The rest of the beds are distributed to guests who are able to be at the shelter between 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. every day.
Working women who can't be at the shelter at that time aren't given beds. They can sign up for the waiting list, of months or years, for one of the 10 saved beds for working women.
That is why there are homeless, working women who sleep at the airport and the train station, while homeless women who don't work and who aren't elderly, ill or disabled can more or less count on having beds to sleep in. That doesn't mean that all of the elderly, ill or disabled always have beds to sleep in; if they're not able to be at the shelter at the time imposed by the shelter, or if they're not in the groups of people called by the staff who are distributing beds, they don't have beds, either.
This is one of the many ways in which the Pine Street Inn's administration thwarts the efforts of people who are trying to be productive, although the shelter's administration continues to maintain the condescending attitude toward the homeless that all homeless shelters have, that if we don't have housing, it's because we want everyone else to do the work for us. All we do is annoy the shelter's administration by saying "Why can't all the working people have beds," and "Why are you trying to prevent me from getting a lawyer?"
Somehow, I have talked my way into having a saved bed and a late curfew. I'm not sure how, or why they haven't taken it from me. Maybe there's some empathy for me. Maybe the administration is afraid of me because I have a blog. Maybe the administration is afraid of me because of all of the times that I was harassed by employees while the administration did nothing. Maybe it's because I'm white and articulate.
Although I am at the top of the food chain at the shelter, that is as far as the administration wants me to be able to advance. The administration does not want me to have a lawyer who could help me with the barriers to housing that being illegally evicted in retaliation for objecting to being criminally victimized by voyeurism in two apartments in a row have inflicted on me, or with all of the other things for which a lawyer would be helpful.
