Social Services: Are You Eligible NYC?

No Where To Sleep

When I'm outside now a days and I see the homeless sleeping in the streets I no longer have to wonder why they are out there or what drove them to be there. You see, I've noticed that when people see them the first thing they wonder or say is there are shelters why don't they go to the shelters and sleep there? It's  the same thing with people who pan handle. People respond by wondering why don't they go to welfare or get social security?
First and foremost I want to say that the people who say these things lack a great deal of compassion and insight.Unfortunately, I like hundreds of thousands of people have had to seek services and assistance, and it's not easy to obtain. You might as well be applying for a position with the FBI with some of the things these people make you go through in order to obtain and maintain these services.

People who need welfare, be it cash, food stamps or the whole sh-bang (including medicaid) you need documents upon documents in order to receive assistance. For welfare; they request your identification, birth certificate, Social Security card, proof of income, W-2 forms or previous years tax returns,proof of address and don't be a single mother who got the short end of the stick because now you have to know intricate knowledge of the child's father so I hope you have is full name, birth date AND SOCIAL SECURITY, his current and previous addresses.....SMH Oh, if you go to DHS (The Department of Homeless Services) they ask for all that but you need to provide proof of residence for three years back...So if you was sleeping on people's couches you better hope they will vouch for you because they investigate your whereabouts before confirming or denying whether or not they will assist you.

Some of you are reading this like, it's not that hard. Well, I'm here to tell you that given the person, situation or circumstances obtaining this information is a hurdle in itself that may take months to obtain. And they don't give you months, DHS gives you ten days before the finalize a decision on your behalf. Mind you they want original copies of all these documents. Now imagine this, the place you were staying burnt down and all of your information got damaged during the fire. You got terminated 2 weeks prior because the company you worked for down sized and now you have to go spend some money (that you don't have) to obtain the
documents you need in order to be found ELIGIBLE for help. Now some people have all this going on and are mental health consumers, some who are undiagnosed and are over whelmed by the process and end up making ends meet in the streets or in the subways, and this my friends are why and how you have people in the streets sleeping and pan handling. And no everyone of them are not on drugs. To imagine the millions and millions of people receiving services, now think of the thousands you see who are on the street not receiving help and are uncounted for. It's proof that everyone can't be helped even if they wanted to, so have some compassion when you see a person struggling with something you believe has an easy fix because there are no easy fixes to anything and it damn sure won't come from the government.