This is a story about the various shelters I have stayed at. Now, today I am pretty much sick and tired with shelters and almost refuse to stay in one, I think I would only stay in a shelter if I absolutely had to. Anyway enough about that, lets move on to the rest of the story…

I first started staying in shelters about 3 or 4 years ago. I was kicking it in Berkeley during a brief hiatus from San Francisco . I was 22 at the time and the shelter was for people 25 and under. The name of the shelter was Y.E.A.H. (I forgot what the initials stand for). It was a pretty cool shelter. That was the first time I hung out in Berkeley so I was meeting a lot of new friends and a lot of those new friends were staying at the shelter. At the shelter they fed dinner and breakfast. The only thing that sucked and that I didn’t like was the people who worked there woke us up at 6:00 in the morning. But other than that they were very laid back about everything. I remember times when I would go in visibly fucked up on heroin or I was visibly coming down off of speed, they didn’t care they would ask me if I was all right and offer me a glass of ice cold water in case the drugs dehydrated me. Unfortunately that shelter was only open late fall, winter early spring. It closed for the summer because of the warm weather. I ended up coming back to San Francisco before they closed it for the summer.

Another shelter I stayed at very, very briefly as Larkin Street Youth Shelter. I only stayed for one night. After that one night I was fed up with everything, the staff, the clients, the shitty food, the lack of warm blankets, the lack of warm water in the showers absolutely everything. Plus the staff wasn’t as open minded about drug use as the staff at the Y.E.A.H. shelter. If they saw you high on anything even weed they would kick you out for good.

Another shelter I stayed was Mill Street Adult Shelter in San Rafael . I got kicked out after 2 night because the staff suspected I was high on heroin (and I was) and I refused a piss test. I was only staying for a few nights anyway because my now ex-girlfriend Paula was waiting for her car to get out of the shop. Once it was we started living in it.

The best shelter I have stayed at is Hospitality House, right next door to Roaddawgz. I have only stayed there for a few nights, but it was cool because the staff was friendly, you could hang out as early as 4:00 p.m. The beds were comfy, warm showers and pretty decent food. It’s a shame I only stayed for a few nights.

The last shelter I stayed at is called Ellen Hutch Adult shelter. It is on the corner of Webster and McAllister. It kind of sucked there because it wasn’t even what I would call a real shelter because it was just mats on the floor of a gymnasium. The staff were loud and arrogant they cidn’t open the doors until 10:00 p.m. but the line was usually long as hell so I wouldn’t get in until 10:30. The one thing I hated the most was that the staff would wake everyone up at 5:30a.m.when they were suppose to wake us up at 6:00a.m

So as you can see the majority of the shelters I have stayed at sucked ass. So I hope you enjoyed reading my story!