Marlene is no longer homeless (at least for now) and I asked her how she found housing. This is how I understand it. A man that worked at Heuss House way downtown which closed (thanks to the mayors cuts although he has money to give raises, go figure) recognized her and I gather or I am guessing he now works at Henry Settlement Shelter and was able to get her housing.
If you look closely you can see my reflection in the mirror taking her photo.
She was sober tonight when I bought her dinner. I told her it had come to my attention that a local blogger had taken a photo of her exposing her breasts. I asked her if she was aware he put the photo this on the world wide web of it because at the time she appeared drunk which sadly is often the case. She did not know the photo of her was up on the blog and I suggested if she was not comfortable to ask that it be removed. Thanks to The New York Post explaining the law, I now understand that if, let us say a woman is very drunk and a man takes sexually advantage of her it could be considered rape.
If anyone was taking advantage of Marlene it would be greatly disturbing because she has issues and her housing situation is tenuous. She is a sweet person. She is difficult at times when she is drunk or in need of a drink but ultimately she is a good soul. She needs a lot more support and care than she is getting but that is true of so many people that live mostly on the street and struggle with addictions as well as homelessness.
Note: King Mike closed Heuss House and an other homeless shelter. The man that spotted Marlene was in the area I am guessing working at Henry Settlement because Heuss was closed. It is sad and wrong to close resources for homeless. She was lucky someone spotted her and assisted her in getting housing. Because she drinks and booze effects her mental state including anger when she can't get any, I fear she will lose her housing and also that she will be taken advantage of. I never hand her money but I do buy her food when I can, sometimes a pack of cigarettes. It is really disturbing their is some much alcohol abuse and also drugs....it is a hard cycle to break. I gave up coffee and that was hard. I can't imagine giving up these things that have such a powerfully destructive grip on people. Of course the people that profit are delighted. The addictions and their vicious cycle are in possible to ignore because in NYC there is a high volume of people caught in this cycle, some are homeless, some are not and some are just visiting to get their fix of party central.
For women -- I can't warn you enough about being careful because women that drink can wake up the next day with soreness and have no memory of being raped because the date rape drug was put in their drink or maybe they were just flat out too drunk to remember. Human nature is predatory -- sorry to say that. Humans can be very loving and very good but here in NYC it is easy to see the predators lurking about. It is very disturbing.
