Life at Union Gospel Mission Sacramento....
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Men can get a bed it is for 7 nights (With a valid TB card) at a time and all you have to do is a few things to keep it for the 7 nights. You need to be there at the 6:30 bed check time to check in for your bed. If you miss the check in time you might be able to get on the standby list. You are not allowed to leave the mission property after chapel call, if you step outside the gates after chapel call or if you are on the standby list you loose any chance of getting a bed for the night. You may be asked to do kitchen duty for the evening. If you don't do kitchen duty if they assigned you to do it you loose your bed. If you cause issues during service or even after you are in bed for the night you can loose your bed too. There is no sleeping in chapel service. After Chapel service dinner is served to those that sat through chapel. the meals vary every day depending on who brought in food for the men, women and sometimes children. The mission offers dinner 7 days a week 365 days a year.
Problems at union gospel mission....
Those that run the mission tell the program men not to allow a homeless individual to get a bed regardless if there is any available beds for 3 days while others that had a bed the night before get a bed for another week again.An individual homeless guest was targeted by those that run the mission because he was getting a bed too often they say. While it was a fact that this individual was frequently getting a bed week after week like so many others there was also another fact that they didn't take into account. There are frequently empty beds every night so anyone that was a repeater that signed up for a bed would get a bed. This is common during the summer when most homeless stay outside all night by choice. With the weather changing more people are starting to come in to get a bed at night because it is getting colder and rainy weather also drives people to the mission for a bed to stay dry at night.
There is a rumor that someone complained about this particular individual for what ever reason and they decided to target this individual and the staff decided to make an example of this individual with a mandatory 3 days out.
Repeaters have to sign up at the 5:30 call and those with a lower number are on the top of the list while those with a high number are at the bottom of the list. Also priority will go to those that have been out for more nights over those that had a bed the night before when there is a lack of beds.
In the case of the individual that had to be out for 3 nights with no chance of getting a bed those 3 nights there is one rumor that the person that complained about it was getting a high number all the time and at the bottom of the list and decided to cause trouble. There is another rumor that an individual in the program or staff member decided to cause trouble for this individual. The staff or program member causing this issue is more likely due to a comment that was made to the individual about getting kicked out for 3 nights.
While the exact details may never be known why this particular individual was targeted there is no rule currently that states that you have a mandatory 3 days out before you can get back in line for a bed. If they are going to target one individual like this and tell him that he has to stay out 3 days for no good reason then they need to make it mandatory for every guest to stay out 3 days at a time. This is just another form of discrimination and with targeting a single individual like they did there may be legal consequences. There was no reason for them to target this individual for any reason like they did.I know from experience that there is no special treatment for kitchen workers. however being that some of the last kitchen workers may be on standby they do stand a higher chance of getting a bed because there may be an empty bed by the end of the night. Sometimes beds are found to be empty at the last minute but everyone that was on standby has left for the night so the bed remains empty for the night.
Food Issues at the mission. There is major food issues at the mission that amount to the fact that when the food comes in to the mission different groups of people go through it and pick out all the good stuff and all that the mission is left with is crap that is left over. There needs to be a change in this policy where the mission gets decent selection of food and those that come to get food get a pre done food box where they don't get to pick out what they want. If those that come to get food don't like getting a pre done food box they can go else where.
An individual program man threatens homeless guy because he says the guy is staring at him. He then gets into verbal confrontation cussing at him and threatening him from the other side of the fence. The homeless guy tells him that he wasn't even looking at him and the program guy just goes off on him even more. eventually the homeless man just turns the other way and ignores the program guy that obviously has a bunch of problems.
A few days later the same guy in chapel service disrupts the service saying how he doesn't like people staring at him and starts causing a commotion. He is escorted outside the chapel by others in the program and he gets even louder. Eventually the commotion dies down and the service goes on as usual.
Update: There has been attempts to eliminate bed bugs but the pest exterminators that have been out refuse to treat for bedbugs leaving the bed bug problem to the mission staff & program men to deal with on there own. When anyone notices or reports bedbug problems they try to strip the bed and spray it to hopefully kill the bedbugs.
Update: After the remodel of the program mens sleeping area all the guest beds were cleaned and sprayed to kill the bedbugs. So far no new bedbugs have been found however it is only a matter of time before someone brings in more with them. hopefully it will be a long time before any new bedbugs show up in the beds.
There is a limited number of programs available for men at the Union Gospel Mission. Drug, Alcohol, Smoking, and maybe a few other programs are available to those who join the program. The program is 9 months and during this time they have different stages of things they can and can not do while they are there.
There could be some additional programs that could be offered if the mission was to go along with it. such services could include: Those that volunteer for kitchen duty every night and do an excellent job would get higher priority after newcomers to get a bed. This could be made an official program at the mission. There would be some requirements for the program of coarse including doing your assigned task every night you are there. If you are out a night due to some reason you wouldn't be penalized if you have a valid reason such as you got a flat tire on your bike on the way back from clear across town as an example.
Extend programs that are available for other issues. Some have physical and others have mental problems that maybe they are unable to get the help they need so depending on what the issue is there could be a regular program that would offer additional help for those that need it.
There are some things that could be ran totally by volunteers while some things may require a professional to be on site to run the program.
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