Posted on 05/03/2010 11:54:45 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
Brad Cain was in a bad mood.
On Friday, his fifth day at Haven for Hope, he was scheduled for three hours of mandatory motivational classes, a requirement that caused him to lament the loss of his time not spent at a job off campus moving furniture.
“This whole deal, getting in here, has cost me 100 bucks,” Cain said. “How can I be working if I'm doing workshops?”
Later, he said, “My biggest problem right now is I've already got this locked in my mind, and you're wasting my frickin' time.”
Cain had other complaints, bemoaning an uncomfortable bunk mat, the unavailability of coffee and friction with management over his plans to go camping over the weekend.
Yet Cain, 48, also was prolific with praise for his new home, acknowledging its professional staff, reliable air conditioning and secure locker beside his bunk.
“Every time I sit down to eat here, I'm stuffed,” Cain said gladly after a breakfast of biscuits and gravy, courtesy of the San Antonio Food Bank.
At one point, the homeless man summarized the source of his contradictory emotions.
“There's a lot of stress with change,” he said.
Cain was the first of 49 homeless men to move into Haven for Hope last week, inaugurating the $100 million campus that was built to house, feed and teach the city's homeless and to transform their lives.
Homeless people will move into Haven in groups over the next couple months. At capacity, Haven will hold 1,400 people.
Cain's disgruntlement inspired staff at the center to react in creative ways that show how they will cope with the vagaries of the homeless.
“One of the things I've designed in the system is to make it as individualized as possible,” said Bryan Jones, director of case management. “This place is about them. It's not about Haven for Hope.”
Cain called Jones in a huff when he learned his request for an overnight pass to go camping with his teenage daughter, Ashley, had been rejected.
The center does not give overnight passes and strives to keep its residents there every night. Jones also was concerned that Cain, who has been arrested for growing marijuana, would relapse.
“I'm not going to relapse. I'm going to see my damn daughter,” Cain said, speaking through a red, mossy beard in a coarse, pack-a-day growl. “I'm the most important thing right now. For me to feel better about myself, I need to spend time with my family.”
Jones called the homeless man to his office for a face-to-face meeting.
“I told him, ‘Mr. Cain, you're a 48-year-old man with a teenage daughter. You don't need an overnight pass,'” Jones said. “That kind of took him aback.”
Jones agreed to allow Cain to go camping with his daughter if he consented to a urine analysis and a test for blood alcohol level upon his return.
Cain was pleased with the decision, but his predominant temperament last week was one of displeasure.
In a two-hour course called “Coping with Change,” Yolanda Edwards, an instructor, asked why the attendees had chosen Haven for Hope.
“I didn't choose it,” Cain said. “It was forced on me.”
But later, Cain seemed engaged with the class exercises, discussing ways in which he could keep track of his goals — writing them on a calendar — and how he could eventually reach them.
Above all, Cain said, he needs to work and save money.
“Then,” he said, “I'll be in a good mood instead of a bad mood.”
1,400 residents.
Total waste of money. That $100 Million could have bought 2 million bus tickets out of town for 2 million homeless folks.
How does a homeless person go camping?
I thought “urban camping” was kind of the whole point of being homeless!
Meant to type....
... $100 Million could have bought 2 million bus tickets out of town at 50 bucks each.
Well, the best thing you could say about this is that hopefully the people who work at the center will work themselves out of a job. and pay off the investment.
They could also have built 2,000 $50,000 houses.
A Leftist in the paper today wrote,
“The Tea partiers just can’t let go of the past and adjust to the rapidly changing world around them.”
And if you ever need to, you can empty the entire joint in under 30 seconds by walking in the front door and shouting "IMMIGRATION."
100 Million Dollars.
1,400 residents. “
No amount of money will cure those who are mentally gone.
Drugs—immaturity from constantly being enabled by family—lots of reasons.
A total state of entitlement, also.
Chill dude!
I’d love to ask Brad if anyone is holding a gun to his head forcing him to stay at this shelter. If he doesn’t like the rules, then leave.
I can identify with having "Change" forced on me.
100 Million???
Must have been a government project.
I thought every day was camping day for the homeless?
$71,000 per bed? That’s government for you.
It’s like a local bus line that carried 30 people a day at a cost of $250,000 per year. Over two years, it would have been cheaper to buy the 30 people new cars.
La Migra! La Migra!
100 million is just the cost of the center. It will cost millions every year to staff and maintain the place. But that is the whole point to these socialistic programs. G-jobs for those that can’t function in the free market.
The reason for its success? The life changing power of Jesus Christ.
Somehow, all those broken people didn't just miraculously disappear.Some of them can be functional on a regimen of medications, but the $8 to $12 an hour jobs available are insufficient to buy those meds.
C'est la vie
I love when people talk like that: when you press them they can never explain what they’re talking about.
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