Word: shelterer
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Jean called the first gigantic brick shelter he stayed in Castle Grayskull. As a rule, he neatly packages his complaints, slipping them in here and there, camouflaged as corny jokes. He likes attention and knows he is not likely to get it playing the bitter ex-con. The second shelter, which was better, he promoted to "Cuckoo-bird Dungeon" and said he was blessed to be there. But both were trials for Sanders. Inside and out, they alternately reeked of prison or temptation. Within a five-block radius of the second shelter, there were three crack houses. Directly outside...
Several times a week a bus stopped at his shelter and unloaded men newly released from prison. Studies have estimated that 30% to 50% of big-city parolees are homeless. Sanders was surrounded by the very people his parole conditions forbid him to consort with. But parole also demands that he have an address, even if it's a shelter. One day, while Sanders was taking a shower, someone broke into his locker and started selling his underwear--brand new pairs he had got from the state when he left prison. His new washcloth also vanished. "You might think...
Since Sanders met Bill Clinton that day in Harlem, he had been back to the Housing Authority six times. He was convinced that the homeless shelter was, for him, an incubator for failure. He qualified for a $215-a-month rent check from the city's welfare agency--more than he would get in many other states--but he couldn't find a room in New York City for that rate. And, of course, he is forbidden under the terms of his parole to leave the city. So he kept going to the Housing Authority in search of cheap real...
When the high wore off, the party moved to a nearby crack house, just blocks from the shelter. At 5:30, the police descended, and Sanders didn't run. They found a small rock of crack in his waistband. "They were very courteous," Sanders said of the police. After being strip-searched and photographed, Sanders sat quietly on the floor of the holding cell, processing the notion that he'd just sent himself back to prison. "I lost my mind. I did it to myself," he said by way of explanation. He made no phone calls...
...honored for her work at the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter...