Bridge Over Troubled Waters Inc

Dianna Jaylene

TERRIBLE program for youth and single mothers. I spent 8 months in the Single Parent House in Brighton with my 2 year old daughter. That was over a year ago, and now I work for a company that serves homeless families in Boston. I can't BELIEVE how I was treated during my time at Bridge. This program is not made up of employees who are looking to make a difference. These are people who get off on terrorizing and belittling young adults in the most vulnerable time of their lives. I sought out this program and made the decision to move in to make the right choices for myself and my child. Instead, I was made to feel like trash for being there. I felt like a prisoner. They listen to every conversation, the staff talk nasty about residents to other residents, they instigate arguments between residents, and they DO NOT SUPPORT YOUR NEEDS. I came into the program being told the staff would help you with resources, this that & the third, just to move in and be told that it's a self-sufficient program and you're on your own. Not without making your circumstances 10000x less attainable with their impossible rules. Every mom I moved in with during that time was KICKED OUT with less than a weeks notice to leave because the staff were lying! I came in 2 hours early before curfew one night. The next day, a staff told me that they're gonna kick me out and want me gone within 3 days because the night staff reported I came home nearly at 1AM! I asked staff to review the cameras and they said NO! There were pregnant mothers, mother's of newborns, mothers with young children like myself - all kicked out after spending months there with no support. No one ever reached out to even see if we were okay! I came into the program HOMELESS. Where do you think I had to go once asked to leave on such short notice. The city needs to shut this program DOWN! It's not right what they're doing to the youth in those shelters. Absolutely disgusting and inhumane. I could go on and on about the mistreatment I experienced here. I have documented incidents and recordings of staff abusing us. Someone needs to do something. Thank you to the few staff who showed how much they cared. I'm sorry you were employed to a company ran by tyrants.

Luis Olivencia

This is by far the worst shelter you can go to. Not only did I stay in it but my cousin who came homeless from Florida stayed there and we both had the most horrible experience. They don’t care about your life at all they bully you to try and get you to leave. They bully you when you try to eat some food especially Shelly the women who opens the door downstairs who claims to be the director of the shelter loves to go upstairs and bully anybody she sees. If you have a job or need any type of support to better your future they do not help one bit but would rather find any excuse to throw you out instead and make it seem like they tried to help you but you didn’t want the help. I honestly think this shelter need to be closed down and revised with new staff members that love there job and want to help people out. Nobody there is looking out for anybody who truly needs help they just throw them out. Then romani one of the the head staff members will lie to save face stating that people never ask for help when clearly there is a lot of people constantly asking for bus passes to get to work or help with job searching or resume setups but like I stated before nobody there cares

Keith King

I'm 67 and I used to live in Boston back in the 70s. They used to have a medical van that came to Harvard Square to check up on us street people and meet our health and food needs. I've been married now for 40 years and live in Kansas. I remember the wonderful people of BOTW and especially a really great woman named Sis. Barbara. We loved her --- she was always ready to talk to us, give us advice, food, and just her sincere love and care. I will never, ever forget the what they did for us. Thank you so much!!

Lush Lash

The concept of this organization sounds better than the actual experience. They use the fact that you’re homeless to subtlety treat you like dirt. There were amazing people who were actually helpful and considerate over the fact that you don’t have your life together, but a lot of the employees have terrible and hostile attitudes, especially KIESHA who clearly has some unresolved issues with herself so she projects a lot. Seek help girl. People will act like they’re doing things with good intent but in reality it’s to feed their savior complex since they feel like they’re in a better situation than you are.