Springfield MA

http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/crimreport/allcities.html

NOW....Where do you think I am right now? Springfield MA.
This place gets a low rating for its handling of the homeless problem. Another western MA town, with all the benefits of being in the state of MA but somehow getting away with being really cheap with the homeless.

Having only one shelter in the whole city for single women (as usual women who have kids get handed privilege power and status in the USA. My mother used to use this to the hilt...she'd brag about how MA would always protect and side with mothers...many women use this as a means to an end. Kids are great but it shouldn't be ALL that you've ever accomplished in your life..unless you are dead serious about forming the children into kings, princes, winners and warriors. I just don't understand anything less than kids as the ultimate art projects that excel..whatever)..that houses only 24 women and becuz the women on staff are not monsters, they sometimes take in a few more.
I was told that they are building a new shelter for women down the street...looks to me that it should have been built a long time ago.

First this rent a copette comes out of an architectural nightmare typical corporate structure and tells me that "You cant sit here and ask anyone for anything..oh and the park across the street is ours too". I need money for food and coffee, not to loiter in yer crappy little park. It was so snooty and arrogant. I'll get the address and post it later.

Then I move over to city property and a cop is all happy cuz I return a hello out of not wanting hassle as he interrupts my conversation with a citizen...he comes out of CVS later and says "Oh sweethaart, dont tell me ya beggin four change hea" (spelt phonetically in Boston speak for your entertainment) and tells me to take my money and move on. I ask about the MA state law that pan handling is legal on city property and before I can finish he interrupts (habit with this guy?) and I get that vibe like hes going to arrest me, as he says "I'm not gonna argue with you about this"... I push through but I have to keep doing what he wants which is for me to act like a little girl which works well with overly authoritative men for some reason, though one should not have to do so.
I have had more and more trauma added onto years of abuse from a tyrant mother as well as a domestic abuse situation as well as my past associates being very controlling and abusive..just by having to deal with the police repeatedly just being a traveller that they treat like every other homebum in thier city.

So Springfield has a poor subjugated population that falls into the typical traps that the System sets up to make money off thier miser-jail and drugs- and of course homelessness.

First of all dont address me as sweetheart in any interaction where you are suppposed to be professional( I am not adverse to this in normal interactions as this is a very northeast way of kindly addressing females).
Secondly I have a right to ask a question about the city's laws without being treated like your unruly stepchild.
In fact as a traveler one should ask for future reference and to tell other traveling houseless people.

In this culture up northeast and in the USA nowadays the attitude is that one gets what one deserves if one lives out of step with what the system dictates as unacceptable..yet this is the same system that is guilty of corruption and especially covert warfare not only on the public but on specific groups and specific individual persons.

So the public goes along with it and assists the corruption at the root without realizing it or they are just plain uninformed of how the con job works.

If you want to honestly investigate every houseless person and find out who is full of sh*t and who is indeed being victimized and this is the best they can make out of thier situation please do cuz I got a story for you and naming names finally would be very much fun.
And then issue me some sort of card where I can do my art/activism on the road without being screwed with becuz it deems me not a total a hole robbing the system or whatever thier problem is with most homeless people.

And if you dont like mentally ill people wandering around acting crazy then go to Reagan's grave and ask him why he let them all out onto your streets. Well at least this way the human experimentation would have to be out in public space and not within the walls of institutions..oh wait. That is whats been happening.
Duh.

So Springfield gets a crap rating for its attitude towards the homeless ( I dont think they are worldly enough to understand what a houseless traveler is becuz in other cities where the houseless seem to pass through alot they either accept thier presence more so or the harassment is more geared towards travelers who have some intel about thier rights and how to advocate for themselves.)

Here is a lovely bit about the cops here trying to ID homeless people through peeping tom methods..(were some of the girls or boys cute or something guyz? ) Typical town that assumes the world is not watching so they can do as they please.

As far as the shelter goes its like a third world country level of quality in there and the residents were annoying. However to the staffs credit they accepted me at night and the male employee from the mens shelter wanted to insure my safety. Also they are obviously crowded and working with very little. The drain is raised so the shower area that doubles as storage for the ladies clothing bins is always wet, there are only 2 showers and one bathroom.
In a city this size with a local snooty attitude towards the homeless its putting people at a disadvantage from the get go.

I told the women that they should march up to the mayors house and tell him they are camping out on his lawn or does HE have any room available becuz they certainly need a place to stay. Lucky they are building a new shelter but with the way this city treats thier homeless, what kind of corruption and treatment in future can one expect of this population?