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 26, 2019:
Homeless Human 1:
Here's another quote from the January 26, 2018 article, attributed to:
Copyright Homeless Humans, March 26, 2019
March 26, 2019:
Homeless Human 1:
Today, the Pine Street Inn’s website says that it has 850
tenants in Pine Street Inn housing and 670 emergency shelter beds in 4
locations across Boston.
Here's the address for the page which has that statistic:
https://www.pinestreetinn.org/
Here's the address for the page which has that statistic:
https://www.pinestreetinn.org/
This March 20, 2019 Tweet from the Pine Street Inn’s Twitter
says that only one of the Pine Street Inn's shelters is for women:
Here's a quote from an article published January 26, 2018:
“Boston’s individual
shelters now serve 7 percent more people annually than they did in June 2015.”
Here's another quote from the January 26, 2018 article, attributed to:
“…Lyndia Downie, president
and executive director of Pine Street Inn, according to the press release. ‘Our
goal is to move people out of shelter as quickly as possible; and better yet,
to prevent them from entering in the first place.’”
This is the address for that article:
There is no question that Ms. Downie does not want homeless
people to live in Pine Street Inn homeless shelters. You’d think that her motivation to have us
leave would lead her to upgrade the Pine Street Inn’s practices for moving people
out of homelessness into appropriate situations, rather than making all of the
homeless people in the Pine Street Inn’s shelters suffer from appalling living
conditions and personal treatment while she asks the government and other
donors for millions of dollars to build more Pine Street Inn housing.
It’s my impression that one of the main reasons that
homelessness is worsening in Boston is that the Pine Street Inn, which declares
itself “New England’s leading provider of homeless services,” is doing worse
than nothing to help shelter guests obtain or keep housing. All of its money is going toward building its
own housing so that it can be a landlord, living off tenants’ disability checks. Also, it doesn’t seem to me that anyone is
conducting real research to find out how tenants of Pine Street Inn’s housing feel
about where they live and the services which they receive. Obviously, the Pine Street Inn is only publishing testimony from those of its tenants who are willing to say positive things.
Inclusionary Housing Programs are good housing opportunities. However, there ought to be more advocacy for low-income
tenants in the market-rate buildings, and more education and oversight for the
property managements of market-rate buildings which are required to have 13% of
their units be affordable.
I had a nice apartment
from 2016-2017 through an Inclusionary Housing Program, but I was
mistreated by the property management of that building and received no help at all from the
program or from other agencies which I contacted to protect my rights. The accurate assumption by the property management
that it could abuse me with impunity because I am poor caused me to lose that
apartment. My options were to speak up
for my rights and be thrown out or to submit to degrading and criminal
treatment. On June 1, 2019, I will begin
my 3rd year of homelessness since losing that apartment; my 7th
year of homelessness since 2011.
Most of the time, people who are supposed to advocate for the poor start with the assumption that the poor person is at fault. My experience in more than one situation was that the person or people who were supposed to advocate for me knew little to nothing about the law or my rights and wouldn't even advocate for me when I had explained to them what the law and my rights were. Their approach was to start by apologizing for me as if I were stupid, as if it were a given that I was in the wrong and that resolving the situation required helping others to "understand" my craziness rather confronting others to stop exploiting stigma to abuse me. Obviously, I wasn't allowed to be angry at my "helpers" about this, because they were "just trying to help" and "did everything they could."
Most of the time, people who are supposed to advocate for the poor start with the assumption that the poor person is at fault. My experience in more than one situation was that the person or people who were supposed to advocate for me knew little to nothing about the law or my rights and wouldn't even advocate for me when I had explained to them what the law and my rights were. Their approach was to start by apologizing for me as if I were stupid, as if it were a given that I was in the wrong and that resolving the situation required helping others to "understand" my craziness rather confronting others to stop exploiting stigma to abuse me. Obviously, I wasn't allowed to be angry at my "helpers" about this, because they were "just trying to help" and "did everything they could."
Copyright Homeless Humans, March 26, 2019
