Homelessness Part 4
Living at the Triage Low Demand Shelter is very much like jail or being in a crisis stabilization unit.
Food and cigarettes are our top priority. We spend a lot of time waiting.
Waiting for the bus. Waiting for access to medical care. Waiting for next meal. Waiting for next smoke break. Waiting to go to bed.
Lights out is 11 P.M. , and we are awakened promptly at 6:30 A.M.. I am usually already awake. I don’t sleep much. I snore and my roommates kick or shake my bunk bed so I will stop. This severely interferes with my R.E.M. sleep. Last night we had no air conditioning. The shelter is run by the Salvation Army but you wouldn’t know it. We are controlled by lazy sadists that are more like Roman soldiers than followers of Jesus Christ. Most of the black employees ( The homeless are mostly white) are fat, lazy and sadistic. Just lifting their arms to give you your phone, (We are only allowed our cell phones for 15 minutes at a time during smoke breaks) seems to wear them out. All the women have those enormous bubble butts.
(See Mammy Nuns) Every little thing you want or need is like pulling teeth. They play endless mind games like changing the smoke break times or making you wait and wait while they have conversations in the monitors station. Most of us want to work but the staff is the laziest group of miscreants I have ever encountered. I am surrounded by toothless addicts and alkys. They are getting on my nerves. Staying there is becoming counterproductive. The phone restrictions have already cost me an interview. I have had a cold for over a week because they never change or clean the air filters. I have to get out of there if I want to get back on my feet. They are not helping me.
Food and cigarettes are our top priority. We spend a lot of time waiting.
Waiting for the bus. Waiting for access to medical care. Waiting for next meal. Waiting for next smoke break. Waiting to go to bed.
Lights out is 11 P.M. , and we are awakened promptly at 6:30 A.M.. I am usually already awake. I don’t sleep much. I snore and my roommates kick or shake my bunk bed so I will stop. This severely interferes with my R.E.M. sleep. Last night we had no air conditioning. The shelter is run by the Salvation Army but you wouldn’t know it. We are controlled by lazy sadists that are more like Roman soldiers than followers of Jesus Christ. Most of the black employees ( The homeless are mostly white) are fat, lazy and sadistic. Just lifting their arms to give you your phone, (We are only allowed our cell phones for 15 minutes at a time during smoke breaks) seems to wear them out. All the women have those enormous bubble butts.
(See Mammy Nuns) Every little thing you want or need is like pulling teeth. They play endless mind games like changing the smoke break times or making you wait and wait while they have conversations in the monitors station. Most of us want to work but the staff is the laziest group of miscreants I have ever encountered. I am surrounded by toothless addicts and alkys. They are getting on my nerves. Staying there is becoming counterproductive. The phone restrictions have already cost me an interview. I have had a cold for over a week because they never change or clean the air filters. I have to get out of there if I want to get back on my feet. They are not helping me.
Things that they do: give you a place to sleep, shelter from the weather, security, 3 square meals a day, access to medicine, transportation, a case worker, access to employment opportunities, hot showers, structure, rehabilitation counseling...i could go on. Many of those fat, lazy sadists are volunteers.
ReplyDeleteI guess the alternative of sleeping under a bridge in the rain and scrounging food from dumpsters would probably be a better solution.
Thanks for your comment. You are right the alternative was not pretty. However: The staff that I wrote about are paid not volunteers and there is no need to treat the clients like animals. In the futur please feel free to comment with a psuedonym instead of "Anonymous."
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