Discussion of the Minutes from the July 24, 2019 Community Meeting at the Pine Street Inn Women’s Shelter

-It’s not surprising that the only thing that the director seemed to take from the July 24, 2019 meeting was that one of the guests said that she thinks that there are guests who are taking too many blankets in the dormitories at night.  If there are guests who put a blanket on the mattress and sleep on the blanket, that’s to make the bed more comfortable.  Not only are the mattresses plastic, which is understandable but not particularly comfortable, some of the mattresses have been reported by other guests as having springs very close to the surface of the mattresses, which makes them difficult to sleep on.

Some of the mattresses are too wide for the bed frames that they’ve been crammed into by the shelter’s maintenance staff.  That makes it impossible to put sheets on those mattresses.    

When I went back to the shelter on the evening of July 24, 2019, several hours after the community meeting, there was a new sign on the linen closet in the 2^nd-floor dormitory.  The sign says “STAFF ONLY.”  That wasn’t the first time that it has seemed to me that the director would like to make the entire shelter a place where only staff are allowed to be.  I really don’t think that she likes homeless people. 

-While I’d rather not single out individual guests when I can help it, Guest 7 rarely attends a community meeting without making a speech to the effect that guests who criticize the shelter are doing something wrong.  Perhaps she has never read the list of guests’ rights which are printed in the Pine Street Inn’s brochure; one of those rights is to make suggestions to improve the shelter.  At the July 24, 2019 community meeting, Guest 7 characterized as a “gift” the recent policy changes and pilot which have stopped the women’s shelter’s previous practice of making guests line up outside the building, on the sidewalk, for an hour or hours before being allowed into the shelter at 3:15 p.m.  The policy which changed the shelter’s opening time to 1:00 p.m., and the pilot which is allowing guests to stay in the shelter’s small, walled garden from 8:30 a.m., when the shelter closes, until 1:00 p.m., are both the results of years of advocacy by other guests.  Many of the guests aren’t aware of the efforts that a few guests have made to encourage the shelter to be less punitive.  I don’t need to take credit for that advocacy, but it was typical of the director to stand there smiling while Guest 7 ranted about how ungrateful other guests are. 

-Although the Pine Street Inn describes itself at its website as “New England's leading provider of housing, shelter, street outreach and job training to homeless (people),” it is totally dependent on shelters which are open during the day, such as Woods-Mullen, Rosie’s Place, The Women’s Lunch Place, and St. Francis House.  The Pine Street Inn has cast the burden of what to do with homeless people during the day onto those other providers for decades, although it doesn’t say that at its social media.  More recently, the Whole Foods which was built on Harrison Avenue a few years ago has taken on the burden of babysitting the homeless people whose major issues the Pine Street Inn doesn’t even try to address and whom it throws onto the street when the Pine Street Inn closes at 8:30 am., Monday-Saturday.  I’m sure that nobody from the Pine Street Inn’s administration has told anyone at Whole Foods “Thanks for providing tables, chairs, bathrooms, air conditioning in the summer, heat in the winter, and a roof year-round to the people whose needs we’re neglecting as much as we can.”   

Although the Pine Street Inn is enabled to shut its doors to homeless people every morning by the day shelters and one overnight shelter which I have just mentioned, all of those shelters are almost a mile away from the Pine Street Inn.  You can verify that statement by using Google Maps.  The Pine Street Inn women’s shelter provides a one-way van ride on some mornings, for a limited number of guests, to the Women’s Lunch Place and to Boston Medical Center, which is also near Woods-Mullen.  The Pine Street Inn women’s shelter doesn’t provide any van rides to those places for physically disabled guests; it will, upon request, provide a one-way cab voucher.  I have heard that the cab voucher is not really feasible, that waiting for the cab takes forever and also that it’s difficult to get a walker or wheelchair into the cab.  I have also often joked with other guests about the one-way transportation which the Pine Street Inn provides to the shelters which do the Pine Street Inn’s work for it during the day; what is the Pine Street Inn saying to its guests, “When those other places close in the afternoon, just keep going in whatever direction the van/cab dropped you off in this morning?” 

-I was struck by the director of the women’s shelter responding to what I had to say during the meeting by telling me “We don’t have to have community meeting at all.”  The monthly community meeting is one of the only times that the director of the women’s shelter is around to interact with guests as a group.  She does meet with guests individually or otherwise communicate with them individually, and she does occasionally participate in shelter operations that are normally run by staff and supervisors, but I have yet to talk to any guest whose primary description of the director has included the words “down to earth,” “easy to talk to,” or “really caring.”  Apparently, she considers having a monthly community meeting to be a special privilege that she is giving to the guests. 

-It was also interesting when the director admitted that the Woods-Mullen shelter is a really awful place to have to spend any time.  That’s known throughout the Pine Street Inn shelter and the homeless population at large; it’s not known to the public, which assumes that, because the Woods-Mullen shelter is run by the Boston Public Health Commission, it must be fit for human habitation.  Someone once told me that the building which is now the Woods-Mullen shelter used to be the city morgue; I can't confirm that.  The Woods-Mullen shelter is where most of the guests of the Pine Street Inn women's shelter go when they are given Suspensions of Services by the Pine Street Inn.  You'd think that knowing how bad the conditions are at Woods-Mullen would deter everyone who works at the Pine Street Inn from threatening guests with SOS's except as a last resort to a situation that can't be de-escalated despite all efforts, but it doesn't.  Far from it.  

-As I wrote the last time that the Pine Street Inn women’s shelter had a Narcan training, I don’t argue with having those trainings at the shelter.  I do think it’s deplorable that the Pine Street Inn does NOTHING substantial to address substance abuse or support recovery other than to send the message that it knows that people are going to overdose.  It would be nice if there were a methadone clinic at the Pine Street Inn, rather than the closest clinic being 1.4 miles away (Google Maps).  At the very least, there ought to be daily meetings and support groups for substance abuse and for the other major issues that keep homeless people homeless, including but not limited to trauma from sexual abuse, domestic violence, loss and grieving, having a criminal record, mental illness or being perceived to have mental illness, disability, and aging.  If you want a job that is one-dimensional, work with some other population, but don’t blame homeless people for the total systems’ failure to treat us as if we are people who have problems rather than as if we are a subspecies whose problems you have no obligation to address because they’re too much for you.  If you think that our problems are too much for you, what do you think those problems are for us, particularly in settings whose administrations are happy to think that we’re a bunch of losers who really want to spend the rest of our lives in homeless shelters?  Yes, I know; no administrator of a homeless shelter is going to call homeless people “losers” in front of anyone.  That doesn’t mean that’s not how we’re treated.  

-I think there ought to be a lot more effort by the Pine Street Inn women’s shelter to encourage guests to look for work and to connect them with resources to help them get work.  It’s not judgmental to do that; we’re subjected to plenty of judgmental behavior without it.  I don’t object to giving homeless women coloring books and board games for recreation, but I don’t think that should be a substitute for taking their potential for independence seriously, even if they have forgotten or never knew how to take responsibility for their lives.  


Copyright Homeless Humans, July 31, 2019 

Minutes from the July 24, 2019 Community Meeting at the Pine Street Inn Women's Shelter

July 24, 2019

Community Meeting

Pine Street Inn Women’s Shelter

In Attendance:

Around 23 guests of the shelter

Director

Housing Specialist

A 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Supervisor

Associate Director

A 3 p.m. – 11 p.m. Staffperson

Director:  Good Morning. (People respond.)  I’m going to try to project my voice.  My name is (gives name) and I’m the Director of the Pine Street Inn Women’s Shelter.  This is our community meeting.  I’m going to try to share information.  Sometimes we have people come in.  At the end there will be time for questions.  We’ll go table by table.  At 9:30 a.m., a gentleman is coming in to do free Narcan training.  He’ll also give you your own free Narcan.  If, by 9:30, we haven’t finished our open forum, we’ll go in the back.  During open sharing, please remember that it’s not a time to bring up your individual situations but what affects the entire community.  (Introductions of staff)  Does anyone want to share about the last Narcan training?

Guest 1:  People are chattering, it’s rude.

Director:  Thank you for bringing that up.  If people could put their phones on vibrate and try to have everyone talk one at a time, that would be helpful. 

Director:  Narcan reverses an opiate overdose.  You can administer this drug through someone’s nose while waiting for 911 to arrive.  You can’t harm anyone by giving it to them.  It’s an important, life-saving drug.  I have known a lot of people at Pine Street are trained and have used it on the train or the bus.  Our Resource Center is run by our fabulous housing specialist (gives name of Housing Specialist).  You can go to the Resource Center to look for work and most importantly, housing.

Housing Specialist:  I’ve been giving out (applications for housing). I need them back; they need to be postmarked by Friday.  (Gives another deadline for other applications.)

Director:  We have upcoming things.  There’s a gender identity training happening next week.  You don’t have to sign up, you can just show up.  We’ll be doing it in the community room.  These folks are coming from a group called TAP  (Transgender Awareness Project).  They do a training for folks on what is gender identity, it’s a good place to ask questions that you were afraid or embarrassed to ask.  We also have (gives name) from the Boston Public Library coming this afternoon, she’s been coming once a month.  She brings books and she can help you sign up for a library card.  If you have fines, she can help get rid of those for you, they really want you to be using the library.  There are free WiFi boxes that you can sign out for 3 weeks.

Director:  We’re starting up a writing class next week.  We did this a few years ago, people really liked it.  The person running it is a professor who teaches at (gives name of college).   The class (is about homelessness and homeless themes).  She’s very charismatic.  She’ll be here (gives time), she’ll talk about the class.  There’s only going to be room in the class for 12 people, but if you can be there one week and not another week, that’s fine.  I can tell you that the women who participated really liked it.

Director:  A couple of operational things.  Pilot of waiting in the garden.  Two things.  One, there are some mornings when we can’t provide a ride to the Women’s Lunch Place.  It’s based on staff availability.  Our staff turns themselves into pretzels to be able to do it.  There are times when we can’t.  Also, about smoking in the garden; there’s a sign up in the garden.  The idea is that people who are smokers and nonsmokers should both be able to be in the garden.  I had initially said that people who are smokers can go under the overhead near the back door when it’s raining, but people who don’t smoke also want to be able to be outside.  It’s too confusing to change it up for the weather, so people who smoke will have to stay in the back of the garden or (go across the street.)  That’s consistent and fair.

Guest 2:  If you smoke when it’s raining, you’re dripping when you come in.

Director:  If there’s a mess, we’ll clean it up.

Director:  How is the pilot going? 

Guest 3:  We talked about it at the Guest Advisory Board.  People need something to do while they’re waiting.

Director:  We’re not a day program.  If people want to do something while they’re out there, that’s fine, but we’re not encouraging people to wait out there.  Staff will be monitoring the garden for health emergencies. 

Guest 3:  Staff had asked me to ask that question.

Director:  I think it’s a great question.

Guest 4:  I may be looking at something, but there’s someone who complains about me staring at her.

Director:  We’re not talking about individual issues right now.

Guest 4:  (gives positive feedback about the garden)

Director:  That’s what the garden was designed for; to give people some fresh air.

Guest 5:  (Asks about using the bathroom)

Director:  If you need to use the bathroom, just come around to the front door.

Guest 2:  Why do we have to go around?

Director:  Because we have security for people to go through, and because we’re not going to keep unlocking and locking the back door.

Associate Director:  We want to encourage people to take the ride to the Women’s Lunch Place.  We really want to encourage people to take transportation.

Director:  Any other questions?

Guest 6: I think the garden is a good idea, better than people waiting around the side.  However, as far as smoking goes, it would be good for staff to reiterate where the smoking is so that people don’t think that they’re being told on.  There are people who think it’s funny to sit right at the line between smoking and nonsmoking. 

Guest 7:  This is a pilot, isn’t it?  The more difficult we make it, the easier it is for them to take it away.  There’s no perfect, there’s no ideal.  They’re working with us, we have to work with them.  There are places for us to go to during the day, after you have done the work.  It’s so frustrating to nitpick at the little things that mean nothing.  We can’t even come through this door because there was almost an issue with people lining up.  You’re going to get a bed.  You’re going to get a ticket.  There’s no rush, there’s no competition.  They’re trying to help us.  If we don’t respect what they’re asking, guess what, it’s going to be taken away.  It’s us.  They’re trying to help us, please don’t ruin a good thing.  It’s a gift that they’re giving us.  It is tiring. I’ve been doing this for a year and six months.  To be able to come back here and not have to wait in line is a gift.  They’re trying to find a compromise between the smokers and the nonsmokers.  If we can help them, then we can help each other. 

(Applause and a few people thanking her)

Guest 8:  I think we all are entitled to what is important to us.  There are people here who would like to be able to go to Women’s Lunch Place but they can’t get there.  Maybe people can show you a financial need for transportation.

Director:  We don’t have that, and we probably won’t.  However, (name of Housing Specialist) at the Resource Center can help you get a discounted Charlie card, and to be able to get the Ride.  (It’s $3.15, and also up to $44 for Uber.  I (taker of the minutes) think that’s how much she said it was; not free.)  After $44, you have to pay it back.  It will take you anywhere you want to go.

Guest 9:  (Talks about staff discrepancy for figuring out where to go outside.)

Director:  I’m working on that.

Guest 9:  It makes people confused and upset.  I don’t want to be in that frame of mind.  I want to be comfortable and feel safe here.  It’s not like it was here years ago, when there were very authoritative people here who were harsh.  It’s 100% better now.  I dreaded coming back here, not for that but because of my mobility issue.  The staff are much better now.  You always have that one person in the crowd.  There are people who pick on you because they see that you’re a newbie.  I don’t let it bother me.  I know that some people get outraged about it.  I let go and let G-d.  I don’t want to write nobody up.  I don’t have the time or the energy.  I just want to get my housing and get out.

Director:  (nods). I’m going to start open forum.  I’ll go table by table. 

Director:  (Starts with Guest 7)

Guest 7:  I’d like to see if we can start coming in through the back again. 

Director:  That didn’t work well last time.  Security is at the front.  We’ll see.

Guest 10:  There’s inconsistency.  Staff have been told lies about me by other guests.  I’m a people person, a G-d-fearing person.  I’m focused on my job, trying to find an apartment.  I try to wake up positive every morning. 

Director:  Gossip and rumors never help anyone.

Guest 11:  Can I personally tell exactly something that I did?

Director:  Yes, but I don’t want you to call anyone out specifically.

Guest 11:  I witnessed a staffperson being overbearing, waking people up in the morning.  Nobody’s thinking about getting into an argument with the staff.  If that happens, there’s something that went wrong.  When people get out of the beds, a lot of things are happening in their minds, whether it’s health issues, or other things.  I think that the staff is a little bit more leading the person in the direction of an argument.  If there’s some kind of motivational thing where staff is being promoted on the basis of how much trouble they can cause somebody, I wish that wouldn’t be the case.  That’s very sad, because people are having issues, and that’s life, whether it’s someone who was sleeping next to you just gave you a cold or you’re trying to get a job or whatever it is. I think the organization should stop staff from picking on people in the morning so that they can give out SOS’s.

Director:  For those who can’t hear, (this guest) is talking about getting people up in the morning, which is always a challenge.  I’d like to introduce you to the overnight supervisor (knocks on the office door, which opens).  (The director introduces an overnight supervisor, who says a friendly hello and then goes back into the office and shuts the door.)

Director:  I want to say something about the wake-ups.  Just so people are aware of why we are moving at that pace.  It’s because we have a whole series of things that we have to move through.  We also have a meeting that happens every morning at 6:45 a.m. which we can’t move.  If there’s even one person up there, then staff has to be there, because what if we have a medical emergency? 

Guest 11:  It was literally a case of me witnessing a staff really going overboard on a guest, long before it was time for anyone to have to be downstairs, threatening the guest with an SOS and then giving her an SOS.

Director:  Did you have something else that you wanted to say?

Me:  Can I say something about this?

Director:   We’re going to go table by table.

Me:  She’s really being accurate.

Director:  You’ll have your turn.

Guest 11:  (People are using blankets to sleep on and there aren’t enough blankets for everyone.)

Guest 12:  What she’s saying is right.  My bed was kicked by a staffperson.  Also, staffpeople are using a harsh tone of voice.

Director:  Tell me who does it well and I’ll see if everyone can do it that way.

Guest 3:  (Gives name of another overnight supervisor) has soft music playing over the intercom (in the morning).

Other guests agree.

Director:  I get it.  You like the music.

Guest 11:  I don’t.

Guest 12:  It’s better than having your bed kicked.

(Guest 13 says something I don’t hear.)

Guest 14 (has a Housekeeping shirt on): (talks about scrubs)

Director:  Does everyone know where the scrubs go?

Guest 14:  (speaking quietly)

Director:  So you’re asking for cooperation about the scrubs.

(Some more discussion about scrubs)

Director:  (Calls on the table where I’m sitting.)

Guest 15 at my table speaks:  As far as smoking and nonsmoking; that’s separate from the pilot, right?  People tend, after 1 p.m., to recruit back to the back door to smoke. 

Director:  Go ahead (she says to me.)

Me:  I think that it’s too bad that there’s still an instant pushback when someone is giving you criticism.  What this lady said about how we’re being woken up in the morning was entirely accurate, and your first answer was to give an excuse.  It’s too bad that it had to get to the point that someone else had to say “A staffperson kicked my bed” for you to take what the first guest had said seriously.  I think you are much more interested in hearing compliments than in hearing feedback about what’s wrong.

Director:  The point of the community meeting is to give everyone a chance to say what they have to say.  We don’t have to have community meeting at all.

Me:  I think you are much more interested in letting people go on and on about how helpful you are than in hearing about what needs to be fixed.

Director:  The community meeting is not supposed to turn into a personal attack on me.  Did you have something else that you wanted to say?

Me:  No.

(I type while someone else talks.)

Guest 2:  There are some staff who are pretty mean.  I think there’s also inconsistency from one shift to another.

Guests discuss that the shelter’s bathroom on the first floor isn’t being cleaned often enough.  They say it’s cleaned at (8 in the morning) and 7 at night. 

Guest 3:  But the worst time is from 2 to 4 p.m.  We have had to get staff because there was a flood in the bathroom.

(A few guests talk about disorganization when people get up to get beds and go to eat.)

Associate Director:  What if we ask folks who have mobility devices to go up to get their tickets first?

Guest 2:  It’s not the people with mobility devices who are doing the pushing.

Associate Director:  So what if we call the tables one at a time over the intercom?

(Some discussion)

Associate Director:  If we call guests with mobility devices up first, what about the elevator?

Guest 16 (with mobility device):  I don’t mind having more people with mobility devices in the elevator. 

Guest 2:  There are people who, when their tables are called, will jump up.

Guest 16:  I have to get out of the way 15 minutes before they start calling the tables.

Guest 2:  It’s like (Guest 7) said, you’re going to get a bed. 

Director:  People have anxiety about it.  They worry about having to go to Woods-Mullen.

Guest 2:  Nobody has to trample over other people to get a bed.

Director:  We want to get to everybody.

Guest 16:  I want to bring up the continued issue of people with mobility devices not being able to get by.  When you say “Excuse me” to someone, it disrupts their whole universe, and they call me something.  (Gives name of a staffperson) is the only one who does anything about it.  There ought to be at least a foot to get by.

Director:  (says something)

Guest 16:  It’s not consistent.

Guest 16:  Any chance of getting security cameras in the other side of the lobby?

Director:  (I don’t hear her answer)

Guest 16:  Also, it is embarrassing when staff go after people in the morning. 

Guest 16:  I also don’t tend to complain about other guests.  However, I have made a specific complaint about a guest, and because I did, I’m being punished for it.

Director:  That sounds like an individual issue.

Guest 17 (has mobility device):  A staffperson told me that all the lockers upstairs from #60 on in the 2^nd floor are unused.  But there are all these people who need lockers. 

Director:  (says something)

Guest 17:  There are lockers that can be put in that don’t need to be built into the wall.  They could be purchased and brought here, and used temporarily. 

Director:  We have a plan for the lockers.  They’re going to be flush with the wall.  We don’t want to encroach any more on space.

(Guests reiterate that the Director has previously said that there won’t be additional lockers until next year.)

Guest 16:  About the showers.  One of the showers being out of order, (I have to move around a lot between floors).  I know there are people who aren’t showering, who just change into their scrubs.  I have heard that there are people who are being SOS’d based on the word of someone else that they’re not taking showers, meanwhile I can give you a list of who the people who aren’t showering are. 

Director:  We don’t give out SOS’s based on rumors.  If something is an issue, tell staff.

Guest 16:  I have.

Guest 2:  It’s obvious who the people are who don’t shower.

Director:  Can I finish?

Director:  There are various issues that cause people to not want to take showers.  We’re working on it.  If you don’t see a change, it’s not because we’re not working on it.  Is the guy from the Victory Programs here?

(Yes.)

Director asks that the Narcan training begin in 15 minutes.

Guest 2:  Is there a way that staff could have some mental health training?  Because a lot of them don’t have compassion.

Director:  I’m going to try to move on so that everyone has a chance to talk.

Guest 9:  Having a mobility device is difficult the way that beds are given out.  By the time that I can get to the front desk, all the single beds and bottom bunks have been given out.  Am I really going to be told that I have to go somewhere else?  I also see that when I’m going to bed, there are some empty beds. 

Associate Director:  There are some people who are working.  They have until 5:00 p.m. to cancel their beds if they’re not going to use them, or it’s a Suspension of Services.  It’s a good point that people need to make sure they cancel their beds by 5:00 p.m. 

Director:  It’s also helpful if people who are able-bodied take top bunks.  We have more people who can use top banks than choose to use them.

Guest 9:  Why can’t people who have mobility problems go first?  It’s not fair.  By the time that we can get up to the front desk, there are 20 people in front of us, even if our bed ticket is number 3. 

Director:  I think we just had some suggestions about that.  Let’s see how it goes.

Guest 8:  I don’t think that we have to have beds and dinner given out separately.  It’s confusing for people.  You could use the number that’s on your ticket to be called for dinner.  I think it would be less chaotic.

Director:  Does anyone else need to talk?

Guest 18:  To change up the tone; the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless is having its monthly housing and benefits meeting (gives time and date) and wants us to go.

Director:  You can post that if you want.

Guest 19:  (Gets up and talks about how chairs and tables could be to make more room for mobility devices.  Then also suggests how calling dinner could be organized; says there could be 10 or 15 seconds between when each table is called.  She says that she also thinks that people who have wheelchairs and walkers should be called first for dinner.  They’re struggling; imagine what that would be like.)

Guest 20:  That’s not true, because there are staff who help them with their trays.

Director:  We’re just hearing what people have to say, there’s no right or wrong. 

Director:  Is there anyone in (far section of the room, where people haven’t all talked yet) who wants to go to the Narcan training? 

Director:  (Calls on a guest)

Guest 21:  There are a lot of different personalities in here.  Not everyone is going to get along with everyone else.  If you don’t get along with one staff, go to another one.

Director:  Thank you.  Anyone else?

Guest 22:  I have noticed that there’s a lot of bullying here.  People will say “Don’t talk to her, don’t talk to her, she stinks,” instead of that, we should all be helping each other out.  People just want to nitpick.  I left here for a week because people told me my music was too loud.  People need to mind their own business. 

Director:  Anyone else?

Guest 23:  I understand that I wasn’t here for the meeting.  But I do want to give kudos to (7:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. supervisor) for the activities that she’s been doing. 

(Everyone applauds and says Thank You)

7-3 Supervisor:  It was my whole staff, too.

End of meeting/Beginning of Narcan training by visitor from the Victory Programs



Copyright Homeless Humans, July 31, 2019