September 2, 2011
1. Newblog2011: 09/02/11 The Pine Street Inn
I'm going to write more about the Pine Street Inn homeless shelter later today, if I have a chance. I've had a few pages of notes to write about the place for a while, and haven't been able to get to it.
For now, I'll say this: I was barred from the shelter for tonight, because this morning I objected to Wet Floor signs being placed where there was no wet floor. There have been Wet Floor signs around the interior of the building since the first day I got there, piled up for no reason next to the bathroom, along the sides of the soda vending machine, in multiples by the front door. Yesterday, when I got back to the shelter, a green mop had been added to the pile of Wet Floor signs by the front entrance. At times, that same pile has had an additional sign on it that says "KIDS BARN."
There have been Caution road cones placed in the immediate entrance, also; three of them, for no reason. Sometimes they're there, and sometimes they're not.
Today, when I objected to a Wet Floor sign being brought out from the pile and placed at the top of the stairs leading into the lobby, even though the person mopping the floors had started at the completely opposite end of the building and the floor at the top of the stairs was absolutely dry, I said "It's disgusting." I was told "So aren't you," in addition to being told that I was barred for the night.
A few minutes before that, when I'd tried to talk to one of the part-time social workers there, quietly, about the issue, she started yelling at me in front of the room full of homeless women, some of whom have been harassing toward me, even doing fake coughing in turns throughout the night. She yelled "Leave now! You are being disrespectful." I told her that I hadn't been disrespectful at all, that I was the one who had been disrespected in that place.
She was standing right there when the woman behind the desk told me that I was disgusting. I looked at the social worker and said, about the other woman "What right does she have to talk to me that way? This is a place FOR WOMEN. It is FOR WOMEN."
Then I left.
I guess I couldn't quite help myself from spitting on the outside of the door the tiniest bit as I walked out of it. I've been abused in that place every time I've been there since I got to Boston a few weeks ago. I"ve tried to handle things at other times by talking to people, by talking to staff, and the result is as I've just described.
Copyright L. Kochman, September 2, 2011 @ 10:17 a.m.
1. Newblog2011: 09/02/11 The Pine Street Inn
I'm going to write more about the Pine Street Inn homeless shelter later today, if I have a chance. I've had a few pages of notes to write about the place for a while, and haven't been able to get to it.
For now, I'll say this: I was barred from the shelter for tonight, because this morning I objected to Wet Floor signs being placed where there was no wet floor. There have been Wet Floor signs around the interior of the building since the first day I got there, piled up for no reason next to the bathroom, along the sides of the soda vending machine, in multiples by the front door. Yesterday, when I got back to the shelter, a green mop had been added to the pile of Wet Floor signs by the front entrance. At times, that same pile has had an additional sign on it that says "KIDS BARN."
There have been Caution road cones placed in the immediate entrance, also; three of them, for no reason. Sometimes they're there, and sometimes they're not.
Today, when I objected to a Wet Floor sign being brought out from the pile and placed at the top of the stairs leading into the lobby, even though the person mopping the floors had started at the completely opposite end of the building and the floor at the top of the stairs was absolutely dry, I said "It's disgusting." I was told "So aren't you," in addition to being told that I was barred for the night.
A few minutes before that, when I'd tried to talk to one of the part-time social workers there, quietly, about the issue, she started yelling at me in front of the room full of homeless women, some of whom have been harassing toward me, even doing fake coughing in turns throughout the night. She yelled "Leave now! You are being disrespectful." I told her that I hadn't been disrespectful at all, that I was the one who had been disrespected in that place.
She was standing right there when the woman behind the desk told me that I was disgusting. I looked at the social worker and said, about the other woman "What right does she have to talk to me that way? This is a place FOR WOMEN. It is FOR WOMEN."
Then I left.
I guess I couldn't quite help myself from spitting on the outside of the door the tiniest bit as I walked out of it. I've been abused in that place every time I've been there since I got to Boston a few weeks ago. I"ve tried to handle things at other times by talking to people, by talking to staff, and the result is as I've just described.
Copyright L. Kochman, September 2, 2011 @ 10:17 a.m.