Professionalism, Ethics & Quality Customer Care ???

Where is the Professionalism, proper Business Ethics and Customer Svc & Care? What happened to the verse and verse wording on the mission statements of these nonprofit help agencies? What is going on?

Common Knowledge: Most every single place of business cares about issues & complaints regarding interpersonal relations and customer service; they all offer assistance by providing email addresses and website contact forms for online venting...in person, if & when you ask for a supervisor you get one, one who listens and then addresses the problems to their personnel - and even apologizes to you to boot! Hell, even welfare departments in every State have a toll-free number to call for every question and issue...most all form letter & mailing offer hearing and grievance procedures providing opportunities for those who need to rectify issues -- this is LIFE!  Most all retail chains, supermarkets & drugstores (such as CVS & Kinney Drugs, Kmart and Starbucks etc) have 800 numbers and direct email addresses to their Customer Service Departments for customers to report a complaint or concern - one is then immediately responded to with an apology and a way they will rectify the issue... Another great example of my understandable point is that you could be arrested &/or in jail and you still have the right to file a complaint on the way you were treated and it will be addressed by officials...there would be an investigation etc... 

Well, as we all know, NO complaint concern is ever swept under the rug or ignored (unless you are dealing with a very shady or illegal place of business)!! I feel strongly or know that had all the issues been taken into account, to begin with, and then the simple matters resolved so that the very mission of Champlain Housing Trust, as well as that of Women Helping Battered Women AND CVOEO/Community Action been upheld and adhered to >> me & my Son would never have had to live through what we did and lose everything, literally. There were tons of complaints from so many guests from the get go soon after Harbor Place opens!...

After five long months of being at Harbor Place, there were FINALLY complaints from me! Interestingly I did not know at the time, but it was almost immediately after the Legal Aid Complaint matter concluded with CHT...then the trouble started for us and I had no problem contacting the upper management with any concerns for the next four months of our living at Harbor Place. 

All the Harbor Place/Champlain Housing Trust complaints were repeatedly & systematically ignored, all of them from other guests, from Legal Aid representing other concerned people, and all of them from me - my in-person talks of concern, my voicemail messages and my emails... 

Based on my own experience and what I know; what I overheard and what many people shared with me: it is a fact that people (myself included) naturally complained to anyone who would listen: 

• of course, they spoke to their so-called case workers at Harbor Place, this includes  

1. Women Helping Battered Women 
2. CVOEO and 
3. Safe Harbor 

--- who where hearing stories over and over all day everyday for months!...

• they complained at COTS (if one had affiliation there, such as a case manager)...

• they complained and complained at the Economic Services office (asking & begging not to be placed at Harbor Place) they complained, of course, to their Vermont State welfare "Reach Up" workers

• again, of course, they expressed concerns to their Howard Center mental health workers & counselors (if they had one) they asked and begged the people placing them by phone on Vermont 211 

• people called up Vermont Legal Aid to complain & get assistance

• people who knew about it & had the number, called the Governers Hotline to complain

• people told me they even called the Women Helping Battered Women Hotline to express concern and get 

• "help" (myself included on this one!...all to no avail, of course, just false talks & listening per as usual from the inexperienced and unconcerned management) 

• the families involved with DCF Family Service workers, of course, complained (I know of two people who told me their stories and that they "told their workers about it") >>> basically any Social Service worker and Agency in their lives...why not, it is what they were going through, so venting on it and sharing their concerns would help them right? Wrong. 

AND FINALLY:

• THE LEGAL AID COMPLAINTS! There was also the outlet of complaining to Vermont Legal Aid (read all about it on the Legal Aid Complaints Page of this site)

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My questions are very simple, and yet somehow profound because it has eluded too many people of the Town of Shelburne, the people of the Burlington Area & the State of Vermont, the local Press & Media -- for over three whole years !! 

>> If CHT cares so much about "helping people" as they repeatedly claim and make statements about when interviewed (and so does Women Helping Battered Women and CVOEO, of course...)

WELL THEN: 

1) How/why could any client-customer or guests complaint or concern NOT be important ??? 

2) Why/how do these valid and serious concerns not matter to a place of business, much less non-profits supposed to be "helping people" ??? 

3) Why/how is it all so difficult to rectify and remove the obvious & simple issues from the daily business practice? 

4) Why/how gloss it over and just pretend that it all never happened nor existed? None of the wrong doings and none of the complaints...

Of course, this includes: MY very own intelligent & valid complaints on the critical issues regarding the Case Management that I finally made in December 2014 - after living at Harbor Place for five whole months at that time; and loving it very much (but getting little to no "case management" at all) !!...

And then, as months went on, there were my concerning complaints of wrong doings & mistreatment to me and my 9yr old Son, that I had begun regularly reporting to upper CHT management via voicemails left to the two upper managers and in person at the office if/when I saw them & had an issue of concern to share...then finally, via email in defense of my 30day kick-out ban -- and ultimately during my two whole hours Appeal Meeting...(more on this later)..  I basically shared all the real trouble that started with us bigtime in January and continuing all the way to April 2015 when we had to leave!!...**(see the other blog posts on this Site for more on this) 

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The Legal Aid Complaints + More About Us & Our Story!

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THE LEGAL AID COMPLAINTS 
+ More About Us & Our Story
by Adrienne G

Guests reporting Harbor Place issues to Legal Aid was simply the matter that ALL people are simply that: people. Homeless & Poverty stricken people are NOT just numbers & statistics for funding purposes - they count as human beings! Everybody in life needs an outlet of hope that ensures accountability on the wrong doings from places of business, or anything that troubles us in our lives...

Due to word of mouth, friendships among guests etc...people who were staying or had stayed at Harbor Place knew to call the local Chittenden County Vermont Legal Aid with their concerns & their numerous mistreatment & mismanagement stories. Needless to say that, of course, people shared their issues with family and friends - and any advocate, social worker, or clinician in their lives as well (this would obviously include the very housing case management workers working on the premises of Harbor Place, five days a week)...

As the time past with Harbor Place in the business of housing financially struggling Vermonters via the Economic Services office on Pearl Street in Burlington, and also through Howard Center and UVM Medical Center by referral & placement: It had become a known fact - among guests, previous guests & a lot of town folk - that this "Legal Aid' thing was something actively going on. It was made clear to me in speaking with so many Guests (past & present) that a lot of people assumed it was some legal action against Harbor Place (like a lawsuit) but it was not. Some people referred to it all as "an investigation" against Property Manager Dan, but of course, this was not the case either. 

The Legal Aid Complaints (what I officially call it here on this project) is not ever openly acknowledged by Harbor Place staff or Champlain Housing Trust at all; nor was it known by the media/press, and the facts of it had never been published in any news outlet. On a funny side note of this project: I did, however, share this - among other things - with a Vermont television reporter who at fist was very interested, but was most likely told by the supervising producer that "Harbor Place Stories" was not to be covered...I think I know why too...AND that has to be very interesting in itself! Right? (and another story altogether for later on).

Anyways, in early 2015 when I finally did meet with Legal Aid myself to discuss my issues & concerns and try to get much needed legal "help" for me and my Son on several issues -- I informed them of my passions...that I was an Artist, Humanitarian..and a Writer/Blogger and that I would make it all known to the public as a Human Interest project... I don't think they believed me or had any faith in me or my hobbies, skills or capabilities...(after all, I was in trouble and living at Harbor Place so who am I?).....well, I will leave this here and refrain from further comments on what they thought about me...Who cares.

**(Our Legal Aid Story is that we don't end up getting much, or any help from them but needed it, the details of this will develop later as Our Story continues within this project)...

So, back to the Legal Aid Complaints - as a direct source had informed me and from what I know myself having lived at Harbor Place for approximately 8 months by the time this news was fully shared with me in February 2015, these are the facts:

THE LEGAL AID COMPLAINT STORY

(from first-hand knowledge and eye-witnessed accounts, as noted above)

The *Legal Aid Complaints* begin soon after Harbor Place opens in Fall 2013. They begin to get calls regarding mistreatment & wrong-doings by the staff routinely against Guests involving issues about the overall business practice -- including sexual harassment. I know that some good people, advocates truly doing their jobs and concerned with what they were hearing, did the right thing and helped out by actually providing support to guests who started to voice their stories of complaint... 

It has always been my continued concern to this day as to why/how would no other VT advocate, social worker (including State employees of Economic Services) who heard the stories over and over on a daily basis, month after month (well into March of 2015!) listening to people complain & protest being sent to Harbor Place...why/how did nothing happen, nothing was stopped and this all was - and is still - allowed to continue for so long and now over 2 whole yrs ??? Truly unbelievable.

I was disgusted by the entire matter, among other things, but it was a small relief to have learned that some previous Case Workers of the *complaint period* (spanning its opening until the Spring of 2014+) that were involved with Harbor Place clients, such as some workers from COTS, had played a role in HELPING people by confirming & assisting Guests with their Legal Aid Complaints. I also had learned that as all the months develop into Spring 2014, and beyond, Legal Aid was getting about 2 to 3 phone calls of complaints & concerns from Guests per week since Harbor Place opened its doors! 

The numerous complaint calls about Harbor Place that came into Legal Aid were handled by a team of Attorney & Paralegal who took in the continued reports as they came in... Months later in the Fall of 2014, the complaints officially culminated to about 5 or 6 Guests (all former or some still at Harbor Place is not clear to me) who agree to speak out in person about their issues and share the details of what happened to them to the Attorney of Champlain Housing Trust. 

The informal hearing-style meetings were held at the CHT offices in Burlington. The questioning of these brave complainants, the Harbor Place Guests, last for two whole days. It is important to note that no CHT upper management, no Harbor Place staff - nor the CEO or CFO of Champlain Housing Trust was involved with, or present, at these hearings !! Unbelievable. 

Even more unbelievable and very important to note, is that Champlain Housing Trust CEO Brenda Torpey nor the CFO Michael Monte, never even spoke to anyone from Legal Aid at all throughout the entire matter !! I was told by the direct source of Legal Aid: "they refused to talk to us". The CHT attorney handled all the communications with Legal Aid.

Then in late Fall of 2014, now over one month later or so after the "hearing complaint interviews", a formal reply in form of a two-page letter was finally sent into Legal Aid by the CHT Attorney. Unbelievably again, it denied any unlawful wrong-doing & discredits some (or all?) of the Guests who were involved...and that was it, End of story on that. The source told me: "it was so disappointing...and we were never saying they did anything unlawful"... Clearly, this was a complaint effort for acknowledgment of the major problems by CHT; then some CHANGE (as any business would address), and maybe some apologies. Right? But how can anyone address change or apologize if they first will not acknowledge the truth, no matter how ugly...???

...Interesting is that indeed, there are some "changes" at Harbor Place in the aftermath of the Legal Aid Complaint of Fall 2014 and then, additionally, my own valid & serious concerns voiced to CHT upper management in person (that very Fall Season in December)...changes that do not address anything in favor of the Guests concerns. In fact, quite the opposite...somehow...!! Unbelievable.
**(more on this too, later in our Series)

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