Are you a leftist who is sick of working long hours just so that your boss can buy a second house?
Do you struggle finding employment because you don’t have a degree (classist bullshit), or have a degree in a field you didn’t end up liking?
Do you have any personal experience with homelessness, drug addiction, mental illness, or just struggling to fit in with capitalist society? This is like, the one job where that helps a lot.
Do you have an understanding of the structural issues that cause people to become unemployed or homeless (it’s capitalism. capitalism is the answer)? Live in a medium-to-large city where social services exist in parallel with the for-profit job market?
Why not try a new career working in Homeless Services?
I’ve been a shelter worker for most of the last decade, and lemme tell you, it’s pretty great. I’ve done everything from working on-call night shifts, to managing entire shelters hosting 100+ people. I didn’t go to school for this, and I had no social work experience prior. I was just some trans girl in her 20s with a little bit of lived experience (living in my car) who answered a craigslist ad, but I stuck with the work cause it’s like, hella rewarding and stuff.
Most of the job is just maintaining a safe environment for the guests - cleaning the facility, preparing meals if your shelter does its own food, signing people up for services (showers, laundry, beds, depending on program), with a little bit of case management on the side - and they’ll teach you that part. Depending on the shelter, you might be busy buzzing around chatting with people (like 90% just being friendly, not even “work talk”), or you might just be chilling, ready to pop up if anything exciting happens. If you work night shift, you might even get to spend the night on your phone while everyone is asleep (depends heavily on the shelter).
There are some substantial downsides, not gonna sugar coat it.
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It can be stressful dealing with people going through what is likely the most difficult period of their life. They aren’t normally assholes, life is making them that way.
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Sometimes said stressed-out people will have emotional outbursts, that can be very disruptive and sometimes scary or even dangerous. You learn a lot about deescalating angry people (which is actually a really good skill for a leftist to have, if you do any protesting!).
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Sometimes people fucking die, and you’ll be the first responder. You will get good at using narcan and doing CPR. I have a graveyard in my head and have known so many people who died either in shelter, or on the streets some time after I met them through work. I’ve had people die while I was trying to save them. Sometimes you do EMT stuff. It does weigh on you a bit.
But the rewards are so much more!
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When you tell people what you do, they’ll think very highly of you. Our stereotypes are sick as hell and people will talk about how caring and wonderful you are. Try it out on dating apps!
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It’s peaceful at work today so I spent all day posting. I expect tomorrow to also be mostly chill, so I will be posting more.
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I’m in good with a lot of houseless people in my city, and this has been helpful more than once. It’s cool having people.
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Actually doesn’t pay too bad. I make about 50k in a large coastal city, enough to pay rent and have a modest living. With my shelter worker bf making around the same, we get by alright in this expensive city.
Any other shelter workers here? Anyone in homeless services in general? What got you into this work?
Also, does anyone have any questions about what the job is like or how to get into it?
At work, being a small friendly-looking white lady goes a long way tbh, as does being a person who builds up lots of good rapport when the situation isn’t escalated yet. Open body language, being really friendly on the day-to-day, being very visibly “not a threat” - clients at work like me. I’ve broken up fights before because two older men didn’t want to fight “in front of Babs”. Nobody wants to feel like an asshole for picking on someone smaller than them, and many people are very willing to apologize after the situation is over.
Also, cigarettes. If someone seems upset in shelter, it can be super helpful to offer a cigarette and ask if they’ll walk with you and tell you what’s up. It works on a bunch of levels - the nicotine might calm them down, they’ll have a chance to vent about everything that’s upsetting them, and you can’t smoke indoors so it’s a good way to get away from whatever or whoever it is they have a problem with, give some space. I don’t even smoke, but my shelter has a community stash for this reason.
But there’s also a strong safety decision involved. If someone is being escalated and transphobic or homophobic, I’m not going to engage. My classic strategies will not work there, so I tag in a coworker. If things have gotten to the point of actual violence, I’m not getting involved any way beyond asking people to leave. I don’t wanna call the cops, my coworkers don’t wanna call the cops, nobody wanna deal with the cops, so just go away please. Accept that you will likely lose your bed space over this, find somewhere else, but cut your losses.
But ultimately, it’s about being aware of the situation. Do I know this person? What are they like? How do they feel about me? Is it safe to ask them what is going on?
Outside of work, if I see someone experiencing houselessness yelling or otherwise acting escalated towards me, I get the fuck out of there. I haven’t had time to get on their good side, I don’t know them or what they like. I’ve been assaulted trying to be “shelter Babs” in the real world and . I’m protecting me.
If it’s working de-escalation at a protest, I need to judge the situation - will me approaching this person make things better or worse? Sometimes I’m the person for the job, sometimes it’s smart to tag in a couple comrades instead.