Ray of Hope Homeless Shelter Incident

For a grown up adult, to give any kind of serious consideration to the 'Ray of Hope Shower' incident is not a good indication of his/her intellectual level. I really believe it is a waste of time to talk and read about it. However, in order to not allow any margin for speculation, I decided I will clarify what happened at Ray of Hope.

I stayed at the Ray of Hope Shelter about a couple of weeks. The shelter is meant for homeless individuals, yet I am not homeless. The shelter does not have any ttime-limit like most other homeless shelters, however, they expect their homeless residents to keep an active job search. I was, however, spending most of my time in the library, working on the internet, instead of looking for a job. They did not like that.

Aaron, one of my roommates, got the idea that he would leave the fan on during the night, because the noise helped him sleep. After a few nights I asked Aaron if he would mind to keep the fan low, as the noise would not let me sleep. He declined. Few days later, at 4am in the morning, I thought I would turn off the fan, as I could not sleep. I understood Aaron would not need the fan anymore at 4am. Aaron, however, got mad at me. A couple of days later he told Rick, the shelter's manager, I never shower. That night Rick told me: "it had come to his attention that I had not showered since the day I came to the shelter". I protested that was ridiculous, I was showering on a daily basis, certainly more ofter than most other residents. Three days later, at 10pm, when it was time to go to bed, Rick told me I had to shower. I did not understand him very clearly, I was not sure of what he said, but I clarified I had already showered that morning. He left without any further explanation. Just in case, before going to bed, I decided to go to the bathroom and clean up. I cleaned up my upper body. Then I went to bed. As I was in bed, Rick came to tell me I had to leave, because he had given me until 10:30pm to shower and I had not. Rick left the room immediately and went downstairs. I put my clothes back on and went downstairs to find some explanation. Rick repeated I had to leave because I would not obey.I clarified that I was showering on a daily basis, I had showered that morning and I had cleaned up after he told me... Then the owner's son came to say the arguments was over and I had ten minutes to pack and leave or he would call "the cops". I explained him it would be impossible for me to pack all my gear in ten minutes; it normally takes me a couple of hours and now the lights were off and everybody was sleeping in my room. He replied I now had 9 minutes. As I protested, he kept counting: 8, 7, 6, 5... As I knew I had not done anything wrong, I had nothing to fear from the police, I suggested he call the police right away; that will allow me get an explanation and have some reasonable person hear me. They then hesitated about calling the police; but I insisted.

When the officers arrived I explained them my problem. The officers patiently listened to me as well as the owner's son. Once we both finished, the officers asked if I would be allowed to stay if I shower. They had to look for Rick to answer, since Rick had gone downstairs to avoid getting involved. Rick stated that the rules say I would be allowed to stay as long as I shower. The officers then asked me if I would accept to shower. I insisted I had never had any problem to do so. Finally the officers left, I went back to the shower, went to bed and left the Ray of Hope shelter the next morning.

The above description is the treuth about the "Ray of Hope Shower Incident". The couple of weeks I stayed at the Ray of Hope Homeless Shelter in Kalispell were horrible. Most of the shelter's personnel were truly horrible people: the owner, Peggy, her son, Rick degrade the shelter's residents as normal form of treatment. The humiliation I suffered was no exception. That is the treatment most other residents were and are receiving. As Kevin, some other resident, said, the atmosphere at the shelter was like walking on egg shells. you had to watch anything you say, anything you do, because they were "giving you shit" at all times. There is no doubt in my mind that if anybody has any reason to complain is me, not the shelter. It really pisses me off that, after the humiliation and degradation I suffered at the Ray of Hope Homeless shelter, the government even manipulated the story and used it to attack me.