I MEET AUBREY

I know Aubrey from the Primavera shelter and I ran into him outside the main library after I had deposited my paycheck. He seems to be doing well and had been to St. Mary's earlier today for a second interview, so things are beginning to look up for him.

We talked briefly about Ken and Aubrey says Ken is going into rehab. That's good news because I was afraid that Ken was going to end up on the streets.

KENNY MAKES ANOTHER EXIT

Yesterday, I thought Vester told Ken that this would be his last week but he could've said his last day. Either way, Ken didn't show up for work at ACORN today and this appears to be a continuation of his downward spiral since he quit his job at the laundry.

When I went out with Ken to register voters, he would routinely turn in between 0 and 2 registrations except for the one time he got 8 at PCC West. (That time, I gave him 2 of my own to bring his total to 10 for the day.) Despite knowing that our hourly pay is pegged to how many voters we have signed up ($7 to start, $8 after the 1st 20, then dollar raises for each additional 20 until we max out at $10/hr), Ken refused to make any effort to sign-up voters. Finally, Vester's supervisor noticed and told Vester to fire Ken.

I also heard from Manny, a fellow register, that yesterday Ken tried to coerce Manny into buying Ken lunch. This means that once again, Ken has blown his food stamps well before the renewal date.

I'm sure Ken has many excuses for this but the preponderance of the blame falls on him and him alone.

HIDDEN RULES

One problem the homeless face in ShelterWorld is ignorance of the rules. Sometimes, this is because the "rules" are well-hidden until you personally are in a situation that invokes the "rule." For example, at the Sally, Elisha refused to let anyone stay in after 7:30 AM unless they had a doctor's note that explicitly said "bed rest." I as noted below, "stay inside" would not suffice for her.

SHELTERWORLD TIDBITS

Below I noted how strict the Sally is with some people but I didn't make clear what the rules are for people on medical stay like Rufus. They cannot leave the building except for medical appointments, so technically Rufus broke a rule. I do think that immediate expulsion was an overreaction on The Bitch's part and I later found that she told Paul, also a medical resident, that he would be expelled if he attended Sunday service at the Salvation Army.

Shortly after I left the Sally, I called and asked if they would hold on to my mail for a couple of weeks. I was told by Elisha that they do not hold mail, they simply write "return to sender" and give it to the mailman. This is another example of how inconsiderate Elisha is and how little Jerry Brillo, the manager of the Sally, cares about the residents.

ON THE OTHER HAND...

Below I presented a one-sided view of Ken and I will try to point out another side. In addition to putting up with the almost daily humiliations when he was in the Jackson program, Ken also woke up at 3 AM each weekday to be at his job at a laundry at 5 AM. Despite having a job, neither Jackson nor the Sally would let him re-enter the Sally before 3 PM and would not let him stay in on his days off. Ken stuck with this exhausting routine for perhaps 2 weeks and I was amazed at his physical and emotional endurance.

I MAKE ANOTHER MOVE!

I just finished the paperwork to get into a private room at the Catalina House. This means I will be a short walk from Ronstadt, the Senior Center (internet access) and the plasma center. Perhaps best of all, I will not be woken up at 5 AM!

I will pay only $200/month and the program can last up to 2 years, so I will have plenty of time to pay off debts and find a better job.

AYFKM*

Dave Martin, the ex-felon, current psycho and women-beater, has been accepted back into the Sally!


* Are you fucking kidding me?

I MAKE ANOTHER CHANGE

I've gotten sick of Ken's don't-give-a-shit attitude about voter registration and today I asked for and received a different partner. Good for me! (I also didn't want to hear about his latest "tragedy.")

ATTITUDES

Some of the homeless have chosen their condition. They get a government check once a month and use that to party and rent a cheap hotel room for a couple of weeks. After that, they stay in shelters until the next monthly check and the cycle repeats.

Others have what I think is an attitude problem. They are angry and consumed with stupid, short-term self-interest. (NOTE: I can recognize this in others because I am similar to them.)

One fellow I know well, Ken Murphy, routinely runs out of food stamps well before the 1st of the month because he insists on buying expensive food because it tastes great to him. When he runs out, others help him pick up the slack but they still have food stamp money because they purchased more wisely.

I introduced Ken to PCs and the Internet one weekend and it was clear that he needed to know a lot more in addition to getting practice with the keyboard. A day or two later, we were talking around 8 AM and he said he had "time to kill" before an appointment at 11 AM. I didn't say anything then but instead of wasting time, he could have gone to a public library (there was one about 10 minutes away) or the U of A library and practiced by doing his PC & Internet search skills. Ken has made that comment a few times since then and has done little or no Internet searching on his own. Finally, after a few weeks of "killing time," he found some valuable information - the whereabouts of his daughters, although I don't see how that is of any help in his current situation. He did not find any information about Angie, his former GF who had gotten a restraining order on him and had not done so by the time of his appeal hearing yesterday. He was going to try to get it postponed but I do not know if he was successful.

Ken and I both work for ACORN as voter registers. His performance has been dismal and he frankly doesn't care as long as he's getting $7/hr. We get a raise to $8/hr after we sign up 20 people and most of us got that during our 1st week. Ken still doesn't have 20 after more than 2 weeks and doesn't seem likely to get to 20 any time soon. He plans to use his 1st paycheck to pay off traffic fines in Illinois so he can get his AZ driver's license back. He then thinks that he can easily find a job. We'll see.

$$$ AND SHELTERWORLD

I've had conversations with a few Sally clients about how differently some clients are treated by the staff at the Sally and we came to a tentative conclusion that it was all about money. If the Sally collects money for your bed, you get more privileges than others.

David Martin is a good example of this differential treatment. David was living downstairs at the Sally and that means he only had a single roommate, not 35 dormmates. He was also less restricted than most of the other clients, who had to be out of the building at 7:30 AM, rain or shine, and could return no earlier than 3 PM and no later than 5 PM. David could stay in until he decided to leave and his curfew was 10 PM during the week and 11 PM on weekends.

David was enrolled in the RAPP/Project Connect program, part of La Frontera:

Services include outreach, psychiatric evaluation and medication, medication monitoring, case management, individual and group counseling, and alternative holistic groups for homeless adults with a serious mental illness (SMI).

David told me that he had spent 5 years in prison and was currently on parole. He also mentioned that he had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and had a prescription for Thorazine. I don't know what he was sentenced for but I do know he is still a drug addict. David had little jobs working for a moving company and a rental car company that paid him in cash and he also sold blood plasma but he was always short of cigarettes and cigarette money. It took me a while to catch on that he was using his income for drugs.

What stands out for me was the discovery that a female client of the Sally had gotten a restraining order on David. She subsequently left the shelter but David was permitted to stay. To put this in context, I was once yelled at by a staff member for merely walking out of the dining room with a cup of coffee.


Recently I learned that David had left the Sally and the RAPP program. I heard that he had ripped off several people at the Sally and that Tommy Hopkins, who seemed to be David's good friend, was afraid of him. Leaving the Sally and RAPP are parole violations but apparently no one called David's PO. I met David by the plasma center and I suspect he was going to mug me after I finished selling my plasma.

PRIMAVERA ROCKS...SORT OF

They let everyone stay inside on Labor Day and that's something that wouldn't happen at the Sally. OTOH, they did make everyone leave on THR when it was pouring rain.

THE BITCH AT THE SALLY*

*That's the Tucson Salvation Army homeless shelter. The bitch is Elisha and I think her last name is Contreras. Rufus (AKA Rebel) told me she booted him out for 90 days simply because he went to Sunday service at the Salvation Army church. I thought about that for a bit and decided to add in my own experiences with the little cunt. Here's the e-mail I sent to Salvation Army headquarters in Phoenix:

Dear Sir(s),

My name is Steven Jandreau and I was a resident at the Army's Tucson Shelter. I am still grateful for having a place to stay and food to eat during a time of need. However, that does not excuse the malicious behavior of Elisha, a case manager at the shelter. I personally know of several people who have had their lives made more difficult because of her decisions and here I will give two examples from my own experience.

1) One Saturday, I came down with a gastro-intestinal problem which later turned out to be Salmonella poisoning. I was admitted to St. Mary's Hospital the following Sunday and released on Monday after receiving 5 liters of saline solution. I was given a form by the chief nurse that my activities should be limited to 'as tolerated" and since I still had diarrhea, I assumed that I would be allowed to stay inside the shelter until the diarrhea had diminished. Elisha refused to let me stay inside and even refused my request for toilet paper. As a result, for the first time in my life, I defecated in public.

2) After several days of pain in my right knee, I went to see my PCP one Thursday. He drained about 40 cc. of fluid from my knee and later it was determined that pseudo-gout (calcium pyrophosphate) was the cause. The PCP gave me a note recommending that I be allowed to "stay inside" until my knee felt better. On Friday morning, Mr. Jerry Brillo read the note and said it was OK for me to stay inside. On Monday, Elisha said that it was not OK and that the note had to say "bed rest." Fortunately, my knee had healed by then, otherwise I would have been forced to walk around with a bad knee.

I sent this last THR and I will keep on this until I get a response.

BRAVO PRIMAVERA

Unlike the Salvation Army Hospitality House, the Primavera Men's Shelter does NOT give the clients the boot on national holidays. Everyone was allowed to stay inside this past Labor Day and that was a great break for most of the residents.