Safeplace shelter opened Mar. 18th to house single homeless women and allows pets.
There are 60 cots, occupied within months of opening.
Since then approximately:
- 20 women are forced out permanently
- 18 women (and counting) are forced out anywhere from a day to a month
- sometimes in the middle of the night
- always while their beds sit empty
Tiffany, a staff director, is throwing residents out on the streets for trivial, injudicious reasons such as:
- having an extra pillow
- voicing concerns about mistreatment
- returning to shelter minutes after 10 pm
- leaving pets with an animal sitter while job interviewing
There are numerous instances where Tiffany has neglected, dismissed, and retaliated against residents who disagree or express concern.
Retaliation ranges from sabotaging resident opportunities to destroying personal property without consent.
This abuse of power should NEVER be tolerated and certainly not compensated by Government Grants/ Taxpayer's money. It's disturbing to think that a government let alone a community pays somebody who berates, marginalizes, abuses and exploits vulnerable women who've suffered trauma, PTSD, battery, and mental illness most of their lives.
Tiffany's ill-advised compulsions of controlling instead of collaborating is a detriment not only to residents but also staff; resulting in losing good employees, who have made a positive impact.
Some reasons good employees quit are because Tiffany: doesn't know how to mentor nor manage, lacks emotional intelligence, uses bad judgment, poor communication skills, doesn't value integrity, and makes discriminatory remarks.
There are a few good staff members here who not only have better experience but also better work ethics. These employees should replace Tiffany's position individually or collectively. The employees she favors are the ones who are complicit in her actions and choose not to speak up because they either agree with her or afraid of losing their job.
It's like cancer destroying any progress to end homelessness from the inside out.
You can't just treat the symptoms (ex. Make enough shelters beds to house homelessness population) because the oppressive treatment in shelters breeds chronic homelessness. You have to cut out cancer.
The very people she claims to help are saying she's doing more harm than good. That is indicative of the fact that she is NOT inspiring supportive nor empowering women.(aka WISE "women inspire support empower")
A good leader (or at least somebody who chooses human services as their career) should know when to step down and let somebody competent and more capable of being an ethical, effective leader do the job, which in essence is best practice.
There is a need for shelters which allow single women who are homeless due to trauma a safe place to stay while rebuilding their lives, led by somebody who knows how to empathize, inspire, positively encourage and empower.
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