Few incidents I experienced at the shelter (all bad experiences except one nice experience when I got a voucher to buy a pant and a shirt given to me by my case worker) at 94 York Boulevard Shelter in Hamilton ON L8R1R6 – Posted July 03 of 2022 Day #184 repeated Day #185.

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN/INTEREST

First incident happened just few days after from June 20th. This time around in 2022 I was booked-in a room with two beds. I was assigned bed E13, there was another person in bed E12. Few days later one of the staff of Shelter thought E12 was my room mate. I clarified E12 was not my room mate. I was on my own. One of the evenings aroung 8’O clock a female staff entered the room and wanted to know if I had seen E12 (while I was all day outdoors), just before entering the room on the third floor she was heard talking to the man in E12 bed. I had absolutely no connection with the E12 and completely irrelevant to me where he was.

Man using bed E12 falsely accused me of using his towel and tried to start an altercation which I ignored. A night before he was not in bed most of the night perhaps he was on night out etc. I reported this incident of towel to the desk staff of the shelter to find out why would he think that. All day I was outdoors, during meal times beds and/or rooms were not accessible and when I entered the room around 18h30 that day man was already sitting in his bed E12 so it was not me who would have used his towel, perhaps it was someone else who used my name to use the towel. After this brief altercation he dashed to the bathroom and came back to his bed E12 with a towel. I heard him say apologize, during all this I was trying to digest what was happening, suddenly he started warming up again and said ruud etc. at this point I went downstairs and spoke to the desk staff about this incident but did not pursue it any further after that because I was relocated to E4 with single bed. Some wet clothes were seen hanging in the windows with dripping water, similar to water dropping from the ceiling. This caused light flooding on the floor. I requested the desk staff to change my room to avoid any mistakes and confusions in understanding the situation about who was doing what etc. and I was transferred immediately to single bed room E4. It was the day I took a shower at YMCA on saturday June 25 of 2022.

One evening, same person of E12 bed was seen doing something under my bed E13 (before I was moved to E4) right after I went upstairs after dinner around 18h00, I could see him from outside the door without entering that he was in a funny position on my side of the bed, when he detected me at the door, he got away from my side of the bed with a pedestal fan in his hand and connected the fan to his side power outlet but facing the fan towards me. I don’t like fan air which I told the staff requested them to turn the face of the fan onto him, not on to me.

On July 03 of 2022 an unknown person came from behind while I was waiting in line for lunch/meal around noon time and poked his finger in baked pie on my food tray, I told the kitchen staff about it, man who was serving food replaced it with another baked pie. just few minutes later while I was still in line, same person attacked my tray again from behind and spilled the bowl of soup in the tray by lifting the bowl with his hand. Instead of getting in any argument with the person I decided to leave the tray and walked out of the kitchen in protest of this despicable childish/bullyish behaviour. A staff who was collecting the lunch tickets intervened and suggested that I should take another tray. Which I did, but I lost my appetite. This was the second time I lost my appetite. Just few days before on June 30 heavy police presence outside the shelter caused me to loose my appetite and I skipped my Supper because of the police presence.

My case worker gave me a voucher to buy clothes (a pant and a shirt) from their recommended store in Hamilton on King Street East. That store has very limited selection. It was nice of my case worker to think of it and issue a voucher. Because I was completely depleted of my possessions except clothes I was wearing and few items in my possession such as phone, documents in my pockets etc. after the wrong and illegal break-in entry into my previous ID address of Fennell Ave. East. I have updated several relevant agencies and my ID’s with current information, but there was no contact yet from the previous place.

Group of people in Dorm C on second floor do not sleep all night. This group in Dorm C mumbles, talks, makes noise, drop things etc. to keep each other awake most of the night which keeps me awake as well. Perhaps they might have the opportunity to sleep during the day time but I have no opportunity to sleep during day time, that’s why it is necessary for me to sleep at night.

Reason behind choosing Canada to live in 1993 was not this kind of life style. It was professional life style that attracted us to Canada as a place to live, ti raise children for better future.

Khalid Mahmood. خالد محمود

Published/Documented by:

Ontario ID#: M01684340561220

staying at a shelter in downtown Hamilton since June 20 due to a personal emergency.