The Homeless Community is Growing so Fast That We Can No Longer Ignore it.

It will become a zombie apocalypse if we don't do something about it.

---

This is just one example of the seriousness of the situation here in Boston, where I live.

Each city has its problems: political changes, urban violence, and the troubled transportation system, but one that is being shared nationally is the growth of the homeless community.

It has become a situation that is challenging to ignore.

From Boston to San Francisco, east to west, the situation seems to tilt in an unstoppable degrading direction. The (City Works) street cleaners can’t take it anymore.

Each city implements its approaches how to manage the homeless crisis.

I imagine that decisions are made based on studies of human behavior. But the situation becomes complicated regarding addictions involved in the matter. The state authorities have to deal with not only the problem of homelessness, lack of housing, and violence created around it but also drug dealerships.

On the one hand, the law is applied to stop the violence and drug trafficking with arrests, but on the other hand, they must be treated with tweezers so that it can be seen that something humanitarian is being done for them.

After all, they are nothing more or less than troubled human beings.

It is true that for many of them, the source of their situation stems from addiction to some substance. Still, it should also not be ruled out that this tendency may have an even deeper root: childhood molestation, sexual harassment, or family abuse, among many other issues. It sounds delicate to write all these scenes, but if we use tweezers to talk about it, we must also apply the scalpel and open the depths of the problem.

Now, as we all know, to maintain a bad habit, you must make sacrifices, and due to a lack of money to support addictions, criminality is created.

And where else to get drugs more efficiently than around the crowds of homeless people on the street? — at least, that’s how it looks like lately.

This reminds me that when I was homeless, I never missed an alcoholic drink since the others would take care of me if I needed it. There is an imaginary rule that (no one will die of a hangover in front of another alcoholic.) You had to share and heal the sick comrades. — I believe the same rule is applied to other addictions.

Very interesting, right? Where there are many addicts, there is never a shortage of drugs. There will always be availability.

A probable solution based on my experience, observation, and study.

This article aims to make observations that can lead to solutions; therefore, what I suggest comes from the depth of my reasoning and my experience as a homeless addict for half a decade.

I have been clean for seven years to give more credibility.

I experienced homelessness firsthand, and I know how demeaning it feels to be looked at with rejection or pity — especially when I reeked of alcohol or lacked a shower.

If the homeless crisis is taken for granted by ignoring the situation, the sidewalks’ entrenched camps will continue expanding. It will become a zombie apocalypse if we don’t do something about it.

The homeless person feels safer in camps. If they are going to catch one, they have to see everyone, like throwing a net to catch one fish in the midst of many. 

The approach should be more attractive to the person in recovery programs. Fill them with enthusiasm so that they like the process of change. Educate them about addiction and get closer to them to listen to their stories individually. A psychologist may be able to detect the origin of each case, and an after-program therapist can continue the restoration of the individual.

An after-program should be about completely restoring the person and not just rehabilitating it so that the individual is incorporated back into society with more enthusiasm and productivity and not right back to relapse.

I hope this article is inspirational enough to educate non-addicts and to create solutions for those stuck in homelessness and addictions.

If you know someone going through emotional problems who lacks control over addictive substances, that person may be on the brink of losing their home and falling into the abyss of homelessness and addictions. Please call a helpline.

Thanks for reading.

I invite you to be a part of subscribing and contributing through your donations as a Founding Member or Paying Subscriber that will support this Newsletter.

Your contributions are the foundation that can bring this to reality.