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A Likely Source of Suicide -- Emotional Brutality by the Staff of Homeless Shelters, and a director who doesn't care if residents commit suicide.

Several years ago, I ended up in a homeless shelter in San Jose, and the staff treated me like a criminal. Not only I wasn't a criminal. I had been seriously depressed and several years ago I had been suicidial, and the staff knew it!Why would anyone yell at someone whose problem had been suicidial depression over losing his carrer? The only reasonable explanation is: Malice, and encouragement by politicains who want to run the poor out of town.
It's hard to believe that people running a shelter could be that way, but on the other hand, working at a homeless shelter can be a golden opportunity for preditors to attack the weak and vulnerable.

Now remember that the people who go to shelters probably had some depressing events to land them there, either losing a job, or girl or boyfriend or spouse. The staff started yelling at me immediately, even though it was obvious I was exhausted (from a last minute clean up of my previous room). I'm not the only victim of their outrageous behavior:

Another friend who is rather timid said several years ago, she tried to complain to a group of lawyers who monitor abuses about smaokable drug use (not pot),and the attempted sale of "bulldozer". She was yelled at by the staff because she was using a nightlight, even though the nightlight was covered.(The shelter is under where jets fly in and out of the airport and maybe a mile away, and there's usually someone talking in the dorms at all hours. I later found out "bull" is slang for police and "bulldozer" is slang for revolver. It appears that the staff was covering up gun sales.

One innovation of this new director is manditory AA meetings, although many residents have never had a drug or alcohol problem. (Although after dealing with her maybe they might.) A friend of mine who has never had these problems got kicked out because he wouldn't go to them because he felt that wine was an intergral part of Christianity, in the communion sacrament. It is also intergal to the Jewish tradition both as a part of the Passover dinner, and the Sabbath service. HOMELESS PEOPLE DON'T HAVE FREEDOM OF RELIGION. My friend has been told he can not return to the shelter.

I found one person without a criminal record who the staff left alone. He is a muscular ex-firefighter. He told me the staff tried a few times, he made sure that he would give them hell. I've seen why the staff left him alone. When the phone company was 3 days late installing his phone, he'd call them every 2 hours and yell at them for about 30 minutes.
The first few weeks I only got yelled at about 3 times a week,as did alot of others, but when the next director came it was at least 5 times a week, once for coming in only 15 minutes before curfew! My experience, as well as others, is that drug addicts are pretty much left alone, but people who have done nothing wrong but seem easily intimidated are the real targets!

The curfew forced us to stay in the shelter 14 hours a day. I felt like I was in jail for being poor (like debtor's prison). After this new director started, most of my even-tempered friends started complaining and eventually cursing the director, as well as the the staff which had become even more viscious than before she took over.

I couldn't stop the abuse, nor could my case manager (who has an MSW), who because she stood up for the residents, was forced to resign. The director threw out people out into the streets, claiming she suspected alcohol or drug use and they couldn't appeal. I got thrown out too. My crime was breaking curfew. The rule was three times and your out, and I'd broken it twice, and there were clerical errors that said that I'd broken it two other times. I was one of the lucky few, my expulsion got recinded. With a punishment like that, you would think the staff would have paid some attention to keeping track of the paperwork, but it seems that all they were interested is abusing the residents, it doesn't matter if its a small infraction or even their mistake. Fo me, the biggest insults came after I left. I moved into a bad living situation, and thought I'd be moving out very soon. The staff had told us many times, at the manditory morning meeting, that they would keep our belongings for three months. I came back after 2 months later. I asked a burly staff member, who had worked there for about 10 years. Even though he had a reputation as a bully, I was shocked at what happened. He started yelling at me saying they had thrown it out, and that I was stupid to have left it there that long. I started yelling back at him, and he looked shocked that someone who was half his size and had been non-violent all his life would stand up to him. I was so enraged that he got scared, like so many bullies who are really cowards, and will threaten to beat you up only if they have a huge advantage.

I then contacted some lawyers who had experience dealing with this shelter. They told me I should file a civil suit. I was so sick of the experience, I failed to make the filing deadline.

A couple of years after my experience, I decided to she if the director knew that she could be pushing seriously depressed people to suicide or if she didn't know what she was doing, so I decided to call her. This is how the conversation went. I said,"Hello, I was at you shelter a couple of years ago, and I'm sure you could see from my record that several years earlier, I'd been suicidial. Do you realize that if I was still in that state when I was in your shelter, all the abuse I recieved from you and the staff would have driven me to slit my wrists? She said, "I don't care what your problem is!" Then she hung up.
Many people here, including myself would rather sleep under a bridge than go back. This abuse of the homeless, along with a pattern of police brutality, is an attempt to drive the poor out.


The final insult


If all this abuse and all the time you've wasted in this "program" means you need more than a month to get housing, you have to pay $5 dollars a day as a "program fee" for the priviledge of putting up with more abuse! Update: December 1998 -- That lunatic has finally been fired -- after 2 1/2 years. There is a new mayor elect maybe he made the differnce?

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