Thread by @irenicpoet

Folks don’t understand that because they have no idea what it’s like to sleep on the street or in a tarp tent or in a car for months on end.

Everything’s fallen apart & the stress is enough to kill you. Intoxication is the easiest thing to get in order to cope.

https://twitter.com/oksomik/status/1328040313764634631

In most studies over the last 20 years, it was found that majority of unhoused folks who had an alcohol or drug abuse problem developed it *after* going homeless.

Because the reality is that having nowhere to go to sleep, cook, shower, relax... it’s torturous.

If you’re struggling with that on top of a health issue or no job or little to no possessions of your own, nobody to call, no family or friends who’ll come visit you... you don’t just “handle” that & come out okay.

By the 4th or 5th day of no shower, not being able to clean yourself, feeling the dirt weigh down your clothes & your skin, the smell that you’re constantly self-conscious of because you know nobody will want you to come near them... that feeling alone is enough to depress you.

You don’t know where your next meal is coming from. The night is too cold & the day is too busy, but you can’t just go hang out in a Starbucks or movie theater without people staring & ready to call the cops because just the presence of you is “disturbing” them.

You don’t have anywhere to go & nobody wants you around, & you have nothing that feels safe.

Of course you’re going to find a way to drown that out.

But all anybody who just came from inside a warm, safe home sees is an addict “who probably deserves it if they don’t stop.”