The Homeless
Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 3:15 pmrita wrote:I hear and agree with you weariness of people behaving badkly. Just pointing out that such behavior isn't limited to the homeless. Most homeless are too buy working and tryig to survive to hang out on Pacific and hassle people. I'm not talking about downtown, I'm talking about the problem of houselessness getting worse and needs to be addressed.
http://www.topix.net/forum/source/santa ... O/p12#c232
I never sat on the street and begged for money. I did ask for cigarettes on a couple of occasions. But I was rather discriminating in who I asked, and generally never had to ask more than once or twice to get one. I never stood in front of someone who's hands were full and demanded a cigarette...
...I have snapped, "Can't you see my hands are full?" or "Can't you see I'm busy" a number of times. And then there's the ones that interrupt you while you're having a conversation.
I remember once screaming, "Leave me alone". More than once, actually.
But I knew these people were only the tip of the homeless iceberg, because I knew who the homeless were, and that most of you don't even see the overwhelming majority of them because they never bother anyone.
Somewhere in these topics someone mentioned my statement of 1,000 emergency and transitional beds and not one for medical marijuana patients.
Well, I found the article: http://www.scsextra.com/story.php?sid=43777
Shanna McCord, Santa Cruz Sentinel, November 26, 2006 wrote:Across the county, about 1,300 shelter beds are available, according to the latest estimates. The number includes beds not only for people seeking temporary shelter, but also long-term shelter for people transitioning to permanent housing.
So I was actually 'discounting' my case rather than exaggerating it. As I recall, my math was something like this: About 300 of those 'shelter beds' are one night stands, like the church groups and the armory, and probably includes Page Smith and The Riverstreet Shelter. Which means the rest must be SLEs (Sober Living Environments), which are all essentially faith healing based 'recovery programs'. And they consider medical marijuana patients drug addicts.
Besides the unfairness of it all, one of my concerns is that what services you do have acts as a magnet for exactly the kind of people you don't want, while not just discouraging but actually persecuting the people you actually do want to help and do want around.
And I think I'm in a position to speak with some authority on this issue.
Shanna McCord, Santa Cruz Sentinel, November 26, 2006 wrote: The National Guard Armory near DeLaveaga Park has been one of the county's emergency winter shelters for several years.
The armory, with 100 beds available nightly, opened Nov. 15 and is set to close April 15. The armory's overnight shelter is run by the Homeless Services Center with funding from the county.
Other shelters include:
<ul class=postlist><li>The Pajaro Rescue Mission, for men only.</li>
<li>Interfaith Satellite Shelter Program, a year-round service provided by various churches.</li>
<li>Jesus, Mary and Joseph Home, for women and children only. Requires clean and sober living.</li>
<li>Pajaro Valley Shelter Services, for women and children in transition.</li>
<li>Salvation Army Emergency Shelter in Watsonville.</li>
<li>Page Smith Community House, a transitional center for single adults. Participants are required to save 30 percent of their income.</li>
<li>River Street Shelter, for 32 single adults.</li></ul>
Across the county, about 1,300 shelter beds are available, according to the Community Action Board, a group that works to help people in poverty.
The number includes beds not only for people seeking temporary shelter, but also long-term shelter for people transitioning to permanent housing.
Now I'm trying to remember if it was that Thanksgiving or the one before that I had just bought my computer and had my debts payed off to the point I could accumulate some money to get into a place, having given up on getting a place through 'normal channels'.
And they told me I couldn't go on the church groups and I WOULD HAVE to go to the armory. I had just got the computer and sure as hell didn't intend to leave it in one of their lockers and worry all night about it being there in the morning, nor did I intend to have it ruined while I stood outside the army in the pouring rain as they searched everyone...
Some pertinent articles:
<ul class=postlist><li>Santa Curz shelter puts down-and-out back on their feet - <i>Santa Cruz Sentinel</i> - November 6, 2006 by Shanna McCord.</li>
<li>Dead End Street: Sometimes there is no escape from homelessness - <i>Santa Cruz Sentinel</i> - April 28, 2004.</li>
<li>'Tough love' approach foundation of shelter effort for families - <i>Santa Cruz Sentinel</i> - February 20, 2005 by Shanna McCord</li></ul>