Helping homeless people.

The homeless are not a united community of saints, nor are they by nature a dangerous element in need of extermination.

They're a bunch of people, and they are in a shitty situation.

It does nobody any favours to ignore or condone violent behaviour demonstrated by homeless folks. Their most likely victims are other homeless people.

I hear this from homeless people a lot. That the number one group of people they're scared of are other folks on the street.

And it's because, in our efforts to not judge the community as a whole, we've become reluctant to even acknowledge bad behaviours when they occur.

I don't hate the homeless. I want effective help for them, and the starting point for that is to make safe spaces for them, and to get them access to both trauma care and other mental health care.

Part of the safe space they need, though, is a place that doesn't "welcome everyone" including the guy who threatened to stab you about an hour ago, and who keeps stealing from you.

Like, to not admit this, is not helpful.