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Are Homeless Shelters Safe?

Can you stay there without being threatened or assaulted? Without having your possessions stolen?

Paul Ryburn, M.Sc.
6 min readJun 26, 2024
homeless man
Photo credit Leroy Skalstad on Pixabay

For the first six weeks after I became homeless, I refused to go to the local shelter. I was afraid I’d get beaten up there. I was afraid what few possessions I had left would surely be stolen. I imagined that shelter life would involve constant fear.

So I wandered the streets in the cold of winter, staying awake 4–5 nights in a row. I started hallucinating. Many of my friends thought I was drunk but I was actually sleep-deprived. I went for weeks without a shower. My beard grew in and I looked terrible.

Only when my situation became dire did I risk going to the shelter. And I found that my fears were for naught — it was completely safe! All those nights I spent wandering in the cold could have been nights when I ate a hot dinner followed by 9 hours of sleep.

Is the homeless shelter in your city completely safe? I can’t give a blanket answer, for every shelter is different. What I can do is give you some key indicators of safety I’ve observed in my shelter. I can also provide some pointers on how to keep yourself safe.

Signs to watch for

Are there enough supervisors to adequately…

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Paul Ryburn, M.Sc.
Paul Ryburn, M.Sc.

Written by Paul Ryburn, M.Sc.

I write about writing, ideas, creativity, homelessness, intuition, spirituality, life lessons. Ex-college teacher Twitter: @paulryburn

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