Providence, RI, USA
Created | Updated Dec 31, 2007
The idea was simple: provide aid for people traveling who have hit a patch of bad road; the people who are tired, perhaps they are traveling from Mystic to Boston and are sleepy, exhausted from the road. Provide help for people on journeys; it seemed simple. And it worked also for a long time.
Perhaps someone decided to bite off more than they could chew. perhaps someone had the syndrome called "eyes bigger than yo' mouth," when a young man sits down to the dinner table and piles all he cam pile on his plate.
Lo and behold, in a few minutes he has a bloated, distended gut and also a almost full plate. "Aw, you got to finish that now? Don't nobody else want it!"
I fell upon this story in the simplest and most direct of ways: girlfriend problems. I had a girlfriend; or i sure thought I did. I went to Providence, RI to hang out with her -- found some problems going on which for the sake of space I will simply say that BB King and others who work in the field of "blues" guitar would understand better.
I had given Lucille all of my money, too.
So when the screaming began i quickly excused herself, determined to give her a few weeks to maybe cool off and change her mind. But in the meantime I was stuck. I had no money and was far away from home and the next paycheck. Weeks!
Fortunately I am good at making friends, getting to know people...in a few hours of stumping around Providence, a beautiful little city that reminded me in many ways of my native Philadelphia, I found out that there was a little place that people traveling could get assistance and rest for the night, on the outer edge of the campus of the Rhode Island School Of Design.
Downtown (or "downcity", as the call it) Providence is denseley packed but small. In a short time I found thelittle place and went in, went downstairs. I was asked a few brief questions, was provided with coffee and a donut and got a place to sit down. Fine! I thought to myself.
seems all okay, eh?
I wondered why Providence seemed in places like a booming if tiny Metropolis, complete with the Superman Building!* I wondered how so many stores had gone out of business; the combination of storefront after contiguous storefront being closed, dusty, closed for a while...I walked around the Waybosset St. area after dark and saw too many storefronts that were closed and dusty.
What happened here?
My first night in Providence RI gave me the feeling of being in a ghost towm, it was like Brigadoon.
'Something was happening here...once' was the general feeling I got.
How did this happen?
That, of course, coupled with the many, many people who were spare-changing...come to think of it, Lucille was rarely the one to be broke when we were a couple in Philly: howcum I hadda giver her all MY cash? On my skimpy salary? All TEN of my dollars, when she has a GOVERNMENT job and I am a busker?
Officially, Lucille is not a whore, you see...
'The work of the city goes on uninterrupted.'
James G. Hagan, president
Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce
ALL American cities face municipal corruption. Chicago, Manhattan, Phialdephia, even the District, if you still remember an august personage named Marion Barry, you know that any municipal sector will inevitably be forced to deal with corruption.
It is simply that in the capital city of the smallest state of the Union, and an original colony to boot, the idea of their being the double whammy of economic malaise and municipal corruption sent me to thinking...'well, Providence is like the whole Nation in Microcosm.'
Perhaps it could be said to some degreee, as Providence goes, so goes the nation.
This tiny town had it all in a big way. the ups and the downs. Brown University is here, as well as the Rhode Island School of Design, prestigious and well-known.
So the idea that Providence had just put Their version of Philadelphia's Frank Rizzo in jail on racketeering and other charges didn't make me blink. But I noticed something: there is a downcity (in Providence for some mindboggling reason they call downtown 'downcity') marketing initiative not unlike Philly's 'Make It A Night' campaign called 'Providence Rennaisance'.
I wondered where it was happening.
There was certainly no rennaisance for the many many homeless I encountered in my time at Travelers' Aid...unless you call new heights in crack addiction and chronic schizoprenia a rennaisance.
...I guess it is, in a way.
Guilty Help
I spent roughly three weeks at the small hostel called Travelers' Aid of Rhode Island.
THIS was the horror scene; this was the place that continually blew my mind.
The potential was there, but...the blatant laziness of the staff, laziness and indifference to the plight of those 'travellers' they were allegedly there to help...was shocking and outrageous to the extreme.
one large problem with Travelers' Aid of RI was their lack of on-staff mental health professionals.
THAT in itself was grounds for shutting down the facility on grounds of gross negligence and never reopening it until the situation was dealt with.
Most of the homeless today after a time spent without real substantial health fall victim to hard drugs.
In Providence, (ALSO: PLEASE ADD APPROPRIATE IRONY AND CRINGING WHEN THE WORD 'PROVIDENCE' APPEARS IN THIS ESSAY. YOU MUST PROVIDE THE CONTEXT-- Longshot) skin pops and rocks (Heroin and 'crack' cocaine) dominated the street; people who spent too much time on the street eventually fell victim unless they were possessed of unusually strong moral fibre.
It's an easy way to go down.
in a conservative time, foreign agendas are in the focus, the domestic agenda is ignored and left pretty much to suffer or thrive on its own: this is a well known laissez-faire way of doing business.
So the homeless are pretty much left to fend for themselves.
Now when the domestic sector is left to stand or fall without Federal help, job availability declines, the cost of living increases, and sometimes people lose their homes and their jobs. Then they are at the "mercy" of groups like Travelers' Aid: Habitat for Humanity? The GOP aren't helping them at all.
So the GOP agenda is to punish the domestic sector with a sort of "fiscal discipline" that leaves those struggling to get situated with no actual help.
When someone who has just been making ends meet goes under financially, bang! Breadearner, wife and children are objectively HOMELESS.
Easy to do in RI, where the jobless rate is steadily increasing and is pretty close to the national average.
Easy to wind up homeless and jobless for two months. Especially when the main provider of cushion for the unemployed (but employable) and homeless...is an organization beset with grindingly slow beauracracy.
The problem is simple. After eight weeks of homelessness, the easy availabilty of crack rocks seems more attractive; the dignity, the filth have eroded self confidence. Then the downward spiral begins.
Lotte Brewer is a schizophrenic. Diagnosed several years ago. A large rotisserie of pills is her reliable breakfast daily. She has been homeless for some time. She is also a crack addict and a prostitute. I interviewed her on the street.
"Last night i sucked c&%ks and got $300," she told me, weeping. then i gave $250 to this brother for rocks and he took it and i got nothing. I hate my life, i wanna die."
She was a regular client at Travelers Aid of Rhode Island, a filthy, dingy mess of red crusty bricks.
I watched vomit congeal on the wall for a week.
Mostly empty vodka bottles line the walls.
I only found one hypodermic needle in the street, I broke it and threw it away.
I imagine the junkies are careful with their works in Providence.
All the time i compiled the information for this article i repeatedly thought of the Little House novels and other stories of the time. They wanted to speak of God they used the euphemism "Providence."
Jon Stewart said irony was dead: But he's a COMEDIAN. In Providence, RI, USA, where the streets are flooded with crack and many families go homeless and without meals night after night, irony is alive and well.
I listened as Ms Brewer explained her story. She was punished for manifesting symptoms of her schizoaffective disorder in this way: given a bus pass, she allowed a friend to use it. The nice people at Travelers' Aid told her that since she abused her priveleges she was not allowed to have another bus pass; she was forced to miss an appointment -- with her mental health professional -- the following morning.
This was basically punishing the mentally ill for being mentally ill. While having NO PROFESSIONAL MENTAL HEALTH STAFF ON DUTY AT ALL.
It's easy for one to be driven to distraction and psychological/emotional imbalance by homelessness. Then what is needed is therapy. But Travelers' Aid PUNISHED Lotte Brewer for manifesting symptoms of her sickness. And hers (her real name is, God bless her, NOT Lotte) is surely only one of a hundred stories much like it: longterm homelessness eventually except among the strongest brings feelings of eroded self esteem and deep emotional insecurity.
And i observed with horror as the facts piled up. Travelers' Aid of Rhode Island was beset with chronic problems.
Well, I suppose you'll all be off now.
Perhaps someone decided to bite off more than they could chew. perhaps someone had the syndrome called "eyes bigger than yo' mouth," when a young man sits down to the dinner table and piles all he cam pile on his plate.
Lo and behold, in a few minutes he has a bloated, distended gut and also a almost full plate. "Aw, you got to finish that now? Don't nobody else want it!"
I fell upon this story in the simplest and most direct of ways: girlfriend problems. I had a girlfriend; or i sure thought I did. I went to Providence, RI to hang out with her -- found some problems going on which for the sake of space I will simply say that BB King and others who work in the field of "blues" guitar would understand better.
I had given Lucille all of my money, too.
So when the screaming began i quickly excused herself, determined to give her a few weeks to maybe cool off and change her mind. But in the meantime I was stuck. I had no money and was far away from home and the next paycheck. Weeks!
Fortunately I am good at making friends, getting to know people...in a few hours of stumping around Providence, a beautiful little city that reminded me in many ways of my native Philadelphia, I found out that there was a little place that people traveling could get assistance and rest for the night, on the outer edge of the campus of the Rhode Island School Of Design.
Downtown (or "downcity", as the call it) Providence is denseley packed but small. In a short time I found thelittle place and went in, went downstairs. I was asked a few brief questions, was provided with coffee and a donut and got a place to sit down. Fine! I thought to myself.
seems all okay, eh?
I wondered why Providence seemed in places like a booming if tiny Metropolis, complete with the Superman Building!* I wondered how so many stores had gone out of business; the combination of storefront after contiguous storefront being closed, dusty, closed for a while...I walked around the Waybosset St. area after dark and saw too many storefronts that were closed and dusty.
What happened here?
My first night in Providence RI gave me the feeling of being in a ghost towm, it was like Brigadoon.
'Something was happening here...once' was the general feeling I got.
How did this happen?
That, of course, coupled with the many, many people who were spare-changing...come to think of it, Lucille was rarely the one to be broke when we were a couple in Philly: howcum I hadda giver her all MY cash? On my skimpy salary? All TEN of my dollars, when she has a GOVERNMENT job and I am a busker?
Officially, Lucille is not a whore, you see...
'The work of the city goes on uninterrupted.'
James G. Hagan, president
Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce
ALL American cities face municipal corruption. Chicago, Manhattan, Phialdephia, even the District, if you still remember an august personage named Marion Barry, you know that any municipal sector will inevitably be forced to deal with corruption.
It is simply that in the capital city of the smallest state of the Union, and an original colony to boot, the idea of their being the double whammy of economic malaise and municipal corruption sent me to thinking...'well, Providence is like the whole Nation in Microcosm.'
Perhaps it could be said to some degreee, as Providence goes, so goes the nation.
This tiny town had it all in a big way. the ups and the downs. Brown University is here, as well as the Rhode Island School of Design, prestigious and well-known.
So the idea that Providence had just put Their version of Philadelphia's Frank Rizzo in jail on racketeering and other charges didn't make me blink. But I noticed something: there is a downcity (in Providence for some mindboggling reason they call downtown 'downcity') marketing initiative not unlike Philly's 'Make It A Night' campaign called 'Providence Rennaisance'.
I wondered where it was happening.
There was certainly no rennaisance for the many many homeless I encountered in my time at Travelers' Aid...unless you call new heights in crack addiction and chronic schizoprenia a rennaisance.
...I guess it is, in a way.
Guilty Help
I spent roughly three weeks at the small hostel called Travelers' Aid of Rhode Island.
THIS was the horror scene; this was the place that continually blew my mind.
The potential was there, but...the blatant laziness of the staff, laziness and indifference to the plight of those 'travellers' they were allegedly there to help...was shocking and outrageous to the extreme.
one large problem with Travelers' Aid of RI was their lack of on-staff mental health professionals.
THAT in itself was grounds for shutting down the facility on grounds of gross negligence and never reopening it until the situation was dealt with.
Most of the homeless today after a time spent without real substantial health fall victim to hard drugs.
In Providence, (ALSO: PLEASE ADD APPROPRIATE IRONY AND CRINGING WHEN THE WORD 'PROVIDENCE' APPEARS IN THIS ESSAY. YOU MUST PROVIDE THE CONTEXT-- Longshot) skin pops and rocks (Heroin and 'crack' cocaine) dominated the street; people who spent too much time on the street eventually fell victim unless they were possessed of unusually strong moral fibre.
It's an easy way to go down.
in a conservative time, foreign agendas are in the focus, the domestic agenda is ignored and left pretty much to suffer or thrive on its own: this is a well known laissez-faire way of doing business.
So the homeless are pretty much left to fend for themselves.
Now when the domestic sector is left to stand or fall without Federal help, job availability declines, the cost of living increases, and sometimes people lose their homes and their jobs. Then they are at the "mercy" of groups like Travelers' Aid: Habitat for Humanity? The GOP aren't helping them at all.
So the GOP agenda is to punish the domestic sector with a sort of "fiscal discipline" that leaves those struggling to get situated with no actual help.
When someone who has just been making ends meet goes under financially, bang! Breadearner, wife and children are objectively HOMELESS.
Easy to do in RI, where the jobless rate is steadily increasing and is pretty close to the national average.
Easy to wind up homeless and jobless for two months. Especially when the main provider of cushion for the unemployed (but employable) and homeless...is an organization beset with grindingly slow beauracracy.
The problem is simple. After eight weeks of homelessness, the easy availabilty of crack rocks seems more attractive; the dignity, the filth have eroded self confidence. Then the downward spiral begins.
Lotte Brewer is a schizophrenic. Diagnosed several years ago. A large rotisserie of pills is her reliable breakfast daily. She has been homeless for some time. She is also a crack addict and a prostitute. I interviewed her on the street.
"Last night i sucked c&%ks and got $300," she told me, weeping. then i gave $250 to this brother for rocks and he took it and i got nothing. I hate my life, i wanna die."
She was a regular client at Travelers Aid of Rhode Island, a filthy, dingy mess of red crusty bricks.
I watched vomit congeal on the wall for a week.
Mostly empty vodka bottles line the walls.
I only found one hypodermic needle in the street, I broke it and threw it away.
I imagine the junkies are careful with their works in Providence.
All the time i compiled the information for this article i repeatedly thought of the Little House novels and other stories of the time. They wanted to speak of God they used the euphemism "Providence."
Jon Stewart said irony was dead: But he's a COMEDIAN. In Providence, RI, USA, where the streets are flooded with crack and many families go homeless and without meals night after night, irony is alive and well.
I listened as Ms Brewer explained her story. She was punished for manifesting symptoms of her schizoaffective disorder in this way: given a bus pass, she allowed a friend to use it. The nice people at Travelers' Aid told her that since she abused her priveleges she was not allowed to have another bus pass; she was forced to miss an appointment -- with her mental health professional -- the following morning.
This was basically punishing the mentally ill for being mentally ill. While having NO PROFESSIONAL MENTAL HEALTH STAFF ON DUTY AT ALL.
It's easy for one to be driven to distraction and psychological/emotional imbalance by homelessness. Then what is needed is therapy. But Travelers' Aid PUNISHED Lotte Brewer for manifesting symptoms of her sickness. And hers (her real name is, God bless her, NOT Lotte) is surely only one of a hundred stories much like it: longterm homelessness eventually except among the strongest brings feelings of eroded self esteem and deep emotional insecurity.
And i observed with horror as the facts piled up. Travelers' Aid of Rhode Island was beset with chronic problems.
Well, I suppose you'll all be off now.
