Friday, December 18, 2009

How do we get home?????

So this post takes me down memory lane, I will as always fictionalize the names as to keep things anonymous.
About a year ago we had several women come in at the same time, now usually the women come in without money wondering how they were gonna get around, this group followed suit. We let them fend for themselves as far as money goes by borrowing from other women in the house or writing a letter to a relative to have them drop money off. Well several of the women in this new group had legitimate needs that couldn't wait the 30 days we usually make them wait to start addressing their needs. One of these needs was to go down to Downtown Crossing to get real ID's. Since protocol requires the buddy system and a few of them needed the registry we sent the 4 or 5 of them together. One problem was where were they gonna get the $3.40 a head to get there and back on the subway????
Next thing we know they are pooling and counting their quarter, dime, nickels, and pennies to see if they can get there and back. Sure enough they can get there, the back is the problem. After counting there coins they determined that they could all get there but only 1 or 2 of them could get back. Ensuing is the conversation my co-workers and I heard........

Client 1: So how are we going to all get back???
Client 2: Well, we'll be near Chinatown we can just sell our asses to get back.

What !!!!!!! Are you serious??? Or you could just.......

1. Walk home
2. Borrow $5 from one of your housemates to get the rest of you back.
2. Ask staff or one of your housemates for additional options.
3. Panhandle.
4. Collect cans along the way.
5. Bring some of your extra purses or extra pairs of shoes and sell them.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Take it with a grain of salt

A few months ago we allowed enter the house for treatment a most peculiar woman, Ann. One of the first things she told me upon making my acquaintace was about the time she went to pick up her friend Jack at the airport as soon as she saw him she yelled HiJack and got arrested by airport security, eccentric indeed. Dont know if its true or not.
Anyway why did I call this "take it with a grain of salt"?? Oh yes, let me begin. After a short time in the house she went to see her "doctor" who "strongly" suggested she start using this special "salt" due to some "medical" problem she was having. So she went and got this salt and kept it hidden in her cubbie so that know one else would try using it. Soon enough though someone got wind of said salt and since none of them really liked her they decided to hide it in the garbage can. This created immediate conflict and accusations flew about who had hid the salt. No one could find it though until we threatened to put the house on lock down till the salt showed up...........a few minutes later someone "found" it in the Garbage.......miracle.
While all this animated banter was going on about who took the salt? and where was it? our oldest client, mildly demented sat in the corner and muttered "oh Ann just take it with a grain of salt"