HUFF continues on Robert’s Temporary Absence

HUFF will continue through out Robert’s Temporary Absence due to Medical needs. While he will be missed, we are going to be meeting at the same Bat Time and same Bat place.
>
> Join us at Subrosa (across from Saturn & Walgreen’s parking lot on Pacific)
> 11:00 am – 1:00pm Free Coffee to all attendees.
>
> Possible Agenda Items will be current updates on Freedom Sleepers, Keith and Abbi’s trial and tribulations with SC city, SCPD and county DA court appearance, Monday’s Koffee Klatch and other homeless, disabled and poor people’s civil rights issues.
>
> The rest of the agenda will go with flow and vibes of the attendees.
>
> Pat Colby

A Busy Tuesday for Those Fighting for the Poor: Freedom SleepOut #29

 

Title: Waking Up the Slumbering Conscience: Freedom SleepOut #29
START DATE: 1/26/2016
TIME: 5:00 PM – 5:00 AM
Location Details:
City Hall Sidewalk at 809 Center St.
Event Type: No type given
Contact Name Toby Nixon
Email Address tobynixon [at] gms.com
Phone Number 408-582-4152
Address
Becky Johnson of HUFF [Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom]–a Freedom Sleeper supporter as well–will speak at City Council at 5 PM during Oral Communications after yesterday’s Koffee Klatch Call-Out to Mayor Cynthia Mathews (See http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/01/24/18782176.php )

Around the same time HAAC activist Toby Nixon will begin another night on the concrete drawing attention to the City’s medieval law making the act of sleeping a crime after 11 PM at night outside, in a vehicle, or in any non-residential building.

Yesterday HUFF activists gave out coffee and brownies in front of City Council offices as well as making forms available for complaints to document the City’s organized legal persecution of poor people outside.

Last week activist Nixon documented harassment by First Alarm Security guards against a homeless man trying to sleep out of the wind under the eaves of the Civic Auditorium.

Phorographer and journalist Alex Darocy documented last week’s Freedom Sleep-Out (#28) at http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/01/21/18782114.php [“The “Winter” Freedom Sleepers”].

Freedom Sleepers Keith McHenry and Abbi Samuels are facing related harassment charges in court today at 10 AM. See ” Food Not Bombs Co-Founder Keith McHenry Faces New Criminal Charges for His Work to Defend the Rights of the Poor ” at http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/12/18/18781097.php ,

Last Friday a visiting judge found Freedom Sleepers Phil Posner and Louise Drummond guilty of “being in a park after closing hours”, the grabbag charge being used to disperse and discourage protest at City Hall for the last six months. Posner suggested he prefered jail to paying a fine or doing community service, but was turned down.

Coffee usually shows up during the night for those hardy enough to spend the night. Visitors and donations are welcome. Freedom Sleepers regularly assess the night’s events at the morning HUFF meeting 11 AM at the Sub Rosa Cafe at 703 Pacific Avenue, where yet more coffee flows.

Koffee Klatch on Monday; Freedom SleepOut #29 on Tuesday: Sleep-and-Survival Struggle Continues

 

Title: Mathews Monday: Koffee Klatch Invites Mayor and Homeless To Talk Turkey
START DATE: Monday January 25
TIME: 1:00 PM3:00 PM
Location Details:
At the City Hall Fountain in the Courtyard in front of the Mayor and City Council Offices at 809 Center St.
Event Type: Protest
Event Type:
Tired of Harassment from Rangers, Cops, and Security Thugs?
Fed up With Politicians Packing with Bigots and Ducking Issues?
Sick of Folks Freezing and Getting Ticketed in Winter?
Disperse the Myths by Speaking Truth to Power !

Mayor Mathews has refused to respond to requests for:
(a) A radio interview of her policies regarding homeless folks, renters, and other community constituents
(b) Her public appearance schedule
(c) Her meetings with lobbyists in the last two months
(d) Her office hours

In response, HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) is inviting Cynthia Mathews, her Council, and the Community to a public chat:

Join Us to:

• File Human Rights Violations with The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty
• Advise Mayor Cynthia Mathews What’s Wrong and What Needs to Be changed (if she attends!)
• Swig coffee and other mystery edibles while swapping stories and sharing news
• Lobby Councilmembers to Support Don Lane’s Reform of the Camping Ban (removing “sleep” from MC 6.36)
• Help sort through harassment citation and arrest records at City Hall

The Freedom Sleepers will continue their weekly protest on Tuesday the 26th with Freedom SleepOut #29 at 5 PM.

Street Interviews from September; Flashbacks to June Jail in 1996, and the Fight to Stop the Tax on Medical Marijuana: this Edition of Bathrobespierre’s Broadsides: Today at 9:30AM on 101.3 FM

Coming up will be Street Interviews from September 2015 about Blue Box Bigotry; Flashbacks to June-in- Street Interviews from September; Flashbacks to June Jail in 1996, and the Fight to Stop the Tax on Medical Marijuana-Jail in 1996, the Fight to Stop the Tax on Medical Marijuana, and Updates on Freedom SleepOut #29, the Blue Box 2 Hearing on 1-26–and more:   Broadcasts at 101.1 FM, streams at www.freakradio.org , archives at http://www.radiolibre.org/brb/brb160124.mp3

Bathrobespierre’s Broadsides–All New, All Relevant–6 PM Today Thursday 1-21-16

Coming up will be interviews with Homeless Action and Advocacy Coalition activist Toby Nixon about Freedom SleepOut #28 last Tuesday, Alexis on bad conditions at Page Smith Community House, Louise Drummond and Phil Posner on Upcoming Trials for Being Outside City Hall “After Hours”,  “Mad Mike the Wonder Dog” Balderos fresh out of prison, and Steve Pleich with the latest on Don Lane’s Sleeping Ban Repeal organizing.  Broadcasts at 101.1 FM, streams at www.freakradio.org , archives at http://www.radiolibre.org/brb/brb160121.mp3

HUFF will puff tomorrow as usual, Sub Rosa, 11 AM come rain or shine.

 

I’ll be making the HUFF meet tomorrow (1-20) with a review of the Homeless Names of the Dead from the last decade, a look-in at the Eureka situation, a HUFF take on the proposed partial elimination of the survival sleeping ban, the latest iteration of the Homeless Bill of Rights…and more…plus coffee and clamor, as well as the latest from the restless Freedom Sleepers, fresh from their Sleep #28 !

Another Storm–Another Sleep-Out! The 28th Tuesday Sidewalk Protest Outside Santa Cruz City Hall

 

Title: Storms Over Santa Cruz: Freedom SleepOut #28 at City Hall
START DATE: Tuesday January 19
TIME: 5:00 PM – 5:00 AM
Location Details:
809 Center St.–in front of City Hall and the cover of the porches of adjacent buildings in the wake of a heavy rainstorm. Some will be spending the night on the cold concrete of the nearby sidewalks supporting survival rights for homeless people on the streets of Santa Cruz.
over the harassment of First Alarm Security thugs and other “law and order” homeless-o-phobes.
Event Type: Protest
Private Warming Center activists, using the shelter of churches, try to do the job that City authorities refuse to do–ensure basic survival shelter for unhoused folks. Meanwhile, the Freedom Sleepers begin their 28th Tuesday of Sleeping Out, outside City Hall.

Long-time local activist Steve Schnaar hit the hammer on the head when he wrote ” the [City] Council unanimously voted for the City to collaborate with the Warming Center program…. [T]his decision by the Council is really a very small offer: the use of a City building only if no church spaces are available, and only for a maximum of five nights this winter….”

“[T]he same Council also voted to increase punishments for sleeping in parks, as well as making it illegal to sleep in large vehicles.”

“…[T]he City kicks them while they’re down, sending police to raid their camps, increasing penalties for the “crime” of sleeping outside, and outlawing large vehicles that many people use for shelter.”

“Even with respect to daytime, waking life, the City continually restricts the use of public space by homeless people downtown, and has even condoned brazen police violence against the homeless (i.e. the inaction by the City after a SCPD officer was caught on film slamming a hand-cuffed Richard Hardy face-first into the curb).”

See “MLK Day Challenge to City Council to End Homeless Repression” at http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/01/18/18781957.php for the rest of Schaar’s letter.

There will also reportedly be a Warming Center offered Tuesday night with pick-up’s at the Pearl Alley area behind Joe’s Pizza from 7 – 10 PM, spearheaded by Brent Adams and Steve Pleich.

Organizers “Tussle with Terror” Toby Nixon and “Push Back” Pat Colby haven’t advised me what kind of midnight refreshments will survive the storm at the Sleep-Out. But Jumbogumbo Joe Schultz is likely to come through with something hot and life-giving.

Pleich also passes on word from Eureka of an Emergency Shelter Declaration (http://eureka.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=567&meta_id=31263 ) and wonders why Santa Cruz continues to ignore the crisis.

For more photos and homeless info go to: http://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Freedom%20Sleepers

For background and some initial links see “Freedom SleepOut #27 To Follow First 2016 Council Meeting”http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/01/11/18781690.php

Interviews and LookBacks on Free Radio Around Homeless Struggles 9:30 AM – 2:30 PM Sunday 1-17-16

 

Recent interviews with Berkeley activist Cornerstone Carol Denney, Santa Barbara’s ‘Nuff Said Nancy McCradie, and Downtown Dirtdemolisher Danny on the likely death of the 24-hour bathroom on Soquel Ave,  a look back at Freedom Sleepout #12 on September 30 last year, & and a far flash-back to June 1996 when Bathrobespierre’s Broadsides was broadcast “from jail”.  I spent a month in lock-up for feeding folks food in San Francisco with Food Not Bombs.

The show will air at 9:30 AM Sunday 1-17 at 101.3 FM and stream at freakradio.org .   You can also catch it later archived at http://www.radiolibre.org/brb/brb160117.mp3  .   Call-in comments at 831-423-4833

Flashback to 1999 on the 1-14 Free Radio edition of Bathrobespierre’s Broadsides 6-8 PM

 

Tune in Thursday, 6-8 PM at 101.3 FM or go to www.freakradio.org.  for the mix of new and old.

An update on the Tuesday 1-12-16 City Council meeting and a flash back to March 28, 1999.  We’ll be replaying: Interview with a Miami ACLU attorney on the Pottinger decision in Florida that set up Safe Sleeping Zones for unhoused folks in Miami, Florida, activist David Silva struggling to change the Sleeping Ban with “Don’t Sleep Tonight Night” and other protests–in the aftermath of the failure of a drive to end the Sleeping Ban in the Winter of 1998-99.

The show will archive at
http://www.radiolibre.org/brb/brb160114.mp3  

New Year, Old Story: HUFF meets to document and challenge the usual anti-homeless harassment 11 AM 1-13 Sub Rosa

Huddling together after another mid-night rain at Freedom SleepOut #27, harried HUFFsters will huddle together sipping Sub Rosa Coffee and….

 

  • reviewing City Council’s latest,
  • continue prep for exposing First Alarm thuggery,
  • reviewing former Mayor Lane’s latest Sleeping Ban reform proposal (at the same time as he votes to make parking “oversized” RV’s a crime),
  • considering HUFF support for a proposed expansion of the Warming Center program at the Red Church,
  • checking the latest responses from the Homeless (Lack of) Services Center,
  • seeking out new allies
  • among whatever else floats by!