12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS Health concerns for unhoused populations One of the bigger concerns for unhoused populations is health, both mental and physical. For physical health, the most common diagnoses were high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. Despite these being so common and all the medicines available to treat these diagnoses, unhoused people find it difficult to begin or continue treatment. Either the state benefits are denied and so all the costs of doctor’s visits and medicine has to come out of pocket, or doctors barely examine the patient as they are stigmatized or stereotyped and thus their concerns are dismissed. I know for myself. I don’t try to stay in a state where being unhoused will continue for me past a certain timeframe. If I feel like I cannot make my life better in the state I am in, or the opportunities are slim, I try to leave that state and move on to the next. North Dakota, for instance, denied my application for state assistance five times. For three of those applications I was in a shelter with no income. I spent eleven months searching for gainful employment, only to find it didn’t exist. Much of the population of Fargo ran a tax-exempt nonprofit food pantry in their backyard of generally less-desirable food like boxed macaroni. These people couldn’t feed their own residents, let alone homeless and unemployed people from out of state, most of whom only travelled to Fargo because of rumors of open employment. Rumors they were, indeed. So, it makes sense there weren’t any jobs available and the locals found a do I know? I didn't take eight years of college. Can we as unhoused find alternaRACHAEL LANIER Groundcover vendor No. 695 loophole for food at least. So, moving out of North Dakota was the only option for me. Still with no meds or with any scheduling for counselling. Being unhoused and unemployed often leads to lack of access to healthcare, medicines and counseling or therapy. I also have experienced where doctors have prescribed medicines that are almost impossible to continue taking, because either homeless people cannot stay in that state longterm or were denied benefits that would have paid for those medicines. Or, in many cases, because the physicians themselves either minimized, discounted or dismissed the concerns of the homeless entirely if they were not psych-related or led to a study they could get paid to conduct. For instance, if an organization you are referred to for medications will only focus on psych meds instead of medically necessary medicines like heart meds and diabetes medicines, you as an unhoused person are in a predicament. Can’t take an antidepressant if you have a heart attack or go into a sugar coma. But what STREET MEDICINE from page 8 have been stigmatized or dismissed in emergency rooms and clinics, leaving them wary of returning even when their lives depend on it. For those who live outdoors yearround, the environment itself can also be deadly. “We see a lot of frostbite in the winter, which leads to amputations and lifelong disability,” Axelrath said. “Then we see the opposite in the summer: heat stroke and heat exhaustion.” People are also struck by cars or scooters, attacked or fall ill from pollution and environmental hazards. “We see a lot of skin and soft tissue infections just because they don’t always have reliable access to basic hygiene,” Axelrath said. “It doesn’t take that much for something that starts as a mild infection to progress to something pretty bad.” Respiratory illness is another recurring issue. “They’re inhaling smoke and exhaust fumes and staying in industrial areas [where they are less likely to be noticed] with dust or other chemicals,” Axelrath said. Physical dangers often lead to emotional trauma, and the trauma itself feeds back into homelessness. One of the most misunderstood aspects of life on the streets, Axelrath said, is how trauma and fear can drive substance use. “Substance use as a cause of homelessness is not even in the top three,” she said. “The top causes are housing instability, unaffordability and unemployment.” But once people are on the streets, drug use often becomes a coping mechanism for extreme circumstances, Axelrath said. “Many people who are homeless did not use meth before they became homeless. They end up using meth during homelessness because they are trying to stay awake at night so they can be safe and not feel so vulnerable.” That survival strategy can quickly tives? Absolutely. Service animals and farmers markets are examples. I’d rather have a dog or a cat than an antidepressant. I’d rather have fresh fruits and vegetables than anything else, but denial of food programs and lack of access to a stove or refrigerator make eating healthy almost impossible. A service animal would be just as miserable as me with no yard to run around or a home to keep safe in at night. The Farmers Market here in Ann Arbor has recently drawn my attention as they have a mushroom dealer. That’s right. A Shroom dealer. I’m so excited. And dandelion greens with a sunflower dressing sounds so springish to me. There are more options at the market that Michigan recognizes, and I’m impressed to say the least. Thank you to our USDA offices here in the state for recognizing the need for healthier food options and granting us access to support local businesses as unhoused persons through their SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance, formerly called “food stamps”). There's information on the MIBridges website about the Double Up Food Bucks Program and our Farmers Market does participate; you just have to visit Tyler and Jade in the market office for those tokens. Unhoused populations have a high rate of depression, anxiety, PTSD, schizophrenia and psychosis. I just recently came across a man at the Delonis shelter who told me the most amazing story about how he was trap people in a cycle of exhaustion and addiction. “There’s nowhere safe for them to sleep during the day,” she said, “so sometimes they use opiates to come down and try to get a little sleep. If they can’t, they use more meth to stay awake, and they get trapped in this cycle of profound sleep deprivation and escalating substance use.” Traditional healthcare systems are rarely equipped to meet those realities. Many patients turn to emergency rooms, which provide only short-term solutions. Street medicine and integrated outreach models are growing, Axelrath said, driven by younger healthcare workers eager to serve outside of traditional clinics. That gives her hope. “We could work anywhere else, but we all work here by choice because we think it’s important and we really like doing it. That inspires me every day.” For Axelrath, the goal is simple but urgent: meet people where they are, literally and emotionally, before the actually Eminem’s father, and how as a fetus, Eminem was transferred to another womb to help him have a better mother. I don’t know much about biology, but that sounds like a concept for a sci-fi movie. If you don’t already know what psychosis is, please Google it and prepare yourself. Not having a house or a stable place to stay makes feeling safe and hopeful, or just processing reality, almost impossible. Depression especially, from what I have observed in the shelters and on the streets, is a direct result of the environment. If we as unhoused persons can fix our environment, we can reasonably deal with our mental health. Addictions are also a contributing factor in mental health. Finding rehab programs in churches may not be as difficult as finding an actual facility, but whatever is available at the time of need is usually what gets the most attention. If you find yourself in need of these services, ask the program managers what their rate of recidivism is for a 12-month period. How many times do they get repeat customers? That’ll tell you if that program works or not. Willpower has a lot to do with conquering addictions, but again, requires the help of the surrounding community. Other people getting involved should help and not hinder the recovery process. Not having access to the person's drug of choice, counseling, even medications can determine if recovery is possible and sustainable. MARCH 20, 2026 system fails them entirely. Despite the agony of Wrexha’s injury, she insists that she has seen much worse on the streets. She knew a man who froze to death in a Porta Potty in Pueblo as he tried to survive a particularly cold night. “Someone has to die for things to change,” she said. “They finally opened the shelters [during extreme weather], but a man had to freeze to death.” She paused, eyes heavy but fierce. “You’re gonna die in your sleep,” she imagined someone saying. “I won’t. I’m too powerful. I have trained and honed my body to be a fighting force, and that’s why I fight homelessness.” Wrexha studies the swollen mark on her thumb, the scar left from the burrowing insect. For her, it is more than an injury — it is proof of what people outside endure unseen. “I can live out here and sleep in a yard and survive the cold night,” she said. “That’s all I need, thank you.” Courtesy of Denver VOICE / INSP.ngo
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