So, myself and my family (me, husband, and our two boys) have been staying in a homeless shelter. The way it works in our shelter is there are 3 floors. Main floor, 2nd floors is the men’s floor and 3rd is the women’s floor. They have one family room on the 2nd floor and another on 3rd floor. We are on the second floor family room, so the men’s floor.
Last night, I took my son downstairs to take his cough medicine (all meds have to be kept with staff). We get to the elevator and some guy that came in a day or two ago comes out of one of the rooms and looks at us, looked a lil mad but he didn’t say anything and just went down the stairs. He went into the kitchen area and sat down near where my son had his drink. I went over to get his drink so we could take his meds. Again, didn’t say a word except for “excuse me” because I had to reach near him to get the drink.
My son takes his meds and goes upstairs back to bed. I go out for one last cigarette before I go to bed. I come back in and go to the elevator. While waiting for the elevator the guy comes walking and says “lady! Are u harassing me?!!?” I couldn’t tell if he was joking so I just pretended I didn’t hear him. As he goes into the stairwell I hear him scream “LEAVE ME ALONE!!” I was praying he wouldn’t be at the second floor by the time I got there cuz now I’m feeling a bit uneasy.
I get to the second floor n off the elevator and there he is. I don’t say a word and he starts yelling at me to stop harassing him and “you’re not even supposed to be on this floor you B@TCH!!!!” Thankfully my room is right next to the elevator so I got In there as fast as I can.
This guy is clearly not all there. Except for me grabbing my sons drink, I was always in the area before he was and so unless I can see the future, I can’t be harassing him if I’m there first and he walks up to me lol. But with how mad and aggressive he got, I’m very nervous in my room now. We aren’t allowed to lock the door so he could go in at any time if he imagines I’m doing something else and gets mad enough. He sounds very unstable. Thankfully, my husband is almost always with me there but many times if we gotta take one kid downstairs, he stays with our other upstairs since we don’t want either of them without one of us near while in the shelter for any reason . But, it got me thinking how there isn’t a place for mentally ill ppl who are homeless. Somewhere they can get help with their mental illness and figure out a good permanent housing solution for them. There is a wing of the hospital for mental illness but at best they keep their average person there 3 days only. It just amazes me how little help there is for ppl struggling like that. Esp if they are in anyway possibly unsafe, they shouldn’t just be tossed in a regular homeless shelter
Obviously he's coping with mental irregulations (like everyone), possibly coming off a drug bend and yes of course not in his right mind. That man is a whole life full of experiences and trauma like everyone. I understand he legitimaly could be derailed mentally but he's a human being and there's plenty low points for us all. Hope you find what you're looking for in life!
Deinstitutionalization was one of the worst things that happened in terms of mental illness treatment. Unfortunately then you have homeless shelters with mentally ill people, among all the drug addicts and sadly a family like you.
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