|
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1210916803800707072?s=19 So Trump has appointed a new director of the federal agency that coordinates homelessness response. This person's chief qualification for the position is his role in creating an experimental homeless shelter called The Haven for Hope in San Antonio, as well as his (very brief) stint as the first CEO of H4H during its first year. I was a resident of Haven for Hope for approximately two years, from late 2012 to mid 2014. As such I have some very strong opinions about this individual and his policies, and as I will establish below I believe he will use his position to attempt to open de-facto concentration camps for the homeless. Because this mans original vision for Haven for Hope was exactly that, and the reason for his ouster was because he lost an internal political struggle after his policies backfired spectacularly during the early days- having pissed off everyone from the local police to the local (and politically powerful even by Texas standards) faith community. In so very many ways the history/success of Haven for Hope ever since his departure has been a direct refutation of the authoritarian directives that marked this mans time at the helm of H4H, so it is particularly galling to me that this man is using the present success of H4H to promote his monstrous ideas. For a bit of background please read this article: The Consultant Leading the White House Push Against Homelessness. Citylab posted:
Based on my experiences with this gentleman's policies I believe promoting him to this position this is a prelude to the Trump administration adopting a policy that will create de-facto concentration camps for the homeless- as this was (in essence) the original vision for Haven for Hope. What is generally not well known outside of the homeless community is that this original vision of Haven for Hope flopped spectacularly- that was the reason for his ouster. The harsh authoritarinism of Haven for Hope's initial design caused far more problems than it solved and several soured relations between the San Antonio police and a number of influential local church's (to name but a few) and Haven for Hope's operating principles (which have seen such dramatic success in the years since) have largely been a direct refutation of the harsh conditions/Skinner Box principles that Robert Marbut Jr. championed so loudly as the only effective path forward for addressing homelessness. Having witnessed firsthand just how much of afailure this fascists policies were I am exceedingly pissed to see that he is spinning the success of Haven for Hope (a success that is a direct refutation of his policies) to push the federal government into adopting his monstrous ideas. From late 2012 until middle 2014 I was a resident of Haven for hope, spending time in 3 distinct areas of the campus (PCY, IHWP, Men's dorm). As such I feel I have a pretty well-rounded (although by no means complete) picture of life in the H4H campus during that period. It is not an understatement to say that I am alive and (marginally) functional today because of the care I received at Haven for Hope- and I do not wish my criticisms here to be construed as a criticism of the H4H campus itself or its present operating policies/staff. During my time at H4H I saw a considerable effort to improve conditions for all residents, but particularly for residents of PCY. (When I arrived things had already improved considerably from when the facility had opened, and this trend continued all throughout my residency there.) Haven for hope is an incredibly complicated place- primarily because it is in fact two completely different homeless shelters that share the same campus. The idea is that all homeless people enter the campus through the notorious "Prospects Courtyard" (or "PCY" as it is known throughout San Antonio) where living conditions are incredibly stark and have been designed to be as (intentionally) unpleasant-without-being-criminal as possible; the idea being that good behaviour can earn you a bunk in "Members Side"- the Ritz Carlton of homeless shelters where life is completely different. (E.g. PCY used to intentionally underfeed and advertised the much better food on Members Side as an incentive for good behaviour) It is not an exaggeration to say that I am both alive and the person I am today because of Haven for Hope- so many of my most cherished formative experiences occurred in that strange place. I want to try and be very careful here about how I present my experiences and impression of the place. (I especially don't wish to in any way impugn the good work that happens on Members Side or the honest-to-God-saints that have chosen to make H4H the place they work to improve humanity. I owe an indescribable debt to the staff and donors who make the place possible. At the same time- I would be remiss if I did not discuss the intentionally brutal/dehumanizing conditions in PCY or how ultimately counterproductive they are to the goal of aiding the homeless. And in that vein the attempt to force the homeless of downtown San Antonio into PCY (where they were intentionally underfed and deprived of possessions deemed "excessive") is an untold story that really needs to be brought out into the light. In order to properly explain any of this through it is going to require quite a bit of explanation and description of the uniwue micro-cultures that exist in Haven for Hope, and I realize that my effortposts style is not the usual for C-SPAM. But I am who I am and I post like I post, I have a great deal to say about some very complicated topics; I will do my very best to keep my words interesting if the this subforum will but indulge my posting habits. In the next few posts I will describe the layout of Haven for Hope before moving on to a description of the events surrounding its opening and the ouster of its first CEO. From there I will talk about my time/experiences in Haven for Hope, with a particular focus on the micro culture that existed in PCY during my time there and the truly remarkable (experimental) mental health program I participated in during my time in Members side. After that I want to address some of the larger lessons I took from my time at Haven about human nature, and how culture ultimately lies downstream of the necessities of survival. So I humbly ask dear reader that you please bear with me as I am in many ways just starting to truly process these experiences after five years off the street+housed. Come with me and I will take you into a strange hidden world, a pocket-dimension where agony walks beside ecstasy, where tiny miraculous events manifest in humble little ways, where the very worst of humanity co-exists with the very best of human nature, and where a tiny group of societies forgotten sleep beneath a technicolor concrete sky.
|
# ? Dec 30, 2019 23:06 |
|
|
# ? Jun 13, 2024 04:34 |
|
Prospects Courtyard: PCY is a very difficult place to understand or envision and I have been wracking my brain on how to even begin describing it. I have decided that these videos are probably the best jumping off point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q75mikSVzVs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv7SninIcFc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DGIv1J1uUM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6Wgh-kceTA To set the tone for life in PCY I went and dug up some of the posts I wrote about Haven while I was still a resident there in 2014. As these are very raw takes written when the experiences were still fresh I feel that they do a better job of conveying life than anything I could presently write about it. quote:Haven for Hope is really two separate homeless shelters, despite all the programs being housed on the same property. The main division is between the Prospects Courtyard (Hereafter refereed to as PCY because that is what everyone calls it) and the "Transformational Campus", which is generally called simply Members Side. PCY is more akin to what most would expect from a typical homeless shelter. The concept behind PCY is that anyone, in any condition, from any location around the world, can show up at PCY and get 3 meals a day as well as a place to sleep, (almost) no questions asked. Members side is for people whom have qualified for one of the various programs available and is designed to give an individual the tools needed to get a place of their own and never become homeless again. I lived in PCY for about 10 rather hellish weeks, and have lived in Members Side since mid December. I will describe each separately. quote:During the Holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas) PCY has a ton of extra people residing in it. It gets packed. On the plus side during the holidays, its really easy to get plenty of food. In addition to all the extra feedings, there are a ton of smaller groups/families that cook up a bunch of food, park in front of PCY, and pass it out till its gone.(Its gone fast) Its a good experience for all, the usual sight is a family SUV that rolls up with about 100 prepared meals in styrofaom containers. Usually the food is pretty awesome, and very welcome. However, one of these trucks giving out food was either run by a sociopath or just had lovely cleaning standards. It was tacos, I remember distinctly because I was one of the people from this particular truck. quote:Prospects live in "Prospects Courtyard" and it is....... very different from Members Side. "PCY" as it is known by is a place where anyone can show up with nothing and receive at least some food, some basic medical care, access to showers, and a mat to sleep on at night. (And not very loving much else) PCY is a place that after spending 45 minutes trying to write this paragraph I have simply concluded is just impossible to summarize; for I fear that in the attempt to do so it would seem as if I was either ungrateful for the aid I received or that the facility is badly run. Neither of those things are true of course, I am grateful beyond my ability to express in words for the aid I received while I was in PCY and honest to God the staff is running the place better than could be reasonably asked for. But there is no getting around the fact that the place is immensely unpleasant in a wide variety of ways that most readers will find quite novel to read about because it is simply so beyond their experiences. (I once for example saw someone buy a blowjob for 4 cigarettes) quote:Part of the motivation for the Haven for Hope is to give the homeless population of San Antonio somewhere other than the Riverwalk to be all day while as many of them are transferred into long term housing as possible. The idea behind preventing much of the other programs from operating wherever/forcing them to operate through Haven of Hope was to drive the homeless population of San Antonio to have to rely on the Haven for services and therefor get more of them enrolled in the various programs that help people get off the streets.When I was still using homeless services in San Antonio it was well known that this this policy was being very selectively enforced and was being quietly pulled back on. (One of the better Sunday feedings took place in a police impound lot that they looked the other way for a group that made a 2 hour road trip every week to feed us.) Part of the motivation for pulling back came from learning the hard way that there is a certain percentage of the homeless population who will simply resort to crime rather than either live in or relocate their tent somewhere nearby the Haven. Removing enough feedings within a certain are,a and petty theft/shoplifting/panhandling would shoot through the roof.
|
# ? Dec 31, 2019 00:18 |
|
Sorry for the long pause in updates, working on a big ole effortpost. In the meantime please enjoy this thing I wrote for my other thread about a person I knew while I was in Haven:Prester Jane posted:I've been working on an effortpost that is somewhat related to this present discussion, but today I wanted to jump in here and share some anecdotes about a psychopath I was in a residential treatment program with. We will call this individual "Bill".
|
# ? Jan 20, 2020 00:27 |
|
So I'm just posting to say "So long and thanks for all the fish". I am not gonna autoban because I need too much of the material I have posted in my various threads- however I do not intend to post anymore on these here forums. I am going to be relocating all of my threads over to Bread and Roses, and I heartily encourage anyone who has enjoyed my content to register and give the place a spin: https://breadnroses.club/register/
Prester Jane has issued a correction as of 21:29 on Jan 23, 2020 |
# ? Jan 23, 2020 21:26 |
|
yeah rip
|
# ? Jan 23, 2020 23:11 |
|
|
# ? Jun 13, 2024 04:34 |
|
the offsite is off to a great start by making a bunch of sex pests mods lol
|
# ? Jan 23, 2020 23:12 |