A Safe Place..?

Homelessness for Stupid People

The foibles of the most pampered homeless population in the Bay Area...

As I mentioned in my last posting, Adam Parris is in jail. When I wrote it, I said I didn't care why... but I can't resist... it just so happens he went into Mr. Pickles on 4th and South Livermore, grabbed their tip jar, and ran off with it, and was soon caught. Oh... he also got a contempt of court charge on him... and, I believe, it was a probation violation... wasn't that for battery? I last saw him at the Warming Centre a week ago Monday on the third night it was open... a few of us had a good chuckle over his... less than smart behaviour...

Well... I gave it two weeks, but it seems I was optimistic, I guess... The Drama at the Warming Centre has started already. What's interesting is that there isn't more authority there, it seems, there's less...

A few days ago, a friend of mine was threatened with violence and bodily harm in front of several witnesses by this new cat in town named Eric. My friend left, and swears he will not be going back as he informed the volunteers and nothing was done...

So much for a safe environment...

Adam Parris was also there last week. Known thief that he is, picked up one woman's phone and began playing with it as if it were his own... she gave him a verbal smackdown, and it wasn't lost, but Adam Parris wasn't asked to leave...

I've spoken before about tolerance and how it puts the innocent in a bad position or even in danger... nobody seems to have listened to me, and so, the Warming Centre has become more about putting up the bad people and letting the good people sleep in the cold. For those of us who can take that, it's okay. But then there are those who are simply ill prepared to face weather that is, while still in the upper 30s at night, not exactly warm weather.

How is it I keep hearing about these incidents? People tell me about them for this reason: they know I'll take them seriously enough to put it out there. When I put it out there, at least people begin to speak of them openly. Never mind that I'm not exactly popular amongst the homeless because of my willingness to do this. I simply don't care.

But it's not like I haven't put this out there before. Funny how it's the same players, over and over... Adam Parris was a subject of that blog as well...

I don't understand what it is that people don't get about rewarding bad behaviour and punishing good behaviour. That's exactly what's been happening, and I've seen it over, and over, and over again.

The Warming Centre was opened up for the first time this season less than two weeks ago, and the volunteers have already, through toleration of obscenely bad behaviour, alienated two people who have historically been very supportive of it.

Could it be that what we're seeing here is how homeless shelters in larger cities become such dangerous places?

All one has to do is google “homeless+shelter+dangerous” and you'll get a host of links to various articles on the kinds of things that happen in large city shelters.

But the warming centre is tiny! I'd estimate that the average numbers last season, I could be wrong, were less than 30 a night at the Warming Centre. It did, of course, fluctuate quite a bit. But that really isn't that many people to manage, especially when there are those present who are willing to stand up for what is right in the face of those who are abusive.

You'd think it would be a simple thing to identify those who are, in fact, causing the problems in the first place through theft or threats, or whatever, and deal with them directly... but it has not, historically, happened save for in the extreme, or unless someone gets loud enough to call attention to a real problem...

But this leaves us with a very big question... if the Warming Centre is not a safe place... what value does it have?