I’ve been homeless and served the homeless. Real help starts with listening.
By Bill Smith, Society of St. Vincent de Paul Kentucky
I’VE BEEN IN THE “HOMELESSNESS BUSINESS” FOR 40 YEARS. This includes nine months of what I call “hardcore time” on the street, but I have spent most of the rest of the time living or working in shelters. Other than being employed in security, working with the homeless is the only job I’ve ever known.
In my case, alcohol dependency and some personal trauma first led me to the homelessness arena. In 2023, I moved to Kentucky after a couple of decades in another southern state. I wasn’t doing well. I’d lost my job, my health was poor, and I wanted to live near family. When I got there, I went to a place for the homeless and they sent me to Ozanam Inn Men’s Shelter, run by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
It was the first shelter I’d ever stayed in that had no curfew.
You might think that policy is ill-advised. You might think that if you’re helping people (like myself) who struggle with substance abuse, it makes sense to impose a curfew. But let me tell you, being treated as a person who has the freedom to take responsibility for himself is a very powerful thing.
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul actually listens to the people they serve better than any other organization I’ve been involved with. They try their best to get to know the individual person and understand their struggles — again, to peel back the layers of the onion. It makes a huge difference.
You say you want to help the homeless? Here’s a crazy thought: Why don’t you ask somebody who’s homeless what they want, and listen to what they have to say? What a concept, right? But paternalism seems to be the default approach in interactions with folks who are homeless. Plenty of times I’ve had people who don’t even know me tell me what I need or why I’m homeless. That, I think, is part of the problem.
It wasn’t long before the Society of St. Vincent de Paul invited me onto their program committee and advisory board. I was at Ozanam Inn for nine months before moving into a place of my own, where I live today.
We do a terrible disservice to people in this country when we stigmatize and criminalize people who are homeless or have issues with mental health or addiction. When you meet me, I want you to see me as Bill Smith, from the board of directors of St. Vincent de Paul in Kentucky. Not with the stigma of “homeless man” or “alcoholic.” We have to normalize the conversation around homelessness, to destigmatize it before we can treat it. I want you to know my name and define me by my character, not by my situation.
