This conversation is not hyperbole. When you're homeless and seeking help, you're going to be prejudged as absolutely unable to handle money. At all.
It doesn't matter how you became homeless â breadwinner becoming sick or injured; relationship change where the house/apartment belongs to the other party; rent getting too damn high; or many, many other reasons that don't involve drugs or being irresponsible with money â you are now considered the dredge of society. No organization will give you anything unless it's a direct payment to a third party or a gift card for a specific business.
And if you do have a friend or family member that you trust enough to accept money for your care and wellbeing? The organization will definitely double- & triple-check that that person is housed and has verifiable income before they will send a penny. Also, they will definitely, ABSOLUTELY also ask so many questions about any suspected drug use or gambling problems, just to make things suuuuper awkward. (Cause that's really how you got here, right? Right???)
No friends or family? Too bad. Hope you find housing, which, by the way! They can help with the deposit, and first & last month rent, but only if (by some miracle) you have found a place that (somehow) accepted your application, but hold up! They need to contact the landlord directly and confirm that you have an assigned unit and move-in date! Wait, you don't have that because the landlord wants the money first? Welllllll, they can't do that. Best of luck though!!!!
[To be clear: I am not anti-drug or anti-gambling. I am illustrating a clear bias in aid organizations that assist homeless people, and assumptions that the homeless are there because of their own choices. The fact is that, in the US, at least, poverty is a greased slide that ANY individual can slip down, and there aren't really any societal safety nets to halt the descent and give you solid footing to work back up from.]