Let's look at some of the good ones first.
Recommendations for social distancing within the shelters had to be addressed (see my post named "Stack em, pack em and rack em). To address the social distancing requirement the shelters had to reduce the number of people they normally house which caused many of the homeless people to need somewhere else to sleep. For those who were not able to get a bed in the shelters the city arranged for an overnight overflow shelter at the downtown convention center. In addition to that, arrangements were made to bring in RVs to isolate the homeless people who tested positive for the virus. Meals and other services are still available for most of the homeless people but are available in a somewhat limited fashion.
That's all well and good. In fact it is a great thing that the homeless community has not been forgotten what with all the changes in our lives to help eliminate the pandemics threat to our society.
I'll say this again. What about the unsheltered homeless people. The people who live on the street or in camps. All the changes I mentioned above concentrate on the homeless people who live in the shelters on or along East Lancaster as well as some of the homeless people who live in the same area. Most of the unsheltered homeless, people I know who for all kinds of reasons never go to that area. Meaning that those people are still not getting much help. In fact in some ways things actually got worse for them. There are a few outreach teams who work with those unsheltered homeless people by helping out with food and water but because of the pandemic those unsheltered homeless can't earn what little money they need whether by doing day jobs or picking up aluminum cans. In addition to that, many of the smaller local neighborhood food pantries are still closed forcing the unsheltered guys or campers to either not get the food they need or travel a long distance to get to the ones that are open. In my case alone the closest open food pantry is about 4 miles away and at 68 years of age carrying as much as 40 pounds of groceries is a real challenge.
Most of the true unsheltered homeless people or campers live quite a distance from the food pantries that are open as well as the shelter district on East Lancaster. With that in mind it's been reported by the local news outlets that the City of Ft Worth does not want people to give money, food, water or anything else directly to homeless people but instead give those things to the shelters and homeless service providers. Unfortunately when that happens the food and other supplies do not get to the homeless people who live unsheltered or camp out. The people who live or hang out on Lancaster do not need those supplies but the homeless people who live several miles away do need the money, food, water and other supplies. I understand why the city says what they do. There are plenty of homeless people who live in or near the shelter district who take advantage of the people trying to serve. The people who live away from the shelters are less predatory and less likely to take advantage of somebody's kindness.
If you do want to give directly to some of the homeless people who live unsheltered or are campers and in parts of the city not near the shelter district, use caution, but a bag of burgers, a box of chicken, bag of groceries or even a few dollars will be appreciated.
In the future I will write more about the outreach people who go and visit with the unsheltered homeless people. There are even things your church may be able to do to help.
Thank you to all of you who are helping the homeless community either through the shelters, through the outreach organizations or, with caution, directly to the homeless.
