STOP Sacramento's Day of Shame
First, Sacramento shut down Tent City. Now Sacramento County plans to close 40% of Sacramento's emergency shelter beds at one fell swoop - 328 of 800 shelter beds.
The winter overflow shelter - the shelter of last resort for homeless men, women and children - has been cut from the budget. The Aid in Kind Shelters, which help able-bodied homeless people find jobs and also provide a safe haven for many older, disabled men and women, will also close on June 30th.
Where are people to go? These shelters have been part of Sacramento�s safety net for more than twenty years. How can the county justify closing them when the number of homeless people in Sacramento has increased by 14% over the last two years?
Some needs are deferrable but some are not. If you are homeless, you need a place to stay tonight not in two years when the economy has recovered. The existing shelter system is already over-saturated. St. John�s Shelter for Women and Children is turning away over 200 women and children every night for lack of space. The Salvation Army Men�s Shelter has over 100 men on its waiting list.
Help us Stop Sacramento's Day of Shame - Contact your Sacramento County Board Supervisor and let them know you don't want your county to be a part of such a shameful day.
District 1 - Roger Dickinson - dickinsonr@saccounty.net or 
916...
District 2 - Jimmie Yee - jyee@saccounty.net or 
(916) 874-5481
District 3 - Susan Peters - susanpeters@saccounty.net or (916) 874-5471
District 4 - Roberta MacGlashan - macglashanr@saccounty.net or (916) 874-5491
District 5 - Don Nottoli - nottolid@saccounty.net or (916) 874-5465
Not sure what District You are in? Click Here for a map.
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Shame on Sacramento and its present Board of Supervisors and City Council for allowing this to happen to our local homeless people. The homeless are the new minority and mostly invisible to most Sacramento people. The homeless are the canary in the mine, warning us of a general decay happening in the core of society. Those who have little will be subjected to having even less and desperation becomes disaster.
Over the years the Aid-In-Kind Program has helped thousands to get their shattered lives back together in order to become functional law-biding and tax-paying voting citizens. It should be expanded with an array of case management and counseling services, not cut off!
It is clearly obvious that we need a whole new leadership in our whole set-up of governing elected officials here in Sacramento. After the Oprah exposure of tent city on a global level some money was injected into homeless services with an extension of Overflow-Winter shelter, but now that the spot light is off Sacramento's homeless the situation for homeless people will be worst than ever!
Where is the Governator and Mayor Johnson now speaking out about this core humane rights issue in support of helping the homeless? If you want to know the true state of a given society's level of civilization examine the homeless ~ Amerika's internal refugees ~ and question the basic humaneness of our so-called civic leaders.
We can rally, march and protest at the State Capitol but we need to GET OUT THE VOTE ON VOTING DAY and lodge our support for true humane beings who will put the people's welfare before corporate profits and political perversions of the truth!
America is suppose to be a representative democracy but we need a participatory democracy that the masses of people are actively involved in and not leave our government in the hands of those who do not really represent our basic survival interests after they are elected.. A government is only as good as the active and consistent involvement of the people who vote for its representatives. The people cannot sit back after an election and pretend that all is right in the world!
A good global citizen is one who stays aware of current events, who gets personally involved in connected reality and who mobilizes others to do the same. Citizenship has its internal responsibilities. We must get involved in connected reality to change it!
Education for Liberation!
Peter S. Lopez ~aka: Peta
Field Coordinator~Humane Rights Agenda
Sacramento, California, Aztlan
Yahoo Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com
http://anhglobal.ning.com/group/humanerightsagenda
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NetworkAztlan_News/
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