of people being hurt harmed naked burning etc. we tried not to look. Kindergarten n up. Also they would regularly twice a year vaccinated kids without telling parents.
I stopped two knife fights between two teams of thieves and revived three overdosed men and started a AA group in a shelter I stayed at when I discovered my husband on number six of the top ten ways to secretly poison someone to death saying it just popped up on his feed then inviting me for a vacation in a remote desert at tiny town of fifty people after asking where I kept my RDSP N money….
Very powerful messages in your article! Sorry you ended up there though I’m glad you made the only sane decision to get a tent and a heater. Come to England and you get treated like royalty! The native English get treated exactly as you described! I hope you’re in better place now.
excellent article. it's sad but true, everything you have said is policy not only in the USA but also in all of the western countries. The main reason is the money. The war on Russia has secretly cost us trillions of dollars as the people who really run our countries continue their pursuit for free oil. First in Russia and now in Iran.
In Canada the government donated every tank in our army to Ukraine. Not one was left in Canada to defend the country. In return for the hardware we sent we received I.O.U. s
The opposition leader rather than condemming this act of lunacy and money laundering said we should build more and send them
WW, touching story and insight, combined with your usual par excellence rhetoric, held me like clue! I wish bad things didn't happen to good people, but this I know from much experience, they make us better people. I love the person you have become. (Please excuse the presumption of familiarity, but it's rare that I cannot relate.)
Hang-onto our Father God through Jesus with all your might; for I promise you, good things are coming 'down the pike' within a very short period of time. We love you, appreciate you, and pray the Father for you in Jesus' Name. May He hold you always in The Palm of His Hand. With Love, Hiddy
“…in terms I will not repeat here (some of you are eating)…” thank you I was eating when reading this. 😳☕️ I must say your feet were held to the fire of true hardship. “If you want to do the will of God, you must enter into the crucible of suffering.” Because, “the servant is not greater than the master.” You went through the crucible. And now your doing His will, by reaching out & informing so many, & waking up so many, & warning so many. I for one am grateful for you and all your hard work here. Keep it up.
i still have severe ptsd from that period of my life. i didn’t even get into the really crazy stuff i saw while living on the street that winter. it was awful.
Florida still has three such hospitals… they are big and usually filled to capacity. My mother became mentally ill in the early 1980’s and stayed that way for approximately 30 years, until her death in 2014 at a nursing home. I used to go to Florida State Hospital to visit her (in North Florida). It was clean and seemed to be well run. I never went there and saw my mom neglected in any way. I know things have gotten bad over the years in other states, but I do appreciate them taking care of her for many years, doing care and meds I wouldn’t have been able to afford or do. And Florida takes care of thousands of these people with no state income tax… I don’t know how they accomplish as much as they do.
Hint: Federal grant money, aka corporate welfare, which the recipients of same get FAR MORE of than the so-called "welfare bums", the pour and truly-needy, and yet the latter are unconscionably treated like they're nothing but "bums". Wait until the former are in the same boat!
Plenty of $$$ for war - Not for the military personnel left behind the lines or the homeless in need of our assistance. Instead, society looks down on them, until it becomes you!
Not until the SHTF. Not until they stop believing their elected representatives. Not until the boot is to the balls or they're being lined up against the wall to be shot.
You have survived some really hard times , you retained your compassion and integrity, you write beautifully with insight . I admire you so much. W W please look after yourself and Lily . May God bless you both .
My son was an addict with untreated mental illness. He is now being treated, and clean for 5 years. I have heard plenty of horror stories from him about the available accommodations during his darkest times. The system bites.
Before anyone jumps on me about not housing him myself, I did what I could for him until I had to choose between his best interests and those of his 18-month-old son who I was caring for.
I agree with everything you wrote. Everything is about providing money to the corporations who are already quite wealthy and they give very little back. I like both of my doctors but I'm beginning to feel like I have just become a source of income for the hospitals they are associated with. Tests, they do like sending you for tests. Out of the blue I was asked if anyone had told me I had an irregular heartbeat and ever had an EKG. I said no to both..
By the grace of God I have so far managed to avoid that situation. Oh I’ve been worried about how I’m going to pay for all the 💩 one needs to pay while attempting to maintain a family and household. I’ve lost everything before but what they couldn’t take because I had to have an operation and the Bank screwed me over, a lawyer lied and took my last few thousand dollars to protect something the bank couldn’t even legally take (that would have made my payments I was late for) the same payments I thought I was insured for, that my bank said not to worry about when I’d called…but the bank hadn’t filled the forms out properly on the loan. Sad but not carving moon craters in your face sad. I worked as a technical coordinator at one place use to hire temp staff for at times a week or two. Some were messed up, just getting out of halfway etc. Guys that worked well, showed up, were not smoking crack outside in the trees… I’d tell them here is my number, use me for a work reference. Few times I received calls from employers. Few times from people who had gotten hired, thanking me for the support. I feel it’s easier to build people than tear them down and it’s much more rewarding! 🙏
The cliff does NOT care how hard you’ve worked. So true. As a single woman, I worked my way out of poverty and a totally addicted family. I got a great education that I paid for, and yet, without a safety yet, I’ve hit really hard times several times in my life. Did all the “right things,” but not all of us get the right breaks, destitute working hard. In 2008 I ended up with 3 jobs and renting rooms out of strangers houses. I walked into get some help from welfare in LA, dozens of people with Mercedes and Cadillacs, gaming the system. I was working, so I made just enough to be eligible for $300 in food stamps. I pray to God to never have to be on that place again. I lost most of it’ll again after the scamdemic, and am rebuilding, thank God, with a wonderful man I’m going to marry in September. I was out of work after my business died from the shutdowns in California. Had to move twice to get work. I try to give back to others in service when I can, because I know what it’s like to be the one who looks pulled together, but feels like they’re falling through the cracks. I finally got a full time job two months ago and am terrified I’ll lose it. Financial stress can turn into mental strain that can break you. I pray for you Wolf.
Congratulations on your new job, and for your years of hard work. I hope you are able to save every penny, invest cautiously, and have a stable rest of your life.
No one understands any of this if they have not endured it. It’s that way with most life experiences it seems. I’m glad I saw your site and subscribed. You indeed are a Wise Wolf.
This is too true, I was a jail chaplain for 20 years, and the psychiatric problem was huge and under staffed. But God! I have seen healing that boggled my once drug addled mind. Men set free from "the voices". Able to leave jail with hope in Jesus, our only hope.
I did prison ministry many long years ago, through my church, @ a jail. I can’t agree with you more!
Huge respect for you. How beautiful to watch and see those transformations. You are a blessed man,
My family kicked me out at 17 and I struggled through periods of homelessness until I was 21 and living in my car became the only viable option for me because of exactly what you’re describing, but for women. As a single young woman under 25 my options were shelters of “young adult group homes” which were populated with the same kinds of individuals. Living in my car became somewhat of an adventure at times, but lodging with mentally unwell and the violent was not reasonable.
Thanks for putting the unhoused situation in such clear words. I wish people on FB would bother to read things like this. I happen to be an LCSW and a huge advocate of the homelessness problem. I build an app called Homunity (www.homunity.org) for cohousing which I think would be the perfect solution for the “normal homeless people”;)
Wouldnt it be great if you could have hopped on that app and found a room for super cheap or free in exchange for some chores til you got back on your feet? Or even stay there long term because the situation was beneficial for both the homeowner and you? Anyways, Im cursed w seeing solutions but to get society away from shelters for everyone seems so far out of reach. Anyways, love your writing and the humor makes me lol at times. Keep it going! You and what you write matters!
Exactly! I lived out of my car for two years from '90 to '92; and, just as you said, sometimes it was an adventure, and not a lonely, dangerous, "drive-one-insane" situation, sometimes living in fear. I wish now that when I was again homeless from '18 to '19, I hadn't stayed in the shelters at all, where I got infested, threatened, had my property stolen, and had to sleep on the floor in the "Mission" next to people who smelled to high heaven, etc.; and where, in the main shelter in ABQ, I was poisoned by a racist, gang-banging Hispanic kid and almost died! And in another shelter there, I was attacked in the bathroom [I guess because the gang(s) heard about my standing up to that kid---he kept staying up all night with the other meth addicts and banging around right next to my head, intentionally disrespecting me and waking me up every night, multiple times per night; and, of course, the "ex"-con and/or addict staff did absolutely nothing to stop it]!
God forbid that I ever have to do it again; but, if I did, I would refuse to stay in the shelters at all, even if it meant riding the buses until they stopped running, and I had to walk around half asleep until they started running again, with people eyeing me from across the road thinking of attacking me and doing me harm. And I wouldn't hang out at all with any of my fellow-homeless ("guilt" by association---if they're sex offenders and you don't know it, even if you're not you'll be treated like you're one too)! Instead, I would stay to myself completely; because those who one thinks are "cool" are likely extremely-evil sex offenders, undercover cops, informants, and/or extremely-dangerous people to say the least. I knew there were good reasons why most of the homeless people in Portland, Oregon refused to even get on the waiting list for the main shelters (not counting the Mission), but I had to find out those good reasons the hard way(s).
The NGOs that they send you from one to another of, passing you on to yet more discouragement over and over again; and, in my case because I was on Social Security (without receiving enough to get re-housed), being told there was nothing they could do for me, and that all I could do was get on HUD Section 8 waiting lists (which I did, thank God; otherwise, I would have still been homeless after sixteen months of what I truly thought was going to drive me insane if I didn't get out of it soon), and wait to get offered an apartment, even though that could take years! They did absolutely nothing to get me off the street, not even to get me in a shelter; and, when I understandably got frustrated and angry to the NGO staff because homeless people are stressed out to the max(!), they treated me like I had even less coming to me, except illegal retaliation(s) [turns out that they are run by Zionists, so that's not surprising; in fact, other than so-called "Christian" shelters, all the rest, everywhere I went, were Zionist-run, which wasn't all bad, but we shouldn't be trusting them at all, whatsoever].
I did finally get a Case Manager of one of those NGOs in ABQ, and he was really kind and helpful (as long as I was helping him get paid), all the way up to my getting housed there (with no help from them to get there), and beyond, taking me to food banks, taking me out to lunch, etc., even after I moved into the apartment there. But as soon as I got offered an apartment in Portland, and stupidly thought I wanted to get back there [not that ABQ was any cup of tea, and was much too hot in the summer, and freezing cold in the winter, to continue living there---plus, it's an extremely racist place against white people; but, my Case Manager was Hispanic too, and he treated me with nothing but kindness and respect (as far as I know anyway---who knows what he was saying about me behind my back)], and I wasn't helping justify his paycheck, he dropped me off at the train station, and then wouldn't return any of my calls after I got to Portland (he was so kind that I just wanted to keep in touch---plus, I sincerely liked him, and I don't have a racist bone in my body, unlike most "Americans"; the Zionists being the worst racists)!
If we weren't in a time when the police are getting more and more out of control, and murderous, and I had a car to live out of again [I'm now without a driver's license (D.L.) because I let my Colorado one expire in 2005, because I thought the Real I.D. Act was going to go into full force and effect, and there's no way I'm ever, even under threat of death or imprisonment, getting a national I.D., since it's completely unconstitutional(!), I haven't owned a vehicle since 1996, and I can't afford to buy one even of I got a D.L. again], I would be seriously tempted to become homeless again, this time by choice, rather than having to continue to deal with my completely-evil Zionist apartment management here, and having to deal with subsidized housing (/imprisonment) ever again! [Sorry for the run-on sentence(s).]
During the two years I lived out of my car thirty-five years ago, I only had one run-in with a "cop", a ranger who had been falsely told by a Food Stamp and Medicaid "social worker" that I was living at the campsite where he tracked me down; but, after I told him the truth(!), that I was NOT living there, and was already set (before he contacted me) to leave the next morning to go to Oregon to visit "friends", he said "no problem", and I never saw him again. But, today, I would likely have been shot dead, or jailed, presuming me "guilty" of being a "dangerous" homeless person.
Why do parents have to reproduce I wonder and expect that the kids be grateful that they have been given life. To do what?? Eat drink pray and reproduce on unemployment ??
No clue this does not describe my situation at present nor the situation I came from though
But your family kicked you out at 17
I’m saying your last sentence wasn’t my life then or now. Ingratitude played a part to be sure, but mostly I was not a member of their tribe and we both knew it.
i know the feeling. my entire family are all freemasons. soon as i started getting popular online from writing anti-masonic essays and videos - my family turned EXTREMELY hostile towards me. fuck family. you don't need them. i hadn't talked to mine in years and my dad had cancer and a heart attack all in the same month and my mom called begging me to come back home. i regret doing it because all they did was try and hit me up for money the entire time i was there. that's why i am in a motel right now. i was told if i moved back 'home' i could live in the log cabin they have in the woods near the state forest. absolutely gorgeous place. i get there and my dad says 'i never said you could stay there'. i moved all the way to buffalo from freaking key west florida to do this. i honestly should sue them but they don't really have much so there's no point.
AMEN!!!!!
Our Lord takes care of us, don’t ever stop trusting him.
He will use all your hardships and pain for good. He has a plan for your life and he will bring it to pass. You are being refined now, someday you will look back on it all and be grateful. Bless you brother ❤️
Gratitude is great but not for being given life and expected to diminish oneself to conform
Yes i agree there.
I get that. Thirty years ago, I was a mother with 3 boys aged 3, 5 and 7, living in a van in south central Ontario. We also lived in a woods for a few weeks. The kids just thought we were on an extended holiday. They are now all in their late 30's, and ask me how we survived that time. I told them.....I don't know. I can't remember now, it was so long ago. I just tried to make our emergency seem like a holiday. Some good people helped us out along the way with fresh food. The director of the Art Gallery of Ontario let us "camp out" in the forest next to the art gallery, and we had access to the bathroom facilities, which helped a lot. Other than that, it was a blur. I was never more afraid in my life. There isn't much that can scare me, now.
u r the true definition of MOTHER
I hope your childern understand what. gift u r
And YOU just became the bright light in what has been one of the worst days of my decade, so thank you SO MUCH for raising my hope and spirits, because, five minutes ago, I could not be sadder. I have a 38 year old mooching son who lives with me, or rather lives to torture, demean and sabotage me. All needed was ONE KIND WORD to get me out of my funk, and YOU gifted me with that, and I am SO GRATEFUL, and I wish you all goo things hereafter, for your random kindness that really hit the mark, for me. THANK YOU! Love, Rosemary B-C, Newmarket, Ontario
I'm sorry to hear about your son. It sounds like you've done so much to care for your children. I urge you to set a realistic timeline for him and his circumstances to become independent of you. Then work with him to map out how he will get from here to independence. Or to work with a counselor to do so, such as a job counselor. Too often, parents don't provide realistic timeliness, get impatient, and kick their adult child out. Realistic may literally take at least 4 - 6 months or more to get a job and save up for first, last, deposit, and perhaps a car. My best wishes to you and to him.
I've been there myself. My husband and I lost our apartment in 2002. We lasted about 10 days in a shelter. (Not together of course) And out into a Boston winter. Working when you have no home is nearly impossible. After a year in the street we got a 17 foot camper that didn't run. But we made it work for us. No phone. No home. No money. No family support. Nothing. This article is spot on.
its literally hell. you think that there are protections for bad luck events but there really isn’t. if you don’t meet certain ‘criteria’ the government isn;t going to do a damn thing for you other than refer you to some understaffed, overpopulate shelter that is filled with junkies and thieves. that shelter i was in, i had about 4000 dollars worth of tools in a bag locked under my bunk, the staff claimed they were going to make sure no one stole anything since this was my livelihood. i came back from work one day and they were all gone and when i complained about it the shelter person was like ‘well then i guess maybe you should have been more responsible with your money and you wouldn’t have found yourself in this situation?’ this was a NUN that said this to me. a freaking NUN.
Excuse my language, but the sams fkn thing happened to me. During a blizzard I asked if I could leave my things behind, as I hadn't been able to secure a locker. I got back and staff chucked everything I owned into the bin. I walked out and cried my head off. Fuck you, staff. And the ironic thing? I was a social worker who was in residential. I would NEVER dismiss someone's humanity like that. I'm so glad that you got out of that situation. 💗
Hahaha...and people wonder why I left the Catholic Church...
You are blessed because you obeyed and fulfilled Revelation 18:4!
How condescending, certainly not tactful or even kind! Throwing the condemnation darts of the enemy right at you in a dark low time in your life. Thank you for shedding light on this societal need for chronic psychiatric care for those in need, as well as the unavailability of encouraging and resourceful short stay recover and replan your life options when the 'rug gets pulled out from under' good people who never thought they'd need a hand up, to get back on their feet, with housing and job assistance. A friend in Maryland is currently facing eviction with 3 small children after domestic violence, she called police, but 'because of all the illegals' using up financial emergency money in Democrat sanctuary cities, there's no money left for help for her, a legal citizen, nor her 3 small children, not for childcare so she can go to work, nor for rental assistance 😳🤔
i wouldnt point the finger at 'illegals'. its not them stealing all the money. its politicians and corporations. 10 billion dollars is all it'd take to end homelessness coast to coast. 10 billion dollars that these crooks can't steal 70% of with their legalized theft.
That was the answer my friend received. From CPS, all agencies involved to protect women and their children from domestic abusers
I'm very sorry to hear about your friend and her children. This is in no way to blame her. I think the cold hard reality is that even for people with seemingly stable relationships and jobs, in contemporary American society, for reasons you and men here have pointed out, it's no longer financially safe and reliable to have children. There are just too many children and people in the world, not enough resources to sustain all of us equitable, and on top of that, we have massive income inequality due to people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. My best wishes to your friend and her kids. We all need to vote in.people who will prioritize safety nets for humans and the environment, not the GOP.
There's no doubt that there are many hands in the money pot. It's hard reading all these posts. I've helped both immigrants and family with a garage apartment, but that's just a drop in the bucket. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the 2021–2023 immigration surge cost state and local governments an estimated $19.3 billion in additional spending in 2023, offset by $10.1 billion in taxes generated, for a net taxpayer cost of approximately $9.2 billion that year. cbo.gov
Or 90% or more!
Hi Colleen. It's so hard for me to understand that although I've been out of this situation for years that there has been little change in how shelters work. I remember the first day there and was asked to go to meet with staff. They asked nothing about my mental health or physical health. Nothing. As I worked in residential for so long I know that there are cues and hints about how a person is doing mentally. However, it was not any type of intake that I would have done on a resident. It's maddening. And it's dangerous.
Oh nuns yep went to school with them all mean (except one Elizabeth Crump… hope SHES alive n happy) nuns would beat berate ridicule racist strap and throw hard things at kids heads for “not paying enough attention” and St Boniface school in Edmonton had scenes of hell painted along one wall of entire length of hallway of people being hurt harmed naked burning etc. we tried not to look. Kindergarten n up. Also they would regularly twice a year vaccinated kids without telling parents.
I stopped two knife fights between two teams of thieves and revived three overdosed men and started a AA group in a shelter I stayed at when I discovered my husband on number six of the top ten ways to secretly poison someone to death saying it just popped up on his feed then inviting me for a vacation in a remote desert at tiny town of fifty people after asking where I kept my RDSP N money….
Still asks where it is n says he loves me lol.
Yikes. Please tell us you've left him.
I apologize for wanting to throw the “nun” in a lake of fire, fucking demon, america has been “circling the bowl” for a long time now :/
I'm so sorry
Very powerful messages in your article! Sorry you ended up there though I’m glad you made the only sane decision to get a tent and a heater. Come to England and you get treated like royalty! The native English get treated exactly as you described! I hope you’re in better place now.
excellent article. it's sad but true, everything you have said is policy not only in the USA but also in all of the western countries. The main reason is the money. The war on Russia has secretly cost us trillions of dollars as the people who really run our countries continue their pursuit for free oil. First in Russia and now in Iran.
In Canada the government donated every tank in our army to Ukraine. Not one was left in Canada to defend the country. In return for the hardware we sent we received I.O.U. s
The opposition leader rather than condemming this act of lunacy and money laundering said we should build more and send them
WW, touching story and insight, combined with your usual par excellence rhetoric, held me like clue! I wish bad things didn't happen to good people, but this I know from much experience, they make us better people. I love the person you have become. (Please excuse the presumption of familiarity, but it's rare that I cannot relate.)
Hang-onto our Father God through Jesus with all your might; for I promise you, good things are coming 'down the pike' within a very short period of time. We love you, appreciate you, and pray the Father for you in Jesus' Name. May He hold you always in The Palm of His Hand. With Love, Hiddy
“…in terms I will not repeat here (some of you are eating)…” thank you I was eating when reading this. 😳☕️ I must say your feet were held to the fire of true hardship. “If you want to do the will of God, you must enter into the crucible of suffering.” Because, “the servant is not greater than the master.” You went through the crucible. And now your doing His will, by reaching out & informing so many, & waking up so many, & warning so many. I for one am grateful for you and all your hard work here. Keep it up.
I'm glad you made it. Hoping your days ahead put the horror in your rearview mirror, while keeping your compassion keen
i still have severe ptsd from that period of my life. i didn’t even get into the really crazy stuff i saw while living on the street that winter. it was awful.
I believe you, man. The street is extremely dangerous.
I do as well. Being unhoused or under housed is no joke.
i don't have cash to spare but if I can help with tele counseling I am happy to offer for free. regarding your ptsd.
How awful! Glad to see this was temporary and you found your way back 😊
Florida still has three such hospitals… they are big and usually filled to capacity. My mother became mentally ill in the early 1980’s and stayed that way for approximately 30 years, until her death in 2014 at a nursing home. I used to go to Florida State Hospital to visit her (in North Florida). It was clean and seemed to be well run. I never went there and saw my mom neglected in any way. I know things have gotten bad over the years in other states, but I do appreciate them taking care of her for many years, doing care and meds I wouldn’t have been able to afford or do. And Florida takes care of thousands of these people with no state income tax… I don’t know how they accomplish as much as they do.
Hint: Federal grant money, aka corporate welfare, which the recipients of same get FAR MORE of than the so-called "welfare bums", the pour and truly-needy, and yet the latter are unconscionably treated like they're nothing but "bums". Wait until the former are in the same boat!
It's wonderful to hear a good story like this. I'm very glad for you both that she was well taken care of.
Plenty of $$$ for war - Not for the military personnel left behind the lines or the homeless in need of our assistance. Instead, society looks down on them, until it becomes you!
When will the people of the USA, wakey wakey?
Not until the SHTF. Not until they stop believing their elected representatives. Not until the boot is to the balls or they're being lined up against the wall to be shot.
It was rhetorical.
You have survived some really hard times , you retained your compassion and integrity, you write beautifully with insight . I admire you so much. W W please look after yourself and Lily . May God bless you both .
My son was an addict with untreated mental illness. He is now being treated, and clean for 5 years. I have heard plenty of horror stories from him about the available accommodations during his darkest times. The system bites.
Before anyone jumps on me about not housing him myself, I did what I could for him until I had to choose between his best interests and those of his 18-month-old son who I was caring for.
I agree with everything you wrote. Everything is about providing money to the corporations who are already quite wealthy and they give very little back. I like both of my doctors but I'm beginning to feel like I have just become a source of income for the hospitals they are associated with. Tests, they do like sending you for tests. Out of the blue I was asked if anyone had told me I had an irregular heartbeat and ever had an EKG. I said no to both..
By the grace of God I have so far managed to avoid that situation. Oh I’ve been worried about how I’m going to pay for all the 💩 one needs to pay while attempting to maintain a family and household. I’ve lost everything before but what they couldn’t take because I had to have an operation and the Bank screwed me over, a lawyer lied and took my last few thousand dollars to protect something the bank couldn’t even legally take (that would have made my payments I was late for) the same payments I thought I was insured for, that my bank said not to worry about when I’d called…but the bank hadn’t filled the forms out properly on the loan. Sad but not carving moon craters in your face sad. I worked as a technical coordinator at one place use to hire temp staff for at times a week or two. Some were messed up, just getting out of halfway etc. Guys that worked well, showed up, were not smoking crack outside in the trees… I’d tell them here is my number, use me for a work reference. Few times I received calls from employers. Few times from people who had gotten hired, thanking me for the support. I feel it’s easier to build people than tear them down and it’s much more rewarding! 🙏
The cliff does NOT care how hard you’ve worked. So true. As a single woman, I worked my way out of poverty and a totally addicted family. I got a great education that I paid for, and yet, without a safety yet, I’ve hit really hard times several times in my life. Did all the “right things,” but not all of us get the right breaks, destitute working hard. In 2008 I ended up with 3 jobs and renting rooms out of strangers houses. I walked into get some help from welfare in LA, dozens of people with Mercedes and Cadillacs, gaming the system. I was working, so I made just enough to be eligible for $300 in food stamps. I pray to God to never have to be on that place again. I lost most of it’ll again after the scamdemic, and am rebuilding, thank God, with a wonderful man I’m going to marry in September. I was out of work after my business died from the shutdowns in California. Had to move twice to get work. I try to give back to others in service when I can, because I know what it’s like to be the one who looks pulled together, but feels like they’re falling through the cracks. I finally got a full time job two months ago and am terrified I’ll lose it. Financial stress can turn into mental strain that can break you. I pray for you Wolf.
Congratulations on your new job, and for your years of hard work. I hope you are able to save every penny, invest cautiously, and have a stable rest of your life.
What a kind thing to say. Bless you!
My pleasure. Well deserved 😃
No one understands any of this if they have not endured it. It’s that way with most life experiences it seems. I’m glad I saw your site and subscribed. You indeed are a Wise Wolf.