A Voice for the Houseless: ” Betty’s Bayside Village” Review Pt. 1
Raelee Childers, houseless and with a substance abuse problem, is writing a sometimes column for us. She says she hopes to open the hearts and minds of those that are so quick to judge a book by its cover. Comments will be monitored for civility towards the author as well as other commenters.
Disagreements are fine. Personal attacks are not. Please remember this is not a fact checked article but an opinion piece.
Originally I started do this because I was tired of society continually blaming homeless people for damn near everything. Now I think that the real reason I should be doing this is to speak up about how unfair or unjust we get treated by society and city officials in our area. I feel that if I don’t do it nobody else will and therefore we will continue to be treated as though we don’t have the same rights as everyone else.
A lot of the homeless don’t realize that our rights are being violated every day. So I think it’s time to bring that to attention starting with “Betty’s Bayside Village” on Hilfiker Street. This is serious stuff that needs to be talked about whether or not people want to hear it or not. I am done sugar coating what I have to say. So here is the real hard truth no BS.
At first I really didn’t want nothing to do with the place. Then I thought about it and figured hell if anything I guess I could just utilize the room. To me it was a place to charge my stuff, keep things safe from getting stolen, do my laundry or shower. But I wasn’t really planning on actually living there until I noticed a few things that are not right when it comes to people’s rights at all.
Basically, the rooms are an 8 x 8 metal box with an outlet, a dresser, a bed and a heater. We have one window that barely opens a quarter inch and the doors are more like a giant window with a privacy film on them that only go 3/4. of the way up. No air conditioning units and they don’t provide fans either. The walls are basically just sheet metal and are so thin my neighbor could literally hear me fart, no joke.
These rooms truly show the lack of concern for the people living there, especially with the lack of ventilation in them and lack of privacy. Not to mention that we are not suppose to leave our pets tied up outside if we leave. We either have to take them with us or leave them in our room to die from heat stroke.
My question is how do they expect me to go look for a job or go to a job interview if I have to take my dog with me because I sure as hell won’t leave them in my room to die. Also I’ve noticed that there are no exit signs in any of the community areas. Nor is there a fire extinguisher in the kitchen if you can even call it that. I mean a microwave and a toaster oven is all they have for us to cook food. On the plus side they do have a single refrigerator for more than 30 people to share, a double sink with no hot water to wash dishes with.
We do have a very small laundry room with 2 washers and 2 dryers, except both washers don’t work and it has been like this since I moved it more than a month ago. Also no effort has been made to fix them, even when I asked Betty about that sometime last week. There are I think maybe 4 bathrooms with a shower in each one. I have used the showers only once so far due to the fact that I had no towel.
I am very disappointed with this place and I have a lot of concerns when it comes to our lack of privacy, safety and health. I will go into more detail about how little concern the city has for their homeless. This was part 1 of my review of “Betty’s Bayside Village”. Thank You…..
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So I’ll ask the simple question: What do you expect for free? In general people who have a house or apartment engage in a transactional relationship with either the bank or the landlord. They pay rent or a mortgage in order to have a shelter. They also invest time and effort to make their dwelling a “home”. Granted, people who are houseless are houseless for many reasons but people who do have a dwelling have a dwelling primarily because they put out an effort to obtain and maintain such dwelling. What are you willing to put out? It sounds like the Bayside village is substandard according to your perspective, but it seems to me it’s better than the streets at least. May be with a little work and input on your end the village can be improved. I’ve always operated under the dictum that what you get out of life in mostly is what you put into it.
Raelee is fairly typical of many people who are unhoused by choice but willing to take advantage of free services as long as they’re not required to do anything in return.
It’s a positive sign she’s at least talking about looking for a job but if she’s serious about improving her situation she might think about getting off drugs.
And if people want to help the houseless instead of giving money to panhandlers consider a donation to one of the organizations trying to provide services.
actually we pay $200 a month to be here so yeah I do have to pay rent
How much do you spend on meth?
What would you do with your dog if someone offered you a job? (Not sure if you’ve ever had a job, but most of them don’t let you bring a pet.)
As others have suggested, if you don’t appreciate the opportunity, you should show some class by moving out and making your spot available to someone who might be willing to take personal responsibility and better themself.
you stop that! that was uncalled for
i do not know why Kym Kemp is allowing you to speak to her writer that way.
Ive been out to see that place. It didnt strike me as being very good. I didnt put the blame on Betty. I suspected the City was more the problem
I didnt go onto the property, but it is horrific to look at. it looks like a prison to be honest. and it right in the flood zone and just behind the very stinky sewage treatment plant
Thank you for writing your first post. Looking forward to read more experiences. Your words do matter and do educate the whole world ignorant and carefree of the world you are in. Thank you.
Not her first rodeo — chose drugs and living in the weeds over following rules and being housed at Grandma’s.
She’s obviously intelligent and hopefully is learning to make better choices so she can get into a better situation.
Do you pay rent to stay there? Do you receive government assistance like SSI? And you dumb enough to think you have a right to anything from anyone for free? I seriously doubt you ate actually looking for a job based ond your statement in past letters you have chosen this life, so the dog excuse is BS. You complain you don’t have air conditioning. Maybe 5% of residences in Eureka have that and actual working people pay rent and mortgages for the privilege of living there.
If you don’t like it, move out and let someone who actually appreciates it move in. If you want to change your life, do it yourself instead of demanding people like Betty Chen do everything for you. Like you said in your letter, this is straight talk without sugar coating it. You are the only person who can change your life, so if that’s what you want, put on your adult pants, stip whining about your life and make the change.
Dear Raelee: I’m so sorry that Bayside Village isn’t up to your standards but I’m not going to sugar coat things either….
Beggars Can’t Be Choosers
OH my. Once again someone who desperately needs help due to personal choices in the past, is now complaining about the help she gets. Betty does the best she can to house and assist people with addiction issues to get clean, find work, improve their lives. I would suggest this woman move out so someone who appreciates it can move in. My experience is that many houseless individuals are also highly entitled individuals and this is a slap in the face to anyone who sincerely wants to help. I knew one lady who lived in the reeds at the edge of the Bay, surrounded by her wet belongings and who refused to get help because there are too many rules. This is typical. I gave up.
There was one generous man who, when he retired, wanted to use his decades of experience to help. He opened an office on his own dime and saw people by appointment to try to arrange services for them. It lasted for a year, until constant demands by addicts who got abusive when not given what they needed immediately wore him down and he closed his office.
“My question is how do they expect me to go look for a job or go to a job interview if I have to take my dog with me because I sure as hell won’t leave them in my room to die.”
You get busy and do it. That’s how.
Find one of your buddies to watch your dog for a couple of hours. You’re not taking the pup to an interview unless they are a legitimate service dog. And as far as going to look for a job? Whose needs are first? Yours or the dogs? If you’re in survival mode, maybe having an animal isn’t conducive to that if you want to get off the streets.. You still need to beat feet like everyone else in your employment searches. I’ve watched more than one person go from living in a bush to getting degrees, certifications, kicking their addictions, and moving onward and upward. One of their keys to success is ideological: they showed t the world that they can change, and did it. One of them is a friend of mine I talk to almost daily, and who has a service dog. He managed to pull himself out of the situation he was in for years. You seem to be putting up your own hurdles and roadblocks to succeeding. It’s not Betty’s fault; she’s just trying to help, but don’t bite the hands trying to feed you. Or go back to where you were. You decide.
There’s always the Rescue Mission if Betty’s villages aren’t your thing. They do have a segregated women’s side with dorms, but if it’s not a service animal, it can’t be there. There are very valid reasons for that rule. There are also safe-and-sober (?- you’d be wise to check if they are as advertised) homes that might have something available for almost nothing. I’ve seen people go that route, too. You’re just going to have to knuckle down and accept that you’re not living in some cheery new apartment with a concierge, at least for the time being (keep in mind there are CPH and C/R students living in vehicles just so they can attend class so you’re actually in an upgrade by having laundry access and a room).
This does illustrate the problems with drug addiction and/or mental illness that are so often brushed as side with the either simple demands to provide housing or the reverse lock them up and be done. Poor judgement and impulse control means that, even when provided with housing, there will be self-destructive behavior. Locking up usually means their addictions spread in jail while courts make it hugely expensive.
There will be assertions on both sides of the decriminalization and treat as a health issue debate, often referring to Portugual or Nordic countries. But it hasn’t removed drug addiction from being a problem. “It is widely debated whether Portugal’s choice to decriminalize drugs should be replicated in other countries or if it was a poorly implemented system. Drug use rates increased for all drugs, drug abusers are not punished and therefore more likely to continue abusing drugs, and rehabilitation centers are overcrowded and underfunded. More recently, drug overdose deaths have been increasing at a dangerous rate.
While it is true that this system is not perfect, overdose deaths and disease spread related to drug use have significantly fallen.”
For the US, with its mix of massive government, poor border control and huge presence of the legal system, it would be far more expensive and far less effective.
The bottom line is that there is no magic fix in a culture that treats drugs as emotional compensation. And of course taking the homeless addicts’s word on fixes is beyond ridiculous because if they wanted and knew what worked, they wouldn’t be homeless drug addicts.
There always will be complaints and blaming and theories of fixes offered.. The public should know there are no outside imposed fixes and simply accept it, focusing on minimizing the damage they do to society and refuse the accusations it’s the fault of those who are not homeless drug addicts. Let the blame fall mostly on the addicted and their suppliers without attempting to make addicts feel better about be addicts.
https://gwjusticejournal.substack.com/p/23-years-later-reflecting-on-the
Thanks for sharing. I believe you should vacate that unit and free it up for someone who can use it.
I’m struggling with the notion of air conditioning in Eureka, especially down by the bay. I suppose if the ceiling were glass and the place acted like a greenhouse.
Funny, that was my exact reaction to this tale of woe.
I do have sympathy for the unhoused. It IS hard to find employment if you cannot bathe or have clean clothes. It is hard to leave your pet behind when seeking work. (It is illegal to leave your dog tied up for more than a brief period). But surely this is better tban a tent in the marsh.
No one in Eureka needs air conditioning
An un-insulated metal box sounds like an oven more than a greenhouse.
It’s pretty difficult for me to believe that someone so combative, disrespectful and rude would be able to receive services within the Eureka Community…
In the past, you have written extensively about your difficulties, but you seem to have decayed in your thinking…
Having a serious mental health disorder or a deep addiction will make navigating society even more difficult, but many times in the past, persons I knew never got clean, never really could be helped, and were later found deceased…
Once again:
AA and NA meeting are held frequently, and abstinence and sobriety are a good answer, and much preferable to dissolution and death…
Good luck lady, you will need it, considering your attitude and level of management…
So, two ⭐’s ?
If you can afford the luxury of owning a dog you’re rich!
It costs me at least $50 a month to keep my 2 small dogs. Between food and heartworm meds, yearly parvo & distemper shots and rabies booster, dogs are definitely a luxury
“The more I know people, the more I like dogs”…
Perhaps you should consider what you are being given through the generosity of others instead of complaining about it not being up to your standards. Gotta give you credit for creativity though, using the dog angle for not being able to look for a job is precious.
You should live in a 4 bedroom, 3200 square foot home, for sure. Out the countryside for privacy…. so, get to work.
No sugar coating, no word salad: Round ’em up to a detention center and sort ’em:
*The drug addicts
*The mentally ill
*The truly down on their luck
*The dedicated bums
Then sort those who CLEARLY WANT help: The bums stay in detention. The addicts stay in detention and get clean, then are reevaluated. The mentally ill to mental hospitals. Support and opportunity to those who truly WANT (as opposed to need) help.
If you feed A raccoon, THEY will come.
Concise.
Hell, that’ll work…
https://lao.ca.gov/policyareas/cj/6_cj_inmatecost
Hope she never lives where there is an HOA…
You can get rid of your dog.
Where? The shelters and rescues are overflowing.
Add to that mandated community service to pay for their keep/treatment.
How many folks make a living off the homeless? I ought to get a 501c3 going.
[edit by Kym] You don’t know WTF you’re talking about here. Betty Chin has given her whole life over to helping the down-and-out of Eureka.
It’s big business. Just like drug “treatment “. There is only one person who can help anyone….you know who that is.
No sympathy from me. Get your priorities straight.
“I am done sugar coating what I have to say …”
Trolling trolling trolling