Comment: The homeless are always a mirror reflection of the true conditions of a given society and this American society is in a poor state of affairs and constantly getting worse. Look at the sad worried faces of those around you in the streets.
The U.S. has already wasted about a trillion dollars on the Iraq-nam War! There are millionns of homeless people who are displaced refugees all ove the world. We should be concenrating on creating new housing programs for poor people here now inside the United States, not foreign wars!
Internet power is one main way of spreading the news and revealing the truth to those who are online, but we should also get actively involved in our local communities and keep in mind the connected realities of our HERE AND NOW! Think global,work local.
Remember: Jesus is the reason for the season.
~Blessings, Peter S. Lopez aka:Peta~
Email: sacranative@yahoo.com
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Diverse solution to homeless problem urged
By M.S. Enkoji - menkoji@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Monday, November 26, 2007
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A17
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A17
A chain-link fence topped by three strands of barbed wire signals a vigilance over a vacant dirt field where homeless people once openly camped.
The illegal homeless camp in northern Sacramento, a refuge for several weeks, is gone, the people dispersed into the night or offered motel vouchers and nightly winter shelter.
Authorities earlier this month disbanded the homeless camp – as many as 60 tents – that had furtively grown on privately owned railroad property. The ensuing upheaval became a plaintive reminder of needs yet to be met.
Cities across the nation, including Sacramento, are embarking on ambitious 10-year plans to end homelessness, designed to permanently house the most difficult-to-accommodate population.
A year into Sacramento's plan, nearly 200 of the county's estimated 1,600 chronically homeless have been placed in housing.
Up to 500 housing units are expected to be provided to the homeless over the next five years under the plan. The idea is to get them into homes before forcing them to tackle drug problems or other underlying issues that put them on the street.
The homeless population is not one-size-fits-all, say advocates who press for options that recognize needs as immediate as tonight as well as those as grand as a stable home.
"We tend to lump the homeless into one category," said Steve Caruso, executive director of Family Promise of Sacramento.
The local chapter of a national organization houses families – as many as 15 people – nightly at one of several churches or synagogues. Based on the grounds of the Sacramento service agency Loaves & Fishes, Family Promise is for families, which often have difficulty fitting into shelters.
"It just pains me to come to work every day and see this," Caruso said behind his desk, where he gets as many as 30 calls a week that he must turn down.
On a recent fall evening, a van left the Family Promise headquarters and headed to Florin United Methodist Church in south Sacramento.
Inside the church, a volunteer heated up meat loaf and potatoes, and tossed a salad for her 15 guests.
Tina and Lee Purdy came in from their jobs and greeted their six children, already deep into the meat loaf. After five months with Family Promise, the couple saved enough money to rent a 2-year-old home in Elk Grove that they will move into next month.
They got into Family Promise after Tina Purdy, 35, applied for welfare benefits. After three weeks along riverbanks with the children, they got in. They refused to be separated from the children, and they needed somewhere to stay.
"Without this program, it would have taken years to get where we are," said Lee Purdy, 33, as he cleared his plate.
"We had nothing," he said.
A national shift toward treating the root causes of homelessness is part of what should be a diverse solution, said Jason MacCannell, a social scientist who did his doctoral dissertation in 2004 on Sacramento's homeless.
"In addition to expanding treatment, we need to have a way to ameliorate the lives of people who are still living on the streets," said MacCannell, who is a consultant to state agencies.
MacCannell suggests a range: campgrounds, an updated Skid Row with rooms for as low as $5 a night, instant entry to substance abuse rehabilitation.
Tent cities, nightly church shelters and similar temporary solutions are fast-growing options that private and public sponsors are turning to to get people off the streets – tonight.
It is not an option without controversy and outright resistance, advocates admit. But the stakes demand consideration, they say.
"Providing housing takes time. In the meantime, you've got a problem," said Steve Berg, vice president for programs and policy of the National Alliance to End Homelessness in Washington, D.C. "There's nothing that's easy.
"Any effort to cluster the homeless increases the visibility of a problem, he said. "Some cities don't like to make it visible."
Where cities don't step in, private charities and churches have.
In Seattle, churches host tent cities on their grounds within the city and in the surrounding suburbs, but that remains controversial after several years.
A church in Dallas recently hired a security guard and rented portable toilets and began offering its grounds to the homeless.
Churches in south Placer County take turns, offering winter shelter to 50 people on a first-come, first-served basis and just this year expanded to year-round.
"Until a 10-year plan is fully implemented, this is a Band-Aid measure that could make a difference," said Michael Stoops, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based National Coalition for the Homeless.
Tent cities or camps offer a sense of community and protection against criminal attacks, yet still offer a degree of freedom, Stoops said.
"No city in this country shelters all of its homeless people, and they won't until they have enough shelter beds. Tent cities are one way to do that," he said.
The crown jewel advocates point to is a tent city for 60 in Portland, Ore., that has evolved into a self-governed community with cabins on several acres near the airport, a prison and transportation yards – and on a bus line.
Grants pay for insurance. Residents who can – 86 percent have income – pay $30 a month, which pays for electricity, phone lines, garbage and water, portable toilets and propane.
There are rules about contributing volunteer time, drug and alcohol use, violence and theft, but other rules are kept to a minimum, said Tim McCarthy, the outreach coordinator.
"You're allowed to have partners and pets. It's nothing like a shelter," he said.
Founded in 2002 by activists from decidedly tumultuous beginnings, Dignity Village was recently granted a city contract through 2010 with an option to extend that five years.
"It's turned into a great, safe place for people who need it," Portland City Commissioner Eric Sten said at a meeting earlier this year when the commission approved the new contract.
Self-governed, Dignity Village was never intended as a permanent home for anyone, Sten pointed out. "I don't think anyone in this room would say Dignity Village is the end to homelessness."
Sacramento City Manager Ray Kerridge, who previously worked for the city of Portland, said the ensuing controversy there was rough. "Everybody had an opinion," he said.
Sacramento contributes to a temporary shelter that opens nightly during colder months at Cal Expo and paid $40,000 to open it earlier this season after the people on railroad property were forced to move.
There haven't been any discussions about year-round camps or tent cities, said Kerridge, who believes the city's efforts are better focused elsewhere.
"Our preference is to get people into permanent housing," he said.
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Raul Lujan and his fiancée, Liana, kiss at a Thanksgiving meal they shared with their daughter Laila, 4, on Nov. 17 at Elk Grove United Methodist Church. They are part of a program for the homeless sponsored by Family Promise of Sacramento, which houses several families nightly at local churches and synagogues. Kevin German / kgerman@sacbee.com
About the writer:
- Call The Bee's M.S. Enkoji, (916) 321-1106.
A vacant dirt field in northern Sacramento where homeless people once camped illegally in up to 60 tents is now surrounded by a chain-link fence topped by barbed wire. Lezlie Sterling / lsterling@sacbee.com
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Come Together and Create!
Peter S. Lopez ~aka:Peta
Sacramento, California, Aztlan
Email: sacranative@yahoo.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NetworkAztlan_News/
http://www.networkaztlan.com/
C/S
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