"Baltimore Sun 4/27/09/"Few Choices for the Homeless"

The Hannah More shelter gets 500 calls a month for shelther. Demand for shelter has tripled in the past 10 years.

The baltimore county "identified" homeless population grew to 6300 in 2008, up 800 from '07. 70% were women and children.

They wouldn't have identified me as homeless. I was the "invisible" homeless.

The problem is statewide, nationwide, even international says Jeff Singer from Health Care for the HOmeless.

I met Jeff Singer a few times, in fact I know all of the people mentioned in this article. I interviewed for a social work job at Health Care for the HOmeless and I also went there for health care. My experience going there as a patient was pretty bad, and I documented it in an older journal.

Quigg, a manager of 3 Baltimore shelters says: "Minimum wage earners can afford 341 a month rent in the county, but the average 2 bedroom unit rents for 1013 a month.

Additionally, when I saw Quigg on MOnday at the annual rally for the homeless he stated that a min. wage worker would have to work something to the effect of 155 hours a week to afford rent in Baltimore county.

Kimberly Edmonds has received a housing voucher to help her pay her rent, but has yet to find a landlord who will accept the voucher.

I did not know about this, because I was supposed to have received the voucher twice in the last 10 years but due to gov't screw up I never got it.

Last monday Edmonds spoke in front of the county council

I saw that


"I thank the county for having someplace for my son and me" Other than that, we would be living in my car. Thank you for the things you will be doing. Everyone can do something to help someone who is homeless"

"A Limerick I heard recently"

"I drink to your health when I'm with you

I drink to your health when I'm alone

I drink to your health so often

I'm beginning to worry about my own!"

"I wish I had better news"

But they broke in 3 days ago and found one of my journals and scribbled my name off of the front. I guess I'm lucky they didn't steal it. They also stole my sunglasses. It's impossible to tell everything that they take (such as socks or underwear)

One of my greatest fears since I've been living at La pew is that they would poison my food in the refrigerator. Now I have real reason to worry about that, because 2 days ago I discovered they contaminated my toothbrush intentionally. I am not going to tell you the details of that because it will make you sick to your stomach. Again I'm not going to waste my time in city courts because I don't have the time, strength or energy for that and it's not going to make me anysafer. If anything it could put my life in danger as it did for that other blonde haired guy (the baltimorean) who was killed last summer so that he wouldn't testify against a murderer. (He's in the news all of the time; I think his murderer was Patrick Byers.

The vandalism to the car continues as they have put little chips in my windshield. I think about the danger I'm in nearly 24/7, but I still haven't found a safe place to move to.

"Trying to find ways of coping with the apt. break ins"

By getting rid of as much as possible, I"m even trying to sell the furniture which the vandals have vandalized with a knife or a box cutter. No matter whether you get rid of your valuables or not it doesn't matter. Whoever is doing these break ins is doing it in part as a way of mind control. Because if you don't have anything valuable they'll just go ahead and steal your toilet paper or dump your meds on the floor for example.

This morning I noticed that (sometime in the last 48 hours) they were in my apt. and they found one of my older journals (1995) ironically that I had labelled "Surely this must be hell" About how abusive my employers and co workers were when I worked as a social worker for the developmentally disabled for Chimes organization. Well this vandal scribbled out my name on the front of the journal. Surely, THIS must be hell.

I debate on whether or not to slow up my day even more by calling the cops. 1/2 the time they won't make a police report, and calling them in the past has not made me any safer. I don't plan to go to city court or press charges because that actually puts my life in danger, so i decided not to call the cops.

Last week there wasa meeting in the community room which had a different feel to it then any other meeting I've ever been to at la pew. There was a new manager there, there were a couple of people there from the company that just bought La Pew and there were a couple of cops there. The cops blew off our safety concerns and said "this is a very safe building you'll just have to look out for one another" Well , that isn't going to happen. But there was one new manager there who was my only experience ever with La Pew with professionalism. (i.e. I've never met anyone professional who worked for La pew before)

She was stunned that I haven't had a working heater in over a year. Also, I did raise my hand and talk about the robberies. That got the ball rolling for 2 other women to talk about break ins to their apts. too. One woman was just robbed on Easter Sunday. They took her purse. Normally they take food and clothes like they have done with me.

I'm still trying very very hard to find safer digs, so far to no avail. Today I have chest pain and tremors after the discovery that they had found one of my journals......................................

The only good news I have is that I've found a quiet place to blog. A computer room that is semi private and that I just learned about in the Pikesville area of Baltimore.

"I've been out of comission"

I've been out of comission for 5 days with a migraine. Ahh, the joys of stress related illness. The day that the migraine came on was an eventful 24 hours indeed. I've just barely been able to hang on to my car. A donor made my Feb and March car insurance payment, if it weren't for that I would have lost the car. About 6 days ago I get a call from this bank (my April car payment is late) and they leave this message on my voice mail that they want to discuss my account with me. Within an hour my head starts pounding and I fear they will repossess the car. Initially I just leave a message on their voice mail then I decide that this is one creditor you don't want to avoid.

I call them back the next day and they say WE JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW THAT WE'RE NOW THE HOLDER OF THE LOAN, SO YOU'LL BE MAKING YOUR PAYMENTS TO US, INSTEAD" (She seemed very nice and laid back) I replied "You aren't calling about my late payment?" "No, we're not!"

Next, I call the car insurance company to find out if they have cancelled me yet, as I am late with that too. They replied, "MS. snyder you don't owe anything until May!"

Then, I'm cleaning the apt. trying to get rid of as much belongings as possible in part because of the robberies and in part because I want to be ready to run as soon as I find a place. I discover a piece of mail from the Motor Vehicles Admin that states that my registration was cancelled on 3/20/09! Because I didn't do my emissions test! I really panicked and couldn't believe I had been driving with an expired registration and didn't even know it! I called them up and the issue was resolved in 5 minutes...................................

Stress related illness is very real.

20/20 t.v. show special "If I Only had a gun"

Did you see this special?! Wow! The gun issue is one I think of often since I'm surrounded by the constant threat of violence. According to the show there are 250 million guns in the U.S. There was a 7 year old boy on the show from some real small town in FL. He was interviewing adults on gun violence and implored Obama to save his town. The boy and 20/20 did a visit to the boy's elementary school which was 100% (just about) African-American.

The stats in the school were something to the effect of:

40% knew someone who had been murdred by a gun and 60% had witnessed a shooting! (Don't quote me on this stat. this is a rough stat.)

130,000 people in the u.s. have been killed by guns in the past 10 years.

80 Americans are killed a day by guns

20/20 gave a man 5k and one hour to see how many guns he could buy. He bought more than a handful with no background check by going to a gun show. His sister was murdred in the VA Tech massacre.

(My father kept a handgun in the drawer next to his bed)

20/20 discovered that even though the parents didn't realize it, most kids, even little kids know where there parents keep the handgun. Most people even with a gun, are unable to protect themselves in an emergency. Personally I'm even afraid to use mace for this reason.

Many men in my bldg. own guns for "protection"

Years ago I had some loose affiliation with MAHA. Marylanders Against Handgun Abuse.

What do you think about this issue of it being so easy for anyone to obtain a gun?

"I was hoping and "praying" for success"

I got a job offer that would have more than doubled my income without risking my social securty. 24 hours a week, but, with a 60 minute commute each way, making for a 30 plus hour a week. (I consider the commute to be work also) I knew with the conditions of my bldg., the robberies etc., I was facing great odds at succeeding. Due to the noise level in my bldg. and getting no more than a couple of hours sleep a night I knew I couldn't make the drive safely on my 2nd day for work, and ended up losing the job to someone else............................................Although I could have pushed myself thru the duties of the day on little sleep, I didn't feel capable of safely making the drive.

"I've been pretty busy"

Surviving. Going on job interviews considering moving out of state, etc. I had a one day temp. job which I'm hoping (and might) turn into something steady doing office work. My home was broken into 2x last week and my car was broken into (but no glass smashed) and my cell "trac" phone and sunglasses were taken from the car. From the house, I can't tell everything that was taken but the intruder took some kind of plastic container of bean dip (which didn't belong to me) and put it on the floor and then walked thru it and tracked it thru the house. Needless to say I spend alot of time trying to figure out what was stolen, I know the new roll of toilet paper was stolen and you already know they steal from every category except books. Sleeping very very little sometimes it's days or weeks before i can fall asleep. constantly calling the cops on my noisy neighbors but of course you know that it's pointless to call the cops re: the robberies, it doesn't change anything.