Thoughts on the NYC homeless shelter system

Thoughts, prayers

It begins as you walk in the door. Every visual cue screams "turn right"; as you do, the guard screams "Excuse Me"- a command, and threat that sounds like a question to the mentally impaired. Sent to the 7th floor, in search of Bed #52. The adventure begins.

As you look for your room, you see numbers and letters painted on every door, yet nowhere to be found is the number 52. I'm assured it is there and I did find it on second glance. You see, the room number is 7C-70, painted onto the front of the door in thick ebony acrylic. The digits were 4" tall and wide- impossible to miss- and stenciled onto the door twice. Above the digits was scraped into the thick, dirty yellow paint the following: 52-55. These digits were barely visible; easily obscured by the rising frustration engendered by the micro-aggressions of the staff against the clients.

I told the guard I was having difficulty finding my bed; he sighed, shifted in his seat and made most obvious his disdain at being tasked with actually doing that for which he is paid. "It's right there" he drawled. I thought I actually heard  him say "Duh" but am not sure that isn't an writerly impulse to ratchet up the emotion.

Having found my bed and made it, I was eager to relax. It had been a long, frustrating process to this point and was only just begun but there was nothing more to do on this day so I decide to shower. What could go wrong?

The two most frequently-cited complaints people have with the shower regard water pressure and the lack of hot water; neither of these were at issue here. That's not to say there were no problems; a most unusual problem was the lack of cold water. It was impossible to shower because the water would boil you alive.

How does that happen? Hot water begins as cold so how can there be no cold water? No one has been able to adequately explain how that works but that doesn't mean there's no answer. It means the concerns and questions are of no interest to the staff and their needs are not the concern of the staff. The smug condescension of the staff here would try the patience of the Pope.

The confusion is only exacerbated by asking questions because nothing is ever fully explained and each individual's answer varies from the others in significant ways. Scheduling seems to be designed to exploit any memory/mental issues of the client, the goal being to make the effort so onerous as to make weather extremes and the very real dangers of unsheltered living preferable to the bureaucratic pedantry involved in the DHS. 

The program is run like a prison. No one is there because they seek to help the destitute. Rather, it's work for those who never went to college; who've given into the soft bigotry of low expectations. Such work comes with a certain frisson that accompanies the understanding of just how much better you are than the people around you- the "clients" that are treated with such disdain that it is amazing how peaceful the shelter usually is.

It is understood that the shelter system is not, and cannot be, a resort experience.

The needs of the client as determined by the bureaucracy, are unlikely to resemble the needs as the client sees them. Attending to the physical needs of the destitute has to be done in such a way as to avoid diminishing the motivation necessary to  propel one back into the workforce; to encourage personal growth rather than stagnation.

Having said that, the program seems as if it were designed to gaslight the client. 

Reviews

[emmajoygreen]

Once upon a time families either owned their responsibilities to and of each other - or according to example or experience gave willingly to others less fortunate. Seems more and more the living have forgotten what it is to feel only half alive, near invisible or various other horrors. People have become desensitized. What can be offered is a thought but little or no action: these days a lack of finances is the excuse.

Your powerful words, your feelings and general attitude points out the events, the mistakes, the hurt of that situation. It is horrific. Goodness knows the answer for it.. other than human decency,

[Robert Haigh]

A shameful situation! Most of the people who work in such institutions clearly need retraining, and many of them are in the wrong job!