People in poverty have a sense of scarcity. So, it makes sense for them to keep taking. It’s weird to think that helping can contribute to keeping someone sick. The way to minimize the damage from helping in the wrong direction is to be mindful of possible unintended consequences. We have to be more thought-out in all aspects of helping.
We have to ask ourselves: What are we “helping” the person to do more easily? Are we helping in a way that will contribute to getting someone off the streets or in a better condition? Or are we helping someone stay successfully homeless?
Grant Denton has overcome significant diversity. Childhood abuse and abandonment, drug addiction, and a life of crime, to emerge as a leading advocate for folks in need, especially the unhoused. Denton burned through jobs. He became addicted to drugs and was in and out of homelessness from 2007 to 2013. In 2013, Denton was arrested on burglary charges that could have sent him to prison for five to seven years. The judge gave him a choice: enter drug court and rehab or go to prison. On Dec. 28, 2014, Denton used illegal drugs for the last time. “That was It! I was done,” he says. Denton moved to Reno for a fresh start, working in sober living, a homeless shelter, for the Downtown Reno Business Improvement District, and in an addiction treatment center, where he formed a crew of community volunteers that led to the Karma Box Project.
It’s time for real stories to be told by the unsheltered and by those who can speak about and for them so we can debunk the myths “for good”….
—WORLDWIDE CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS—
CLICK FOR PRESS RELEASE ► Breakthrough Unsheltered Anthology Book Series Launched
WE NEED STORYTELLERS, including:
- those who; are currently unsheltered/homeless; have been unsheltered/homeless in the past
- have been affected indirectly/a degree removed from being unsheltered/homeless (family members, friends, co-workers, etc. .)
- are familiar with the personal and global effects of the unsheltered/homeless population,
- organizations and causes who are on the ground facing daily struggles with those who are unsheltered/homeless and who have stories to tell.
