I mentioned this before on another page today, and maybe I'll keep mentioning it for a while; if I don't say that there's code in something that I write, there isn't any code there. I try to be sensitive to code concerns when I think that maybe I haven't mentioned it enough or at times when I really think I have to; however, when I've already said "no code" about something a number of times, I think that should be enough for people to recognize that there's no code there. That's in addition to things that are really unreasonable, such as people taking the times at which I publish what I write to mean something.
September 26, 2011
5. Newblog2011: 09/26/11 BPHC shelters vs. unnecessary construction projects: Which cause deserves money, thought and time?
The other night, I stayed at the Boston Public Health Commission shelter in Boston. I had gotten back to Boston from Cambridge late and there had been no female beds available at the shelter in Quincy.
The shelter I stayed in is also called Woods Mullen or Intake. Even though a couple of the restroom stalls have doors on them in the women’s dorm at Intake, the conditions there are even worse than they are at the shelter in Quincy. The dorm for women is much smaller than the one at Quincy is; all of the beds are close together.
Before I fell asleep, it occurred to me that perhaps I should start rating the shelters in the Boston area, the way that some people rate hotels.
For example, I would rate my stay of the other night, at the Intake shelter, in the following way:
Harassment by staff: Bad. Wet floor signs not only propped up against walls in places where they weren’t needed, but set out in several places on completely dry floor, where they stayed unless I moved them to less noticeable places. I’m not sure why it was worse that night than it had been on other nights; perhaps because I had recently written on Weebly about how bad the conditions are at the BPHC shelter in Quincy. Also, one of the staff in the dorm rubbed her nose as soon as she saw me; I was about to go to my bunk when she saw me and she did that, and I knew that it would be useless to try to ask for her help with any harassment by other residents that occurred there.
Harassment by other residents: Bad. That might also have something to do with the fact that I got in late and didn’t really have a chance to talk to them before almost everyone had gone to bed. From their bunks, they saw me walk in, and, for the ones who wanted to be harassing, it was the moment they’d been waiting for. My hearing protection allows me to get an ok night’s sleep most of the time; I lost one of the cushions for one of the earpieces months ago, so it’s even less comfortable than usual, and sometimes I take it off for a few minutes. If I so much as move in the middle of the night, usually at least one homeless woman is instantly aware of it and starts the fake coughing, at which point I put the ear protection back on. When you’re tired enough, you sleep through your pain.
Bodily substance most likely exuded by at least one of my bed’s prior occupants: Drunken vomit
Mattress concavity: Moderate, by BPHC shelter standards. Noticeable back pain in the morning.
As unpleasant as many homeless people are, and even though I’ve been harassed by a number of them, there’s no reason for them to have to stay in places such as the BPHC shelters. Considering how much fake construction and other unworthy projects continue to be thought of and implemented in the Boston area, it is unconscionable that shelters run by the Boston Public Health Commission are as decrepit as they are.
There has to be money available to upgrade those shelters. They are the shelters with the worst conditions of any that I have seen in the Boston area.
I also think that more money and thought should go into the hiring and management of people who work with the homeless. It’s true that I’ve been abused while homeless; it’s also true that there’s a lot of abuse of homeless people by many of the people who are supposed to be there to help them. Homeless people get yelled at a lot by many of the staff in most shelters. Homeless people also get subjected to the petty and unfair behavior of any staff who feel like being petty and unfair, and homeless people have little to no recourse to the effects on their lives from that behavior, as far as I have seen.
As far as keeping the BPHC shelters in a clean and livable condition goes; maybe there are people who think that it’s not worth it to keep places clean which are going to be made dirty again by people with drug and alcohol issues, by people with mental health issues, by people who are elderly or sick or who have been homeless or institutionalized in one way or another for so long that they don’t remember or never knew how to care for themselves.
Here’s what I have to say to people who don’t want to contribute to the overall health and safety of homeless people; if you don’t want to work in human services, don’t.
Copyright L. Kochman, September 26, 2011 @ 1:55 p.m./edited @ 1:57 p.m./the last time I tried to publish this page, I started getting the message from Weebly on the screen that it couldn't process my last request. I logged out and logged back in, and republished the entire page here @ 2:09 p.m.
September 26, 2011
5. Newblog2011: 09/26/11 BPHC shelters vs. unnecessary construction projects: Which cause deserves money, thought and time?
The other night, I stayed at the Boston Public Health Commission shelter in Boston. I had gotten back to Boston from Cambridge late and there had been no female beds available at the shelter in Quincy.
The shelter I stayed in is also called Woods Mullen or Intake. Even though a couple of the restroom stalls have doors on them in the women’s dorm at Intake, the conditions there are even worse than they are at the shelter in Quincy. The dorm for women is much smaller than the one at Quincy is; all of the beds are close together.
Before I fell asleep, it occurred to me that perhaps I should start rating the shelters in the Boston area, the way that some people rate hotels.
For example, I would rate my stay of the other night, at the Intake shelter, in the following way:
Harassment by staff: Bad. Wet floor signs not only propped up against walls in places where they weren’t needed, but set out in several places on completely dry floor, where they stayed unless I moved them to less noticeable places. I’m not sure why it was worse that night than it had been on other nights; perhaps because I had recently written on Weebly about how bad the conditions are at the BPHC shelter in Quincy. Also, one of the staff in the dorm rubbed her nose as soon as she saw me; I was about to go to my bunk when she saw me and she did that, and I knew that it would be useless to try to ask for her help with any harassment by other residents that occurred there.
Harassment by other residents: Bad. That might also have something to do with the fact that I got in late and didn’t really have a chance to talk to them before almost everyone had gone to bed. From their bunks, they saw me walk in, and, for the ones who wanted to be harassing, it was the moment they’d been waiting for. My hearing protection allows me to get an ok night’s sleep most of the time; I lost one of the cushions for one of the earpieces months ago, so it’s even less comfortable than usual, and sometimes I take it off for a few minutes. If I so much as move in the middle of the night, usually at least one homeless woman is instantly aware of it and starts the fake coughing, at which point I put the ear protection back on. When you’re tired enough, you sleep through your pain.
Bodily substance most likely exuded by at least one of my bed’s prior occupants: Drunken vomit
Mattress concavity: Moderate, by BPHC shelter standards. Noticeable back pain in the morning.
As unpleasant as many homeless people are, and even though I’ve been harassed by a number of them, there’s no reason for them to have to stay in places such as the BPHC shelters. Considering how much fake construction and other unworthy projects continue to be thought of and implemented in the Boston area, it is unconscionable that shelters run by the Boston Public Health Commission are as decrepit as they are.
There has to be money available to upgrade those shelters. They are the shelters with the worst conditions of any that I have seen in the Boston area.
I also think that more money and thought should go into the hiring and management of people who work with the homeless. It’s true that I’ve been abused while homeless; it’s also true that there’s a lot of abuse of homeless people by many of the people who are supposed to be there to help them. Homeless people get yelled at a lot by many of the staff in most shelters. Homeless people also get subjected to the petty and unfair behavior of any staff who feel like being petty and unfair, and homeless people have little to no recourse to the effects on their lives from that behavior, as far as I have seen.
As far as keeping the BPHC shelters in a clean and livable condition goes; maybe there are people who think that it’s not worth it to keep places clean which are going to be made dirty again by people with drug and alcohol issues, by people with mental health issues, by people who are elderly or sick or who have been homeless or institutionalized in one way or another for so long that they don’t remember or never knew how to care for themselves.
Here’s what I have to say to people who don’t want to contribute to the overall health and safety of homeless people; if you don’t want to work in human services, don’t.
Copyright L. Kochman, September 26, 2011 @ 1:55 p.m./edited @ 1:57 p.m./the last time I tried to publish this page, I started getting the message from Weebly on the screen that it couldn't process my last request. I logged out and logged back in, and republished the entire page here @ 2:09 p.m.