Angeline’s Center is a place where a homeless woman has a chance of getting it together — that is, unless someone accuses her of losing it.
Gwenetta Allen says that’s what happened to her at the downtown Seattle YWCA shelter, which booted her Sept. 4 for two weeks. Much to her frustration, Allen says that Angeline’s gave her only one recourse for getting back in: She had to admit that she’d lost her temper, called two staff members “prejudiced white bitches,” and threatened them.
Allen, a 49-year-old Black woman who’s been using the shelter off and on in the two years since she’s been homeless, says it never happened, but her argument fell on deaf ears — a problem, she says, with a system that demands obedience without concern for what’s fair.
Angeline’s operates both a day center and night shelter that Allen says she relies on to take showers and dress for work as a hospital clerk — something that other shelters she has stayed at since don’t afford. Two Angeline’s staff members did meet with her Sept. 26 for what’s called a bar review meeting to allow her back in, but when she asked for specifics — and documentation — for what she was supposed to have done, and when, she was told none of that mattered.
“They wouldn’t answer any questions for me,” Allen says. “They just wanted to make sure I’d learned my lesson.”
Allen was finally allowed back in Angeline’s in November after filing a discrimination complaint with Seattle’s Office of Civil Rights, which is now investigating what happened.
She says the trouble started the afternoon of Sept. 3 in Angeline’s bunk room, where she says she came in and noticed a woman staring at her. When she asked the woman why, Allen says the other client shot out of the room — one of three times the woman would do so.
The next time, a staff member came back with the woman and told Allen to have no contact with her. The third time, Allen was told to go for the night.
When she returned the next morning to take a shower, she was told she was barred for two weeks. The reason she was given: Another client said Allen had called staff members “prejudiced white bitches” and that she would “whip their asses” — a threat that Angeline’s does not take lightly, particularly after an employee was stabbed in July by a mentally ill woman.
On her way out Sept. 3, Allen recalls asking staff members why she had to leave, but says she called no one names, much less made threats.
The claims and favoritism shown to the other client led Allen to file the racial discrimination complaint. But Elliott Bronstein, a spokesperson for the Office of Civil Rights, says that a decision to investigate doesn’t mean there was discrimination, something it could take weeks or months to determine. Most organizations, he says, reach an agreement with the complainant well before a decision is reached to avoid the potential of being sued by the city.
It’s not the first time, however, that Angeline’s has been the subject of a complaint. Allen’s makes the fourth Office of Civil Rights investigation at the shelter since 2004, according to Public Disclosure officer Ron Ramp. One is currently pending and remains confidential, he says. Two others, in 2004, involved a disabled woman who said her service animal was barred from the shelter and a Black woman who also claimed racism.
Both were found to have no cause. But Bronstein points out that a “no cause” finding isn’t the same as saying nothing happened. It’s saying nothing could be proved, which is exactly what Allen says frustrates her.
“I’m fair,” says Allen, who became homeless in a domestic violence situation. “If you break the rules, you suffer the consequences, but people like myself have been barred for no reason.”
Not so, says Julie Kettman, Angeline’s community affairs manager. “A decision about who is asked to leave the facility is not made unilaterally but by staff conferring together,” she says — and all staff participate in anti-racist communication and diversity trainings.
“The YWCA has a zero tolerance policy regarding racist behavior or actions by staff, clients or vendors,” she says.
Kettman says bar review meetings are a place where clients can acknowledge their behavior and agree to abide by the shelter’s rules. Barred women can repeat the process as many times as it takes to do this, but no documentation is presented and there is no way to contest facts.
“In a conflict situation that can be emotional and high-strung, it’s important for staff to focus on what we know or what we believed happened, what we’ve written down,” Kettman says, “to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”