INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — With temperatures dropping drastically, support services provided to people experiencing homelessness are crucial.
“Sometimes people will say, 'I’ll leave with you right now,'” said Barbie Miller, with Any Lengths Recovery Support Service. “Some say, 'Can you come tomorrow.' And some who say, 'Absolutely not, I’m not ready to go.”
Miller has helped many people move from sleeping outdoors to under shelter and into recovery programs.
On Friday, she continued her mission and helped an Independence couple find shelter amid cold temperatures in the Kansas City area.
“After last night, this was not a let’s wait until Monday," she said. "We go today and get it done."
Ryan Rutledge, who just four months ago was experiencing homelessness, helps Miller.
“I got 12 years in the woods myself; (I'm) 109 days sober and Barbie was the one who saved me from the woods,” Rutledge said. “I asked God to put me somewhere better and change my life.”
Rutledge said that for people experiencing homelessness, it's easy to feel comfortable living in those conditions.
“Living like this it falls into an everyday routine, you fall into a comfort zone,” he said.
Miller said it can be difficult for people experiencing homelessness to move into separate shelters, which often have strict rules.
“A lot of time you won’t see people separate like that for the bigger picture,” she said. “They will stay out there in situations that could potentially cost them their lives. I think they made a very big move today.”
According to Miller, it can be a potential life-saving decision.
“You will never make a bad investment when you invest in a human, because no matter what they continue on to do, you’ve planted that seed,” she said.
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