No Access to Showers is “Doable” for Women Struggling With Housing but Not for County and City Bureaucrats!
Last week female board members from the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless extended an invitation to Ruth Gillett from the County Office of Homeless Services and Natoya Walker Minor Public Affairs Director of the City of Cleveland to spend two nights at the shelter. After Gillett and Walker Minor toured the shelter, they informed the women that while it was “inconvenient” to only have only one shower on site, it was “doable.” After one year of planning this renovation, Gillett and Walker Minor made the decision to relocate the women to a temporary shelter without a shower, and now they refuse to sleep in a shelter that they created.
Gillett responded via an e-mail letter saying, “It would serve no purpose other than to take space away from someone who needs it.” Walker Minor did not respond. Gillett’s response is puzzling since just this weekend the facility had 9 women sleeping on mats in the day room, and the women would welcome City and County officials to join them on a mat in the shelter.
The Community Women’s Shelter is the entry point for the women’s shelter system, and is not supposed to turn anyone away. It was recently moved to a commercial building at 1701 Payne Ave. that has only one shower that must serve 77 people every night. The City and County, in a letter to the Coalition, contends that this is only a temporary issue, because the regular shelter is currently undergoing renovations and will be ready in the fall. We have to ask if the City would issue an occupancy permit to any residence in the community if in order to shower, the resident had to walk to a building down the street. “We want Ruth and Natoya to spend the night at the shelter and then tell the community if 1701 Payne is appropriate for the mothers and grandmothers who become homeless this summer,” said board member Rosie Palfy.
The Coalition Board is unified in its condemnation of the City and County for violating building and housing codes, Ohio Basic Shelter Standards, basic hygiene requirements and infectious disease protocols by placing 70 women for the summer in a facility that is absolutely unacceptable for congregate living. The NEOCH Board want the two women who made this decision to see how difficult it is for disabled women to maintain their personal hygiene in the Community Women’s Shelter. We want to show that without access to showers it is difficult to find or maintain a job, and we want Walker Minor and Gillett to see how their decisions are harming these women. “Anytime they would care to join us in an overnight or weekend stay, the female board members from NEOCH will gladly join them. We cannot risk women getting a staph infection or losing their job because they cannot maintain their personal hygiene,” said NEOCH board president, Marcia Bufford.
Press Release by Marcia Bufford and Rosie Palfy
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