houselessness leads to mindlessness .. .

one homeless person told me last night they're convinced that homelessness makes people insane ..
i came to that conclusion some time ago
while there are mentally challenged people who become homeless, the unrelenting stress of streetlife will surely challenge the human mind over time

some stress is necessary for normal growth and maturity
for both mind and body
but too much stress kills
too much at one time, or too much over time ..

i recently attended a seminar focusing on homelessness
several of the comments that were made stuck with me
i'd thought through some of them, but hearing it from the homeless and those that minister to them made it more concrete
things like:
- being able to use a bathroom should be a human right; it's humiliating to have to go in the bush, a woman said
- you get no sleep
- you have no privacy, ever
- sometimes you have to walk all night; you cannot bed down anywhere, and anywhere you bed down you get moved, 3 or 4 times in a night
- if a person has even a tent, they feel like they belong somewhere; it helps to provide some sense of selfworth
- you can't apply for a job because you have no address, no phone number ..

these comments stick because they relate to the soul and the mind of people
they are determinants of their mental wellbeing ..
the sleep-deprivation alone is huge cause for concern
imagine not being able to get a good night's sleep .. regularly
it will age you in a hurry, so that peopleonthestreet often look older than they are
then take that lack of sleep into daily life ..

people are constantly under pressure to ' move on ', ' you can't sit here ', ' why don't you get a job ? ', ' you can't bring your stuff in here ', ' this bathroom is for paying customers only ' ..
take that every day, then go to ' bed ' at night with nowhere to sleep, with people trying to steal your stuff, wanting you to give them your stuff, wanting to beddown next to you, with you ..
and check where your head is in a month or 2
or a year
or 3 years ..

mind ? ??
blown ..
you have to keep telling yourself that you're ok, regardless of the taunts, and the cussin', and the hatetalk from the housed
regardless of the madmad drugandalcohol induced aggression of the houseless that camp down the way, that abuse you for being on their turf
and then you begin to question your own sanity - you find your self talking to your self, and answering your self ..

and this is a daily thing
it is life for the houseless
there is no weekend break, like from your job
this is daily life

..  .. . . ....... .    .

one houseless lady has her stuff stored in a public storage facility (storage is a real issue for the houseless)
i figure she's a month or 2 behind on her payments
they banned her from the property and won't let her get her stuff, even her bedding
she's been on the street so long ( 7 years i think ) that her mind works a different way - she's unsure of herself, always second-guessing and can't make up her mind
i ' hired ' a pickup and went to get her to help her move out - she couldn't decide what to do, and we spent 20 mins talking about it
i let her know it was not an issue for me, and she needed to simply decide, and i was cool either way ..
she couldn't bring herself to do it
after i left i figure she was castigating herself, probably in tears, over the fact that she ' made ' us come down there for nothing ..
she failed, again ..

that's kinda what i'm talking about
that's a day in the life of a homeless person
everything is an issue
everyone is a challenger to you, to your lifestyle, to your laziness and being a bum and begging, to your hunger, to your need to launder, and ..
you are the unwanted
you are the despised
you are the dregs
you are the problem .. . . . .     .

would you be sane after 2 years of that ?