Real Life at the Crisis Shelter February 6-12, 2012

Monday February 6:    One of our moms moved over the join the program at Anna Ogden Hall today.  One of our guests said she had an overnight job but it turned out that she just wanted to spend the night at her sister’s house.  When we called to check on the job we let her know that we were onto her and she returned to the shelter as normal.

Tuesday February 7:   One of our good workers moved out having told staff that she was moving to California.  Turns out that she is still in Spokane but felt embarrassed about telling staff that she was just going to go party for awhile.  Late Tuesday we received a guest who was fleeing a domestic violence.  She looked pretty beat up and cut.  She mostly just wanted to go home, but with the help of the police we were able to convince her to wait it out at the shelter until it was safer to go home.  The hotel across the street was raided by law enforcement.  The papers say that it was a trafficking bust.  This created quite the show for the guests of the Crisis Shelter.  A few ladies who were thinking of going back to the streets decided to stay another night as a result.

Wednesday February 8:    Shots fired near the hotel across the street.  It does not seem like anyone was hit but it definitely shook things up around the shelter.  There is much speculation that it is connected to the raid on Tuesday night. 

Thursday February 9:   We checked a young lady into the shelter.  As we were working through check in it became obvious that she was very high.  She was very gracious and we helped her get into detox.  It was a very peaceful transfer.

Friday February 10:  One of our singles checked out in order to avoid becoming a good worker.  (You must either have a real world job or sign up to be a good worker at 4 weeks.)       

Weekend:    We are in the process of creating a more phased stay at the Crisis Shelter.  We have several rooms that are for initial stay, others that are for those about to become good workers and those that are either good workers or have real world jobs.  In order to get the rooms to this standard we moved many ladies around.  This created a certain amount of instability and insecurity.  Staff handled the extra stress well and worked to explain the big picture to everyone. 

A lady was checked in at 6 pm and by 7 pm had stolen a $400 phone from another guest and jumped the fence.  The other ladies wanted to string her up so I am hopeful that she either returns the phone or is not found by the other ladies.          

General comments:  We are in the process of revamping our good worker program and address weaknesses that came out of the SWOT we did in January.