No affirmation here, just down words

Legal trouble pushed him to the Sheridan Community Homeless Shelter.
He had been placed on probation for a non-violent crime, and his probation officer had given the young man specific and limited latitude on where and with whom he could live.
Housing was tight in Sheridan then, as it is now.
He could not have a roommate, and he had to have a place with a landline phone. He had to maintain employment and pay regularly on his fines. He could not leave the county, nor have his probation transferred to his home county in another state.
He was required to make three job applications per day until he got a job. I advised him to take no less than $10 per hour, so he could pay fines more quickly and save for the initial expenses of renting an apartment.
He was never trouble at the shelter. He did his chores, met with me to make sure he was on track, and ignored a staff member who often taunted him by saying, “What are you doing here?” or, “Why are you still here?”
This staff told me he believed the young man was a drug user, and would come to nothing during his stay at the shelter. I, too, ignored the staff member.
Of all the things that a homeless person needs when they get up enough courage to enter a shelter is personal affirmation – someone to believe in them – someone to believe in them for them. Of all the needs ignored most at the Volunteers of America Sheridan Community Homeless Shelter, it is this need of affirmation. One of the staff and the director are quick with criticism and belittlement and bullying – the exact opposite of what one expect from a supposed Christian-based work.
It is in the “Rule of St. Benedict” (the founder of the Benedictine monastic order) that each stranger is to be treated as though he were Christ in disguise. At the shelter, each stranger is treated as a suspect, a sore festering with dereliction, a problem, a threat and a pest. The Rule of St. Benedict is not spoken here.
The young man stayed a long time with us, given his constricted situation. Eventually I suggested he ask his PO if he could have an approved roommate, and said I would attest to his good behavior, hard work and pleasant character.
He just barely made it out of the shelter before he was to be kicked out. The director was very concerned that we had helped this guy out. Apparently, she doesn’t like to see people succeed outside of her control.