This week I get to help conduct ten interviews for a new street outreach grant. Candidates are asked to come up with possible solutions for the following scenarios, all of which are real, all of which have answers.
1. A woman tells you she can't leave the public park where she pitched a tent because Jesus told her she belonged there.
2. You work with a homeless mother with six children who are all currently in a family shelter that requires her to earn income. Her previous job was exotic dancing, where she made an average of $1,000 a week, and she asks your help to find gently used bras and panties in her size. She is able to secure a babysitter if she gets this job.
3. A man with an injured leg lies at the bottom of a ravine, and the EMTs refuse to get him unless the fire department arrives to carry him up to the street level. He weighs 150 pounds.
4. You work with a woman who regularly drinks a lot of alcohol paired with Percocet. Her eyes are yellow, but she insists she doesn't need a doctor.
5. You are at a neighborhood meeting to address a homeless man who lives in a church shed. He has a history of drinking and occasional petty theft such as stealing tools out of an open garage. A housed woman wants him kicked out because she is afraid he will set her house on fire.
6. You are assisting with clearing a tent city when the police tell you they want to arrest a woman for screaming profanities. She has agreed to leave the location and is in the process of packing her bag to go, screaming the entire time.
7. Business owners have complained about used syringes on the ground behind a furniture store. There hasn't been a problem with crime, but they worry about future crimes.
8. A church has complained about poop on their sidewalk. Security cameras show it's always the same homeless man who poops there, but he only sleeps on the property at night so the church can't locate him.
9. A woman confides in you that she has a history of strokes, two suicide attempts, and depression. She had suicidal thoughts this morning, but has no plan to act on them.
10. You walk into a homeless camp and the first man you meet silently shows you a handgun tucked inside his shirt. He says and does nothing else.
11. A woman agrees to go with you to shelter, but only if she can smoke all her crack first before getting in your car.
12. A veteran asks your help in replacing his driver's license, but he has a brain injury and can't remember his social security number, the town he was born in, or his mother's maiden name.
13. A housed client is in danger of being evicted for keeping ten shopping carts full of scrap metal in her efficency apartment, and it's so crowded that it blocks the door and has become a fire hazard.
14. The city is sweeping a bridge camp and arrests one of your clients for a Failure to Appear warrant. He has all his documents and has been patiently waiting for housing.
15. A man limps into your office with a bullet in his leg, the wound infected and swollen from ankle to knee, but insists he's healthy and doesn't see the need to visit a clinic.
16. A naked woman stands on the corner panhandling in July. You give her clothes multiple times, but she still panhandles naked.
17. A housed client is in danger of getting evicted because he keeps disassembling his toilet, convinced a demon lives in it.
18. A housed client is in danger of getting evicted because he kept eleven other homeless people in his one bedroom apartment during a snowstorm.
19. A housed client is in danger of getting evicted for shooting heroin in his apartment.
20. A housed client is in danger of getting evicted because his drug dealer has taken over the apartment and strangers keep coming over at all times of night.