Finding Services

When I was homeless, the state of the art for disseminating information to the homeless was paper handouts and word of mouth. It was nearly impossible to find what I needed by looking stuff up on the internet. I don't think that's changed much in the year or so I have been off the street.

So don't be discouraged by not being able to find the information online. Instead, call 211, go to the library and ask a librarian for information, find the welfare office and ask them, or speak with another homeless person and ask them where to go.

The process is like this: You go to the first place and you let them know what you need, like more food resources or new ID, and they will probably give you a paper handout listing what they know of in the area. Then you start calling or going to the places listed.

The list may not be comprehensive and information on it may not be accurate. The address for a thing may be wrong or the date and time may have changed since this list was put together, etc.

Also, sometimes churches are doing things like a weekly free meal that may not be on the list at whatever organization you went to. There can be lots of little things out there that aren't really listed anywhere and you wind up finding out about them by participating in some other free meal or something like that.

So you should view the list as a place to start. If you run through everything on the list and still haven't got what you need, that may not mean you are out of options. The thing you need may still exist, but, if so, it will take some digging to turn it up.

I wrote about this previously on my old homeless blog when I was still homeless. It's a bit rambly.