The dream shelter:
Every shelter has good points about it and some bad. But each one seems to have bad points about it that makes it impossible to stay there for very long or to get much done for the time one is there.
The one common thread is that the homeless population has no voice, no self advocacy, no self representation or adequate mediation with the authority figures that are imposed on this population.
This subculture is hidden from the public like something out of the 50's or before. Much of the corruption including civil and human rights abuses is ignored or just not exposed. This is due to the afore mentioned condition where there is no advocacy from the homeless themselves.
Years ago it became pc to help the homeless. Since Reagan closing many mental institutions in the 80's as well as crack cocaine becoming the drug of choice for many urban populations, homelessness has become an endemic. The funding of simply providing ongoing shelter and food for the homeless recently became seen as enabling more so than helping. This however does not solve the issue of the severely low functioning mentally ill, but then when dealing with the issue of homelessness often the info is propaganda for some agenda from either within the industry or politically, and information is mostly spin to serve those purposes. Again, Joe Average cant do anything about any of the issues because he is once again informed with propaganda not facts.
Spare Change Newspaper is total bullsh*t. A much better publication could be produced by this demographic but I suspect it would then be considered subversive, which indicates that much information and facts about this issue are indeed being gently suppressed with an heavy iron hand.
Nowadays the homeless industry is very focused on getting people housed. They come up with catch phrases like "End Homelessness In 10 Years". Many internet sights use the phrase "ending homelessness" as thier motto or the very purpose for thier being.
There are so many things wrong with these attitudes, perceptions and the corruption in the industry itself that its hard to tackle, which is of course on purpose.
One must ask one very important question- why is there not a multitude of more independent homeless shelter type programs or structures which focus on the demographic of homeless individuals that have varied but valuable life experience, are high functioning and actually doing something productive with thier time, which by the way is alot of hard work when mere survival is a daily chore. Shower here, eat there, computer work there, clothes over the other place, laundry over here and forget getting anything done including showering on Sundays very frequently. Also getting up at 6am is the most counter productive part of these places and it is unfair to people who either need a night schedule to be productive or have night jobs.
The main problem is the subconscious judgment of this Capitalist society that questions people's lack of housing to begin with. No one is concerned with why we are homeless and if they are its very vague and many homeless people dont tell the whole truth in fear of not getting what they need. Many solutions that seem to work are not shown in thier full course. Trying to solve these problems in such a way is like a medical student trying to learn from a patient's case by only dealing with the person once and not seeing the case through. This is why medical students used to pull 24 hour shifts I was told.
I can tell you from personal experience how many solutions dont work and how the system simply doesn't tell the public how that cycle works.
The other issue is lumping all homeless people into one large group. This is very useful to the gang stalking scenario as it covers the problem neatly under choas.
I had a friend who was a very clever career criminal. She used to keep her apartments in total disaray. For years I used to clean up after her some, being the typical New England girl from a Catholic family from the turn of the century, I just figured the poor WASP gone bad was so focused on making money, then making some more and working herself to death (and getting drunk quietly to deal with the stress often enough) that she was just lost in some rich girl confusion.
Later I would realize that this was a purposeful tactic to confuse anyone snooping around for information or evidence. There was no way anyone was going to find anything in that total mess. Who wants to dig through dirty kitty litter to find a phone book? Which of course would be a mess also as well as incomplete, in scratch only she was going to comprehend.
I realized also that business people do things like this all the time.
This is the same type of system that the homeless industry uses. Just dont define everything, skip the details, focus on the big stuff. Along with the brainwashing systems or tactics that are usually present in many shelters, through careful info management and intimidation the true problems this population faces are ill defined.
Not everyone is an addict, a drunk, lazy or mentally ill as far as chronically homeless individuals.
This country usually doesnt want to look at the underlying reasons for people self medicating or acting out to begin with.
The population of chronically homeless going through homeless shelters or people sleeping outside who hate 'the jails' (shelters) might go down considerably if establishments come about that were akin to homeless hostels, without calling them hostels of course.
This society has to stop making judgments about things they dont understand and are not properly informed about, much less fashioning solutions based on such ignorance as well.
If funding exists for people to leech off the system then why cant it exist to have people to pay into it partially with thier own money as well as foster an environment of cooperation and accomplishment.
For many people getting housed is more confusing or threatening than working a job or producing some sort of work like art or writing. This is what rooming houses used to be like until they were so abused by homeless factions, the new modern crack head kind, that they were either outlawed, sold and converted as condos in gentrified areas or bought up by places like Pine St who now owns prime real estate up the wazoo in Boston, Brookline and other areas of high value. They get people to go through the homeless shelter system and then place them in SRO's. The problem with these is they are run by employees of Pine St who are just as creepy and corrupt as the staff at the shelters.
Also we are dealing with their typical favortism issues from that organization as usual. And this is how they really work and this is from personal experience:
A person gets an SRO. During the day a staff member who is typically white bread and fresh out of college or on the up and up older educated administration type person spends the day with them overseeing them or treating them like children in a day care center with games and crafts and more anti intellectual, regressive bs.
Then at night the ADULTS, and they are grown adults, would just let thier friends in the back door and start smoking crack. A man in my former associates SRO died from an overdose and he was found with a strange woman in his room who of course also died. This forced the staff to finally have a policy where no one was allowed in the back door..and it took a death to make people do the right things to begin with.
This sort of bs happens all the time, or the people who get helped are cyclical- they get housing and lose it going right back into the shelter system again.
And you ask why people want to sleep outside and not in shelters? Most people that do so are either severely mentally ill and low functioning or they are honest with themselves enough to realize that housing is not on thier list of priorities. Many however are not drunks or addicts but intelligent and independent enough to refuse the indignity and obvious mind games of a corrupt system that exploits a vulnerable, marginalized population. Many of these people have had a nasty experience with the legit system and see how corrupt it is- they have had enough and are taking action to not only protect themselves but survive outside of oppression. That is the reason. Most of this demographic who is not severely mentally ill also tend to form tribes that have a self policing policy and watch out for each other and assist the 'tribe' with survival such as each member activily watching out for clothing, bedding, food or other important parts of collective survival. Shelters tend to be cold, lonely places where not only do you not trust the people around you, you must mind your own business at all times. For many people this is too emotionally cold as well as mind numbing. Believe it or not the intellectual stimulation with outside homeless is much higher than in a controlled shelter environment.
That is becuz the environment is strictly controlled by staff and house rules not the guests themselves. This puts off many smart, independant homeless. A cop asked the Harvard Sq homeless a few weeks ago why they sleep in front of the CoOp, as the corporation who now owns the CoOp wants to get them out of there. I am surprised that the Cambridge po po doesnt have a homeless liason in Harvard Sq like they do in Central Sq. Also there are no shelters other than the winter one run by Harvard students where one can stay for two weeks at a time, if one wins the lottery for a bed.
My theory is that like most old money a clever way of dealing with cost is to tolerate the homeless and let them sleep in front of closed businesses at night instead of having the ACLU up thier asses about a lack of shelters, especially for women and specifically in the nicer areas of Cambridge like Harvard, Arlington,Brighton, Watertown area.
In this day and age for people who work with, encounter or deal with 'the homeless' to still be ignorant and uneducated is beyond ridiculous. Its on purpose is what it is and its to keep a dont ask dont tell policy around homeless people and the subject of homelessness. The system keeps us down and keeps the public ignorant.Thus CONTROL is kept by the white collar criminals perpetrating fraud as well as continued civil and human rights abuses.
This is not only your tax money but your charity as well. Republicans try to cut such programs and Democrats enable people to death to keep them quiet. Both fail to see the point.
Managing the existing situation alot better is one helpful hint. Seriously, stop grilling people about what thier motivations are for being houseless as well as trying to reform people when you dont even have all the right information. Some people are going to be chronically homeless and thats it. There are a variety of reasons for this, most of which revolve around some sort of behavior where the person is trying to survive outside the mainstream system as a mode of self preservation. Whatever their motives are, they have got to be serious for people to take such measures. True years ago one could go to rooming houses or even keep an apartment and have a drug or alcohol habit. its just not possible nowadays, unless yer rich of course, which is more war on the poor. I know of plenty of rich people who have absolutely no lives outside of thier drug habits, who live in NYC and get shit delivered to them like pizza. And no one is going to reform them anytime soon except thier families perhaps, due to the fact that they have money to cover the cost of survival as well as thier vices.
People like myself simply do not want to deal with the system every again. People tell me all the time to go for Sec 8 housing. HUD wouldnt help me when my life and health was being destroyed. I will never forget the terrified look on thier faces at the Boston office due to the heavies who were out to destroy me on a few levels as well as the company in NYC (Olnick) who owned the building having power. I will never forgive them or the way the system is set up for that, ever. Every headache, every memory lapse, every time I look in the mirror and see how I have aged and lost my figure due to those original supposed stops in a system that is malfunctioning that did not serve to stop what was snowballing, reminds me of what happened EVERY DAY. If anyone thinks I am going to forget or move on without justice or revenge and the whole world knowing what they did youve got another thing coming. So I live this way and figure I'll produce my work without a place to live. I will never risk experiencing home entries again or people messing with my food. And alot of homeless places that feed people already mess with the food if you know what I mean. Ever wonder why when eating in certain places you feel so sleepy after eating lunch there? Dont eat there, take my advice. Trust yer body and yer instincts.
Like I said lots of fun human rights violations. Great places for covert warfare. Staying in shelters can traumatize an already traumatized popluation. Many people go nomadic out of a primitive human survival action. It might actually save thier lives in the long run. In our supposedly civilized environment people pay too little attention to just how powerful the human body really is. You are capable of things you dont even realize. It just takes having to live under extreme duress long enough. Human survival is not about having consistent access to food, shelter and money. That is human comfort zone. Poverty is the one thing that is ignored internationally or its played with far too much. Recently I got very annoyed at realizing just how much effort goes into Africa and how its become such a focus that to be African now is to have some sort of immediate virtue. Which is total bullshit once again. There are plenty of starving, repressed, subjegated peoples in India, China just to name a few. But they are not as popular with Americans right now. By the way much of the money you send gets stolen by dictators as well as it only creates more starving children. Look up the economics for what goes on with putting money into a corrupt, ill fashioned system of governance and tell me what you find. You'll find that economically speaking, the population increases and eats up any headway made to begin with. If I were in charge I would demand male vesectomies or female birth control implants before anyone gets a bowl of rice or medicne. Harsh sounding? Perhaps but I actually want to help people not perpetuate misery for profit. To give and forget is to satisfy YOUR emotional needs- to do things properly and fight the oppressors behind the strife is to satisfy THIER needs, for real not on some slip of paper. These are often war zones or military occupied. For a continent that is at once exploited by first world countries as well as often corrupt and violent from its own people to an extreme its surprising that Africa is so romanticized. Why not help Mexico instead or South America. Oh thats right, they are all either lazy Mexicans or pushing the drug trade, so they dont deserve our help. Silly me.
Always depend on white guilt over slavery as the number one tool of successful manipulation when it comes to Africa and money. And I say this becuz I care about what I see, not becuz I am turning into a white supremicist. I wouldnt make a good white supremeicist- I believe Mexicans are native americans who have a right to thier land back. Which strangely is not popular with the very same people who would call me racist and hide behind the apron strings of the left. Wonderful people they are, just dont move into thier neighborhoods if yer poor forget about African American. And if you mentioned the idea of giving back all the stolen land to the genociced North American Natives they would give you a blank expression and change the subject becuz this would take away thier wealth.
Know why I hate PC leftists or Liberals? becuz they are just as greedy and selfish as any red blooded American but unlike thier Repub counterparts dont have the balls to face themselves for what they are. These types find reality very inconvenient and a bother. At least the opposing factions realize reality doesnt fit in with the bullshit they are peddling and work hard at eraticating it or perceptions of it with manipultion and intimidation.
The homeless have fallen out of popularity with the bleeding hearts, so thier cause must be re invented, which is now to get everyone housed.
The chronically homeless in shelters or transients or outside sleepers are not going to be able to do so. Many older people I notice are in shelters instead of nursing homes and I believe they would perish if it werent for the staff and the company of others. For many people putting them in a room with four walls is like sentencing them to insanity or a very sad existence. Not only has the world changed so drastically so quickly that many people got left behind, which housing is not going to solve that spiritual and social void, but the price of things is so ridiculous now that many people just dont understand how to survive.
There arent any homeless programs that I know of or geared towards the homeless that addresss issues such as how to cope with the NWO and the 21st century way of doing things. Your dealing with a subculture and one that is treated like a bunch of peasants in a fuedal system.
Its ridiculous.
To start alternative shelters or programs is to get at least one demographic of the chronically 'homeless' out of the system that costs the state and private charities lots of money.
Also managing the situation alot better is in order as well. Less waste and better educated staff. The people that work in shelters are beyond amazing at being abusive, under qualified and ignorant.
This culture takes any issue it does not want to tackle and buries it deeply and keeps it a mystery to the public. Usually one can bet that easy money and corruption as well as human and civil rights violations are present and if exposed would disturb the entire industry. I can think of a few black market industries like that off hand.
These people are not criminals, at least not for being homeless. This society is trying very hard to make that a reality so of course they can deal with thier lacking in this area with supposed law and order, which of course is just to cover up for the original screwed up system to begin with. Why should people who regularly have thier rights violated now be subject to law enforcement handling THEM and not the abusers? Too logical for you I assume, not popular right? Common sense rarely is.
And to judge them criminal is to do so based on trespassing laws when there is a lack of opportunity as well as a monopoly by shelter systems with no alternatives.
Also you are ultimately putting that judgement on this population out of a stigma set up by this being a Capitalist society. If it were truly Capitalist then the state and feds shouldnt have such control over the fate of homeless people as well as there should be some sort of system where the homeless themselves are given opportunity to form alternatives or pay into some sort of shelter type set up so they gain independence doing so.
-A shelter/hostel/intentional community would be most viable.
-If you cant function you cant stay there, there are enough shelters for the severely mentally ill and we are tired of having to baby sit them on top of dealing with our own situations. We do not have to be politically correct as we live under duress in a situation that basically violates our civil and human rights- that is YOUR job. If its not PC to have us live this way to begin with you can expect no PC from us.
-a place for highly functioning individuals whos focus is not housing but some other goal in thier lives right now
-pay into the establishment either daily or weekly and those funds to be subsidized by grants, funding or private charity or even sponsors. Many street people have personal sponsors already that assist them with clothing, storage etc.
-have say over fine tuning the rules of the establishment
-staff is on at all times but should include volunteers, college students, interns as well as paid employees. If staff is positive and has something to offer many people will find it attrative to also give thier time there or gain experience there. This is the case with the Harvard Sq homeless shelter Cambridge MA as well as On The Rise also in Cambridge and Rachel's Day Center in San Diego.
-stop all anti intellectualism, regression and brainwashing tactics being used on this population within an alternative shelter environment. Its not a jail and its not a mental hospital. For those that feed off drama and negativity which is why they prefer the current shelter system, they would most likely not last in an alternative, healthy system. So let them not be included then.
- Stop the attitude of waste within the running of the establishment. Showers that turn off auto after 10 or 15 minutes, old furniture and making sure to take the steps one would take at home to save energy wisely would be the norm. Take care of what is already there instead of getting grants for new things all the time. Staff if not allowed to pick through donations or skim off the top in any way unless its permitted openly by everyone. Use donations wisely and dont hoard. Use all space within the building for client/guest satisfaction. I have seen so many of these places with storage spaces for hoarding of old items that are dirty and also a health hazard as well as the space could be used for clients use.
-Make much more of the services for traveling houseless people.
-Much more attention has got to be paid to hygiene and health codes especially OSHA standards. I cannot count how many places still mix straight bleach with ammonia products and then clean in closed, small spaces. Clients with allergies are totally invalidated most of the time. Another reason people sleep outside. Did you know that in WWI that chemical mix was put into shells and used as bio warfare? And Fabuloso and bleach is the norm on the border in a very stubborn Mex culture. Dont expect to see McDonalds employees in El Paso on the border using gloves to prep your food. Just get your anti para herbs out and take it in as part of the charm of such a place.
However, when such cultures are in charge of your health in a situation where you have little control, this becomes a problem. And the large African American culture that deals with most shelters is also often guilty of this. They also tend to respond with denial and invalidation even though its written plainly in the laws on chemicals in the workplace.
-attention needs to be given to the health conditions of clients or guests such as no spraying or toiletries in the dorm areas. If you dont comply yer out.
-another strict rule that would be an immediate bar would be noise. Any noise that is consistent that wakes up people in the sleeping areas is unacceptable. So many shelters have sleep hours from early as 4pm until 6 or 7am but people are noisy late or very early making true sleep hours 2 or 3 am to about 5 am or so.
-most shelters have a policy of clients getting up very early. This needs to stop. Its nothing more than penalizing people for being poor and houseless in a society of plenty and private wealth. If I get up at 6 am I am not as productive as if I got up at 8 am or even 10am. My body clock has always been to sleep at about 1 am and wake about 9 am, and the earliest I can tweek this and still function properly is 12 midnight to 8am. Anything before that leaves me tired during the day no matter how much sleep I get and I just waste alot of my day passed out at a day center getting what my body considers 'real' sleep which is at least 3 hours of day sleep. My mother was like that and her father before her. Trying to turn night owls and C shift workers is like trying to make any other naturally nocturnal animal sleep at hours not natural to thier bodies. This perception of people being night owls due to partying and drugs is totally a outdated and typically puritanical of American society, only when judging a bunch of poor people who need assistance from the govt of course. Yer bad- get up early as penance. Where is June and Ward?
Many women I have seen walk around like zombies or fall asleep at variable hours during the day on couches who are chronically homeless, have been for years and have legit night jobs. One works at a popular clothing store sorting the day's retail from fitting rooms and other messes. Myself, I write alot more and can think more clearly without light, noise and so many other human beings awake and roaming the earth as during the day. Sometimes I think that many of us are so primitive or locked into some earlier time of our ancient ancestors that to our perceptions, there are indeed too many people on the planet right now. And during the day you can sense that. The only time when its light when I feel totally comfortable is that great time at dawn just before everyone gets up and out, when its still kind of dim out and there are people walking around but its very sparse. To be honest I loathe the daytime. I cant think, focus or concetrate. All I feel is stressed out, overexposed and over stimulated by things I cant control.
There needs to be shelters for people who need sleep during the day. Take the same precautions you would with any dry shelter.
-it would be nice if these places were dry shelters which means that there is no drinking or drug use. However perhaps if they population were independent enough they could be treated like adults under their own Will but if they obviously had a problem that interferred with thier functioning they would not be able to stay there.
-Jerry Springer, all tv judges and other sensationalist shows like Springer would be blocked from the tv. There would be alternatives like Free Speech TV or BBC opposed to mind numbing local nightly news. Instead of the NY Post or the Herald the Wall St Journal and The Guardian as newspapers- you get my idea I think. No one seems to understand that shows like Springer actually do psychological harm to an already traumatized population as well as feeds into negativity that exists of this nature already. Its a total keep down diversion of a show and it needs to be banned from any supposedly safe shelter environment. Unfortunately it is the number one show I have seen in shelters over the years, either that or Oprah...we can do alot better people. ALOT better. And if its a women's shelter, Doctor Phil, Dr Oz AND Jerry can all take a walk. If its any sort of decent women's shelter the Lifetime channel should be banned and the view also- either that or its highly discouraged. There is already enough co dependent, gossiping, male dependent female populations out there. True independence should be promoted and fostered especially promoting using one's mind not escapism.
-the great number of people i have seen across the USA in shelters, day drop ins, public libraries and university libraries who have given all of us a bad rep by abusing computer priveledges is astounding. College libraries across the USA have stopped allowing thier computers to be used by 'the public' becuz that faction of 'the public' only uses those computers to watch YouTube constantly, play music from thier favorite latest artist while of course singing along complete with dance moves like they are in a video themselves, porn, and video games as well as constant social networking sights. Instead of limiting these options libraries are either too leniant or have stopped helping the public all together.
In NM I had to talk to the deans office to use the computer after arguing that a blog is a reference project. Someone in the dean's office pointed out that i linked to references all the time so I had to be doing research and made the kids downstairs understand that.
It bothers me that America is so unbalanced. Its either allowing too much without sane parameters and of course that leads to people in need being allowed to hang themselves with enough rope leading to stopping priveledges all together.
If people are actually doing something along with a few moments of escapism that is balanced and should be acceptable.
The main problem in the US seems to be that the ignorance, greed and lack of balance of the populations in need are allowed to go on unnoted by anyone so as to educate them about how to live, get what you want and live in society. Housing is not going to fix that mentality. If people are too ignorant to understand they cant just do as they please on a free ride like say the computer priveledges at a university then getting them to understand this is alot better than cutting them off altogether. Once again, anyone who cant comply can just leave anyway, which they end up doing in the end when priveledges are taken away due to abuse, so why not keep such priveleges for people who actually need them and are doing something?
-no faith based programs. No shelter/hostels in churches etc. No sermons, no preaching, no literature hand outs. You may think this is going to far but if you here in the Northeast dont understand how oppressive faith based homeless services are in the southwest and parts of So Cal like San Diego. The Rescue Mission has got to be one of the most corrupt corporations or networks I have ever encountered. The one in El Paso is all jail people and its run like that too. Totally corrupt. However the shelter I was at in Dallas, a big warehouse run by a black preacher, was not intrusive or heavy handed and the religious aspect did not interfere with my prime directive, personal beliefs or interfere with my producing meaningful work. The difference is that often faith based = a con job or a scam. Somewhere they are hiding white collar crime such as fraud. And there are conditions that make some places more suspect than others. Also, in places like ABQ, NM all homeless services are faith based with no alternatives. Here in MA people do not understand how still ruled by Christianity much of the US still is. Its either Christianity or psychiatry, rarely is it ingenuity, inventiveness, creativity and democracy. Its as if those things are not allowed and certainly are not encouraged. Much scum of the earth hides behind religion and not all parts of the US like New England depends on thier wits and shrewdness to get by in life. In fact, other regions dont even expect a person to be able to fight the system or think logically about being oppressed. The problem is much worse than people in the northeast could imagine.
-stop peddling psychiatry and big pharma. The US and New Zealand are the only two countries in the whole world where drug companies can advertise on television. The homeless are immediately directed towards psychiatry in places like the north east. Most shelters are also unbearable for outside homeless due to most of the women in these places being on psych meds which makes for little mental development. There are women I have seen that sleep day and night and only visit reality for an hour here or there. I do not want to be around that. And those are the dry shelters. Psych meds have become a cure all for everything from wartime, a bad economy to the destruction of our environment obviously becoming an issue of human survival itself. To be depressed in the last 3 decades is to be healthy and normal. There are many things wrong with society now that were not normal human obstacles prior. Instead of facing issues and overwhelmed public have taken to Just Saying No to illegal street drugs and Saying Yes to big pharma with psychiatry as the dealer. I think I preferred my stoned parents in the 70's to this bore. Wouldnt a world full of self actualized people be wonderful? Now I am asking for too much.
If people want to take meds or have to then fine, the environment will be as such that they will not make up the popular majority anyway.
-youth shelters and drop ins have the best food and facilities usually. Also I note that they are most like how I would want a dream shelter to be. Most of the places I experienced that were positive had a good mix of local youth, transient youth and hard core travelers of later ages. No miserable home bums were allowed into the place. Keep the negativity out and do so by other means than religion and psych meds.
-no ghetto bs end of story. Cultural is fine but use it as a weapon or to oppress other cultures or guests or to form cliques that take over a place and define it- yer out.
This means that not every conversation is going to be loud and dominating everyone else. This means that not every single hour of every day the radio is going to be urban or Afro music. This means that EVERYONE gets to live in harmony and harmony is not defined by one dominant culture.
Like it or not the truth is that this is control tactic of the ruling factions in society. The slave culture of the US is used to absorb other poor factions that live among this culture. This culture is still very much about being down or kept down. It has alot of elements of a cult mentality or a self defeating system. Its brilliant to allow it to be the dominant culture in places that serve all poor people as absorbing everyone into it will surely guarentee that everyone is subject to its mind control. African Americans do alot better job surviving without being miserable in poverty and harsh circumstances. White people tend to be bitter, miserable and without what used to be refered to as 'soul' when it comes to existing without having. But then again, thier culture also promotes mindless drama, ignorance like replacing folk and myth for true fact and knowledge and violence as well as a constant presence of intimidation, domination and creating heirchies socially at least in the female element of the culture I have experienced. This absolutely should not be tolerated in a healthy and functioning system. The number one negative element in this culture is a propensity to accept circumstances and not question authority in a productive manner and not advocate for oneself especially in a group. Living happily using creativity under harsh circumstances has GOT to be balanced with improving one's circumstances as well as advocating for one's self. If I have to hear staff refered to one more time as 'Miss' and then thier first name I ('Miss Jenny where do you want this dish?') am going to scream. Quant as it may seem or charming it harks to a reality that my ancestors never lived, I dont want to live and my Irish ancestors fought, died and still to ensure that we do not give in to complacency while being oppressed so easily.
You got it right: poor whites tend to act up against whites that run the system who are doing the oppressing. Always have back in Europe from riots to revolutions so why shouldnt we here? Its our nature to do so. Knowing this I suspect is the number one reason why shelters are promoted as African American dominant culturally. In recent years, subverting poor whites by absorbing or navigating them into other cultural realities has been the norm. Again another smart move on the classists to use race relations to thier advantage. Imagine if there was a PC based on class not race or gender? They'd be totally f*cked and they know it. Promote diversity of income brackets..can you imagine??
Again I say this becuz its to improve conditions and being polite and ignoring glitches in a system never solved anything. Its not that I am not comfortable with diversity but when it promotes dominance over other cultures or is a con job by the elite or upper classes at more oppression then one must look at it a bit more carefully.
Shelters should be no different than the freedoms we have as citizens outside. This having to switch to kindergarden mode and be as oppressed as possible has to stop.
It only gives the oppressor the silence he requires to continue the corruption.
Shelters are full of women with talents and valuable life experience. Its being wasted in a system that insists on having a monopoly and no alternatives to places that are a cross between mental institutions, jails and kindergardens. The system needs to be exposed and a complete overhaul.
National standards for health codes, strict attention to OSHA. If not compliant then you get fined nad shut down by inspectors just like any other business. Non profits have people working at them who drive really nice cars- what is that from thier other jobs? Look at the salaries at Pine St, and they now own some valuable real estate around the Metro area.
More education and ensure qualification for staff. No hiring people that are too lazy or have personality issues that make them unable to get jobs in the 'real' world with 'normal' people. Less corruption, favoritism and power tripping. Some of the things they do are just ridiculous.
Much better attention to a balance in power and security. Woods Mullen has staff that are totally negligent but yet there is a policeman on detail in the lobby downstairs. Hmph..'Boston Public Health Commission', have I got stories about them. Sheesh. One woman who worked there practically begged me to write this book- but she cant take action she claims due to her wanting to make this field her career. Thats the other thing- many staff or social services people who care thier hands are tied. So they do the system's shuffle and go through the motions. How horrible that must be for them.
Other places are so lax on security even when a crisis occurs that it puts the entire population at risk. At St Patricks last week a women who was violent was allowed to roam the building after being told to leave but not escorted out nor police called and consequently went back into the sleeping area again and got hold of a purse of another clients and came out to the kitchen and ripped up her things in front of everyone, again waking the whole house. The staff on that night may be a good cook and a nice person but she obvioulsy isnt security savvy. Worse could have happened in that scenerio. This is a shelter that is dry and the women are productive for the most part. Either shelters are too rough and abusive or they are too lenient on trouble makers or inappropriate clients who would benefit from being sent elsewhere.
There has to be security that is as balanced as it is in normal civilization in an alternative system or establishment.
-sensitivity to clients reality and predicament.
Examples of this are sighting a homeless person for not being PC in a conversation. If you use the word tranny instead of transgender and a younger woman scolds you like a school child its a bit much considering the horrible conditions we have to live under in variable environments being homeless. That is grossly inappropriate, un PC in itself and totally insensitive. And of course the butchest Lesbian there corrected her and claimed it wasnt a big issue anymore etc. So of course totally PC addicted Liberals are usually correcting people on things they are not hardcore involved in but policing every conversation, every thought and deed for a lack of peace and harmony, while ignoring gross human and civil rights violations that happen in the action on the front lines of living, outside of the dreamy world of words, concepts and thoughts. Get a clue here people. WAKE UP TIME is coming. Get ready.
Another example of this is staff having conversations for far too long that exclude clients if they are in an environemnt where they are being paid to socialize with guests. It makes clients feel left out which is what we feel outside all the time anyway.
Discussing things around homeless people that make them feel more wanting than before. Such as the distasteful habit of some staff to actually talk about the latest hip restaraunt or spas they plan to go to. This is very damaging for women who formely had lives where these things were commonly in thier grasp. Being homeless is often part of extreme and severe trauma occurences. The last thing someone wants to hear is about what they no longer can have that probably was denied them by a totally corrupt system or male priveledge to destroy women's lives without consequence in this society. OTHER WOMEN SHOULD NOT BE ASSISTING THE OPPRESSOR WITH SUCH ACTIONS. Thank you very much..(sheesh get a clue). The fact of the matter is that many women who targeted are so becuz they had too much and are being wittled down to being managable- beauty, dirt on rich men, power over a male in marriage or business, whistleblower etc. The actions of staff as such are amusing and petty to such former dominant females in society and can serve to break any bonds of trust with staff or the establishement..unless of course that is what you want in order to force people out to get housed, which of course would never happen in an alternative program or system that honors the decision to stay houseless for as long as needed.
I wont even get into how middle class and gosch such behaviors are. Thats a bit beyond the scope of this piece.
The problem is that most good staff are not formely homeless. Its unfortunate but true. Many formely homeless people make horrid staff due to thier having a syndrome we homeless call 'forgetting where you came from'. I dont know why this occurs or if it would happen to any of us. Perhaps its due to the system being so rotten at the level of authority that runs these places that the homeless take to this and it just doesnt work. That isn't always true and hopefully in a system that was not so oppressive and corrupt it would be the norm to staff who were formely homeless.
-have the clients or guests work at the establishment without it being put to them as 'chores' or some other added oppression, burden or stress in their reality.
These are just a few of the things that need to occur or need attention to create a humane system that is much more fair to the homeless as well as the tax payer and the charitable.
