u/workinclassantihero

I am homeless and get enough dehumanization in real life. I don’t use drugs or beg and take showers. You wouldn’t know many are homeless by looking at us. Some work jobs, some are disabled and some are elderly. In no way does this help and many in poverty are not far from homelessness. Often housed people in poverty look down on us when it could easily happen to them some day. Not sure why it’s allowed here.

I can’t take it. My whole body shakes all the time. It’s so loud and staff don’t care. Staff are straight up abusive and reported them to my city and retaliating against me.

It’s constant banging and my Bose headphones were stolen by roommate who strangled me for them and said she would end my life if I report her and she sleeps in my room and could follow me. Don’t have to money for earplugs or new noise canceling headphones. Can’t listen to music since they are stolen of get any relief. If I meltdown in public which I do now all the time, people call the cops on me even though I am not braking any laws.

I am subjected to violent language and actual violence on a daily basis and not have pretty bad PTSD because of this. I can’t deal with both sensory issues and fight or flight mode. I explain to people in the streets about PTSD so they back off and then they laugh at me and come closer. Literally afraid if backed in a corner I will swing at them since my brain is telling my body to run or fight for its life.

I miss the days when I have sensory overload and could go home and hide and use headphones. Lots of the donation food cause me sensory hell but am forced to shove it down or starve. When I address these concerns they say beggars can’t be choosers. I am sorry but since when was it not allowed to dislike certain foods just because you are poor?

Apparently my SSI check that made me lose my housing, also isn’t enough to survive when homeless since food is so expensive and I have sensory needs involving food. Then you are shamed for nearly everything and told to get a job all day. Then they say I am faking being disabled to get a check. The check is a poverty trap and would give anything not to be on it. Can’t even have over 2000 in my bank account. Even if I could work part time it’s still lit enough for housing.

My life is a living hell. I have a housing voucher but the 350 landlords I contacted will not take it. NYC has source of income discrimination laws that they break. I report them for this and still can’t get housing. Then told you are not working hard enough to get housing when I have done all in my power to get it. They won’t rent to me.

I can not take the sounds and food that makes me gag. I have no way to prepare or store food and shelter won’t even allow a granola bar in there. They check you bags and make food insecure people dispose of their food when coming in the doors.

Metal detectors and bagchecks happen every time you walk in. I asked my roommate politely to keep it down at 1 am because I have sensory issues and she just called me the C word and threatened to kill me again. Even the damn streets would be more bearable at this time but guess what. Then you lose help with housing and start all over again.

Why do they keep having to make me feel that the only way out is death ? Had to give me PTSD which makes life so damn hard since I cannot escape triggers. Triggers being dehumanization , stigma , violent language etc which there is no way to escape. Then if triggered , guess what triggered PTSD is also stigmatized. They literally strip people of their humanity and then complain about erratic behavior. Of course people traumatized won’t act how you suspect. Why do they expect people they forced out of society to behave how they expect when they are the ones who forced them out ?

Mental health awareness they say yet call the police on anyone who shows it publicly even when no threat to anyone. Call the police or sensory meltdowns since being thrown to the ground by the cops helps this so much. Forgot that no crime was committed and they have no legal right to put their hands on me. When you recite your legal human rights , people laugh. You can know your rights but it won’t matter as the police will just ignore them anyway. Shelter staff will ignore them anyway.

My life is a hellscape and can see no way out any time soon. Just needed to vent in a place where people may understand.

Please tell me so I don’t get my hopes up what this means ? I am disabled and homeless for three months since my 1000 checks isn’t enough for housing and wasn’t able to work part time for years and rents went up . I have a city FHEps voucher and contacted hundred of brokers and none will take me. Never been evicted or late on rent but that means nothing to them . If she isn’t right I will be destroyed by this so please let me down now or I will just stop looking for housing thinking I got it . It’s a re rental with reside . Email is copied and pasted below. Nothing about this makes me feel I have secured a lottery building and am already shattered by a broker who told me he would rent to me and give word to landlord then rented it to another person after canceling my viewing . Please let me down now before I invest too much in it. Already have PTSD and this shelter is giving me PTSD for yet another traumatic event .

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It’s my first time homeless and trying to get out of it. It destroying me and placed all my hope in the voucher. I contacted hundreds of agents and they all ghost me. I try not to disclose and then they ask for income and credit . I say I am eligible and they ask again. They then ghost me . The few places I saw, one that said they take vouchers will not send me an application. Some flat out made discriminatory comments about the homeless and was able to report some to the city. Reporting them didn’t help me as by the time the city steps in , the rental is gone.

My housing specialist will not help me find housing. Unsure why city has no services to help find housing. They just tell me to report the landlords. The rental market is hard right now and with the budget of the voucher I have to compete for cheaper apartments with hundreds of people who can pay the rent without help.

I am not even looking in areas where trust fund kids want to live. Even places like Flushing and Jamaica and east New York are hard to get. East New York is getting luxury buildings and afraid when that’s fully gentrified , we are all in trouble.

If anyone knows anyone or anything, please let me know. I put hours a day into this and it’s so defeating to get nowhere.

Then some landlords who say they take vouchers list base rent only on listings and then tell me it’s actually way over the voucher limit because they offer months free.

It’s all the money I have now. I am homeless and have fair fares and need this loaded so I can get to soup kittens so I don’t starve to death. It’s so cruel they won’t take it. Does anyone know if they take it at station? They won’t let me load it online and will starve due to this. I will have to resort to evading fare or begging for food. Why when it’s a source of payment ?it’s discrimination as many people give the homeless gift cards.

My roomates took meth last week the accused me of stealing her phone that was in her back pocket and threatens to kill me for 20 minutes. She attacks verbally multiple times a week after using. They moved her rooms when I thought they moved her out the shelter. Yesterday I heard her and saw. There were three people in the room at the time and she went after me. She knows I am the one who reported her to shelter staff. I feel unsafe with her under the same roof as me. Told that I have to go to congregate shelter and I am here in a safe haven for a suicide attempt and can’t take a congregate shelter. I find it unfair to have to go to some place much worse and lose my housing specialist and scared I will lose my voucher.

Tried to talk to staff and security and front desk just ignored me and had headphones on. If people did this in any other environment they would be in jail.

Some of us are newly homeless for the first time and not used to being around violence and meth use. They shove us in here with some very violent people with extreme mental health issues that should be in psych facility. Many have just got out of jail for violence and I feel it’s a human right violation to put newly homeless in with people who are chronically homeless due to being violent and using hard drugs.

I asked to speak to program director and am ignored. But program director is the one who just moved her rooms as if that is gonna keep my safe . I feel the staff don’t care if I die and just brushed me off as being overdramatic.

If they force me to move I need a safe haven and my advocacy group doesn’t work on weekends and coalition of the homeless never replies but I waiting two days , that’s enough time for her to attack and know if I am forced to defend myself I may also get arrested and go to jail.

The safe havens are not safe but the congregate shelter are worse. It’s severely effecting my mental health and well being and it’s so wrong to punish me but not her. She threatens my life and gets no real consequences but a room change.

I get targeted a lot because I have level two autism and depression. I don’t know how to fight and never had to. With my disability and having severe sensory issues , homelessness hqs been really hard on me and am homeless because my disability check only pays 1000 a month. Most of my day i spend contacting landlords and brokers and looking at apartments to get out of this situation. I can’t find anyone who will rent to me with a voucher because they stereotype me with the people in the shelter who can’t take care of a human and destroy their environment. They don’t care if it’s the first time and I always paid rent on time and was never evicted. People like her give landlords a reason not to accept my voucher.

They don’t care about my safety and I am the one who will be forced in congregate shelter and she will take no accountability or have no consequences. Even if this behavior is fueled by meth , you are still responsible for your actions. They won’t give me her name to do anything but they know who she is as I have filed a grievance.

It’s my right to be given the contact of the program director but they have denied me that. They won’t tell me the higher ups. Coalition of the homeless has never gotten back to me over the many things I contacted them for. Is there another legal group or do I just have to risk my life ?

I don’t act like these people but they normalized death threats in this shelter and am dumbfounded by the violent language and violence every shelter just accepts as normal. In the real world if a threat to yourself or other , you go to the psych ward. Not here. Apparently it’s okay to act this way to a person who is homeless .

What are my rights and what group can help? Every group I checked doesn’t work on weekends.

Credit is bad. Never been evicted get a disability check and have a voucher. Issue is I don’t tell them up front but they ask for credit and income prefer showing me the place. Then when I say I have voucher they ghost me. Some places purposely set prices just over voucher limit. It’s so cruel as it keeps people in hellish shelters longer. Can’t imagine being a landlord and purposely denying homeless people a way out of the hell. First time homeless and never missed rent before and the city will literally cover most. I am looking in queens and Manhattan. I know manhattan is limited to Harlem and above. But finding many places in Astoria and nearby neighborhoods but brokers ghost me when they find out about my voucher. Yes , a city inspection is annoying but if they are so scared of it I question what are they hiding ?

It happened in manhattan. People kicked me in stomach and couldn’t move for an hour and nobody asked if I was okay. When I cursed at them they threatened to call cops for attacking them. Didn’t attack them or threaten them. Is this not a hate crime ? I don’t know who they are the don’t trust the cops as they gave me a public urination ticket while no toilets were open . I couldn’t piss myself. I am still a human being even though most people now think I am not. They tell me to get a job when I am disabled and also grabbed me seizure medication and took that from me. Shouldn’t have had it out but insurance won’t pay for more or even give me more. So I get to have seizures on the street now. I hate that in America they just shove disabled people to die in the streets and say homeless people are not a protected group so it’s not a hate crime despite it being a hate crime .

My masters degree now means nothing and about to lose my car that I was ticketed for sleeping in and scare that they will harm us so the World Cup tourists don’t see us next year and more people with money means more cops and most drunk people with money who attack us.