06/02/2026
Homelessness is more predictable than you think. One life altering event can cause any one of us to be in this situation.
We are sharing a story of Gary(not his real name) that was shared with us from a group we receive training from a few times a year.
"Gary's" story is not uncommon, please take a few minutes to read:
Gary did not become homeless all at once.
First, he got a divorce.
Paying for an apartment by himself was expensive, but Gary managed to squeak by each month.
Until his car broke down and he could not afford to fix it.
Unable to get to work reliably, he got fired.
Without a job, Gary got evicted.
Afraid to stay at a shelter, Gary tried to find places outside to sleep at night. It was summer, so he wouldnāt freeze, at least.
One night Gary got jumped by a couple of guys. In the melee, he got hit in the head with a baseball bat. Lying unconscious, his attackers rifled through his pockets and found nothing worth taking.
Gary woke up in a hospital bed with blurry vision, the worst headache of his life and a few stitches.
Gary also had something that made all of his prior problems look small: a traumatic brain injury.
That injury changed what Gary could do. A hit to the frontal lobe can make memory, judgment, impulse control and social filters much harder. Gary started saying things he never would have said before (ādisinhibitionā) because he didnāt know they were offensive. He also struggled remembering anything but the simplest instructions.
Those two things made steady work impossible.
Gary has not been able to hold down a job for more than a few days since his injury.
Gary will never get back on his feet again without intensive supportā¦ EVER.
Homelessness has Patterns
Homelessness has many patterns that shape it.
One is what Iāll call the āDomino Effect.ā
The basic idea is simple: One bad thing does not guarantee the next bad thing, but it does increase the odds.
Most people who get a divorce will not end up homeless, but it increases the risk.
Studies have shown that it is one of the leading drivers of homelessness.
Most people who become homeless will not take a baseball bat to the head, but it makes it more likely.
When someone becomes homeless the risk of violence against them is increased by a factor of 9,000. (No, youāre not reading that wrong).
Not surprisingly, 53% of individuals who have been homeless for over a year have a traumatic brain injury. (No, youāre not reading that wrong either.)
The Domino Effect takes people who could have been helped cheaply and turns their lives into something much more harder, much more expensive, to repair.
A few hundred dollars would have fixed Garyās car.
Now he will either be homeless or need a fully subsidized apartment for the rest of his life.
So, what do we do?
There a few lessons in here:
1) Small problems ignored early, cause big problems later.
One-by-one, the people living on your streets are becoming permanently unemployable if your community doesnāt have adequate shelter and services.
2) Once a person reaches a certain point, there is no coming back.
Someone with a bad enough brain injury is unemployable. Calling them lazy and threatening to take away their subsidized housing if they donāt get a job doesnāt change that.
3) Homelessness is not as hopeless as it seems.
We need to stop treating homelessness like a random collection of bad choices.
It has patternsā¦ and patterns can be interrupted.
For more information about how to help make a difference right here in your community with those facing homelessness, please go to riverhavenshelter.org or reach out to us!
[email protected]
608-742-7687
