{"id":20998,"date":"2023-04-27T09:00:27","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T13:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=20998"},"modified":"2023-04-19T11:36:08","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T15:36:08","slug":"autonomy-the-missing-piece-in-too-many-homelessness-initiatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/autonomy-the-missing-piece-in-too-many-homelessness-initiatives\/","title":{"rendered":"Autonomy: The Missing Piece In Too Many Homelessness Initiatives"},"content":{"rendered":"
The average day in the life of a housed person is full of choices. There are a lot of decisions to be made, from when to wake up to what to have for breakfast to which little coffee shop we want to stop at on the way to work. This is such a widely understood phenomenon that CEOs and tech bros have popularized the term “decision fatigue” and taken steps to guard against it, like wearing the same outfit every day.<\/span><\/p>\n For many unhoused people, decision fatigue is far from a concern. And not in a freeing, “saving all your decision-making power for the ones that really count” kind of way, but because much of their lives are controlled by other people.<\/span><\/p>\n In order to navigate and survive the system we have built, many homeless people are forced to give up their personal agency in exchange for the basic necessities that all human beings require to live.<\/span><\/p>\n From shelters to soup kitchens, the culture of control within the homelessness services industry is stifling. Strict rules govern the simplest of interactions, and transgressing against them can carry heavy penalties.<\/span><\/p>\n It can be difficult to learn, memorize, and abide by the differing rules of every place you go to as an unhoused person, especially since the list is usually long. However, not doing so can mean the difference between getting a bed for the night or being put out on the street because you folded your blanket wrong or something.<\/span><\/p>\n The “zero tolerance” attitude many of these places have means that you’ll face the same penalty for eating a snack in the wrong place as you would for putting someone else in danger.<\/span><\/p>\nPrograms to ‘Help the Homeless’ Are Often Overly Controlling<\/span><\/h3>\n