You’d think after a couple decades of dealing with homelessness in
You hit town, dirty, tired, friendless and hungry and get sent to St. Francis House for help. It’s the only game in town with 20 beds for men and 8 beds for women. OK, what do you have to do to get some food, shelter, clean clothes and sleep?
Seems first (or last) thing you do is lose your dignity. There are times and rules for everything you could possibly need. You have to sign in by 6PM for a bed that night, every night, and you have to show up by 9PM to be allowed in. So, from 6PM to 9PM, you’re pretty much stuck hanging close to the shelter, no matter the weather, to get that bed and shower.
You can do your laundry. If you “live” there, your hours are from 6PM to 9 or 10PM. If you don’t, your hours are 130PM to 5 or 6PM. So if you’re lucky enough to be working or need to be out looking for work, you’re out of luck in the afternoons. There are two washers and one dryer so the scheduling of your day just got more complicated.
If you “live” there, there are two showers for men, who sleep upstairs. Women sleep downstairs with their own facility. If you don’t, you can sign up for a shower outside from 130 to about 5-6PM.
Breakfast is served everyday around 430AM, depending on the cook. With donations from churches and agencies drying up, the cook tries to make a hot meal but it’s often donuts, juice and coffee. Some cooks allow non residents to eat; others restrict food to the sheltered people. You have to be out by 6AM anyway. Same thing with lunch, which, depending on the cook, could be as good as spaghetti and meatballs or as simple as a sandwich, or rice and beans. Dinner is seven nights a week but if it’s known there is a serving somewhere else in town, some cooks will not even bother.
Wednesday is ID day where, if you “live” there, a social worker will drive you to the county offices and help you acquire a state ID, IF you have a birth certificate and proof of residence. These things take time and in the meantime, there are numerous chores you do at St. Francis House, like the dishes, cleaning up after meal times, patrolling the block for trash or taking out the garbage.
Early in 2009, residents noticed donations coming to St. Francis House were being taken home by employees, the stuff often being loaded into employee cars by St. Francis House residents themselves. A van full of practically new clothes showed up one day but never seemed to get distributed. Now that it’s getting cold, it falls on the night manager to call a “cold night”, where a call out goes out for extra mats on the floor of St. Francis House and some churches open their doors to shelter the extra homeless for the night. Again in early 2009, one pastor drove into town to open up on a particularly bitter night only to be “called off” by the night manager at St. Francis House. He along with everyone else who lives here, knew there were people outside that night and that tiny St. Francis House could not possibly shelter everyone but they made that call. So he went home.
There are lots of rules and they are for the safety of everyone. Police get called for fights and evictions. Before the current director, there were lots of drugs. So far this year, at least 25 to 30 people have been kicked out, often for alcohol on their breath, but sometimes this seems hit or miss, depending on the night manager on duty.
But the main thing is the way most of the employees treat the homeless. Being down, tired, scared and dirty is bad enough. To be talked to in an insulting way or treated as less than human adds insult to injury. Most of the homeless have stories to tell of just this kind of treatment. Funny thing is, all the official talk is about money money money and building a bigger and better shelter. What good would that do if a homeless person still gets treated like dirt? Treating people with kindness and respect gets you a lot more than just throwing money at a problem and it really doesn’t cost a dime.
Personal note: (THIS STORY WAS REFUSED BY THE FOLIO WEEKLY, because the author of it is a homeless man living in the St. Augustine area)
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