Personal Experience at the Hannah Home in Alabama: Homeless Shelters Are Not Necessarily "Rock Bottom"

Ordinarily, women's shelters are established for a variety of reasons. For the battered and abused women and children of our society, these homes can mean a safe and secure place to live, sleep, and begin a new, productive life. For those who are displaced, or have no home of their own, the shelters meet the many needs for a woman and her children, as well as single women.

For me, it meant an alternative to prison while attending counseling for drug addiction in 2001. What I found in the surprisingly warm, attentive atmosphere are things I will never forget.

When first hearing of the alternative plan for my sentence, I was happy to be able to leave jail, and of course ready to be just about anywhere authorities would allow me to be instead of behind bars. But I viewed a woman's shelter quite differently than they in fact are. Upon entering the group home in a county to the north of my own here in Alabama, I met smiling faces and warm reassurances that everything would be okay.

The huge house was set back from the road, a large, refurbished colonial style house with a balcony jetting out from the second tier. Gone With the Wind immediately came to mind when I first saw it. Grand oak trees and a meticulously cared-for lawn set the look and clean, organized feel for the place. It appeared safe. It seemed like home.

The director of the home inspected my belongings from jail, and since I had been there a while, I had accumulated many letters and legal documents, pictures, and so forth. I had not known that she would have to painstakingly sort through and pull every page from every envelope upon my arrival, searching for drugs or weapons, and had regretted that I had not arranged for a family member to pick up my property at the jail before being sent to this smiling woman.