Midtown Shelter deserves better

The Journal missed a good chance to bypass the cheapand-easy tale for a truer look at Santa Fe’s Midtown Shelter (“Employees: Midtown shelter rife with safety issues,” June 14 edition).

As a citizen, I don’t feel one ounce of public money has been misspent at this shelter, and as a staff member of the shelter since its second week, I don’t feel in danger working there. I feel as safe as at a public library or Smith’s or the Plaza, and certainly safer than driving or cycling the streets of Santa Fe. (I’m speaking for myself here, not for the city or my colleagues.)

The unhappy activities at the shelter mirror those in any Santa Fe neighborhood, including the rarefied ones. It would be nice to welcome new residents and — poof! — resolve any addiction or other problems they might contend with, but in March that was not the charge to the team developing an emergency shelter on one day’s notice. Emergency. Tomorrow.

The shelter has evolved and will continue to, and that is a much more interesting story than what was printed.

None of us likes seeing the evidence of drug flow, shelter residents included, but I think some slack might be cut here for a new emergency shelter in a dorm, given that the prisonindustrial complex with steel and barbed wire, and clanging gates can’t seem to do any better.

As for shelter staff “training,” I’m not sure what that would have been outside of better communication amongst ourselves. Maybe an online course? “How to run an emergency housing shelter … right now!” We could go on and on.

The midtown shelter residents are a mix of personalities and circumstances, as is the shelter staff. Not everyone fits. I think we’ve done pretty well together so far and will improve. Some residents will leave the shelter better off, some will try again. We all need room to fail. Including the Journal.

You might try this topic again some time.

JEFFREY DONLAN Santa Fe