update from the cold streets

I hear the complaints, not just about the weather, but conditions down on Hell's Block, as I call the area, just north of the old Rio Grande Station, and south of the Gateway Shopping Mall.
Sandwiched in there, lies the Road Home Shelter, St. Vincent dePaul's and the Weigan Center. Where all the homeless get herded, by cops so burnt out from dealing with the druggies they don't care that concentrating the population that way worsens the situation.

Today, many told me to stay the hell out, find some hole up in the foothills or somewhere else, to hide from it all. They talked about the roaming of the 'shoppers', those tweaked out on drugs so tightly, they cannot sleep at night, just roam about the insides of those places, seeking something to steal to fund that next high. Or of the ones that still kept seeking that high, smoking away inside the building, even in the dorms, not just the halls and bathrooms.

This is why I hide away. With my allergies, I'd be committing suicide going in that place. Even the worst of the regular crowd walk in fear of which of these drug-addicts will snap first, or next as some say some have, and which innocent by-stander or guy in the next bunk will be the victim of their violence.

Hell's Block, made with good intentions, the same as pave the road to the Infernal Gates, is not a good place, so stop trying to force me there, folks. I'd rather not be forced into filing charges of attempted murder against those agitating for such a move. Given the massive number of nights I had to walk out of there last winter, covered in hives, itching with troubles breathing, I'd say one night would send me to hell this time around.

If only those trying to do good with that place would look at the effect it has on the victims it racks up each year, day by day, and seek another way, maybe it might work. The ones I feel the worst for are the kids forced in there the first few nights their families are homeless, until they get a place in the family shelter or emergency housing. Why expose children to that? What the dickens were you all thinking about, given the number of pedophiles, rapists, criminals, mentally disturbed, and addicts circling like vultures, seeking new prey. Let alone the dealers, street fences and thieves.

The words of the victims down there, those seeking to get out, but held up by some portion of the Rule of Law so many here tout, tell a grim story. Open your  ears, folks. It ain't all roses and teddybears down there.