2) This morning I saw the two BSH convicted child molesters I’ve posted about previously, Messrs. Avery and Wadsager. They were dressed as cowboys (to attract little kids, I presume) and riding around in a car not listed on their info in the Boulder PD sex offender registry – as required by law. Parole authorities, will you please pick these unrepentant perverts up and send them back to prison? Studies have shown that violent offenders are more likely to be rehabilitated than pedophiles, so keep the latter bunch locked up. BTW, we all know that Real Cowboys would just ”git a rope” to deal with ‘em. I oppose vigilantism, of course.  

3) The free bus provided to Boulder’s homeless community morning and night by Special Transit is a blessing to me. However, the evening bus from 11th & Walnut back to Boulder Shelter at 5:15PM is now being used by a dozen or so staggering drunk idjits, who otherwise wouldn’t be able to travel those three miles. I say, “Abuse it and lose it!” As much of a hardship as it would work on me, with my arthritic hip, Special Transit ought to end the free evening ride for besotted fools. Certainly, the majority of clients at BSH wouldn’t miss their loud, stupid company overnight.

4) I’d love to do more success stories about homeless people who are turning their lives around, but many of them seem to have only minimal contact with the homeless services industry as I know it — very likely to their great advantage — thus I don’t get to learn enough about them.

5) It’s St. Patrick’s Day. I recall what my great-great-great uncle W.L. Weller, the maker of premium Kentucky bourbon, had to say: “There are two things the Irish cannot do; they can’t make good whiskey, and they can’t drink it without falling down.” On my mother’s side of the family, my Danish ancestors visited Ireland often; clubbing down Irishmen, making sport with their women, and finding time enough to found the City of Dublin (most of the Irish in those days still living in crude mud or grass huts). Modesty forbids that I reveal any details of a game my girlfriend and I used to play back in Missouri, but we called it “Vikings Invading Ireland”; use your imagination. And red hair? Those are Viking genes at work, even today. Nevertheless, I wish everyone a happy and safe St. Pat’s!

I’m outside the Main Library before it opens almost every weekday morning. The 15 foot rule is inadequate to keep tobacco smoke from irritating the lungs of anyone standing by the doorway. This is especially true of the 80% of homeless people who are heavy smokers (my estimate) and who have zero consideration for rules designed to protect non-smokers.

They step right up to the doorway and light up, usually a cigarette butt they’ve scrounged from the gutter, parking lot, or nearby ashtrays. Believe me, this ain’t your grandfather’s aromatic pipe tobacco. Smells more like horse manure on fire. Of course, they become offended when you point out the 15 foot rule and ask them to step away.

Another thing: These smoking addicts are not at all “compliant”, despite what one security guard is quoted as saying in the story above. In fact, I’ve found them smoking in the library restrooms — too damn lazy to go outside — and it ain’t always tobacco they’re smoking, either.

I’m all in favor of extending the NO SMOKING zone to at least 50 feet from any entrance at the library, and 100 feet would be better.

You smokers don’t like it? Too bad . . . I say this: Bouder PD should aggressively enforce any no-smoking rule, and all those convicted of violating such law should be sentenced to several hours of community service — picking up cigarette butts which litter our fair city.

BTW, a teenage punk lighting up a cigarette (like the one pictured) doesn’t look cool; he just looks more like a teenage punk.

This morning, in front of the Main Library, a former resident of the transitional living program at Boulder Shelter for the Homeless told me that he and I would be going to Heaven at 9:45PM tonight. I just smiled at him and made no reply.

“Lonnie”, which isn’t his real name, was in the BSH program for several months. It always seemed to me, based on his loud and inappropriate behavior, that he was under the influence of methamphetamine or other drugs with similar effects. Recently, he was tossed out of BSH for an incident one evening — I wasn’t present to witness it, but one who was tells me that Lonnie ripped a tree from its planter upstairs near the men’s transitional living dorm and was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Next morning, as several of us were checking in for morning services, Lonnie showed up. He cut in front of everyone in line to begin arguing with the staff person at the front desk, as to whether he could eat breakfast and retrieve his belongings. I told him to step to the end of the line, as all of us had business to take care of that morning.

Frankly, I wanted to hit him over the head with a potted plant.

I suspect that BSH staff finally figured out that Lonnie was dirty when they required him to submit to urinalysis, and his specimen glowed in the dark.

Anyway, to me he seems relatively harmless for a nut (but you cannot be certain of it). Even so, any case manager at BSH who would consider letting Lonnie back into the program ought to be fired for utter stupidity.

Just in case Lonnie really is a prophet, however, I’d like to bid you all goodbye and good luck.

I see one case of such a couple almost every day. The man is a hopeless alcoholic, who lasted only two days in the sober-only First Step program at Boulder Shelter for the Homeless, but his wife/girlfriend (who knows the true marital status of any of these couples?) is a very sweet and caring person. She’s just chosen a total loser to care about. This couple comes into BSH for emergency sheltering, and the man makes his woman wait outside in the cold if he happens to draw a high number in the lottery for available beds; if he’s turned away, she has to go with him! All women get in before any of the men, and they don’t have to play a lottery. Space is made for every woman. A few times, he has allowed his woman to go in and eat dinner — but if he’s turned away he expects BSH staff to go and summon his woman to leave with him.

Amazingly to me, staff actually cooperates with this drunken yahoo in degrading his woman. Really, what sort of a man wants his woman to suffer just because he has to do so?

When this couple walks down the street, she walks about 6′ behind him, as if they were from a totally different culture where this is the norm. They’re both as Plain White Bread American as you’ll find anywhere. Other examples of his nonviolent forms of abuse abound, but you get the picture. 

There’s another man, who preys on the most vulnerable homeless women he can find, alcoholic or drug-addicted or mentally ill or physically disabled — so long as the woman is receiving disability benefits which he can use for his own selfish needs. Currently, he’s with a homeless woman who suffered a traumatic brain injury and really isn’t capable of managing her own affairs; so he stepped into her life.

It matters not at all to me that these women are so desperate for attention from a man that they tolerate this rotten behavior — nobody deserves what these women are getting from their abusers.

I’m at a loss as to what can be done. And I’m shocked that those who ought to know better are instead aiding and abetting the abusers as much as they are. That needs to stop immediately. And somebody in authority needs to start teaching these homeless women that they are worthy of respect and genuine love, neither of which they’ll ever get from these worthless men.

http://digilander.libero.it/guido_1953/pics/x-jane-fonda-2/x-lee-marvin-cat-ballou-film.jpg

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Addendum: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1522336025/

http://www.kshs.org/people/graphics/brinkley_john.jpg

A roster of the ridiculous was observed by Old Doc at Boulder Shelter for the Homeless last night. To wit:

Trench Foot Boy appeared to be staggering drunk, running around in his bare, rotten feet and stinking up the place; but give him credit for responding to complaints by washing them in a toilet bowl. Quite the homeless ladies’ man, too.

Denver Tough Guy was heard claiming to be a former Marine and Navy SEAL (experienced in “black ops”, which he openly discussed), a member of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club, and a Juggalo. Or maybe he said gigolo; Brinkley’s hearing ain’t what it used to be.

Clueless Parolee was heard trying to get someone to help him beat up another homeless resident, the cause of the dispute being a homeless woman currently incarcerated.

Crazy Lady was involved in a prolonged and heated conversation with the pop machine in the day room; Old Doc asked her to let him know later what the machine said in reply, as he was preparing to dine.

The usual bunch of residents in the BSH programs spent more time getting their assigned chores documented (it’s the honor system; nobody is checking) than actually doing them. Yes, this is the normal state of affairs — but it irritates Brinkley so much he just had to mention it here.

Such is life in the bowels of Boulder Shelter.

1) Use all of the resources available for obtaining necessary camping gear and knowledge — see Boulder County Cares, Colorado FriendShip, Homeless Gear, and Wilderness Survival Skills under Blogroll to the right of these posts. I’ve been outside when it was -6 degress and also when it snowed 20+ inches in one storm; because I was properly equipped to survive and be comfortable, it wasn’t any hardship to me.

2) Respect your surroundings, whether public areas where camping is permitted or private property where the owners are agreeable — keep it clean.

3) Cultivate good relationships with Boulder PD officers, OSMP rangers, BCSO deputies, and others in authority. Respect them and they will respect you. Inside the city limits of Boulder, there are public places where you can camp without receiving a ticket if you keep a low profile and don’t create problems for others. Ditto for Boulder County public areas. Best of all is to find a property owner who will permit you to camp out, so that law enforcement isn’t an issue.

4) Keep your campsite absolutely secret. Don’t tell your friends, who will then tell others, and all of ‘em will show up to trash the place, raise hell, and get you ticketed by law officers or run off by angry property owners. (Not to mention the thieves from Denver who will steal everything you leave at your campsite). Take care of yourself by finding your own spot — and let others do likewise.

5) Do not antagonize the public by following these yahoos who are crying that homelessness itself is being “criminalized”, just because they cannot sleep anywhere they please and do whatever they please at all hours of the day and night. We depend to a great extent on the continued goodwill of citizens here in Boulder, city and county, – don’t be a spoiled brat.

See — http://www.cmgww.com/historic/rogers/index.php

This quote certainly describes my credentials. Some just don’t get it, but the fact is that if I hadn’t done what I did to get sent where I was, I wouldn’t be here today doing what it is that I do.

Ponder that one . . .

This is remarkable to me, and not just for the coincidence of the number 146. This is my fourth season there, since 2007, and I have heard BSH staff on numerous occasions discourage homeless residents/clients from calling the police. The incidents involved thefts of personal property, verbal threats of violence, etc. I was once asked not to call Boulder PD, after being threatened by a transitional living program resident; I calmly replied that I’d give staff one chance to address the situation, but the next time I’d call the cops. The jerk never bothered me again, which I appreciate, but he never apologized and he was allowed to remain in the program at BSH.

However, when you consider the number of actual calls made to police from BSH (less than 146 as explained above) along with the many times when calls might properly have been made but were discouraged, it’s sort of scary. We weren’t calling the cops this often at the homeless shelter where I worked in the meanest part of Kansas City, MO!

Yes, you know I’m going to point my finger at troublemaking Denver transients, here to trash our fair city while panhandling and partying. I challenge anyone to show that it’s homeless Boulderites whose actions are prompting most of these calls to police.

http://www.bouldershelter.org/about.reports.html

And the 2008 Annual Report for Carriage House here (click on fullscreen):

http://www.bouldercarriagehouse.org/index/2008-annual-report/

To me, what’s really important in both reports is missing and apparently not tracked: How many homeless people from Denver and elsewhere are using services at these Boulder nonprofits?

Resources are limited, especially now in this economic recession. Why not give priority to Boulderites in need? Those from elsewhere should not be turned away — but they can certainly go to the end of the line for available shelter and services.