Hey sickos, ever considered a career in homeless services?
Hey sickos, ever considered a career in homeless services?
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.
-
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.
-
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!).
-
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!
-
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!
-
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.
-
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.
-
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?
I did some work experience shifts of this when I was younger. My city had one of the highest homelessness per capitas in the country at the time so it was pretty intense work.
I think if I was older than 16 it could have been interesting, but honestly it was just a super radicalising experience. It was like damn, people live like this, and the people who assist them get paid less than I would if I worked in Tesco's.
What's your top de-escalation tips? I live in area where unfortunately there are a lot of homeless people and under the pressure they face they quite often 'lose it'.
One of my more darkly comedic moments was being chased by an older crackhead lady (for no real reason), but I didn't want to seem like a total coward so I just jogged away slowly. She jogged after me at her full pace (my slow jog) for about 2 blocks.
What's your top de-escalation tips?
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.
Do you have any personal experience with homelessness, drug addiction, mental illness, or just struggling to fit in with capitalist society?
Yes.
I'd be interested.
This is called "lived experience" and when I'm hiring people it is the equivalent of a college degree.
The best way to get a foot in the door at most shelters is to look for on-call work, especially on swing and grave shifts. At least in my city, there are a lot of experienced on-call shelter workers vying for full-time positions, especially day shift. At some agencies, on-call is the defacto entryway into the field. If I'm looking for a full time worker and someone has already worked several successful on-call shifts and is a known and appreciated presence in my shelter, I'm probably hiring them over an external applicant.
Which kinda sucks to be fair. There are a lot of good people who would probably be great at this work but don't have that kind of freedom to work those weird shifts, or need full-time out the gate and struggle to juggle multiple shelter agencies like many oncalls here do. But in many agencies, the oncalls are the biggest department and it's just kind of the culture of how we hire people.
As far as resume and cover letter goes, having good customer service skills/history goes a long way. The job is all about interacting with people, and even though it's usually super casual, management likes to see that you've done it professionally. Knowledge of local social services, like you'd get if you ever applied for Medicaid or food stamps, also helps but can be trained. Knowing what 211 is, is very good. If your city has a "street newspaper", namedrop it in the interview.
But also, "on-call" doesn't necessarily mean "part time". I was working 40 hours a week night shift oncall before being hired for my first permanent role. I was just the person who was there, who showed up.
oh yeah, and this lived experience thing - it doesn't have to be in the past. I have worked with many people who were experiencing houselessness while working, and there's usually some rules about boundaries with the clients, and not receiving services from the agency you are working for, but yeah - shelter work can be a pretty good job for people who are homeless. After all, you have every reason to be like super empathetic to the people living in shelter, provided you can maintain professional boundaries.
One time I was working a shift when a young man who was staying at my shelter burst in through the front door shouting about how he was "done with that crazy woman!", only to see one of my coworkers come in behind him crying about him breaking up with her. That was pretty wild - don't do that.
Also hmu if you want any tips on applying for shelter jobs, finding open positions in your area, whatever. It's a running joke among my discord friends that I will try to get all of my friends a shelter job at some point, and I've been a recruiter so hopefully know how to make you look real real good.
Not as a career, but as volunteer work. Couldn't find anything of the sort in my city.
My god, I wish I could find anything in my city like that. "Outreach" here is so gentrified that the only two options are:
- Take a pair of 90 minute bus rides—or pay $15 for parking—to work every single volunteer shift. So you can put it on your resume or your college application.
- Have experience in social work and a relevant university degree.
Jobs are also limited to a 15x15 block radius around where the downtown core exists, and where the city wishes homeless folks didn't exist.
I live in hell.
I hate my field and I've been struggling with unemployment lately aaand I'd be interested in moving on to something that's beneficial to people instead of businesses. But I've tried applying to similar jobs before and I've never even got an acknowledgment soooo I dunno
As I mentioned in another reply, there is a real problem with how shelter workers get hired on - most full-time openings, especially on day shift, tend to be filled by people already in the field or even already working part-time at that shelter. On-call work is the easiest way to get in, and in my experience most agencies have enough hours for any on-call worker to get close to 40 hours a week provided they are willing to work multiple shifts and shelters - this is also a good question to ask about in interviews. If I'm interviewing an on-call and they seem super eager to work lots of shifts and wanting full time, that means my job of scheduling and keeping the shelter staffed is going to be way easier than managing a dozen people who each have very little availability.
Thank you for the advice! I think I'll look into this more this week
All of my experience is from working in a large blue coastal city, so your mileage may vary re: wages and job availability! Death to America!
I considered it. The listing needed a car though.
Ive got a bachelors in psych, which they wanted. Maybe I can check again once I get wheels.
A LOT of my friend's work in shelters or in outreach groups. Pretty much all were homeless themselves at some point, a couple for over 20 years and already know most of the people in the shelters, that seems to be the biggest help in getting these gigs, at least here that's who they're looking for, doesn't mean you can't get in at all otherwise. They all really like their work and seem quite satisfied, I do recommend to others.
Yeah, it's been something I've thought about. When I was at a point where I didn't already have an industry and career, a lot of the places had an age minimum of 21. Volunteering, though, is something I do, drug/harm reduction related stuff usually. Maybe an actual job in the industry is something I'll pursue years in the future.
I've got lots of lived experience with substance abuse, and some connections with my local homeless community (though I've never been "properly" homeless, my life's been surprisingly lucky).
I'm interested. Don't have much customer experience though. Do I still have a chance at a position?
I'm glad you've had a positive experience! I worked at a community-run homeless shelter for a couple years and it was definitely one of the most stressful and fulfilling experiences of my life. Ultimately it was too intense for me so I became a school teacher. (like that's any less stressful but that's another story lol)