Tuesday, 25 January

Today was a slow day. I arrived at 9 and left by 5, but worked mostly with the Grant Writer, editing and proofreading and planning for the upcoming deadlines (she's going out of town later this week and will not be here for one of them).

Later in the day, I met with the Advocate to make phone calls to the HSP clients that I found in FaF's database. We spoke with a woman who, the Advocate inferred, seemed so grateful for her housing to complain about any "small" issues. However, the woman did mention that the building was extremely dirty; 'gross' was the word she used, I believe. After she got off the phone, she seemed disappointed that the client wasn't living in worse conditions (or, at least that she wasn't admitting to living in crappy conditions; there's a thought that, though it may be infested with rats and peeling lead paint dust into the children's cereal, at least it's not the streets). I'm concerned that, in her passion for protecting our clients and fighting for their rights, she sees NYCDHS as the enemy and looks for their weakness. She, of course, has more experience dealing with them, knows their track record better than I, but, in my humble opinion, compromise and communication are the keys to resolving conflict, and tools, I'm afraid, the Advocate finds obsolete.