Back in 1997 when I chatted at Psych Central on WBS, I offered to help a fellow chatter and invited her to live with me. At the time, it was probably not the best thing for me to do given my instability at the time. But, it certaintly felt like the best thing to do.

She had been struggling emotionally with certain family issues and could not live with them anymore. She had been living in a motel and ran out of money due to unemployment. She only lived with me a short-time and no personal problems ever arose between us. She currently lives on her own now.

With that experience, I will tell you I have so many mixed feelings about giving shelter to someone you have only met online.

Some considerations:

* Shelters - there are several types depending on the need. Many provide psychological, spiritual, and medical assistance, too. Most educate and assist by helping the member to provide for themselves and get a job and residence. Some shelters recognize the person is unemployable and find other ways to accommodate their needs through referrals of various sorts.

** When a person is homeless, he or she is usually willing to move to another city to find help. Helping the person locate a city that has the facilities (SHELTER) he or she needs, then helping that person get to that facility is probably the BEST thing you can do for that person. Research online, call, find out specific needs (such as meds, counseling resources, etc.)

*** Do a lot of self-reflection before making a decision on taking a stranger into your home. Make sure you are not an enabler, by helping the person not get better. Make sure you are not offering help because you are searching for something you lack inside of you or an issue you didn't receive as a child still present in your adulthood (abandonment issues, etc.)

I could probably go on . . . but people do what they want to do anyways.