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Homeless Women and Their Challenges

The Collage Podcast

Wed Nov 19 2025

Summary

The Collage Podcast Host: Feed My Sheep
Episode: Homeless Women and Their Challenges
Date: November 19, 2025
Location: Temple, TX

Episode Overview

This episode of The Collage Podcast centers on the harrowing challenges faced by homeless women in Temple, Texas. The conversation, led by the host (Jeff) and guest Nancy—a dedicated volunteer and Elizabeth’s Farm manager at Feed My Sheep—dives deep into recent real-life examples from their work and examines the layers of trauma, lack of resources, and the desperate need for both practical and compassionate community action. The episode weaves together stories of acute crisis with a broader critique of institutional and community inaction, highlighting a call to holistic and personal involvement for lasting change.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Reality of Women’s Vulnerability on the Streets

[00:00–07:36]

Nancy recounts a recent incident: being called early on a Friday about a woman found naked, disoriented, and terrified outside Feed My Sheep.
- Police involvement revealed she had been assaulted but, due to memory loss and trauma, she wouldn’t press charges or seek hospital care.
Homeless women in Temple face significant physical and emotional dangers—often heightened by trauma, substance use, and lack of safe shelter.

"She knew the last thing that she knew, her husband had kicked her out of their hotel room, and she was out on the street alone. Come to find out, she was assaulted brutally. And sadly, because she doesn't remember, she's not willing to press any kind of charges."
— Nancy [04:01]
Temple has an unusually high rate of homeless women (~60%, compared to the national average of 25%), attributed in part to a perception of lower violent crime against women locally.

2. Traumatic Cycles and Lack of Shelter

[07:36–15:17]

A second story: another woman lost memory after being drugged, wandered aimlessly, and was found hungry and terrified.
Both women were unable or unwilling to report assaults due to confusion or shame.
Acute lack of overnight shelters—"Zero" was available the night they intervened.
- Feed My Sheep is not an overnight shelter; their intervention was to pay for hotel rooms when possible, typically only if a next step (like treatment) is planned.
"Access to a shelter that night was what?"
— Jeff
"Zero."
— Nancy [11:19]

3. Systemic & Procedural Hurdles

[13:15–17:06]

Shelters full; mental health help unavailable unless the person admits being a danger to self/others.
Police are bound by strict regulations, limiting what they can do in such situations.
- Volunteers, not professionals, often manage extreme crises.
Even paying for hotels is “not cheap” and not sustainable for longer than a week.

“Her mother apparently passed away recently. Just horrific. Horrific.”
— Nancy [17:15]

4. Trauma at the Root of Substance Use

[19:00–21:24]

The hosts push back on the stigma that substance use explains homelessness—it’s often a coping mechanism for severe underlying trauma.

"They're using those substances because they've experienced trauma that we can't even fathom."
— Nancy [19:38]
Isolation compounds the issue: no family, severed relationships, untreated PTSD, physical illness.

5. The Inadequacy of Piecemeal Support

[22:02–26:58]

Survival strategies barely keep women going; self-worth is depleted, so they may not fight for themselves or accept help.
- Memorable moment: The hosts highlight the “not enough” of sandwiches, socks, or short-term hotel stays—these are just the bare minimum.
"I don't want to come to [God] and have been faced with all these different scenarios... and all I can answer to him is, 'I gave them three sandwiches, and we normally only give people two.'"
— Jeff [41:03]

6. Housing Barriers and the Limits of the System

[29:08–35:22]

Affordable housing waitlists are long (up to eight months), with domestic violence or proven assault barely improving odds.
Cold weather and delayed processes are life-threatening for women on the street.

"If we were to be able to prove that this woman was assaulted, that might help, but it might not."
— Nancy [30:10]

7. Beyond Shelter: The Holistic Approach

[35:20–39:49]

Elizabeth’s Farm: housing with healing in mind, not just a roof but a chance to rebuild self-worth and process trauma.
- Many women decline the offer, overwhelmed or distrustful due to past trauma.
- A holistic plan must start with acknowledgment of worth and work on trauma, not just providing material needs.
"Housing only doesn't work. Substance use disorder treatment in and of itself will not work. Unless we're showing them their beauty and their worth, it's all for nothing."
— Nancy [37:24]

8. The Role of Community and Faith

[42:41–54:08]

The hosts invoke the Good Samaritan as a call to personal, not just institutional, responsibility.
The city, state, and federal governments are not the answer—progress, if any, comes from community members stepping up, volunteering, and sacrificing personally.
Recent “strategic plans” have led to little action: three years, 31 deaths on the street, few tangible results.
Feed My Sheep and partners are now building new, community-based solutions like Elizabeth’s Farm.

"We can't continue to put all of our eggs in the basket of national government, state government, local government, none of that. It won't work."
— Nancy [50:09]
Despite bureaucratic and logistical failures, acts of individual kindness and self-sacrifice (buying hotel rooms out of pocket, volunteering time and skills) are celebrated as essential.

9. Ongoing Challenges & Next Steps

[56:33–59:06]

Specific prayer requests for women in acute need.
The narrative will continue in the next episode—listeners are asked to reflect, pray, and, if moved, find their own way to help.

"We do this because… God cares about people, and they are of infinite worth to him. People matter."
— Jeff [57:56]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On the impossibility of judgment:

"At best you don't understand."
— Jeff [22:02]
On the depth of trauma:

"You would think it would be impossible at this juncture…to still be perplexed and baffled about the depth of hurt that people carry."
— Jeff [22:13]
On hope:

"I do believe in the goodness of humanity and people."
— Jeff [32:06]
On acceptance and self-worth:

"There's no… 'I'm worth the fight of trying to identify these people that did these awful things to me…' She doesn't see her worth enough to want to fight the fight. Why bother?"
— Nancy [22:46]
On faith and action:

"Well done is far greater than well said."
— Jeff [48:04]
"What we need is more followers of Christ."
— Nancy [43:51]
On community response:

"It's individual members of the community stepping up and being part of somebody's life."
— Jeff [53:07]

Key Timestamps Index

[03:22–07:36] Nancy describes the naked, traumatized woman outside, police limitations.
[09:43–11:21] Second woman: memory loss, hunger, no shelter options.
[13:15–15:17] The limits of what police and volunteers can do.
[22:02–23:25] Exploration of internalized shame, self-worth, why women won’t pursue justice.
[29:08–32:07] Affordable housing barriers, the reality of waiting lists during cold nights.
[37:24–39:00] Advocacy for a holistic, trauma-informed model—why "just" housing can’t solve it.
[41:03–42:41] A call to moral responsibility, questioning what counts as “help.”
[43:09–48:31] Parable of the Good Samaritan, shifting the locus of responsibility from institutions to individuals.
[49:14–51:24] Critique of government inaction; 31 deaths on the street since strategic plan launched.
[54:01–54:42] Defense of collaborative action, partnerships, and the spirit of local government.
[56:33–57:56] Prayer requests and a reminder: "People matter."

Tone & Style

The episode combines urgency, deep compassion, and frustration with humility and hope. The hosts speak conversationally, with a blend of storytelling, advocacy, and personal confession. They are honest about their limitations and failures but resolute about the importance of continued, community-centered action.

Conclusion (for Listeners)

This episode gives an unflinching look into the everyday emergencies faced by homeless women in Temple, Texas—a microcosm of a pervasive national crisis. It’s a call to individual empathy and action, grounded in faith and the conviction that systemic change only comes when communities stand up for their most vulnerable neighbors—not just with words, but with deeds and holistic solutions.

Next Episode Tease:
Check back for an update on the women featured, particularly “day eight”—and reflect on your role in creating a more caring, responsive community.

Loading summary...

Transcript

A (0:00)

Foreign. Hey, we want to welcome everybody to the Collage podcast. And it is good to be back. We haven't been here for a little bit and today we have got a special guest. We've got Nancy in here. We're going to talk about. I hope everybody is doing well out there. Interesting topic. Well, they're all interesting, but I think that we're going to talk about today. What we're going to address is, I don't know, it might be kind of interesting for people out there to hear what a day sort of looks like at Feed My Sheep for some of us about some of the things that we come across. What unfortunately, I don't know if the word normal would fit into what we're going to talk about, but so we're going to kind of look and we're going to look at the topic at hand would be we're going to start with the crazy amount of vulnerability that the woman, the women that we work with and the people that we work with here have to experience every day here. And here is Feed My Sheep in Temple Texas. This is not a negative statement on Feed My Sheep. We're saying anything about that. The town that we're in is a little town temple here in Texas is where our here is. But I think the things that we're talking about are topics that are all over the place. So, Nancy, do you have anything to say?

B (1:59)

No, just happy to be here. Excited to talk to you about it today.

A (2:03)

Yep. And so Nancy, in our world here is volunteer. She has a real job. But like many of our people here at Feed My Sheep, she has a real job that pays bills and she volunteers up here. And she is in charge of our Elizabeth's farm operation. And Elizabeth's farm is a location that we are in the process of building tiny homes and putting women that are coming out of abusive situations into a safe place out at the farm. That's what we're trying to do. That's why Nancy is here. And so we were just going to kind of it could be enlightening. So this kind of. How about this, Nancy, tell us about no names, any of that stuff. Okay, so we're not any of that situation, any of that. But let's just start last Friday morning. So we are now we're recording this. It doesn't matter what that we are now at a Tuesday. Okay, so we're at a Tuesday. So we're going to backtrack to last Friday. Tell us about how your day started last Friday, Ms. Nancy.

B (3:22)

It started pretty Early, I got a text message from one of the women that work here at Feed My Sheep that there was a woman out in front that was completely naked, disoriented, and really confused and scared. And the employee here didn't really know what to do about it. So she texted me, and I said I would call my son. My son is a police officer here in. In Temple.

A (3:58)

Okay.

B (4:01)

So I did and asked him to. To come on over and see if he could figure out what was going on, if the woman had been assaulted or if there was any. Anything that we could do to help her in the immediate term. And he and the other officers came over and were able to talk with her and found out that she had been out all night. She didn't remember what had happened at all and didn't remember how she got there. Nothing like that. She just. She knew the last thing that she knew, her husband had had kicked her out of their hotel room, and she was out on the street alone. Come to find out, she was assaulted brutally. And sadly, because she doesn't remember, she's not willing to press any kind of charges or even go to the hospital and get checked out and just really, I think, doesn't want to face what happened. Sadly, it's not an unusual story for here. I think it's important to kind of put it into a little bit of context. So, as Jeff mentioned, I have a day job. I work for the city of Temple in Housing and Community Development, and we do a lot of research and report writing and, you know, studies on the different factors that are impacting homelessness in our community. And as a national average, the typical percentages are 25% women experiencing homelessness, 75% men experiencing homelessness. In Temple, we are at about 60% women, 40% men. So we have a really high percentage of women. The reason for that, we're told, is because Temple seems to have less violent crime against women. They feel a little bit more comfortable coming here. There may be other factors that lead to them being displaced while they're already living in Temple. Not really. Not really sure what those. Those contributing factors might be, but regardless, we have a very high percentage of women as compared to the national average. Along with that, higher risk factors for them, just more numbers means higher probability of something really tragic happening, lots of opportunity for trauma, and they're just vulnerable on the street. It's hard to. It's hard to imagine what it would be like to be outside without any sort of protection in a world where there are drugs that are out there. That someone can slip into a bottle of water that you don't even know you got. And the next thing you know, you wake up and you're halfway across town. You don't know how you got there, and you don't know what happened the night before.

A (23:53)

Correct. So here everybody out There. Okay. All this is today is I'd love to tell you that within the 45 minutes of this podcast that we're going to tell you. And here's the great solution of how we've got this fixed. And she's now going to Oz. She's living in this great place that we've now solved. Okay. She is. So we're doing what we can. She is as we speak going to go speak to a counselor who comes here with the same heart like Nancy has. Because that's what she has A. This counselor has a whole other job. Like she tries to pay for her. Her life through her counseling business. But she comes up here two days out of the week volunteering to be a counselor with people because her heart is touched in such a way. So she is. This person is now going to go talk to this counselor and to try to figure out what we could do. Nancy. Okay. Managing our farm. And keep in mind on all of this stuff, we cannot do anything a grown adult doesn't want to do. Irregardless of what I know or I think or I believe is the most obvious and best scenario that this person could do and should do and what's best for them. And if they don't want to do any of those things, they don't nor do they have to. That's the world we live in. Okay. So there's some pluses to complete freedom and there's some possible downfalls to complete freedom when people are in such a mental place not going down that road. But that's where we're at. Okay, so as we were speaking this. And then we'll get on to the next deal. The lady is still. We have her in a safe hotel room. Another one of the people that volunteers and helps up here. We're trying to find her clothes. We're trying to. She's in a safe place to try to recover for this week to try to figure out what we could possibly do for long term help like because in it everybody out there, I hope if you're listening to this. Okay, um, let's take a vote because there's one outcome. The, the, the. The business outcome. The what we could. The community could provide at this point. Outcome is she shouldn't even be in a hotel room right now because we really don't have access to that. She should be still have that scenario occurred. Maybe we provided her. We would provide her a hot meal today with some sort of clothes on. And only resource we technically have is good luck. We'll see you tomorrow at 11:30 at lunch. Correct?

A (39:00)

Okay. And they must, and these things must be brought along in this. Yes, you need clothes and yes, you need food and yes, you need a place to stay that's safe and that's good. And yes, you need to be clean and sober and well to truly embrace life. And yes, you need to be able to think about what the future might hold for you. Well, this may be a difficult juncture here because we had some Internet issues, so we're not sure how this is going to paste end. So we had like a four second lapse here. But what we were talking about is that a holistic approach to individual people is the only way that this works. And coming back to the root issue, which is the lack of community and belonging and support for the people that we run across, acknowledgement of the trauma that they have experienced every one of them, whether they acknowledge it or not, okay? And acknowledging the fact of how little they think of themselves because they know intimately. Well, make no doubt about it. They know well all the poor decisions they have made and all the ramifications of it and how little they deserve of this, as do all of us, okay? And so, like, you look at that. And so, like, for everybody out there, this is a discussion Nancy and I have had many times, and we do not believe it's enough. I do not. I am tasked and challenged even on this every day of going home. And I don't think this is how the God that we serve and worship is. I don't want to come when I pass, and it's going to happen. I mean, I'm going to pass. I don't know what coming to him necessarily looks like. I don't want to come to him and have been faced with all these different scenarios that we see every day. Every day. Varying forms of terrible, terrible things every day. Okay? And all I can answer to him. And I'm trying to do. Well, like, because you would go, man, I'm trying. I don't want to be able to come and say, I gave him. Look, I gave them three sandwiches, and we normally only give people two. I gave them two pair of socks, and normally we only give them one. What do you mean I didn't help? I put him in a hotel room for a night. Nobody else did that. That came out of my pocket. Gave him three sandwiches, two pairs of socks, and a hotel room for a night. What do you mean I didn't help? Okay? And so I'm not saying that's how it's going to come down. I'm not. I don't know. But so then out of that moral obligation of that of going, I'm one that believes that all these random scenarios that we come across, God puts them in our place for a reason, and he is allowing us to be part of help in it.

A (43:51)

Yeah, we got plenty of Christians. But with the story, and that's not negative, I'm on that team. And this is nothing against any of the teams because there's humanitarian good in all of them. But there's a story in our Bible of the Good Samaritan. It's about a guy that was from Samaria, which was not a very well thought of place, okay? So the population was chosen for a reason in the story, for a teaching tool. And he had gotten beaten up and robbed and terrible thing happened to him on the side of the road. And we all know this story, whatever, give you the synopsis briefly. First dude comes by religious this or that or whatever, and he just passes by on the other side of the road because he couldn't get near this dude, okay? Because whatever, whatever the order. But one of them didn't go near him because he's worried about his own safety. Salad this dude, the roads were dangerous. He sees this guy that's beat up, obviously there's some danger around there, and he's like, oh, no, you know, I got an obligation, I got a family to take care of. I can't take a chance. Valid. You go, okay, I get it. He walks across the road. Next guy, not sure the order, whatever. Next guy comes up, he works in the church. And in their custom at that time, if you come across somebody who was injured, it was unclean. If this dude happened to die and this guy touched him, he couldn't go do his job for the next X amount of days because he's unclean. He had touched somebody who had died, who was ill. Couldn't go be a good preacher, so he had to go on his way. I'm sorry, love to help, but I gotta go preach. Can't touch you because I can't take the chance that I couldn't be able to preach to my flock, you know, so good luck to you. And then one guy comes by and he drops everything and he gets the guy and he loads him up, takes him to a Hotel at that time, an inn or whatever. And he pays all the debts that are necessary for this guy to be taken care of and taken care of well. And then even goes so far, he said, I'm going to be back in town. If I'm short anything, this paraphrase. If I'm short anything, let me know and I'll square up on that. This guy owes nothing. Okay? So out of that, Nancy and I were absolute idiots on this. And this is not us, okay. At all. I'm hoping you out there would hear and go and crap. No, day eight is not acceptable option for this lady getting out of the hotel, having all these things occur. And now you're back on the street. Good luck again. Hope it doesn't happen again. It is not an acceptable answer for a community that cares for each other and what we are called to do for other people. So with that, what Nancy is doing at the farm in her spare time, We've got a farm. We are going to put tiny homes out there where we have places for ladies to go to find their value and their worth in a safe, good place, surrounded by mentors and people that are caring about them, moving them towards a path that they could live the life abundantly. They are called to not to be babysat their whole entire life. That's not life abundantly, but to set them up in a way that they could live the life they're called to live, to find the grace and forgiveness that they. They are, that's afforded to them as well as all of us that are listening to that. So that's what Nancy is doing. Okay. I saw a billboard coming in, and I think it's brilliant. It says, well done is far greater than well said.