This is letter to all government and private sector deranged whackos who intentionally harm homeless people.
A “predator,” according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, is “one that preys, destroys, or devours.” For the record, the word oppression is defined as “one who oppresses, esp. when in a position of public authority.”
In my own experience, public authorities here in the nation’s capital oppress impoverished people. We aren’t your slaves, neither have we ever given you authority to torment, dominate, abuse, assault or rape homeless individuals. Sociologically. Physically. Emotionally. Verbally. Or spiritually.
I was homeless for a year. And I’ve been housed for 18 months since then. But I was placed into a toxic housing environment, and have not been able to recover. My air is polluted. Black soot is visible in the vents and on my furniture. It’s clinging to the walls – I can’t wash them fast enough. It’s in my lungs. It’s killing me.
My water is toxic. It corroded a filter, it’s eating up my sink. I called the police when I didn’t know what else to do. The officers that responded said they wouldn’t even shower in my water, much less drink it. The other said he had to leave my unit; he couldn’t breathe the air.
We are not slaves to any government agency or private sector organization. The people that make these agencies run aren’t our taskmasters. Mistreatment of homeless people has been going on for a long time. Our parents didn’t give life to us for you to turn their lives into a living hell. We weren’t born so that you can make a profit from us or abuse us.
My building manager refused to fix these issues. She said it would only be fixed if the federal government forced her to make the repairs. I was able to schedule an emergency inspection with the housing authority who were then told by the Department of Human Services that it was canceled because I already had an inspection last year. What else could I have done besides call the cops?
Whenever I make these complaints, I’m made to feel like I’m being ungrateful, or worse, spinning out of control: I should be grateful to have a roof over my head, DHS provides for me. I AM grateful, but a roof does little good when the rest of the environment is killing me. DHS merely uses taxpayer money to provide for me. I am grateful. I want to recover and go back to work. But I can’t. Not until I can use my water and get some rest.
Do you want to get angry? Then get angry with yourself. Stop victimizing homeless people.
The government and private sector is spinning out of control. You’ve got the problem, and everybody around you suffers because you can’t admit that you have a problem. That would require taking full responsibility for decades of homeless women and men suffering within these programs as a result of irresponsible and prejudiced staff that go unsupervised.
The housing programs that exist now do work. And we should have more of them. But what undermines them are the people that try to control them and dominate those that need them.
The system isn’t broken; what’s broken are some individuals in it, who are unfortunately running these programs. They have the power to create toxic circumstances, thus making the system seem broken. Really, it’s just a handful of administrators who have run these programs for decades without accountability.
Housing programs are and were designed to meet the needs of homeless individuals. But power plays and tampering derail all programs. I should not feel like my service provider is an abuser. Nor should I be an example of why a program doesn’t work. It’s not me, it’s you.
Cynthia Mewborn is vendor/artist with Street Sense.
