Shelter Worker Fired for Selling Drugs to Resident
Working in a homeless shelter is like working in a school. Both require that you deal with vulnerable populations on a regular basis and exercise an incredible amount of discipline in doing so. It is my experience that teachers and homeless shelter employees wield significant power over their students or residents. This power, unfortunately, is not always appropriately used. The times when this happens in schools are relatively well publicized. The times when it happens in homeless shelters are not.
Why is that? It could be that we value our youth more than we value our impoverished. Our youth represent the future and hope and the homeless represent failure? I absolutely agree with the former and vehemently disagree with the latter, but that's for another time.
The real issue is that situations of homeless shelter employees abusing their power and breaking the rules must be dealt with appropriately. Without this, the shelter system will become useless.
As it stands now, the shelter system is only marginally useful. Many homeless people would prefer to sleep on the streets (in even the harshest conditions) than use a shelter because they simply don't feel safe. They are worried that other residents will steal their things or physically harm them. If you add to that a fear of the shelter employees, all utility of the shelters will be lost.
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2 comments:
Not all people, homeless included, are created equally. Some of the homeless, just like some housed people, have a broken (or simply ingored) moral compass. Would you say that residents caught stealing or being disruptive should be thrown out of the shelter though they have no other alternatives in order to protect the belongings and safety of the other residents? Perhaps one of the reasons shelters are such terrible places is because this principle, due to lack of evidence or fear of confrontation, is not followed. In order to maintain a good system, residents must be both policed and helped.
What article/story prompted your diatribe?
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