Many people outside of the homeless community believe that shelters actually help homeless people. These people will blindly give to these shelters and their charities without thinking twice. Let me explain why that isn't such a good idea no matter how reputable you think the charity is.
One of the first shelters I ever stayed at was the Salvation Army. The rules were strict, so strict that it made it impossible to work during the day. In order to secure a bed at the Salvation Army you had to show up at the shelter by 3pm and start standing in line. About 4:30pm they would start checking people in. If there was a bed that was open you would be lucky enough to secure a bed for the night, if not you were out of luck.
The first thing you had to do was shower. That was fine by me but you had just 30 minutes to shower before dinner was served. Most of the time the showers were so full you had to wait and if you missed that shower you could get kicked out on the spot. You better have a good pair of flip-flops too. Those shower floors are nasty!
Dinner was served at 5. Almost all of the food was donated and most of it was expired product from grocery stores. I didn't mind week old bread or chips, but I had a real problem with expired milk and meat.
After dinner you could watch TV until it was time for bed. Lights would go out about 10 or 11, I can't remember. At 5:30am you had to wake up. Most of the time you would already be awake because people were up moving around as early as 4am. And that's if you got any decent sleep.
One thing you'll want to carry with you if you are going to sleep at any shelter is a good pair of ear plugs. Most of the time you are sleeping in a room with 20 guys. At some shelters it's much worse. I've stayed at shelters where I'm sleeping with over 100 other homeless people in a small gym with only inches between the filthy mats we were sleeping on.
You are going to hear snoring. Half of the guys you are sleeping next to are either older, drunk, overweight, sick with a cold, or have other breathing conditions. It's bad. Real bad. Better have those earplugs. Then you have the farting. I'm not prude but again, it's an all night thing. You will also have guys getting up at all hours to go to the bathroom and again this makes a lot of noise. You will hear doors slamming, flushing toilets, people talking, you name it. This is all on a good night. On the really bad nights you will have fights that break out at 2am and the cops getting called. This happens more often than you think.
If you can get through that first night you will get kicked out right after breakfast. Now you have to fend for yourself for the day. You can't get a lot done because you need to be back by 3pm to secure your bed again. At this particular Salvation Army you could stay for 7 nights per year. That's it. After that you are SOL.
Now you either sleep outside or try your luck at one of the really bad shelters out there. Most of these other shelters will hand you a filthy mat and dirty blanket that you can plop down on a gym floor. If you are lucky you will have maybe 4 inches between you and the next guy. There are no showers and most of the homeless that frequent these shelters are really filthy. Their socks could stand up and walk on their own. The smell is awful. You are lucky if you don't catch something. At the very least you will end up with whatever cough or flu that is going around.
Again, this is if you can manage to even get into any of these shelters. I say you are better off staying outside in a safe place if the weather is decent enough. You are much less likely to end up getting sick and you'll actually get some decent sleep. I can't tell you how many times I left a shelter in the middle of the night because of the noise and went and slept at a park and got some real sleep.
The reason you shouldn't give to most of these shelters is because there are people lining their pockets with your money. They get all kinds of tax write-offs and tax exemptions. All they care about is having a body count. They don't want the homeless to make it off the streets. That's not their mission. Anyone that has ever been homeless knows this is true. They make it nearly impossible to get back on your feet. There may be a few shelters out there that are an exception but I have yet to find one. Here in Seattle you are lucky if you can even get into a shelter at all. It's pretty much a lottery and you have to stand in line all day to get a ticket. If your number is called you are in. If not, good luck.
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