March 25, 2019

Mission Statement:

-To increase the accuracy of the public’s perception of homelessness

Contributors are designated by number only for the day on which what we have to say is published; the numbers aren’t permanent identifiers.

Homeless shelters aren’t named, also to protect the identities of contributors, who have every reason to fear retaliation from the shelters which are supposed to help us.  


March 25, 2019:


Homeless Human 1:

So, I was working.  I had an accident in a parking lot and fell, and then I had a mark on my leg.  I was always a healthy person.  I couldn’t get rid of the mark; it kept getting bigger and bigger.  I ended up going to the hospital.

4 ½ hours after I got to the hospital, they diagnosed me with sarcoidosis of the kidneys and liver.  My digestive system was no longer working; I take medication for that, to make it work.  It was all over my skin and in my mouth; they had to remove my teeth.  They had to clip a lot of pieces of my gums out.

I still maintained working until they said my liver was elevated.  Then I had to stop working.

I did maintain a home for a year after I stopped working.  I’m a saver, so I had money in the bank to pay my rent and bills.  Then I was evicted, not quite a year ago. 

I ended up at this shelter.

My initial contact with the shelter was with a gentleman who worked here.  He knew that I had family, so the shelter kicked me out.  I have no family to go to; they have their own families and their own homes.  I thought it was a HIPAA violation for him to do that. 

After the shelter did that, I had to go to the State House.  I spoke to a state aide; she called the shelter and made the shelter take me.  I was sleeping in my car.

Ever since I returned here, since the day I walked back in, I feel like I’ve been retaliated against.

It’s been one bad thing after another.  Walking in here, you know, for a fact, that you’re homeless.  There’s nothing that gives you that encouragement that makes you want to get up and make something of your life.  The staff treats you like you’re nothing. 

I feel like they make you feel homeless, every day that you’re here.

As far as the shelter working with you to get housing:  they put me with a case manager who didn’t do what she said she was doing for me.  I’ve been on a housing waitlist for a specific apartment building for 5 years, since before I was homeless.  I just found out that I’ve been kicked off the waitlist because the case manager who was supposed to be helping me did not call to change my address, didn’t contact these people at all, and was telling me that she did.  Because she told me that she was contacting them, she told me that I didn’t have to contact them.  She’s been lying to me since September 2018, telling me that she was in contact with them and that I was still on their waitlist.  I finally called them because I just got my Section 8.  They have never heard of my case manager, nor did they know that I was really in the shelter.  They told me that I had to send them a letter saying that I am staying at the shelter; the case manager was supposed to do that.  They definitely told me that they had never heard of her.

I asked the case manager, “Who did you speak to?  Can I have a copy of the letter that you said you wrote them back in September?”  She doesn’t have it, and she doesn’t know who she talked to. 

I’m so upset with her; she claims today that she’s going to call them. 

I just don’t understand the lying.  Why would you tell people that you’re doing things when you’re not, making them think that things are being taken care of?  That’s the kicker; I could have, and would have, done all of the work if I had known that she wasn’t doing it.

There’s only one person at the apartment building where I wanted to live who deals with the application process.  I have known her for 5 years.  When I finally called her to find out what was going on, she said “I thought you dropped off the face of the earth.  You used to call me every other month. “  I told her “My case manager was calling you, wasn’t she?”  She said “No, nobody has called.” 

My case manager was even telling me for those months “I talked to them today.”  She was just stringing me along.  There’s another guest of the shelter who’s my witness, who was happy for me, because we thought I’d have housing soon.  Everybody knew that building was where I wanted to be.

The apartment building kicked me off the waitlist in September 2018.  If I had caught it then, they could have put me back on their waitlist.  For all of that time, my case manager at this shelter was lying to me.

That’s what really kills me about her.  I thought “Wow, who does that?  If you don’t want to do this job, why not move on?”  I thought they were here to help us, but obviously not. 

My sister has said “It’s a good thing that you were doing some of the footwork, because they can’t even do the little things that need to be done.” 

Today, my case manager walked right by me like I wasn’t even there.

I don’t know what to do to get back on the housing list for that building.  To have 5 years thrown away is really horrible. 

I think they should hold her accountable, and she’s not the only one.  They all need to be held accountable for what they do here.

The bed situation is also terrible.  It’s a terrible thing to have to come here when you’re sick, when they tell you to bring all your doctors’ notes, and you do, and it doesn’t even matter.  They’re going to do whatever they want to do anyway.  Now I’m having to use the grievance process.  I put in a grievance process last month; I never heard from them.  That’s a waste of time. 

I’m supposed to be leaving April 1^st, to another apartment somewhere else.  I did all of the work for it alone.  When I asked my case manager if she wanted to visit the apartment with me, she said she had other clients to help and that she’d have to get back to me.  When I made the appointment and told her when it was, she said “I might be able to go.”  The day of the appointment, I went to the shelter's front desk and asked if they could call her to ask her if she’d go to the appointment with me; she told the front desk “Tell her to call me when she gets there (to the apartment).”  I didn’t bother to call her; what do I need to call her for? 

When I got there, the building manager said “Where’s your case manager?”  Everyone else had a case manager; I walked all around the building alone. 

I signed the lease.  I am leaving the shelter, but I have to advocate for people who are living here.  I can’t leave them here with the way that staff talk to them.  The other night, someone who works here screamed at a homeless woman so loudly that the woman dropped her tray.  Then the staffperson said “That’s your food for the night.”



Copyright Homeless Humans, March 25, 2019