WORDS MUST USE: homeless shelter, Tyra Howard, Charmaine Short, Baltimore County,

It's an emergency shelter so we're ===residents=== not allowed to stay in it, but we have to be in bed by curfew.
unless we attend programming on weekdays, which is mostly in the trailer, which has no bathroom======== even sick must ========= If you don't attend programming, you can't eat lunch. But you can get a bag lunch if you're working or going to school, but you must make sure your chore is covered.

It's not really shelter-- it's psychological battery. We're called residents but most of the time we're treated like inmates. It's called a family shelter but the little kids get the least consideration.

It's on the Side of Baltimore County where the sun hits first in the morning (altho I don't see it in my dorm). Figure it out.=-========

stuff fro offlin


Wed 11-9-2011 Charmaine announcd that she got tub-shower fixed, it doesn't leak anymore, I showered in it-it's fixed.

Charmaine lost her house at her divorce, I think, but she threw you-kno-who out for being there too long, and assumd YKW was mentally ill bcs of YKW's old diagnosis by husband, and YKW's husb threw her out, but Char has no empathy for YKW. Also, 6-3-2011 Char itself ws abt to be arrested bcs of false accusatn by othr YKW, latr Char tld me she dint kno what t do bcs had never been arrestd before--but Char orders tote searches on residents prompted by false reports by othr residents, but they turn out to be innocent.

never really dark, quiet or clean. No comfortable chairs in shelter except in places we not allowed to sit.

link to HCH reasons for homelessness-- how abt SEXISM

It's a mill. There are many waiting to get in shelter, Charmaine said that in meeting, so if you can't follow the rules you can leave and let somebody else in. So they are hardass on all the rules, even, or especially, the littkle ones. link to hmlssBaltCo with quote Charmaine!!!

See stuff in notes dump june 2010.

-----------the hell with date o wrok----------------
Women move out of shelter to subsidized-rent apt but only single occuopancy and cannot have overnight visitors. Normal single adults in apts find a boyfrnd/girlfriend, is main emotional support, that's what normal adults do. But women on housing programs- mental health- are kept dependent on socail workers and therapist as main emotional support-- unnatural.

I'm sick and tired of living in fear and humiliation-- is it really? Yes

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11J28-31:
Some of the residents and most of the CAN staff and managers do not understand or appreciate basic American freedom of speech; freedom from religion; individual probable cause; the difference between vitamins and narcotics; our need for and right to information; THEIR need to keep records, and to research public issues; governmental or management responsibility, or even proper management.====ergonomics, proper clotheing storage, personal space requirements,

Most of the DSS DRC ladies are ====hooked on==== positive thinking, reporting or doing something or other about child abuse, and forgiving adult abuse.

INHOSPITABLE

10 year plan to end homelessness- doesn't sya 30, 60 or 90 days, it does say 120 days--get quote.

11K14: What I'm most sick of today is smelling other women's body and toilet odors especially Nina Totenberg's, and some women's store-bought scents; and having to smoke again when I'm on the sHELLter Patio (because I have to stay out there until I sell all my sodas and candy, and I can't get radio reception inside the building); and this current bag lunch hassle; and having to move around all day and carry stuff with me; and misplacing little essential things like nail scissors or a hair tie or hydrocortisone cream or tape or a ring or my stupid cellphone manual which doesn't have the info I need anyway, or some jewelry findings for beadwork which I never have time to do even if there's good workspace available. And I'm sick and tired of living in fear and humiliation.

end o stuff fro offlin

Everything in the shelter has improved

I have "resided" in the shelter since July 2009 under 6 managers, who have all had their good points and their ridiculous, cruel, even criminal points. Everything in the shelter has improved a little bit over the past ===== years, but every time I think things are getting okay, another abomination happens.

I'm sick and tired of living in fear and humiliation.

On Jan 12?======== I thought I would be put out for telling staff that manager Charmaine Short and CAN shelters director Tyra Howard disrespect us, our property, the Constitution, citizens, taxpayers, etc, and I already emailed them and Sue Bull that I would kill myself again if put out- it's not that I WANT to stay in the shelter, it's that I have nowhere to go, and Baltimore County ruined my life back in '93, and dint learn a thing from my FIRST suicide attempt, so...

It's an emergency shelter so we're not allowed to stay in it. It's not really shelter-- it's psychological battery. It's as bad as or worse than being on the street, psychologically.

Tyra Howard told me back in May 2010 that the US Constitution "does not apply in this [shelter] building." In May 2011 the Baltimore County Police sent an "Outreach" officer to the shelter to speak with me to confirm Tyra's statement, and other staff assertions.

The 10-Year-Plan and 30-60-90

housing voucher programs, no doubling up, BalCo penalized 50 vouchers because of a CLIENT's dishonesty, acc to Terry Johnson ====get date====

The attitudes and preachments of the CAN staff and Baltimore County Social Services staff are antithetical to the 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness developed by Baltimore County thru the charrette process in Fall 2010.

They put out my best buddy, a woman around my age with a chronic physical condition, because she "was here too long," and didn't want to go into a mental health program. Also, I believe, because she and I and a few others started finding out persons and programs on the "outside" to contact about mistreatment and shelter conditions; and she PARTICIPATED in the charrette (I myself scoffed at it, and was discouraged from speaking at the April 2011 Rally for the Homeless in Towson).

Downsizing the Homeless

We're not allowed to store enough clothes to get or keep a decent job. allowed one 36-gallon tote and a "dirty clothes bag"-- which after laundry is supposed to be EMPTY. We're not allowed to put anything UNDER the bunks except 2 pairs of shoes. In my lengthy meeting with Baltimore County's Sue Bull in May 2011, I pressed for us to be allowed to use this space, which is 74" long x 34" wide x 9" high clearance. Without exact calculation, I guess that we could fit the contents of 2 of our current totes in there, in underbed storage boxes/bags.

Things have definitely improved overall since I came here July 2009, but I often think I'd be better off just packing up a few pieces of clothes and important papers and just walking out of here, although I have no place to go where I'm welcome to sleep or eat.

All they're doing is packing bodies into buildings, the bunks really dint make it any better, or even allow many more bodies to be packed in.

In a normal home a small child has the expectation that if he walks anywhere in a room, he can play with the objects or people he encounters. In the shelter dorms, a child has at most 4 feet to toddle before he or she encounters another person's bunk, which, altho it's at just the right level for a toddler's table, holds a stranger's or another family's possessions.

We need chairs!

"Our director" Tyra Howard got us some really good chairs quite a while ago, spring 2010 i think, (but some say that was from extra funds that hadda be used up anyway) anyway she got some nice sturdy black-coated folding chairs with vinyl padding on back and seat, I haven't been able to find a brand name on them,they have stood up pretty well but lately some have broken, and we have had to reuse some of older less sturdy chairs without padding, which I can't stand to sit on (and gave me sciattica back in 2009), anyway now they are taking the chairs out of the dorms, that women and children need to get into the upper bunks, because the ladders are built into the ends of the bunks, and the bunks are set end to end, or there are totes (clothing bins) between them, and we also use chairs to set our clothes and towels and toiletries on while we're in the shower, unless you could get us 8 carts =========shop get link==== but they have to be raised up off the floor to clear the water puddles because they still haven't fixed THAT yet [link to Hmlss Shltr Dngrs Machines], and the things have to be easily movable fpr when the bathrooms get cleaned twice a day (by the residents).


This shellter index pubbed =========2012 by Janet Granofsky. More later, maybe, if I don't die today. If I do, please don't let any CAN staff or mgmt near my body. And they'll prolly try to destroy all my logs and electronic records. But nobody's interested anyway. See my main Index for this site.

Actually less than visitors so far.

© 2012.