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, and from the shelters as employers.
May 15, 2019
Homeless Human 1:
Today, the staffperson who conducted an illegal and retaliatory strip-search of a guest who had previously contributed to this blog returned to work, after a "vacation" of a few days and an investigation of the incident by the shelter's administration. It is not the shelter's policy ever to do strip-searches, which means that the strip-search was a malicious sexual assault, intended to humiliate, intimidate and silence the victim and to make an example of her to guests and staff of the shelter.
It seems that there will be no real consequences for that staffperson, or for the shelter's assistant director, who was working the night of the sexual assault and who either authorized it or was negligent in allowing it to occur while she was at the shelter.
By allowing that staffperson and the assistant director to return to work, the director of the shelter is sending a clear message to both guests and shelter employees that even sexual assault by shelter employees against homeless people won't be grounds for dismissal, as long as the sexual assault is perpetrated against homeless people who have criticized the shelter.
This decision by the shelter's director surprised me, even though she was already known to me and to many other guests for her insensitivity to issues of sexual harassment, for her lack of concern for guests' safety, and for the appalling things that she has said to survivors of rape. I should stop being surprised by her capacity for vindictive denial.
This article is from 2006:
https://vawnet.org/material/no-safe-place-sexual-assault-lives-homeless-women
It is one of the first Google results for "percentage of homeless women who have been sexually abused." The age of the article and its prominence among the results suggest that it's not an issue that most of the public thinks about.
These quotes could have been accurately written today, rather than in 2006. There's been no progress.
Quote:
Levels of victimization that women endure before, during, and after episodes of homelessness remain enormously high, often occurring in multiple settings at the hands of multiple perpetrators. For example, 92% of a large, racially diverse sample of homeless mothers had experienced severe physical and/or sexual violence at some point in their lives (Browne & Bassuk, 1997). Thirteen percent of another sample of homeless women reported having been raped in the past 12 months, and half of these women were raped at least twice (Wenzel, et al., 2000).
Quote:
Our social institutions, as they are now constructed, are not working effectively to prevent homelessness, protect vulnerable women, and help them recover. Staff members at general shelters for homeless women are rarely trained to detect and respond appropriately and sensitively to trauma or sexual violence. As a result, they can unwittingly worsen sexual assault survivors' psychological distress and compromise their ability to regain residential stability and increased quality of life.
Copyright, with noted exceptions, Homeless Humans, May 15, 2019
May 15, 2019
Homeless Human 1:
Today, the staffperson who conducted an illegal and retaliatory strip-search of a guest who had previously contributed to this blog returned to work, after a "vacation" of a few days and an investigation of the incident by the shelter's administration. It is not the shelter's policy ever to do strip-searches, which means that the strip-search was a malicious sexual assault, intended to humiliate, intimidate and silence the victim and to make an example of her to guests and staff of the shelter.
It seems that there will be no real consequences for that staffperson, or for the shelter's assistant director, who was working the night of the sexual assault and who either authorized it or was negligent in allowing it to occur while she was at the shelter.
By allowing that staffperson and the assistant director to return to work, the director of the shelter is sending a clear message to both guests and shelter employees that even sexual assault by shelter employees against homeless people won't be grounds for dismissal, as long as the sexual assault is perpetrated against homeless people who have criticized the shelter.
This decision by the shelter's director surprised me, even though she was already known to me and to many other guests for her insensitivity to issues of sexual harassment, for her lack of concern for guests' safety, and for the appalling things that she has said to survivors of rape. I should stop being surprised by her capacity for vindictive denial.
This article is from 2006:
https://vawnet.org/material/no-safe-place-sexual-assault-lives-homeless-women
It is one of the first Google results for "percentage of homeless women who have been sexually abused." The age of the article and its prominence among the results suggest that it's not an issue that most of the public thinks about.
These quotes could have been accurately written today, rather than in 2006. There's been no progress.
Quote:
Levels of victimization that women endure before, during, and after episodes of homelessness remain enormously high, often occurring in multiple settings at the hands of multiple perpetrators. For example, 92% of a large, racially diverse sample of homeless mothers had experienced severe physical and/or sexual violence at some point in their lives (Browne & Bassuk, 1997). Thirteen percent of another sample of homeless women reported having been raped in the past 12 months, and half of these women were raped at least twice (Wenzel, et al., 2000).
Quote:
Our social institutions, as they are now constructed, are not working effectively to prevent homelessness, protect vulnerable women, and help them recover. Staff members at general shelters for homeless women are rarely trained to detect and respond appropriately and sensitively to trauma or sexual violence. As a result, they can unwittingly worsen sexual assault survivors' psychological distress and compromise their ability to regain residential stability and increased quality of life.
Copyright, with noted exceptions, Homeless Humans, May 15, 2019
