NOTE FROM NORSE: Looming is the impending closing of the Winter Armory Shelter (last night April 15th) as well as the increased crackdown on homeless camps, homeless people in public spaces, and even the very limited Homeless (Lack of) Services Center (which calls itself the Homeless Services Center). Various individuals and groups have been encouraging people to gather together in survival camps, set up a non-profit to find private land, engage in protest camping, or, as Brent Adams suggests below, seek to persuade the community to set up community sanctuary campgrounds. Brent has been holding regular meetings and notes he has been working on a video presentation.
For an example of Brent’s video work, see http://www.indybay.org/
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Hi,
I welcome you to this exciting new conversation about homelessness in our community.
The simplicity of a Sanctuary Camp and what it would mean to its residents and the greater community is easy to understate.
It is true that we’re proposing a solution so obvious and so low cost that most Homeless Industry
advocates completely step over it because it doesn’t serve the entrenched bureaucracy.
No one would argue that homelessness is an easy problem to tackle.
There are cities like Santa Cruz all over the country that are wrestling with the very same issues and have
come up with solutions that work. We’re happy to share those examples and “models” with you.
We’d like you to visit our working group and see what we have planned so far and we invite you to contribute yourself
to a solution that is going to help hundreds if not thousands of people into the future.
It has been shown that Sanctuary Camps help people stop the nightly madness of finding a safe warm space to lay down.
It is a place for them to keep their belongings safe instead of having to manage large bike trailers or backbacks as they move about. It helps people regulate their medical and mental health programs. It helps people focus on their drug and alcohol addictions.
All of the circumstances that create homelessness are exacerbated by the conditions of homelessness.
This is the greatest feature of a safe sleeping space such as a Sanctuary Camp… It gives people a place to BE.
Most of us take that simple fact of life for granted. Just a safe place to be.
For a Sanctuary Camp to be successful, we’ll need the support of the community.
This first phase is our time to have conversations within the community.
We strive for partnerships with local government, police, churches and community groups.
We’ll need individual commitments of local citizens to become stake-holders who’ll help us anchor this possibility
in reality.
We’re near completion of a video presentation (work-in-progress will be shown on wednesday).
Please join us every Wednesday at 6pm. 387 Coral St. Santa Cruz. (BEHIND BUILDING- Big roll-up door)
If you have problems finding the space, call 332-9040
Sincerely,
Brent Adams
Santa Cruz Sanctuary Camp