I'm no stranger to homelessness. I've been around.
I think the worst shelter I was in was a church shelter in Redondo Beach. It was a converted garage with lice-embedded WWI army cots on a dirt floor in an aromatic 15 x 15 clapboard room that housed 10 or 15 bums elbow to elbow. They made us shower with a low-pressure garden hose, mop floors or do other kitchen duty and ACTUALLY sing for our supper. Ahyup, sing for our supper ... at the "I'm-a-lousy-bum" sermon church meetings.
As with most homeless shelters, they kicked you out early every morning and made you requalify for entrance every evening. After a certain period, this shelter expected the bum to sign up for Camp Hell, a gaggle of log cabins out in the Los Angeles National Forest where bums had to chop wood all day for their supper.
This is what made Camp Hi N Dry (Westside) one of the better shelters. All they wanted you to do (besides the myriad of meetings and community service to pay for the crime of homelessness) was stay sober and get a job in 90 days (or get the hell out in 30 minutes if caught drinking or shirking!). All they wanted was our money.
PATH (People Assisting The Homeless) is another corporate entity in the shelter business. They make the bum work and hold his money from him for a year. Other shelters have chain gangs (they contract labor out their bums).
Westside wasn't so bad, but you've got to be an Ironweed like me to be able to stay there very long (I was there 2 years).
I think the worst shelter I was in was a church shelter in Redondo Beach. It was a converted garage with lice-embedded WWI army cots on a dirt floor in an aromatic 15 x 15 clapboard room that housed 10 or 15 bums elbow to elbow. They made us shower with a low-pressure garden hose, mop floors or do other kitchen duty and ACTUALLY sing for our supper. Ahyup, sing for our supper ... at the "I'm-a-lousy-bum" sermon church meetings.
As with most homeless shelters, they kicked you out early every morning and made you requalify for entrance every evening. After a certain period, this shelter expected the bum to sign up for Camp Hell, a gaggle of log cabins out in the Los Angeles National Forest where bums had to chop wood all day for their supper.
This is what made Camp Hi N Dry (Westside) one of the better shelters. All they wanted you to do (besides the myriad of meetings and community service to pay for the crime of homelessness) was stay sober and get a job in 90 days (or get the hell out in 30 minutes if caught drinking or shirking!). All they wanted was our money.
PATH (People Assisting The Homeless) is another corporate entity in the shelter business. They make the bum work and hold his money from him for a year. Other shelters have chain gangs (they contract labor out their bums).
Westside wasn't so bad, but you've got to be an Ironweed like me to be able to stay there very long (I was there 2 years).
Tags: comparing, homeless, homelessness, homeless shelter, church shelter, Redondo Beach, stacking bums, warehousing people, transient, indigent, beggar, lousy bum, sing for your supper, Los Angeles National Forest, Camp High N Dry, Westside Residence Hall, veterans shelter, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, V.A., veterans administration, P.A.T.H., chain gangs, make a bum work, Ironweed, James Jarvis
