AUSTIN STREET CENTER CLIENTS

Richard was a veteran and had been to Austin Street Center before. Through the years he had bouts of homelessness but would always find the strength to start over “I’m not going to give up on me,” he would say. Harry Dailey was addicted to prescription painkillers but Bubba Dailey, kept him on a short leash when it came to money. So Harry started giving his jewelry to Richard in exchange for pills. Harry would then claim being clumsy and having lost his rings, necklaces and earrings. After a while Richard told Harry to either pay or he would sell the jewelry.

The next day Bubba Dailey had Richard’s belongings searched and then claimed Richard had stolen Harry’s jewelry. Of course he was thrown out of the shelter, barred for life and no one has heard from him since.

Curtis was a professional painter and as soon as Bubba Dailey found out she bought paint and had him repaint the whole shelter. When he was done after about three months, Bubba claimed he was lazy and threw him out, barred, not to come back. For a while we heard he was living out of his truck, but then news about him stopped.

Michael was an artist, so Keith Price, the new executive director at Austin Street Center, bought supplies and had him paint a poster for an upcoming fundraiser, “let’s show the donors that we have talent here”, Keith told Michael. Shortly before the event Keith Price decided he was going to auction Michael’s creation at the event to raise extra funds. Of course Michael thought he was going to be paid for his work. Just for wanting to get paid for the beautiful painting he did, Keith Price threw him out, even though he had never told Michael beforehand that he would try to sell the work.

Robert had emotional issues but he took his medication like clockwork and on most days he was doing well. He was so proud to be a driver for Austin Street Center. “It really helps me a lot to go out there every day and meet all these nice people instead of sitting here in this doomsday shelter,” he told me many times.

But Robert had questions on why he wasn’t being paid for extra hours that he worked, or why he had to be available to drive even after his shift was over. “I can never make any plans, or just sit and enjoy the rest of the day. I started at five this morning, did three pick-ups, two store deliveries, was done at two. Took a nap and then Carisa calls at four to take a woman to Parkland and wait for her until she was done. I don’t want to complain, but I hate being treated like I have no rights.”

Robert lasted about a year and then Bubba had devised this scheme where Robert had rented a storage unit and was taking donations he had picked up for the shelter and stored them there so he could sell them and rip the shelter off. None of this was true, the story was made up. Of course, Robert was fired and barred from the shelter.

Peter was a carpenter and had been to Austin Street Center before. Bubba let him stay at Pathway House, the transitional living facility for people with a fulltime job, in exchange for carpeting her office. When he was done, she told him he had to leave.

A woman by the name of DW, who was not homeless nor did she live at Austin Street Center, needed money. Bubba set her up to do classes for female clients. Then Bubba Dailey paid DW with money designated for work-program participants at Austin Street Center. DW was receiving social security payments for being disabled and did not want to risk losing those payments by being reported for having an income. So Bubba Dailey, the executive director of Austin Street Center permitted DW to use the social security number of a family member to account for these payments.

Black was a drug dealer and had permission to set up shop in the shelter as long as he would also stay there. In return Black would supply Harry with free painkillers when needed. In late May of 2011 Bubba decided it was time to start and clean the shelter for her retirement, get rid of all the nasty schemes the three had going. Sitting beside him on his cot, Bubba had a nice long talk with Black and the next day he was gone.

Frank had come to the shelter while Bubba was still the executive director. He was not homeless, he had a job and an apartment and used the shelter to get away when he and his wife had problems because of his drug addiction. Bubba had put him on the work program and he was paid a stipend. Frank would help himself to whatever he needed, shoes, tools, and clothing to name a few, to support his drug habit. When Keith Price became executive director the situation was pointed out to him, but he neglected to correct it. Until he caught Frank stealing scrap metal donated to the shelter to be taken to a recycling plant for cash only then Keith let him go. A month later, however Frank was back and Keith enrolled him in the work program again.

Theresa is highly intelligent and very devoted to her spiritual conviction, has been traumatized by longtime emotional and physical abuse and can only function in a very structured environment. Any deviation from her dally routine will send her into turmoil. At one time Harry did not like what she had said about her believe in God and Harry threw her out on the streets. For six months this poor woman, unable to function, aimlessly wandered the streets of Dallas, slept outside and ate whenever a kind soul gave her food. Eventually she had a stroke and only came back to Austin Street Center because the hospital brought her there upon discharge. She had lost a good 50 lbs and hardly could remember anything, although her memory has improved since.

Lisa was addicted to crack. One day she decided she was going to clean up and get her children who had been living with her mother. She fought and she fought, and it is hard to fight crack when you are around it every day in the shelter. Nobody offered Lisa access to a treatment facility, she fought on her cot surrounded by men and women active in their addiction. After she was clean for twelve months, she decided it was time for the next step. Of course her mother opposed her, took her to court and the judge denied Lisa custody of her children because of her drug history. He suggested Lisa would try again in a year, have a home and a job and he would reevaluate her case.

Now, Bubba, Harry and Carisa all knew how devastated Lisa was and yet failed again to provide support, failed offering help in finding employment, failed in aiding to find an apartment, no moral support, no counseling. For a week Lisa sat on her cot, heartbroken, then she left and was back on the street and back on crack. Every now and then she knocks on the doors of Austin Street Center asking for a cup of water and a sandwich.

A few years ago a homeless man working through the work-program in the kitchen at Austin Street Center started dating a female client who had a young son. Sometimes, as many homeless people do to escape the shelter setting for a day or two, the couple would spend the weekend in a motel taking the boy along. When the woman and her son came back to the shelter the woman reported having found the man in the shower with her son. Only then was the man checked against the sex-offender database that is accessible to anyone at no cost and was found to have a conviction for sexual misconduct with his stepchildren. The shelter did not ban the man from its campus, although he later decided to leave on his own.

A shelter that admits women and children must ensure that sex-offenders cannot access that shelter. It is outrageous that shelter operators deny homeless children this protective right. If shelters admit sex-offenders they must publically post that fact and keep children out.