Homeless in Small Town America

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A couple of years ago I fell into a situation of taking care of some homeless people. A guy walking down the street was looking for work and my husband offered him a job to help him out, together they fixed our fence. After they completed the job we paid him and offered him a few handyman jobs around the house, since he appeared to be a hard worker, he said he was homeless and spending his nights at a local church and his days in the local park. A few weeks later he reappeared with a girl, and asked if the handyman jobs were still available, he had been living down at a nearby river with this gal. I called my husband, and he offered the old storage trailer, for them to sleep in, and food in exchange for work and a little cash. This arrangement turned into a nightmare! Unbeknownst to us, they were both alcoholics and had mental illness problems .It goes without saying the handyman chores did not get done. Soon it was police, for disturbances, the man’s wife had kicked him out and she was coming by the house with her boyfriend to harass him, and then there were endless hospital visits for alcohol poisoning, hep c, emotional problems and so forth. My husband and I tried our best to help, eventually their families were located and they left. We did become co-guardians for the girl though, that led to a whole new set of bigger than life problems, so after a year we bowed out of the court, obligations. In the meantime, we once again took in two homeless people a man and a wife. The woman was pregnant, and the man left after a few months for prison as he had many drinking and driving tickets. He spent a lot of time drinking and getting high and brought around many undesirable people, but he did offer to work and did his best. The woman stayed with us and had a homeless girlfriend come stay with her to help her out with her new baby. The girl finally left and went to live with her family and the woman with the baby, was taken in by a local pastor and they were able to get her welfare, food stamps, housing assistance and a part time cleaning job. Another school of hard knocks. Alcohol and Drug Addiction is difficult for families and those around them. They steal, scam you for money and lie to get their high. Their families don’t want to deal with them, the courts do not want to deal with them, and the government does not want to deal with them. Many businesses will not hire them and no one wants to house them…they are factionless…until they resolve their addictions and get mental health treatment, they are cast off’s in our society. Unfortunately, some of them are ungrateful and feel they are entitled to special care, and some even refuse help to overcome their addictions. Being in small town America, there are not many resources available to help. Unfortunately, I nor my husband will work with the homeless with addictions or mental problems again…Just sayin… Does anyone else have a homeless story?