Living on the same street as a homeless shelter.

[Anonymous]

We lived about a block from one of the family shelters in DC and it was absolutely not a problem. I was glad the old vacant building was being used. Crime in general was a big issue, but the shelter didn't seem to impact that either way.

[Anonymous]

Fine with small longer term/transitional family shelter housing women and kids but absolutely a no on a big night shelter providing space for men.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fine with small longer term/transitional family shelter housing women and kids but absolutely a no on a big night shelter providing space for men.

Right, men don’t deserve shelter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fine with small longer term/transitional family shelter housing women and kids but absolutely a no on a big night shelter providing space for men.

Right, men don’t deserve shelter.

Pp, I know how it sounds but it’s still my stance. If you’ve been around one of those big shelters you know what that looks like during the day and I wouldn’t buy a house on the same street. If people are being honest with themselves I don’t think anyone would unless they didn’t have better options.

[Anonymous]

I lived in a very nice town once that had a halfway house near the railway station. It had about 20 men living in it. I would never have bought a house next door or on the same street.

[Anonymous]

Once I moved out of the homeless shelter and got a job, I bought a home nearby. Ended up with a few tents setup in my front yard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live within a mile of a nice shelter for women and children. There have been no issues with it.
But the overnight shelters for people where they kick them out every morning at 6? Nope. Also would not be crazy about the short-term shelters for single men. Sorry, but the majority of single men who are homeless have issues—sometimes perfectly harmless disabilities but more often addiction and problematic mental health issues, and the shelters can’t really filter for this. Women and children are different — there’s a lot of different reasons why a mom with kids can end up homeless.

+1 We also lived about a mile from a home that housed women and children who were escaping abusive conditions. The home and yard were as carefully maintained as any others on the street. Even had ferns hanging from the front porch.

I don't think living a mile from a shelter is the same as living on the same street. I'm assuming the OP was meant within a block or two.

PP here. I agree. I was just describing the shelter that I passed daily.

[Anonymous]

I worked in an area of town where there were a few shelters. Small transitional housing places for families were quiet and well maintained. Outside of the night shelters frequented by mostly men suffering from untreated mental health issues and addiction tents were set up, trash was scattered along the street, people were sleeping along the sidewalk, and there were frequent physical altercations that ended with police and sometimes ambulances on the scene.

While I do believe there is a need for shelters and a desperate need for access to healthcare and treatment options I do not believe these shelters should be situated in residential neighborhoods and I would not buy a house nearby one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would you buy a house on the same street as a shelter? The question was asked on a Reddit sub and most people said no, they wouldn’t want to live there. How about you?

Absolutely not. Ugh.

[Anonymous]

Definitely not. I live in NYC, where homeless people were put into hotels during Covid. It was awful. All of a sudden, there were aggressive panhandlers everywhere who would grab at your clothes and shout in your face until you gave them money. They would break into vestibules of buildings nearby to do drugs, catcall women and follow them down the street masturbating. They would openly defecate on the sidewalk. There was a big to-do criticizing the “snobby elitists” who united to kick them out of the neighborhood, but I’m so glad they did.

[Anonymous]

I live in a downtown dc neighborhood with several homeless shelters within a couple blocks. I would never purposefully move next to an overnight shelter. They are disastrous as they dump people on the streets all day. But the other shelters are good neighbors for the most part. I have happily lived there for over twenty years. I don't think that I would move to a single family home with a shelter on my block.

[Anonymous]

Nope.

[Anonymous]

I live around the corner from one. I wouldn't necessarily want to be right next door because there are a ton of people hanging right outside early in the morning. But being just a tiny bit further away and out of view is fine.