How do you keep finding me?

“How do you keep finding me?” That’s what one person asked when we met him at a 24-hour laundromat at 1:00 a.m. the other night. It wasn’t the first time he has asked us that question. Our paths had crossed many times in different locations as the street outreach team made its rounds over the winter and early spring. Each time we explained that we didn’t know we would find him in whatever location he was sleeping that night, but we checked the area because we thought we might find somebody.  On that night, it happened to be him. Other nights it might be someone else, or nobody at all.

There are a lot of misperceptions about street outreach, what we do, and how we do it. Some of these come from the people we serve at night. Many are surprised to learn the scope of our outreach work. We are frequently asked: “What have you guys been up to tonight?” We don’t give any details about contacts with other people or specific locations, but we might tell them something about our rounds that night, like “We are just getting in from Burlington” (west end of the county). They are often surprised to find out that we do outreach in places other than the area where they stay at night.

As in the case of the person we met the other night, some people are astounded that we are able to find them. What seems like a secret or hidden location to them, may be what we call a “known location” in street outreach parlance. Most of the time, we don’t find anyone in a known location, but we keep checking periodically. Eventually we run into someone. To us, the surprise is not so much that we found someone in a known location, just who it might be on that specific night.

While some people we serve during street outreach overestimate the number of people who are also on the streets, many under-estimate. They see street outreach as a service that is uniquely focused on them. Certainly this isn’t the case. We cover a lot of ground and see a lot of people. It is encouraging though, that people feel like our service is not just person-centered, but directly specifically to them. It is an indicator that we must be doing something right.

A few years ago, two people who were homeless and unsheltered met. They had been staying not too far from each other, neither knowing that the other was also homeless. As they started talking to each other, they were shocked to discover that they both had been receiving regular visits from the street outreach team. The next time we saw one of them, he said, “So you knew that so-and-so was homeless all this time and didn’t tell me?” “Yes,” we said, “and we didn’t tell him about you either.” “Oh,” he said, “I get it. It’s the whole confidentiality thing.” Indeed it was.

Confidentiality is a key component of our ministry on the streets, but is also limits how much we can share with people (or in a blog). This can have the effect of shrouding street outreach in a cloud of mystery. The answer to the question, “How did you find me,” however, might not be as amazing as people think. It is all part of normal street outreach activity and service.  

-        Scott