saint vincent de paul

i have a hard time at work most of the time. these people... so many problems. every day i wonder if anything in life ever gets better, ever.

saint vincent de paul is the biggest shelter here in san diego. oh and let me also say that for a single male here in san diego county there are only about three shelters total. then you can add one in carlsbad and one in oceanside. the last count about 5 years ago had the homeless population of about 15,000 people and that is a modest estimate.

i hate this. there is not enough help for too many people.

but then shit like this happens;

this woman just called me on behalf of her friend who is in a wheelchair. he is staying in a hotel and will run out of money for it tommorrow, she wanted to know where the winter tent is downtown to see about getting him into shelter. his only income is ssi, about 800 or so a month.
it all starts to sound all sad, but then you do your assessment and start to ask questions, this person has already stayed at svdp, for the maximum they let you stay two years. and you know what, if youre lucky enough to even get into a shelter, and then lucky enough to get into svdp two year stay, YOU PAY NOTHING WHILE YOURE THERE. they dont charge you rent, food, not a goddamn thing. the whole time this man was there, he could have saved up enough to have deposit on an apartment, and have been looking for a place to live, single room occupancy somewhere, something. he could've hooked up w/a case manager somewhere to find someplace permanent. case managers are over worked and swamped of course, but goddamn man you had two years, they couldve helped you in those two years. now he has nowhere to go. great. fucking wonderful. and im feeling its partly his own fault for not being proactive at all. i hate this life sometimes.

this job is really chipping away at my sympathy. this is the pattern with every call, every single one it seems. they tell you right away thier horror stories, their sob stories, no one will help them, blah blah blah, but you do an assessment and ask a few questions and see how little people do to help themselves. this must be how some people become republican.