HomeMy WebLinkAboutThompson 11.29.20From: Gabe Thompson <gabebthompson@gmail.com>
To: apavone@rentonwa.gov; eprince@rentonwa.gov; rcorman@rentonwa.gov; rperez@rentonwa.gov; vohalloran@r
entonwa.gov; kvan@rentonwa.gov; abenedetti@rentonwa.gov; mcirvin@rentonwa.gov
Date: 2020-11-29 20:26
Subject: Red Lion
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Hello!
It has come to my attention that Renton representatives are looking into shutting down the Red Lion shelter being run by DESC.
I work at DESC. The baseline quality of life for our clients has gone up exponentially just by having access to their own rooms. Before COVID, the people who
were lucky enough to make it into the shelter were packed into large rooms on bunk beds, with little space and no privacy. I understand that many local Renton
residents find our clients disruptive. That is understandable. However, they have warm beds to go home to and are not in any kind of danger from our clients.
Whereas the folks staying at the Red Lion will be put on the street, where they will likely die, but definitely, be subjected to abuse from other people and the
elements. While Renton residents may not want to be friends with our clients, no one is asking them to be. We are simply asking that our clients are allowed to
exist.
If the Red Lion Shelter is shut down, I can promise you I am not the only DESC worker who will fight it. Who will call, and email, and picket if needed. We will lose
jobs, so we'll have lots of time and incentive to do so. If the citizens of Renton find our clients disruptive, we will be more disruptive.
It can be easy to look at people that seem different than you and forget they are human. It can be easy to tell yourself all sorts of stories about how they did
something to deserve the position they're in. Our clients are on the street because of circumstances not under their control. Our clients are victims of sexual
abuse, business owners before they lost everything, people who fall through the cracks of our "medical" system. People who can't work and can't pay their bills.
People who are simply old, and poor, and have no one to support them. But regardless of any of this, absolutely no one deserves to be dehumanized. No one
deserves to sleep on the cold, hard, sidewalk. I wish everyone that wants to remove our clients without providing adequate resources for them would spend one
night on the street. I think they would learn a lot. It's a special kind of terrifying, a special kind of lonely, a special kind of dehumanizing. You can't really
understand it without experiencing it yourself. And that's just one night, with a loving home and family to go back to.
Thank you for your time,
Gabe Thompson