TWO OLD LADIES

When you ask around the neighborhood, or talk to staff or homeless people at the Drop, most will tell you that Nan came from Korea. There are other more obscure stories about her originating in Cambodia, Japan and a few other places. Nan has lived at the Drop Inn shelter for over a decade. She believes that she owns the Drop Inn Center, or at least has lots of equity built up. She speaks little or no English, and there is rarely anybody around who speaks Korean, or whatever Nan's native language might be.

While she is not a dwarf, Nan can't be more than 4'11". Often you can see her in Washington Park searching one of the smaller trees for a branch that is just right for back scratching. She will slide that branch down the back of her blouse and scratch herself slowly, thoughtfully, and with great satisfaction. On days when no branches are within her reach, she will flag down a passerby to help her. She will communicate with hand gestures, alternately scowling or smiling, until the poor bemused volunteer figures out that she actually wants him to break off a branch from a tree that is ostensibly city property.

Nan believes there is some sort of trust fund back in Korea, or possibly a rich relative, who has been making payments on the Drop Inn Center. She is convinced that she actually has equity in the place. How she rationalizes the presence of hundreds of homeless people passing through each week is not clear.

LA Mary also resides at the Drop, usually. She will spend the occasional night on the street. Her cinder grey hair is long and unkempt. Her hygiene is erratic. Her voice sounds like an Evinrude outboard, or Anne Ramsey in Throw Mama From The Train.

Hardly anybody knows her real name. Mary is not from Los Angeles; LA stands for "LoudAss." Mary is a paranoid schizophrenic who, for reasons she usually does not wish to share, refuses to take medication. Her strategy with her auditory hallucinations, aka the voices in her head, is to shout them down. You can tell when LA Mary is hearing voices: you will see her plodding down the street cussing a blue streak at the top of her cigarette-ravaged lungs. (She prefers unfiltered Camels, but they are getting pricey. She settles for whatever she can afford or scrounge.)

These ladies are what you might call resource resistant. Over many years doctors, psych RN's, LSW's, and sometimes total strangers with no social work experience have tried to place these women in better shelters, rooms or apartments. Inevitably such placement is contingent upon an agreement to take medication. Inevitably, Nan and LA Mary fail to qualify for housing.

Perhaps "qualify" should be in quotes. If delusional thinking and auditory hallucinations are not qualifying factors for subsidized housing, then what is? But most people would have NIMBY issues with living next door to a woman who tears their trees apart and believes that she owns their building. Or a woman who turns any environment she occupies into an enormous ashtray, and disturbs her neighbors dinner hour by yelling at her voices: "A--hole! Shut the f--- up! I'll kick your f------ teeth in you piece of ----."

After many years, these two old ladies prowl OTR and downtown, looking for peace they will never find as long as they live at the Drop and on the street. They have a right to decline to be treated. But can their decision possibly be based on informed consent? What should we do with them that we are not doing now, which is almost nothing. And how do you help them without coercion that would violate their rights?

A Death In Custody

One of the many problems with alcoholism is that intoxication can disguise underlying medical issues. Is that homeless person sprawled under the hickory tree in Washington Park sleeping,
passed out from drink, or felled by a heart attack? Sometimes even people with clinical training have difficulty making these distinctions. Police in St.Clair County, IL faced this dilemna recently with one of their regular customers, a homeless woman who passed out while in jail for trespassing. See the link below.

http://www.bnd.com/breaking_news/story/972395.html

SO, WHAT ARE WE SAYING HERE?

Dutifully, I reported my change of address to the Social Security Administration. By way of response, SSA sent me a letter which contained, in the text, the new address. The letter further explained that my updated address would be entered into "the system" by October 6.

Wait a minute. October 6 also happens to be the date of the SSA letter itself. And the letter itself had to be forwarded to me from my old address. SSA acknowledges and correctly prints out my new address, then sends this information to me at my old address.

SSA catches up!

This will link you to SSA.gov's page about the long process of clearing the backlog in ALJ hearings. Funds and personnel were reduced during the 43rd president's administration, leaving thousands of physically or mentally disabled people in poverty, and sometimes homelessness.

For example, yours truly has recently received a "fully favorable" decision from the local hearing office, after over 3 years of applying, appealing, waiting.

http://www.socialsecurity.gov/pressoffice/pr/hearings-backlog-pr.htm

Dots for Nora, Nots for Ray

Nora, who is schizophrenic, is puzzled about why Ray's SSDI application took so long. Ray applied in 2006, and only this month received notice from an administrative law judge that the previous SSA rulings had been overturned. Ray should start receiving his benefits next month.

"Why the hell did it take so long?," Nora inquires.

"Lots of reasons. Vague or conflicting information from different doctors. When I appealed for reconsideration, the worker reviewing my case ignored SSA's own descriptions of my disorder and turned my down flat. I guess Major Depressive Disorder is a fairly recent addition to their disabling mental illnesses list.

"Then the ALJ hearing didn't get scheduled for 23 months. There was a shortage of judges, then one of those judges died. When Obama took office, they assigned more judges to this area to get the SSDI appeals cases caught up. When I finally go into to see the judge, he tells me that Cincy Psych has not updated my records for over two years. I almost gave up several times along the way."

"Wow. I didn't go through any of that. I just showed up, and the lady looked at some stuff the doctor sent her. She asked me if I still saw dots, and I said yeah, afraid so. Then she said okay, you're approved."

"Sounds like your doctors were really motivated," Ray says ruefully.

"Hell no. They were psychiatrists."

BOYCOTT YOU TUBE

Joel John Roberts at http://www.lahomelessblog.org/ has written an open letter to You Tube regarding dozens of videos You Tube has in its inventory that feature homeless people being assaulted, harassed, etc. Please join Mr. Roberts in writing or emailing You Tube to demand they stop accepting videos that humiliate homeless people as a form of entertainment. This is not protected speech; this is sadism.

Use Of Force

The Cincinnati Police Department internal review of Officer A.Plummer's arrest of Councilman Thomas' daughter concludes that Officer Plummer used excessive force. Given his past history of using excessive force, what should be done about Officer Plummer?

The two clinchers for me are:

Two female officers subdued an intoxicated male suspect, apparently without use of tasers or sidearms.

A male officer who responded to their backup request tased an unarmed female who was kneeling on the ground. In the back, no less.

I've met a lot of very professional cops since I've lived here. This man isn't acting like a cop; he's acting like a nightclub bouncer. He needs to seek other employment, not to mention psychological counseling.