She was in poor health. I'm not sure what the specifics of what happened are.
Tonight, I happened to get a bed through the lottery that is in the section of the dormitory where she died. I don't know which bed she was in, but I will be sleeping very near to it, and someone will be sleeping in it. There is not a lot of time for sentimentality in the homeless life.
Copyright L. Kochman, June 5, 2015 @ 7:17 p.m.
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June 5, 2015
When I wrote the first part of this page, I hadn't been upstairs yet; guests aren't allowed into the sleeping areas until they have taken showers and changed into the nightclothes provided by the shelter. You're also not supposed to bring your cell phone upstairs at all, although people do. I had to ask to be allowed to get my bag from the shelves behind the front desk where people who haven't gotten lockers have to leave most of their things every night; you're not supposed to get your bag at night again after you have checked it, either. I'll put my phone in the bag and have it put behind the front desk again before the lobby closes at 9:00 and everyone who got a bed has to go upstairs.
The bed in which the woman died has been removed. I'm sure that most of the guests would have refused to sleep in it. Has it been thrown out, or is it being kept in storage for a few days and will it be brought back to that section or switched with another bed in the facility?
The bed frames from the Long Island shelter were brought to the new shelter when the Long Island shelter was closed. There is no way that nobody ever died at the Long Island shelter before it was closed. I often wrote about what that place was like during my homeless years in Boston from 2011-2013. The Pine Street Inn is much cleaner and safer; no other shelter that I know of makes the guests shower and change every night. Beds are expensive, though.
Copyright L. Kochman, June 5, 2015 @ 8:58 p.m.
