I’m sure that by now, most of you are tired of hearing about my friend Bootsie. But this week has just been too stressful not to vent about it.
On Tuesday while I was at work, Bootsie called me and said she was out of food. She needed some food to tide her over until Wednesday the fifth when she would receive her food stamps.
So after work, I head over to her apartment. I was not prepared for what I would end up spending most of the next two days dealing with. Bootsie had been evicted from her apartment after some of the neighbors complained that she had multiple people living with her (several guys and a girl, all “homeless”).
When her landlord showed up that morning and found those other people in her apartment, he told Bootsie that he wanted her out. She had just paid her rent on the first, but for some reason told him that she’d move out if he gave her twenty dollars.
So when I show up that afternoon, she is locked out of her apartment. Twenty dollars richer, and crying on the porch.
Now it took me a day and a half before I found out what I believe to be the truth about what occurred that morning. I talked to her landlord, to all the people that were around when it happened, and to Bootsie. It took some detective work to get to the bottom of it.
Anyway, she refused to go to the women’s mission, and so Wednesday night, after trying unsuccessfully to find a place for her to stay that wasn’t the mission, I told her that’s where she was gonna have to go. But she wouldn’t. She absolutely refused.
Even though I told her she’d get arrested if she kept sleeping on the sidewalk at her old apartment.
Even though I told her it was dangerous.
Even though I told her we’d try to get her in the housing projects down the street.
I was forced to let her walk away. It was hard. But I didn’t know what else to do.
The next morning, after a rather sleepless night, I decided to call adult protective services. I didn’t want Bootsie to go to jail.
I explained the situation and they sent a case worker out there. I met up with them yesterday afternoon and found out that someone that Bootsie knew had offered to let her stay with him until she found a place. The case worker is currently working to get her into a place she can afford.
I’ve been praying fervently that she gets in the high rise for disabled people. I don’t know how she’ll fair in the projects.
