City shelters are not safe, in any way. When it comes to being safe, one must first be around a safe environment. And that doesn’t happen in the shelters.
Why? For one thing there are too many people in the city shelters. There can be as many as 380 men in the MLK shelter, though it is not always full. And many appeared to be on one drug or another whenever I stayed there.
The sad thing is that once you are on drugs, like K2, your life will never be the same. Another sad thing about being in a shelter is that many people do not want to take showers or wear clean clothes. There is no respect for each other, and when we, as a race, don’t have respect for each other, life becomes even harder – for everyone.
With people selling drugs and taking other people’s things, a shelter will never be a safe place to stay. Often, someone gets something taken by someone in the shelter. This is making the shelter the last place a person wants to be. I’d be better living on the streets. For sure!
Dan Hooks is an artist and vendor for Street Sense Media.
