How Do the Homeless Wash Themselves?

Whenever I drive by the homeless people in tents or covered with thick, dirty blankets under the viaducts and slouching over in the corners of dark streets, I always wonder how they will wash themselves tonight. Most people who are not familiar with how the homeless live, they can easily say, "Oh, they go to homeless shelters to wash!" The answer, my friends, is not that easy. As a former homeless person, I will tell you how difficult it is to even get into a shelter.

For one, not all shelters offer a lodging right then and there (except for truly emergent situations like you showing up at the door with three young kids, tonight being -30 degrees Fahrenheit outside or your house burned to the ground along with that of everybody you could think of for assistance.) You have to go through surprisingly thorough and exhaustive screening process to see if you are higher up on the waiting list to be admitted and whether you are likely to benefit from having temporary shelters (one way to measure that is to see how long it will take for you to find your own place and "graduate.") Although charitable and having big enough heart to interact with the people on the lowest rung of the socioeconomic totem, if the homeless are even considered to be included in it, the social workers who perform this process are no joke and they are human lie detectors as well as arbiters of your future. They are brutally honest and strict to the point of denying the most essential necessity to be a dignified human being, namely a place to stay for the night, if they detect that you are here to mess around or not really ready to turn your life around.

Secondly, even if you are fortunate enough to be accepted to a local shelter program, the shelters themselves have to be run by someone, either paid staff or volunteers, and these personnel have to be available for a shelter to operate. This, in turn, means that the shelter itself has very consistent and strict policies and protocols to follow to oversee operation hours and the schedules. Most shelters that I have been to do not open for 24 hours, contrary to popular belief. Not only that, most shelters that the general public is thinking of are technically "overnight" temporary lodgings, rather, and they stay open only to provide a place to sleep. These overnight shelters admit their patrons by 9 pm and get them out by 6 am. And, during the day, you need to be out and about doing whatever it is that you need to get done, such as panhandling on the streets, traveling to soup kitchens for a meal, and most importantly, seeking social worker to straighten out endless aspects of your life to get you off the street such as looking for government assisted lodgings, maching you for a potential job, sorting out family situations, referring you to appropriate institutions according to your needs, and applying for government issued documentations, just to name a few. If you do not make it on time for the entry (yes, they designate a certain time period to enter, usually lasting about 30 to 60 minutes from the time it opens, and after that the facility will be locked down...), the staff members have the right to close the door on you or to deny your requests, albeit feeling bad for doing so. To top it all off, they can call police and ask for legal assistance at any given moment, and laws will be on their side 100% of the times.

Additionally, transportation is an insurmountable obstacle to overcome to travel to homeless shelters. As you can imagine, the homeless cannot afford to have a car. Nowadays, I notice that somehow a lot of homeless people are allowed to possess cellphones. I did not have any means of communication since I did not have a permanent address, let alone having an access to my personal emails. Since many organizations considered a cellphone a luxury item back in early 2000s, I honestly do not know the process of obtaining one as a derelict. Anyhow, by not having a car, transportation is extremely limited. The distance that you can travel will be restricted to wherever you can reach on foot. However, thankfully in Chicago areas, public transportation system is well set up. But then having the ticket for a bus ride is another story. And even if you have the means, where will you go? I am sure you can easily recollect having seen the sign, "NO LOITERING," all over private properties, including religious institutions, government facilities, the place of the rich and the poor alike, non-profit and for-profit organizations and just about everywhere. To someone who might think, "Oh, why don't they just hang out around the shelter areas until the shelter opens back up at night?" From listening to just that comment, I know you are new to the field, innocent and untainted. Even if your social worker approved you to be a regular patron, when the operation hour is over, the homeless are expected to respect the area and go some place else to "tuck away" your body. If you stay on the streets, the passerby will most definitely call 9-1-1 and when the police finally arrives it's not like they are going to offer you their own place. (FYI: For all kind and hard-working police officers out there, we, the homeless, are not even expecting you to give up your places for us. Please, don't beat yourselves about it if you didn't think to offer one in the past. My statement here is just a figure of speech.) Disappearing altogether might be an easier option than trying to place your body somewhere legally allowed when you just simply have nowhere to go. Killing time is the major concern with the homeless until that shelter door finally bursts open to turn me into a home-bound person only to turn me back into the ragged, needy homeless once that door closes in the morning.

Finally, even if you were lucky enough to have an idea where to stay and figure out the time and expense, you need to put every effort to stick to the plan. To work around the schedule as a vagrant is nothing short of a miracle, especially when you have to weather the storm when there is one, and wholly unprepared to encounter every little emergencies, like you not feeling well to walk around in cold weathers or when there are unexpected delays in public transportation. Then, for that night, your mind turns blank, your countenance turns pale and you hear faint, white noise somewhere inside your brain and very soon you are listening to pounding of your heart without even realizing when it started and when it would stop.

So, how did I wash myself when I was homeless? On a good day, when I was able to pass for a customer, I would go into mega stores, usually at least 50,000 square foot large, and pretend that I am shopping and ask for a restroom. I preferred mega stores because I can just disappear into one of the products that are displayed on endless shelves or dodge the surveillance system by pretending to be just another nameless, impersonal customer. Secondly, on a very rare occasions, I asked for help, literally. I asked for help if I could stay in their very private residence for the night and that's where I take my steamy, hot showers, crying and sobbing. In order for me to do that, I would go into religious organizations and I tell them that I am currently hard up and that I am traveling to see my (non-existent) relatives who can help me out of this situation. To this day, I am surprised, just as you are, that the leaders of organization would gather up their congregation and ask for people to volunteer to help. And, not always, but more often than not, some kind souls would take me under their wings and let me take care of my personal business. Lastly, I would save up money, whatever I could and whenever I could, and go to a cheap motel once a week or two and just wash myself at least 10 times until that dreaded time nears that I have to check myself out.

I definitely believe, though, me being young and having gone through some college education prior to becoming homeless definitely helped tugging at the heartstrings of the people who so selflessly and graciously saved me, even for one night. Now, whenever I go volunteering at the shelters, both for people and animals, I silently wish them a place to wash for the night and also I wish them all the best luck to get through this tough segment of journey that they are on at the moment.