Homeless In Anchorage Alaska Part 4/The Sleepng Mats at Brother Francis Shelter Are Filthy and Much More

Part 1, part 2, part 3.
The bedbugs are disgusted, they only live in the dorms where the mats are cleaner in the higher caste area and they refuse to sleep on the floor on a mat with those of us in the lower caste of the homeless at Brother Francis Shelter (Actually the mats on the floor are pretty comfortable that is not the issue). The bedbugs especially hate to sleep with an individual who is not given a blanket or sheet, that is just too rough for them.

It is well past time the public knew about the abuses at Brother Francis Shelter. More than adequate chances and threats of exposure were made, that was a waste of time as they have issues with some of their supervisors and minions monitors. There are also some good people who are supervisors and monitors, but as we know from Dr. Zimbardo's work even good people in an evil system will do bad things.

They claimed to be working on changing procedures so the mats would be cleaned. I waited, they got cleaner for a few days and then the usual Brother Francis regression took over. I took the set of wipes I used to wipe down a mat (it is impossible to clean them with wipes)  pictured on this blog post from a mat I slept on to Mayor Berkowitz's office. I took another set to a meeting with the Director of Catholic Social Services, Lisa Acquino. Before I went I told someone she would bring another person with her. That person showed up a few minutes after her. LOL. Why did I know that? I've been communicating with them for a while about problems...months. The response has been lip service from the top and retaliation from some of the supervisors and their minions. That evening they left me a container of wipes which I shared with lots of people, they were pretty much gone that night. Every day I have been wiping down my mat, then wiping with wet paper towels, the mats are still dirty when I do this. Sometimes like last night I get one that is not very dirty, but other times they are quite filthy. The mats can't be cleaned with wipes, but that is what their procedure is. They claim the wiped down mats are sanitized...no. The wet paper towels I use to wipe off some of the chemicals after using the wipes are just as dirty as the wipes due to years of filth, many of those mats look dirty. They are on the dirty floor, peed on, people who never bathe and hardly change their clothing sleep on them.

One night I wiped my mat and showed the wipes to the supervisor who says, "I believe you were told to put those in a baggie and show them to"...someone I don't remember who because, not true. What the hell is he talking about? I have been doing all of this on my own, Catholic Social Services has not originated anything.

There are two classes of homeless people, well actually three at Brother Francis Shelter. If you are disabled and can't participate in their programs you are shit out of luck and get to sleep on a mat on the floor, even if you are in a wheel chair and partially paralyzed from a stroke. The people who can participate in their chore programs can sleep in the back on a jail boat. There is another class that gets special food, privileges and are served Providence Gruel in the evening before everyone else. Yes I know the public thinks they feed people a meal in the evening, no it's gruel and usually a piece of some kind of bread along with food safety violations.

Those mats in the dorms are cleaner as they don't get put directly on the floor and people who have less problems with incontinence of urine and feces sleep on them along with those who actually take baths. There is a problem in those dorms with the jail boats however, bedbugs. So the truth is there is not a good choice. They get to lay down and rest more back there which of course would be nice for people with health problems. More on that later.

They wipe the mats down with some chemicals every day, so people are laying on chemicals. They are not able to understand why this is not healthy trust me I've tried. At Brother Francis Shelter there is a blanket shortage. More on that later too. The chemicals are one reason why two blankets or a blanket and a sheet are given in many shelters, one for the bottom to act as a barrier and then one for a cover. Over a long period of time they knew at Brother Francis the blankets were being stolen. Women have been sleeping on bare mats due to no blankets or sheets which includes me, except for that one night when I slept on newspaper over the cement floor for two hours, oh wait, I was not actually sleeping due to the shivering, because...massive assholery of the pathological type. There were 16 to 20 of us night before last.

Last night after I tried to get a sheet I was told only those in the higher caste could request one due to them "earning it" because all people with disabilities at Brother Francis are considered scum sucking leaches, especially those with invisible disabilities. Have these people ever heard of the Americans With Disabilities Act you are wondering, no they apparently have not along with other things like the germ theory of disease. They will soon be educated. I have many times in the past requested blankets due to chills from hypothyroidism, ME/cfs and Intersitial Cystitis and this crazy wind blowing system they have in the building. Please note I asked for a sheet because I was not having chills and thought another person might be. They knew all the way to Lisa Acquino the director of Catholic Social Services, they knew of specific cases, that "clients" were going in the storage room and helping themselves to them and that those who did the right thing and asked for a blanket were treated like garbage by their staff. Many, many phone calls were made and many incident reports were written by myself and other people complained as well. More on begging for blankets later. I have no idea why people would chose to sleep outside.

Now they are keeping the few blankets they have left under lock and key. The BFS caste system designed and implemented by Catholic Social Services which involves discrimination based on disability and age, but they really hate those invisible disabilities especially if a homeless activist evil-bitch-woman has one, even using torture to make the person sick on purpose and then interfering with their ability to get health care, because Catholic charity...Catholic hospital, you get the picture. More on that too, I have documentation and you know how I just live to scan those crazy documents and post them. Whew!

Yes I do get retaliated against when I write about my adventures in hell.