The Hell of Being Homeless in Boise Idaho

When it is cold sometimes I just get on a bus to go somewhere I can be warm, get coffee and food and some days to wait for some of the ice on the sidewalks to melt. I did that the day before yesterday. I had to take two buses on the dysfunctional bus system, walk on ice and risk getting my shoes wet. On the way back after the first bus let me off at the main transit center downtown I saw the lobby area was filled with children obviously from some school. Myself and others were waiting for the number 5 bus. Then the kids all started to flow out of the building to get on that bus. We were essentially run off from riding the number 5. That was OK because the number 4 was coming and took us where we needed to go. We waited for it. There were so many kids they could not all get on the number 5, so just before the number 4 showed up someone who worked for the bus company came out to tell them and the adults with them they could just get on the number 4 it was almost there. They took over that bus, the kids were allowed to stand in the front of the bus, the adults oblivious. The bus driver told them if there was an empty seat to sit down. There were seats by other kids but one came and sat on my bag. I have immune system issues and try to avoid places filled with kids of direct contact with them. Just like so many other times I did not get the services I paid for on that bus once again and was treated like I did not matter. I complained and was told someone would call and as per usual have gotten crickets. I don’t even know what to do anymore, can’t walk much due to ice and flooding because of lack of maintenance of sidewalks and streets, can’t take the bus due to cray-cray nearly every time I ride. Boise is a very oppressive place for low income or homeless people. It’s not the bus drivers that are the problem, in fact some of them are very skilled at figuring out how to park the bus so people walking on ice have an easier time, nope it’s the higher ups making bad decisions.

Last night I was nearly hit by two egocentric Boise Idaho drivers which is SOP due to traffic laws not being enforced. If one of them had hit me that would considered a civil matter in Boise Idaho because all crimes against the homeless are considered civil matters here. I have however had cops come in a laundromat to ask me if I was doing laundry which of course if you know me caused a flurry of comments to cops trying to turn myself in for multiple counts of doing laundry while homeless. Last night four cops were at the shelter, two at the door and two inside. I stopped and said to the outside ones, “How did you know I was here”, the reply was, oh we just know these things. Once inside some cop demanded to know my name, I gave him a male name but they were not able to get the joke, so I said my real name, but don’t know if they can legally just go around asking names in Idaho. The police just treat the homeless any old way.  

Then getting to the Interfaith Sanctuary I found some woman had put her muddy robe over my locker with it draping down over the front. There are constant problems like this going on due to poor supervision. There were tons of staff on, but no one really checks the areas where the lockers are. I could not even go inside and get something to clean it with before opening the door due to not being able to bring my damn bag inside. That was the beginning of a typical night of hell.

Then came the riotous loud talking that goes on in the dorm for long periods of time, people who don’t talk, they yell.  At least last night I did not have to stand in the bathroom with postural tachycardia syndrome nearly passing out waiting to get into the shower room like usual, nor did I have to listen to women arguing over the showers or have some woman whose time for showering was 7PM, but she showed up at 7:10 PM, my shower time and try to tell me she was going before me like the night before. That kind of crap is constant. After showering I went out to clean my locker which also included the coffee someone had gotten all over it.

I used to get up early and sit in the main room every morning, then after they turned the lights on drink coffee and talk to some people. That ended with the new night staff and the new policies. They ran me out of that room and the morning was the only good time there, IT ALL SUCKS NOW ALL THE TIME.

Often when I go in the Conex box where my locker is there are people smoking. It is bad enough that people are forced to breath second hand smoke (children are also exposed) to go in and out of the building which includes people standing right next to the damn door, but we also must have some egocentric stand next to us smoking while we are trying to get to our things together in a fricking box with little lighting. We can only bring a gallon size baggie of stuff in at a time so must run outside into the freezing cold several times each night. They use strings of Christmas lights and they go out every now and then so then there is no light at all. Those who smoke in the Conex boxes are exposing people to health harming substances while also placing those chemicals on the property of others. If anything is said most of them then say their rights are being violated, they really do. The homeless are disposable people so why should anyone care. If you complain about it like I do the result is to be despised. I have news for everyone, I despise you more.  

This morning after doing my chore I go to get my stuff to leave, some asshole was smoking a cigarette in the Conex box. I said something about it and he called me multiple names, including “bitch” and the old bastard who I’m guessing has an alcohol issue challenged me to a fight. He really did, “Come on, come at me.” Yep, this is the life of a homeless woman who worked hard after having a drug company damage her health in utero with the assistance of the FDA and other agencies to cover it up and only tell part of the truth. I also did lots of good in my life and many things that took much courage while being ill and having to deal with a medical community who treated DES daughters and women with ME/cfs in an abusive way due to being sheep of the FDA, NIH and CDC. The DES caused the ME/cfs.  I am an intelligent, educated homeless woman who is 61 years old in empathy-less, propaganda driven Boise Idaho. What this guy does not know is if he wants to attack me I will kick his ass, but I don’t want to fight and will defend myself if I must.

The stress of having to deal with people like this which includes some of the staff is health harming. The constant bullying is health harming and can even kill people. I have PTSD already from workplace bullying and fighting to do something about a corrupt and incompetent IHS hospital, massive chemical dependency issues that were secondary to trauma and the failure of law enforcement to arrest men who raped Native women in remote villages in Alaska. Many homeless people have been traumatized to continue to inflict trauma upon us at the homeless shelters of death is unconscionable. I also wrote about injustice and politics finding myself under surveillance under the Obama administration like so many others. I am a real liberal, not a Democrat, well read and have the ability to see the truth and tell it.  

I will continue to defend myself from second and third hand cigarette smoke by writing about it and verbally complaining. I went inside, told the staff and used one swear word, the reaction was to tell ME not to use that word there. REALLY, CONSIDERING YOU ALLOWED A WOMAN TO CALL ME A FUCKING BITCH EVERY MORNING FOR WEEKS, HARASS THE HELL OUT OF ME, KEEP ME AWAKE ALL NIGHT LONG AND HAVE OTHER WOMEN GET INTO HER BED BELOW MINE WHICH ROCKED LIKE THERE WAS AN EARTHQUAKE, REALLY YOU SAY THAT TO ME. She’s still at the shelter, no problem for them, but if I swore describing what went on, well that’s a problem. That’s the Interfaith Sanctuary, always hypocritical, abusive and illogical. They can kiss my ass. Oh, and get this, if I call the police about the threats of assault or harassment I have been told they will take my bed or throw me out of the shelter. Is that even legal? Yes, the victim is the main problem at the “sanctuary.”

Yesterday before I went back to the shelter I read the latest propaganda on the Interfaith Sanctuary from KBOI/2. They are apparently one of two official propaganda news media outlets here in Boise. Their article states that the weather is the reason the homeless people are having such a hard time with viruses. Really? Have you heard of the germ theory of disease? We don’t have the poor law in the USA, instead we have the non-profit industrial complex which is by policies manipulated by the federal government to all do things the same way, BRUTALLY, UNSAFELY, HEALTH HARMINGLY AND MOST CERTAINLY TO TREAT THE HOMELESS LIKE FUCKING ANIMALS! Last year I was sicker, almost died, they did not care and were probably hoping I would die. I could not get health care as Terry Reilly misdiagnosed me twice within five minutes of arriving to see one of their doctors. Then they fired me because I got all truth revealing on them. There will be more on that.

There was ice on the sidewalks last winter but not as much snow and not as cold for so long, but people were sicker. It has nothing to do with the weather, it’s about the horrible conditions the homeless are forced to live in. We are all packed together in tight quarters, many don’t bathe or wash clothing, they rub against people when they walk by, they may have sat on sidewalks or lay down on the ground, they don’t wash their hands, they touch everything, many don’t cover their mouths when coughing or sneezing, many are alcoholic which decreases Zinc absorption and more, huge numbers smoke cigarettes and there is no teaching at all about prevention transfer of infectious agents. On top of this are the Dyson blowers at Corpus Christi which blow bacteria and viruses all over the place and they a jam packed with people as well. One of the biggest problems is the poor nutrition and a huge lack of vegetables in the diet of the homeless.

The staff touches everything including the homeless ID cards they force us to carry, I won’t let them touch mine. I get crap when requesting a no-touch towel for showering. All I want is a barrier to their hands that have been all over everything. A tissue for picking it up works fine. Both volunteers and staff have given me crap about. Some of them unbelievably do things like put the towels on the counter around the desk area where multiple people come through and place their hands and objects. I had one staff go into a tirade, screaming at me he was tired of me treating everyone like they are germaphobes because he got his slander backwards. He did this in front of a room full of people and there were other incidents.

I went by KBOI this morning. The troll that guards their door would not let me in because the truth is like kryptonite to them. I did manage to tell her I had a newsflash for them, there is a regulation in Boise that property owners are to clear the sidewalks next to their property and they are severely out of compliance and have been for months. Then the troll slipped me a piece of paper so I could leave a message of truth and then not get a call back due to truth being so icky to them and all.

In Boise, decent people are packed into a homeless shelter where sociopaths prey upon them, where people make threats to assault others and are still allowed in the shelter, where drunk women can rant, rave and argue for hours disturbing everyone else and where women can stand and bully/threaten a woman for snoring night after night with no intervention from the staff except when she goes into the hospital to say she is glad for everyone. All problems take long periods of complaining and being gaslighted for anything to get done.  All requests to meet with the board are ignored and now Dan Ault is blocking my emails.

Their article of propaganda discussed how people could not sleep due to coughing, but apparently keeping people awake due to being high or drunk is not a problem for them.

I had to run errands today walking on ice because the laws of Boise Idaho are not enforced unless the person is poor, especially the homeless. The property owners are supposed to clear the sidewalks, but suffer no consequences if they do not. There are dangerous conditions all over so those with disabilities are not able to be mobile, this not only affects their ability to get around, but also their health, they can’t walk to get exercise. It seems to me someone should do something about these massive violations of the ADA laws in Boise. Hell, the Interfaith Sanctuary doesn’t even keep the ice cleared at the shelter. Last year I fell on the ice and this year the disabled, elderly and well anyone are in danger of fractures or head injuries. One path, just one fucking path is all they would have to maintain, but then even if they did that there is the unmaintained alley of ice, unless the weather gets warmer and then it’s ice and flooding.

After the errands, I made the mistake of going to the main library where they are once again painting without any damn notice what-so-fucking-ever! I sit in a fucking hall away from the unsupervised problems of people playing videos with no headphones or putting on damn fingernail polish etc. If I had not gone over there I would not have known they were painting so I could leave the area and even though it has given me a headache, nausea and tinnitus the symptoms would have been worse if I had just sat in the area for hours not knowing what was going on. I complained about this all last summer FFS! Nothing was done, nothing but condescending comments from people who don’t give one shit. I asked them to simply post a notice a few days before the painting, but oh no fuck everyone in Boise who is trapped in the hell of homelessness and has mitochondrial dysfunction or allergies. Fuck all of us.

A deputy city attorney called to say she talked to the library as I also did who told her they would be more sensitive in the future. I will not believe that until I see it.