What Does Homelessness Feel Like?

by Shannon Moriarty · 2009-05-27 13:56:00 UTC
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It's a question that's always nagged me: What does homelessness feel like?

Maybe you've never been without a place to sleep but you've wondered it. Maybe you've been homeless but could never articulate it. Maybe your answer would change depending on what season it was, or what part of the world you're in. 

What does homelessness feel like?

Last week, I found the beginnings of an answer to this question. It's not absolute by any means; the experience of being homeless is different for everyone. But it did articulate that look of desperation, exhaustion, and isolation you see in people who have been living for a lengthy period of time without a home.

The series is written by David Lanier, an ex-sports journalist who's been homeless for five years. It was published by the Northwest Arkansas News:

Initially one suffers from a loss of self-esteem when all of the normalities like a job, a place to sleep in heavenly peace - i.e. a bedroom, luxuriating on a mattress - have disappeared, thereby discombobulating the feeling of self-worth.

That's a never-ending psychological dilemma a person's ego must contend with on a 24-7 basis.

Even while sleeping sometimes, nightmares and flashbacks about the "good ole days" plague the inner self.

After the premiere shock effect of being less fortunate than in one's glory days lapses, a sense of selfpreservation kicks in.

Self-reliance becomes the credo because "whom do I trust sometimes?" evolves into me, myself and I.

The seven-part series is a bit rambling and a bit stream-of-consciousness, but it's a glimpse into the reality of chronic homelessness. The series touches on everything from the trouble with camping, panhandling on Christmas, to his friends in the soup kitchen. 

Do you think this adequately answers the question: How does it feel to be homeless?

 

Shannon Moriarty has worked in various homeless shelters and service organizations around the country. She is a graduate student studying housing and urban policy at Tufts University.
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