“They’re not all scum people”: Perspective from Inside A Homeless Shelter
I interviewed Stevie Shock, a senior at Colorado State University. She dedicates her time volunteering and working for homeless and domestic violence shelters. If you’ve ever been curious about what it’s like to work at a homeless shelter, keep on reading. Some of your questions might be answered!
Beyond the Oval: Tell me about where you work. Did you start off volunteering or did you start working immediately?
Stevie Shock: I used to work at Catholic Charities, which is a homeless shelter, for about two years. I starting volunteering then decided to work there. Now I work at Crossroads Safe House which, is a domestic violence shelter. They’re a little different from each other, but a lot of our clients at Crossroads Safe House are transitioning into homelessness when they leave which is unfortunate.
What kind of tasks would you do? What were your day-to-day responsibilities?
My main task is to help people find resources. This can be helping them find jobs, applying for under income housing, or finding mental health resources. But I would normally work at night. During the night I would check people in and tell them where they’re going to sleep. I would just get them all situated.
I actually started getting interesting in working night shifts after Homeward2020 started the program of “Safe Place to Rest”.
What exactly is Homeward2020 and how does that program work?
Homeward2020 is basically a collaborative mission to try and reduce homelessness in Fort Collins. “Safe Place to Rest” is a mission to reduce mortality rates. A lot of people die in the winter just from freezing to death. This programs ensures they have a place to sleep during the cold nights.
Learn more about Homeward2020 here. http://www.homeward2020.org/about-us/
What inspired you to work there?
I think that everybody has a huge bias against homeless people. A lot of the time we view them as the “failures of life”. But it’s usually not their fault that they’re homeless. It’s our capitalistic society and the fact that we literally have no lower income housing. The amount of people that actually do receive low income housing is about 5%. It’s just ridiculous. Most of these people do have jobs and work forty hours a week and still can’t afford housing.
Check out this website to learn more about low income housing. https://www.lowincomehousing.us/CO/fort_collins.html
In your opinion, what’s the best way to interact with a homeless person?
Just treat them like a person. Like I said before, there’s a lot of bias and people don’t want to talk to them on the street but simply saying like “Hey, how’s your day going?” can be very impactful. I always make sure to say hi when I see someone on the streets.
Do you think there will ever be a solution to homelessness?
I think that more under income housing would help a lot. Even if we increase under income housing by 25%, that would change everything completely. Fort Collins does a better job than most places since we are a smaller city with more resources. But I think more low income housing, increasing resources and increasing transitional housing would be really beneficial.
What is the craziest thing to happen while working there?
The craziest thing to happen was one of my frequent clients who had no teeth for a long time, got all of his teeth replaced provided by welfare. He had the biggest smile ever after it happened. He was such a happy camper. I was just so excited that we could be a part of it and help him through the process.
What have you learned from working at these shelters? Any life lessons?
I’ve learned a lot, just to treat people equally and not to judge people based off what they look like. I’ve learned how far compassion and empathy can go.
I’ve heard some really amazing life stories from the people I’ve worked with, they just have so much knowledge. A lot of these people have degrees and families, it’s not just like they’re some scum person. They’re really good people who have really strong characters.
