SEE OUR NEW PAGE "HOW TO BE A GOOD ROOM MATE AT THE SHELTER"

AND NOT PART OF THE PROBLEM

Problems with Room Mates at shelters is something we hear a lot about. 

We also hear about Case Managers,  Therapists, and other homeless business professionals who are out of control.  We hear about "Security Guards" who are a JOKE!

A person who is in a shelter is trying to recover from being on the street and trying to get healthy, find a job, find a place to live, and the last thing they need is to have ongoing problems with other homeless who want to screw them up and drag them down.

THAT'S ONE REASON WE SAY "IF YOU AREN'T SAFE STAYING THERE IS SHOULDN'T BE CALLED A SHELTER.

So we started a new page.  HOW TO BE A GOOD ROOM MATE AT THE SHELTER.

It's in PAGES on our sidebar, and like our other PAGES is an ongoing project!

LOS ANGELES FAMILY HOUSING and NEW IMAGE GOSSIP OVERHEARD AT MEND : YOU'RE BRANDED IN THE 211 COMPUTER SYSTEM SO GO AHEAD AND TRY TO SHELTER HOP!

Several weeks back, in the waiting area of MEND, several residents or ex residents of Los Angeles Family Housing started talking about case management and the tactics used on them.

Residents or ex residents said that the threat of being sent to NEW IMAGE shelter in down town Los Angeles (skid row) had been made to them for "non compliance" (disobedience) when they were also threatened with termination from the LAFH program. "Non compliance" included refusing to "go mental" in order to get SSI benefits, having too many possessions in their assigned space, or not finding housing with a Section 8 voucher fast enough and included the threat that if they did not take an apartment they would loose the voucher and be "sent" to New Image.

We say this! NO ONE HAS TO GO TO A SHELTER just because CASE MANAGEMENT at one says they are "sending" them.

Homeless people who had stayed at NEW IMAGE said that they knew that case managers from both shelters seemed to have a relationship. There was even talk overheard of LAFH and NEW IMAGE employees going on a cruise together.

Then the fact that calling 211 for shelter or other needs means having your records accessed in a database. If you call for EMERGENCY SHELTER, if you are in the database (and you will be because LAFH and other Los Angeles County and Orange County shelters insist you sign that they be allowed to share information), you may be branded trouble because you DID NOT LIKE THE WAY YOU WERE TREATED AT ONE SHELTER OR ANOTHER and be refused admittance at another.
SHELTERS are NOT THE BIG SOLUTION FOR HOMELESS. They are temporary and better in most cases than being on the street but they are as close to the street as you can get.

Many homeless do not want to be part of a program that is cold hearted and all about statistics to get more funding which can be used for case managers pay checks.

SHELTERS should all be aware that homeless compare notes wherever they go.

IS YOUR SHELTER CASE MANAGER SEXUALLY HARASSING YOU?

Harassing? Some case managers at shelters - male and female - expect or will accept "favors" from male and female clients in exchange for looking the other way when the client, drinks, uses drugs, prostitutes, etc.

Some of them will give priority to a resident who gives them favors when it comes to providing vouchers for housing, transportation, or other benefits.

SINCE WE WANT YOU TO HAVE A BETTER LIFE and we DON'T THINK THAT YOU CAN HAVE A BETTER LIFE WHEN YOU ARE OUT OF CONTROL OF YOURSELF OR YOUR SITUATION, we are sickened when we hear this.

Even when it's the homeless person who offers first - because that's street behavior and we want you out of the cycle of homelessness and a return to your self respect.
Don't think that just because we run videos and links to shelters and nonprofits that we don't know this goes on at some of them.

Since when did unprofessional behavior and illegal behavior become OK?

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SECTION 8 HOUSING STALL MAKES SHELTERS VICIOUS

VICIOUS SHELTER CASE MANAGERS are finding ways to get rid of residents who may have qualified for Section 8, but who they can get rid of anyway, in order to keep their numbers up.

Shelters are playing a game of getting rid of residents to open beds for other homeless people. We can understand that no one wants to live at a shelter forever, but if you were taken in with the promise of housing and they can no longer provide, whose fault is that? The shelter case managers are throwing people who have proven themselves thus far back into the same circumstances they came from - or worse.

The gamble is that some of these residents will after all be able to go live with family or friends or find a room for rent somewhere, when they were saving money to get into a discounted apartment.

WE SUSPECT THESE PEOPLE WILL BE BACK TO STREET STATUS SOON. THAT'S BECAUSE IF THE RELATIONSHIP WITH FAMILY OR FRIENDS WAS GOOD THEY PROBABLY WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ON THE STREET IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Section 8 housing that is paid for by the Federal government, such as for Veterans, is still funded. State Section 8 is in as much trouble as the state it's in.