Tick Tock Sheptock

As you scroll through the videos in my blog, you'll come to the April 7th video of me conversing with my now former boss, Yvette. I began working for her on April 21st of this year. A friend actually stumbled upon the job and told me about it. The same friend had given me a cell phone with 200 minutes a week or so earlier and told me that he couldn't keep buying me minutes. I would have to find a way to pay for the minutes myself. He was surprised when I accepted the job, with me having not held a steady job in the 11 months that he had known me at that time. He'd given me the phone so that I could step up my homeless advocacy by being easier to contact and had now found a way for me to keep up the payments. I would end up working for Yvette's cleaning service -- Housewarming, LLC -- for four and a half months. Housewarming, LLC which was contracted to clean the Developing Families Center in NE Washington, DC. Though I only made $7/hour and worked 20 hours/week, it pa...

The Unwelcome Homeless In November of 2008 a Washington City Paper article indicated that the homeless are not welcome in the libraries of our nation's capital. An August 2009 New York times article addressed the criminalization of poverty nationally. Then, a September 2009 Washington Examiner article mentioned that the homeless are not welcome in the parks of Downtown Washington, DC. It's no military secret -- the homeless are America's most unwanted. What's most disturbing about this news is that our public officials are often the ones leading the charge against the homeless. Most homeless advocates wouldn't take offense to any reasonable request, such as wanting a homeless person to be presentable and well-mannered; but the mentally ill are one of the most underserved populations in the city, often leading to some very public psychotic episodes. And many of the homeless wouldn't loiter around businesses and other public places if they had some...

I hereby give my express permission for the following to be published on any and all printed and on-line publications including but not limited to newspapers, websites, blogs and forwarded e-mails. Please distribute widely, as the following is a true and accurate account of DC Mayor Adrian Fenty's actions against the homeless..... (This is intended to become a STREET SENSE article, though I suppose it will not appear in the 9/16 issue but will be in the 9/30 issue.) DC MAYOR TRIES TO RID CITY OF HOMELESS In a recent STREET SENSE article I pointed out that the homeless often have "no place to go". This article can be seen as an addendum to that. I came out of the subway system at Judiciary Square just before noon on Wednesday, September 9th, having used the 4th Street exit. As I walked from the escalator toward 4th street, I saw several homeless people speaking to a HAWK ONE security guard who was doing a glorified disclaimer by telling people that he only carrie...

I recently had a situation that almost left me unemployed. Fortunately, my job was saved. I'm still not completely out of the woods though. But for now I'll enjoy my continued employment for what it's worth. You can scroll down to the April 7th video and see me conversing with my boss, Yvette. As it turns out, she recently had a health issue that required surgery. (I'll afford her some privacy by not disseminating all of the details of her diagnosis/prognosis.) while she was out of commission, she gave her mother authority over her cleaning service. Yvette's mother (who is affectionately known as "Mom" by Yvette's employees and others at the Developing Families Center) was upset about the place having not been cleaned according to her (Mom's) standard, even though she was just assuming authority. She threatened to fire the whole crew. Ed, the supervisor, informed me on the night of Thursday, August 27th that Friday, the 28th would be my last day....