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?

  • nemmybun [she/her, sae/saer]@hexbear.netEnglish
    10·
    3 months ago

    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

    • Babs [she/her]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      9·
      3 months ago

      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.