As a slightly more detailed description, for a while I worked in downtown Washington DC, and had a 2 bedroom apartment way out in the suburbs. There are a lot of underemployed people who are idealistic and come to DC to protest something or other. The Keystone Pipeline, the first day of the session of Congress, pro-choice, anti-abortion, wanting global peace, not liking the president, whatever. Or they come for an internship but don't get a full-time job. Some of those people decide that they want to stay in DC and protest something, but they can't afford a place to live. So they crash on people's couches, squat illegally in abandoned houses, sleep outside the white house while holding up signs, have a pajama party outside Bank of America protesting illegal foreclosures (and stay up most of the night) or go to churches or shelters on cold nights.
I was curious about some of what they were protesting but didn't necessarily agree with the wide variety of views from people who were socialist, libertarian or anarchist, some strong religious viewpoint or position on abortion. On cold, rainy nights, as I was driving home, I would occasionally let people (who I casually knew from political work) crash on my living room futon and do laundry. At least two of those people turned out to be long-term homeless people who were hanging out with protesters because the cops bothered them less. One of the homeless guys said that he was the stepson of a governor and had been temporarily appointed a senator when somebody had died in office. I tried to get him to trim his hair or beard because I thought he was a homeless person, not realizing that he was. I later figured out that he probably had Wernike-Korsikoff syndrome. I checked out his story on Wikipedia, figuring that it would be more reliable than he was.
The only person I let stay more than a couple nights was a woman who had come to DC for an internship, worked in a grocery store after the internship ended, lost her job, had been sleeping on various people's couches for a while, and then living illegally in a squat with some activists. She was kicked out of the squat for getting in a big argument, telling someone they shouldn't be smoking indoors in a sleeping area.
I knew she had mental health issues, but had just gotten Medicaid in DC. So I thought I would help her navigate the social service network in order to find the health care she needed. I also thought that since she was very trusting and naive, she would probably end up getting raped if she lived on the street. I found out later that she had been in psychiatric hospitals multiple times lasting from a couple weeks to a month. Since I was taking abnormal psychology at the time, I thought that maybe I would have more awareness to help her. I even went with her to one of her psychiatrist visits.
During a previous bout of depression, she had spent over a year living in transitional housing associated with a church while unsuccessfully looking for a job. I kept suggesting that she look for a more realistic job, instead of the dream job she wanted coming out of the internship, but she said that those types of jobs only made her more depressed. She did find one part time minimum wage job in a shopping center where I lived, but that was barely enough to take care of minimal personal expenses, much less a place to live. She wasn't interested in going to any of the women's shelters or transitional housing, because she said she wouldn't survive there.
Ironically, there had been a time earlier when she had been in a city-run mental health facility and they had been unwilling to release her because she wouldn't tell them where she was living (illegally at the squat). I signed to let her out, and then called later and spent lots of time arguing with the facility because they gave her only 3 days worth of medication and no prescription for refills. If I hadn't picked her up, most likely they would have transferred her to a transitional housing facility that only took people who had been sent there from a local social service agency.
After about 4 months, I realized that she wasn't interested in my help. She had a habit of suddenly deciding that people (especially people in the social service fields like her case worker or therapist or prior pastoral counselor) were mean and out to get her. So she wouldn't seek help from any of those sources. While I was at work, I saw that she was spending lots of time on Facebook (instead of job hunting) expressing what I felt were extreme views on abortion that I didn't agree with. She would bring up those views and randomly post them on other peoples walls that she'd previously disagreed with. I eventually set a deadline and told her that she needed to find another place to stay, because my parents were coming to visit. I neglected to say that even though my parents hadn't set definite dates, that they wouldn't be coming for at least a month or two.
Good luck with everything!
