• They're dangerous during a pandemic, being barracks-style group living.

• They're not really housing, you usually have very specific sign in/out times and can't leave your things there.

• Many will be at capacity and you'll need to "shop around" while having precarious / nonexistent transportation options.

• Many disallow couples, pets, etc.

• Tend to lack communities due to their culture of transience.

Compare each of these to living in a tent community or similar:

• outdoors / you can control your distance, good for the pandemic.

• Far more stable housing, you can actually leave your stuff in your tent.

• You don't have to hunt for a new bed every day, can have some stability for actually living your life.

• No restrictions on pets, couples, families.

• Tend to have communities, which increases safety and provides socialization. People in tent communities make friends (if they want friends).

Though I usually don't say these things to them, I say that everyone deserves actual housing as a human right and shelters ain't it.

The shelters can be dangerous. Women can be sexually assaulted, men can be robbed or assaulted.

There’s almost no recourse for when the shelter or one of its inhabitants fucks with you — or do you think an unsheltered person could sustain a legal battle to assert their rights?

Many of them are straight up concentration camps. 50 tents on an asphalt parking lot in Reseda, CA with no shade on a 105 degree day? Fuck you if you think that’s okay.

Those are the reasons I might say. But really? Having homeless people on the street might make a person uncomfortable, but that’s not enough of a reason to make them disappear. Then you have people who are traumatized by an encounter with a homeless person who use that as an excuse to go full albrecht macht frie. Those ones are dangerous fascists, despite how liberal they are on other social issues.

The shelters you underfunded are overcrowded and usually dangerous. Would you rather risk it or camp in the park?

Getting into a shelter isn't easy and can come with caveats a lot of folks can't meet. See also: "being homeless is a choice"

For women or for men? For women, especially with children, it's SO much better. For men, single men? Yeesh, not much better than jail. I hear the food is better at least.

Shelters typically are full with a waiting list in cities. Then they have restrictions that can split families apart, refuse LGBTQIA, men, teens and nonwhites (since they claim to be religious and do whatever the fuck). Once there they get fucked with or their things stolen, or there's more restrictions on movement etc they can do.

What shelters? There are barely any services in my city and the ones that exist split families and are always full. Like, you are sleeping roigh if you're a guy, there is basically not a chance you'll find a spot.

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