"The middle of next week"

January 30, 2015

There is no definite answer yet about if I'll have to leave the crisis unit and go back to the shelter.  Someone from the Department of Mental Health said something about "the middle of next week" to the assistant director of the unit.  Whether that's when I have to leave or that's when they'll evaluate the situation again, the assistant director doesn't know.

There is nowhere for me to stay except the Pine Street Inn if I do have to leave.  When I left the Pine Street Inn at the beginning of December, nobody had said anything about the respite bed at the crisis unit only being for a month and then available according to whether or not I could get an extension.  I gave up my locker at the Pine Street Inn when I went to the crisis unit, which means that I'll have to carry clothing and everything else in my backpack all day, every day.  It takes months to get a locker, because the shelters are crowded, particularly in the winter. 

I have said, several times, that I'll work with a DMH case manager; there's no answer about that from the people making the decision about the respite bed extension, either.

I know that people have had respite beds at this unit for more than six months at a time, and that was even throughout the summer, when death from the cold is not something that is likely to occur if someone can't get a shelter bed at night.

I am doing everything that can be done to try to find an apartment that will take my housing voucher; that process will not be easier if I have to conduct the search while doing the lottery every afternoon for a bed at the Pine Street Inn.

Copyright L. Kochman, January 30, 2015 @ 3:35 p.m.