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Years ago, I worked at a veterinary hospital that was across the street from a homeless shelter. The shelter was always packed. They had waiting lists for folks to have an opportunity to sleep on a cot and get a couple good meals in. Those in waiting slept in the woods and just perused the streets. Occasionally, homeless men were found dead in the woods from who knows what diseases - possibly just from starvation. Authorities would arrive and stay only long enough to haul off the body of John Doe. {These woods surrounded the clinic btw.} Several times a week, we'd get folks coming in begging for dog food to eat. Thankfully, I only dealt with these situations a handful of times, as the DVM instructed us to often tell them no - we have nothing, to avoid making their visits habitual. But us techs would scrounge up something for them anyways. At Christmas, clients would always bring in loads of cookies, popcorn tins, other goodies, etc. for us. A man came in one time and asked me if he could please have a can of dog food... just one. I gave him a huge popcorn tin instead. I did this right in front of the doctor and silently dared him to say something to me about it. Which he didn't.
Around the holidays, people often drop off turkeys and hams at the shelter. 'Tis the season and all. I just might do that this year. All it takes is a bad turn of luck and any of us could be in the same situation as these folks. No family - friends - roof over the head, etc. It breaks my heart. Even those who are addicts - my heart goes out to them still as I know firsthand about the sickness.
Dude, there's no good place to be homeless. The thought of it sickens me. I'm not being mean or anything but I'm just a bit shocked by such a question. Maybe some members will have good answers - I dunno. I'm sad now :/.
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