The indignity, cruelty and danger of being homeless

Woke to a little snow on the ground this morning.  It reminds me that on my way to Arise for Social Justice, I'll need to stop at the nearby vacant house and leave some cat food from the bag I carry around in my car-- there's at least one cat living there-- abandoned or always feral?  Don't know.  I'll pass another two dozen empty houses before I get to Arise, where a meeting is scheduled for the coalition of people and organizations working on a strategy to stop foreclosures.  Last week I sent an email to the lead organizer: is there any way we can get hold couple of the houses that are already foreclosed?  Five young men (separately, not together) have come into Arise in the last few days, looking for a place to live and a job.  No immediate solutions.  The Rescue Mission hasn't opened its overflow shelter yet, and when I tell folks about Worthington St. Shelter, I always have to warn them first about the bedbugs.  What a choice.

Being homeless is life-threatening but also full of other dangers and indignities.  Two weeks ago a 61 year old  homeless guy in in Dallas, Texas tried to pay for his meal with a credit card not his own.  The owner of the restaurant forced him to strip naked and beat him with a pipe.  When the police arrived, they charged the homeless guy but not the owner.  Later, however, the crimes against persons unit of the police department investigated and charged the owner with misdemeanor assault.  Read more at the Dallas Homeless Network.

In Pheonix, Arizona, a homeless man was run over by a car-- on purpose-- and dragged ten feet.  A few minutes before, he'd been accused of stealing a bicycle, which he denied.  He's in the hospital, expected to survive, and police are looking for a 4-door gray car. 

Two Edmonton, Alberta police officers were disciplined recently for picking up nine homeless people and locking them in the back of the police van for nine hours in sweltering hot weather before dumping them in a residential neighborhood.  A third police officer wasn't disciplined because he was only along for the ride.  Hey, some version of this happens frequently-- remember the Los Angeles homeless dumps?-- and rarely is there accountability.  Mostly Water.

Speaking of  Los Angeles, two doctors were arrested on Friday for using mentally ill, homeless people in a scheme to defraud the government.  Their employees would find homeless people and bring them to the clinic, where they were subjected to unnecessary procedures, then paid $100 a dumped back into the streets.  It's a disgusting story and you can read more at the Los Angeles Times.

If you're a homeless veteran in North Charleston, South Carolina, you may find yourself living in a shelter whose director, Nancy Cook,  has managed to double her salary in the last year until it now equals one-third of the shelter's entire revenue.  Ms. Cook sounds like a real winner.  In 2008, she suggested that "unfit" parents be sterilized.  As for the current situation, someone-- a homeless person?-- tipped off the media about Ms. Cook's salary increase.  Her response?  "We deal with a lot of sick people, and they're just nasty," said Cook, who said she has run Good Neighbor Center for 18 years. "It's par for the course. There is no story here."  Post and Courier. 

Last but not least, if desperate parents in Indiana follow the advice of some workers from the Family and Social Services Administration, they should dump their severely disabled, autistic or mentally handicapped children off at the nearest shelter.  This was the workers' advice in the face of requests for diminishing services.  Associated Press.


We're in for a rough winter.

Death comes more often for homeless people

If you are homeless in the U.S. and Canada, depending on what city "live" in, you are 2 to 8 times more likely to die than your housed neighbors. Untreated illness, drugs and violence stalk you. Sometimes you fall asleep and just don't wake up

That's what happened to Ken Blackburn, 59, Springfield, Missouri, who was found dead Saturday in a small homeless encampment. The medical examiner ruled he died of "natural causes." Mary Ann Morgan, 61, was found dead in an alley in Palo Alto, California after a long struggle with alcoholism. The cause of her death was undetermined.

In Richmond, California, Jimmy Carter and his buddies were standing outside a church on March 30 waiting for breakfast and Bible study when they were caught in cross-fire between two shooters and Jimmy was killed. A week earlier, a homeless man was shot and killed while riding a bicycle but police don't believe there's a connection between the deaths. In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, two as yet unidentified men presumed to be homeless, one white and one black, were found shot to death in an alley near the Grace Rescue Mission. In Calgary, Alberta, an unnamed homeless man was beaten to death following a fight over $20 of rock cocaine.

An inquiry into the death of Frank Paul in 1998 is finally taking place in Vancouver, British Columbia. Mr. Paul was arrested for being drunk but then not allowed into the jail. A police officer -- helped him walk, the officer said; dragged him, the evidence implies-- to an alley where he was found dead several hours later.

Rarely any photos; rarely any flowers.

Photo: friends grieving, Holly Pickett, The Spokesman-Review

The State of Tent Cities in August

NEW ORLEANS: Homeless people and advocates have been camped out in a pavilion across from City Hall since July 4th to protest the lack of housing in the post-Katrina city. Blogging New Orleans. For a more in-depth look at the New Orleans housing crisis, check out the People's Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Committee.

In King County, WA, homeless advocates from ShareWheel took over some apartment buildings to protest their demolition. KNDO TV. ShareWheel runs one of the nation's longest-operating tent cities.

Edmonton, Alberta's homeless encampment is being fenced in by the city and residents are not happy. Not only will residents now have to have official ID cards, no one new is being allowed in. Edmonton Sun.

San Francisco's Mayor Newsom is determined to clean up all the homeless encampments in the city. For the story of one clean-up, see SFGate. Here's one man's story of how he became homeless and what it took for him to get out.

Edmonton photo by Tim Smith, Sun Media.

Meanwhile, the city of Lacey, WA is drawing up plans for an approved homeless encampment.Lacey is one of two Washington cities that recently decided to make homeless encampments legal. The Olympian.

A coincidence and a connection

The first time I wrote about the homeless situation in Edmonton, like most ignorant U.S. citizens, I had no idea what province it was in.

So I typed "Edmonton" into Google and at the very second the answer popped up, some character on television introduced herself to another character. "I'm Alberta," she said. Since then I've realized I drive by Alberta St. every day on my way to work.

Tonight I was checking my mail and was struck by the daily quote in Sojourner. It reminded me of a poem I wrote in the early years of Arise for Social Justice. So here are both:

We campesinos are used to planting seeds and waiting to see if the seeds bear fruit. We’re used to working on harsh soil. And when our crops don’t grow, we’re used to planting again and again until they take hold. Like us, you must learn to persist.
- Elvia Alvarado
from "Don’t Be Afraid Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks from the Heart."

There are those of us who love poor soil

who flourish in the struggle
who throw our seeds
proudly on land
where others before us
have taken too much.
In drought, we seed early.

For those who cultivate for profit
we are an endless trouble
for we dare to choose a barren field
over oblivion.

At best, neglected,
at worst, plowed under,
our bodies enrich the earth
and our children are insidious:
they reach for light
even before
breaking the soil's horizon.

Our legends are in their genes.

When homeless people die

The Calgary Drop In & Rehab Center blog has a thoughtful post about the deaths of homeless people on the streets of Calgary. Calgary's population is nearly one million but it could have been written about any large city.

Since the beginning of the year, 24 former and current clients of the Drop-In have passed away. It’s been a record year thus far, doubling in the first 7 months of the year the number of clients who died in 2006. Five of the individuals were murdered. Their assailants remain ‘at large’.

The deceased ranged in age from 18 to 62, with the average being 47 years old. Predominantly men, four of the deceased were women, the most recent being the fatal stabbing of Jackie Crazybull by unknown assailants in the early morning hours of July 11 on 17th Avenue S.W.

There’s very little to say about someone who died homeless. We try to find words to make sense of their passing. That make sense of what happened to their lives. But, there are few words that make sense of the tragedy of a life lost to addictions, abuse, homelessness....

Tent cities rise, fall, rise....

Wednesday was the last night for the Warming Place shelter and its guests UNLESS shelter guest Ali Mohammed wins his injunction in Housing Court today. Mr. Mohammed's actions have actually put the city of Springfield and the Open Pantry on the same side as defendants-- at least for the the moment. He is trying to keep the city from closing the Warming Place by focusing on the problems homeless people will face at Springfield's two other shelters

Meanwhile, I can catch up on some other homeless/tent city news....Huntington, Ohio police cleared several small tent cities from the banks of the Ohio River this week. ""This is insanity," one homeless man said.. "It's one big family down here. We don't mess with nobody." Herald Dispatch.

Two city councils in Washington are considering an ordinance which would legally recognize and regulate tent cities.

"In an unusual move, Olympia and Tumwater are considering the same measure at the same time. Olympia Councilman Jeff Kingsbury will bring the ordinance to the Olympia City Council on Tuesday and ask for a vote July 17. The Tumwater City Council will have a public hearing about it July 17, Councilwoman Karen Valenzuela said, and she wants to pass the measure as an emergency ordinance the same night.
“If you don’t have an ordinance, essentially, whoever is hosting a tent encampment can do so without any rules whatsoever,” she said.
Kingsbury, who once was critical of homeless encampments, said he now thinks tent cities offer a good option for transitional housing and that the city should work with churches.". The Olympian.

Four teenagers in Huntsville, Alabama have been arrested for robbing and physically assaulting homeless people in a small homeless encampment. Huntsville Times.

In Edmonton, Alberta, a street pastor is calling for the city to open its parks and abandoned buildings to the homeless. About 2,600 people are homeless in Edmonton. Radio News 1130.

A sad story with-- maybe-- a happy ending: A University of Pittsburgh student who has been missing for some months was found at Glacier National Park in Montana, living in a small homeless encampment. Will he go home now? KX News.

Fresno tent city photo by Mike Rhodes, Fresno Alliance

Some Homeless News

Tasered Homeless Woman Dies: 35 years old, mentally ill, handcuffed. Houston Chronicle

Tent Cities: A dozen homeless people in Edmonton, Alberta stood up to the police and refused to move from their encampment.. Corus Radio

Meanwhile, the city's plans to disrupt a tent city of about 100 people in Gainseville, Florida were brought to a temporary halt when homelessness advocates protested. There are only about 350 beds available for homeless residents in Alachua County on any given night, out of an estimated 950 homeless people in the county. Offtopicz

Now that a federal judge in Fresno, CA has ruled it is unconstitutional for city police to destroy the belongings of homeless people that they roust from encampments, advocates and city officials have to figure out who will store the belongings and how the belongings can be reuinited with their owners. Redding.com

Camp Quixote residents have settled in for a stay at the United Church of Olympia, WA. Olympian Online