I know what you mean, took me almost a year of paperwork and in office visits to get on SSDI.

Its… amazing how many people I met, while homeless, barely ambulatory… amazing how many people literally died because some shelter staffer lost someone’s mail, or someone’s phone with all their info on it or their wallet or backpack got stolen when they were mugged, and that prevented them from being inside on a very hot or very cold day, or getting medication they needed.

Happened to me a number of times and for quite a long time I was convinced I was going to die.

Now its been six months halfway across the country in a roach motel I can barely afford, slowly recovering from my many, many torn ligaments and fractures.

In the end I literally just got lucky.

Randomly found a motel that I can afford, will let me stay monthly, and they also run an apartment complex thats cheaper, has a real mailing address, and because I make no trouble and have steady income, they may overlook my now horrific credit.

Oh yeah forgot about that. You know what you need to get nearly every kind of federal or state or city aid aimed at the homeless?

A mailing address. A place of residence.

Some shelters will let you use their place for mail buy as previously mentioned those places are staffed by the underpaid, overworked and often criminal.

And theyre all full, beyond full, nearly all the time.

Every time you see a news report about an encampment being cleared and the inhabitants being ‘referred’ to local shelters?

Yeah what that means is they give you the number of a shelter thats full.

Its fucked.