近距离内射合集

I know homelessness from both sides.

Just over two years ago, I was sleeping outside in Albuquerque. Today, I have housing through a voucher program. I didn't escape because I wanted it more than anyone else. I escaped because, eventually, enough barriers were removed for me to succeed.

That experience taught me something our community needs to hear.

Most people living on our streets do not wake up thinking, "How can I stay homeless another day?" They wake up wondering how they're going to keep what little they have, replace the identification they lost, make it to an appointment across town, or answer a phone call they have no way of receiving.

Imagine beginning your day with a camp cleanup. You're given minutes to gather everything you own. If you lose your identification, birth certificate, Social Security card, medication or phone, you haven't just lost possessions 鈥� you've lost your ability to apply for housing, employment, benefits or treatment.

Then you spend the rest of the day trying to replace what was lost instead of moving forward.

Housing vouchers are another example. People can wait years for their names to come up. But what happens if they don't have a working phone? What if the letter is mailed to an address they no longer use? What if they miss a message because they have no case manager or reliable mailing address? Too often, they lose their opportunity and return to the bottom of the waiting list.

That isn't refusing help.

That's a system that assumes people experiencing homelessness have the same stability as everyone else.

The same barriers exist throughout the day. Transportation, storing belongings while attending appointments, replacing documents, finding trustworthy treatment and simply keeping warm at night all become daily challenges that consume the time and energy needed to rebuild a life.

As the founder of the Albuquerque Homeless Union, I've seen another side of this story. Every month, volunteers at our Feed the Streets events serve more than 200 people while connecting them with clothing, identification vouchers, birth certificate assistance, harm reduction supplies and housing resources. Through our Learn the Streets partnership with Coalition for a Safer Albuquerque, more than 60 volunteers have spent time listening to people living in encampments.

The biggest lesson wasn't about addiction.

It was about barriers.

Again and again, people told us they wanted housing, treatment, work and stability. They simply couldn't navigate a system that becomes harder every time they lose their belongings, miss a phone call or are forced to move.

Homelessness is not solved by moving people from one sidewalk to another. It is solved by removing the obstacles that prevent them from succeeding.

If Albuquerque wants fewer people living on the streets, we should measure every policy by one simple question: Does this make it easier for someone to get housed 鈥� or harder?

Until we begin removing barriers instead of adding them, we'll continue spending enormous amounts of public money managing homelessness instead of ending it.

Tiffany Leger is the founder of the Albuquerque Homeless Union.