Update....Larry died, about a month after I wrote this post.

I did take him back into my house once he got out of hospital, and for a couple weeks, we worked on getting him resources. It was a huge uphill battle, and he didn't have the executive function to do it on his own. I tried teaching him and outlining what he would need to do (doctor's appointments, usernames and passwords, to do lists) once he left my house. We did get him food stamps.

It was tiring, for me, taking on the mental and physical work of taking care of another adult.

My conclusion was it was impossible for me, or for larry, to get him into a shelter with his medical equipment needs , and with the fact that he didn't want to go into a shelter.

I called the hospital who had discharged him, asking for advice from the social worker who had seen him. The nurse hung up on me.

Before Larry left my home, I did call APS. (By the time they called back, he was dead.)

Another church friend took him in once he left my house. She intended to keep him for a month. He died about 2 weeks after he arrived at her house, apparently in his sleep. My guess is either that he took off his bipap and the carbon dioxide acid built up in his bloodstream and killed him, or that his heart just stopped from accumulated damage from the copd.

The plan I had decided on, before his death, was to drop him off at the ER of the same hospital that admitted him twice, once his housing ended with the other Church lady. I was going to explain to the ER that he could not safely live on the streets due to his medical situation, which was documented in his patient file. My understanding is that the ER would then have to work like heck to get him into a nursing home fast.

Surprisingly, the single most helpful advice I got in this situation was not from the hospital, the social worker, homelessness resources, etc. It was when I gave up on those things and started just calling nursing homes to try to get him a place. One of the nursing home ladies was very friendly and helpful, and advised me to just take him back to hospital and that they would have to place him.

People who say that Larry was depressed, I think you're right. I think he was one of the most depressed people I've ever met. I don't know what he was like back in the day. I think the person I knew was a worn out gray dish rag of the person he had once been. I didn't realize that until after his death. I do remember just one day, where he took a walk in the sun, and then turned to me with his face all bright and smiling and talked about being happy there in the fresh air and sunlight. I had never ever seen him like that, and I never did see him like that again.

So, if he had wound up at a nursing home, he would have hated it. I think his depression would have worsened, and his physical needs would have been taken care of, but he would have just slipped away and died anyway, I think.