I don’t know how professional this one is going to be folks, because I am really really fed-up and angry. I am not going to beat around the bush any more. The shelter is corrupt, incompetent and incapable if running a day program or any other program for that matter, but Hope is not doing it’s job either and is proving itself to not be much better. Today it’s director Carol Troum attempted to interfere with a criminal investigation. After dinner, two male individuals got in a fight outside the soup kitchen despite numerous attempts to reach staff and the extremely loud shouting none would come, and it fell on the clients to separate the two. During the course of the fighting one of the men fell on a female bystanders leg injuring it. She was completely alone, I and two other clients tried to comfort her, and called, along with numerous others the police, staff were still no where to be found.
Finally when the police I arrived I was attempting to explain to an officer what happened after he asked me to talk to him, since I called. That is what the person who calls is supposed to do. Mrs. Troum’s assistant Benito Ceja told all the clients to leave including those the officer was talking to, when I continued to answer the officers questions Mrs. Troum told me to leave and stop talking to him. The officer told her to please let him talk to me as I was a witness. She pointed out to him that I was a client and apparently one who lies all the time. This shows the prevalent mentality of not viewing homeless as human, someone a homeless present witness is inferior to a worker who did not witness the situation. I am not sure why she was so keen on having the officer to herself. I do not know if it was just damage control or something deeper. I did get to talk to the officer because he insisted. But none of us got to tell him who was fighting as she kept interrupting us.
I am sick and tired of this. I am sick and tired of people being intimidated and harassed for doing the right thing. This is what is going to happen when this program of theirs starts if tonight is any indication. I am sick and tired of no one saying anything, of the silence of most media outlets, this one excluded of course as well as the city review, and of the acceptance of city council and the county. The mayor stated that trying this program for a year can’t hurt anyone. He obviously meant himself, because tonight it showed that it could.