I woke up at my girlfriend’s apartment around 7:00 a.m. I got ready for work and I headed out around 8:15 a.m. On my way to work I saw a truck loaded up to the heavens with junk. I took a picture because it was priceless. I’m guessing this guy was a scrapper. I kept my distance in case any of the items rolled off the bed of the truck.
I arrived at work at 8:45. I called the Outreach worker from the methadone clinic and made plans to do outreach with him after the hub meeting, a virtual meeting with all the local providers in the city about some of the issues around homeless clients.
At 10:00 a.m. I joined the hub meeting, a virtual meeting with local social service providers, and we discussed the upcoming sweep and treat. An operation spearheaded by the local police and various providers. The police plan on rounding up all the homeless people, and giving them an option of either getting drug treatment or getting charged with trespassing, or being held on warrants if they have one. I’ve been going to the meetings for this sweep and treat, but I will not be involved in the operation since it could destroy the relationships I have with my homeless clients.
At 11:00 a.m. I drove to the methadone clinic and I picked up their outreach worker. We took to the streets and while driving we stopped and we engaged with a man who was panhandling, his name was Daniel. He was missing an arm, and he suffered from severe mental illness. He said he did not need any help with services or anything like that. So I gave him some pepsis and let him be.
I called The Homelessness police officer and discussed the interaction with Daniel to see if the homelessness cop had any previous engagement with him. The Homelessness police officer confirmed that he had and said that he lives in a group home, and he is a regular around town. The homelessness police officer gave me a little history on Daniel. He had suffered a drug overdose, which starved his brain of oxygen causing his mental disability. While on the phone with the officer he directed me to an individual that he called, the tape man, who was across the street. I could see him in my view acting erratically on the sidewalk. The tape man lived up to his name, he had cellophane and tape on his body and he had a bag with rolls of cellophane tape in it. The Outreach worker from the methadone clinic and I walked over and we engaged with this man with tape all over him, who refused to give me his name or interact with me in any way. It seemed obvious that he struggles with severe mental illness and most likely lives in a group home somewhere. He did not confirm that he was homeless.
In the same vicinity as the tape man I engaged with a man named Winston. Winston reported that he was in a coma for 7 years and then when he woke up he had nowhere to live. He said that he now lives in the emergency room at the hospital. The Outreach worker from the methadone clinic and I walked with Winston back to the truck to drive Winston back with us to the shelter to see if we could coordinate services for him, since he was in dire need of care. While in the truck Winston claimed that he was having an asthma attack and wanted to go to the emergency room so we drove him there. I left him in the emergency room and I plan on engaging him at the hospital tomorrow morning.
After leaving the hospital I received a call from a recovery coach from the harm reduction Center who said that Christina, a client we share, was in need of shelter, and that she had been the victim of abuse in the encampment behind Doyle Street. What she said was that other homeless people were threatening her, and her boyfriend was in jail so she was all alone. I focus on getting women off the street, since they are more vulnerable than men in most cases. I told the recovery coach to have Christina meet us at the shelter.
When Christina got to the shelter I got her some food and we began to look for battered women shelters in the area. We called about 10 different places and were unable to find availability. Christina suffers from severe substance use disorder, mainly fentanyl. Christina was apparently disoriented, she seemed very high on opiates, was also very tired. I offered to get her into drug treatment which she refused. Christina was with a male friend who said that Christina can stay with them for the night. I will work on finding help for Christina tomorrow.
After Christina left it was about 2:30. I spent the rest of the afternoon updating Vesta. Working on fixing mistakes I made in the coordinated entry housing files in concordance with a worker from the agency who processes our referrals. This worker is the Housing Navigator for the Northshore region. I left work at 5:00 p.m.
I drove to my girlfriend’s apartment and we spent the evening together.