Trespass

10^th February 2012

Dear Cassi,

   

One of the events that rather put a stick in my side was the trespassing of a homeless couple on the shelter grounds. Understand that I have been hired to prevent trespassers and these folks had been told before but came back the next night and refused to leave. Reluctantly, we called the police but they never came.

   

The next night I received a report of a girl crying in the parking lot and as I could not be relieved someone else came to this girl and asked if she required help. The second half of the couple came and they were given option of coming in and sleeping in the shelter or taking themselves elsewhere.

   

I went out there in the cold on my patrol and found them sleeping in an awning. The man had all the blankets and the woman was curled up like a dog. I know he was an angry man because the first time I asked him to leave he curst at me and screamed “We’re just trying to survive!” We had offered him good conditions, a clean bed, and hot food. How sleeping on the street was a better way of surviving I cannot say.

   

In the end the police came and cuffed them, but let them go, and they moved off. I have never seen them again. Still, I have to question what they think of as surviving. I think that what they mean by surviving is living by their own rules, doing as they please, and sleeping on the street.

I talked to the police for a spell and they said that most of the homeless they come across are mentally ill. How to get folks who are so bad off mentally off the streets and into a program and even then eventually living own their own is beyond me. It’s all I can do to help the wayward come home.

Stay safe, little sister

Richard Leland Neal