Tag Archives: Tent Cities

Bathrobespiere’s Broadsides radio show streams tonight (2-28-19) at 6 PM at www.freakradio.org

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Free Radio Santa Cruz still still offers a reward of $300 for info leading to a 10′ X 10′ studio space with bathroom, internet, and electrical access–either indoors or out (we’ll build a structure).  We’re also seeking a transmitter space where we can put up an antenna–a backyard, a multistory home, a high tree–help us spread the word.   Help us so we can help you!

Tonight’s show streams at freakradio.org and archives at http://www.huffsantacruz.org/Lostshows.html
On tonight’s show:
  • Keeping the Ross Camp Open:  Commentary and City Council Decision
  • Interviews from the Ross Camp at the “Know Your Rights” Rally and Workshop
  • California Homeless Union Attorney Antony Prince Talks Turkey to the Rose Residents

Tidbits of Truth and Trouble from Soothsayer-of-the-Street Julie Shaul:

Indybay Story with Flyer On Upcoming “Save the Ross Campground” Events

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Save the Ross Campground
by Robert Norse & Keith McHenry (rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com)
Monday Feb 18th, 2019 5:23 PM

The Heroes encampment behind the Gateway-Ross area is under threat of “abatement” according to resolution passed at the 2-12-19 S.C. City Council. The flyer here describes some actions discussed by HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom).
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Download PDF (329.1KB)
Recently Chief Andy Mills of the SCPD visited Ross Camp and gave stern warnings to campers that they would all have to leave by March 15. Some would have to leave town and not return. No future encampments of this sort would be permitted.

Official-looking notices have already been posted (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10156853392903820&set=a.489759988819&type=3&theater).

There are no clear records of any Ross campers being housed elsewhere as was supposedly offered by city bureaucrats Susie O’Hara and Tina Shull at Council on February 12th.

Nor do Ross campers feel they want to leave for the proposed waiting lists, night-time only shelter, and other inadequate alternatives being spoken about (though not actually offered).

One camp resident gave her chilling account of Mills’s threats at https://www.facebook.com/alicia.lusterkuhl/videos/2407437002622069/ with an additional short piece at https://www.facebook.com/alicia.lusterkuhl/videos/2407443555954747/.

The federal Miller v. Boise decision, whose precedent is applicable here, bars cities from enforcing laws that criminalize sleeping, camping, resting, or lying where they have no shelter comprehensive alternatives.

Conscience and Action and HUFF will be meeting Wednesday at the Sub Rosa Cafe at 703 Pacific next to the Bike Church 11 AM to 1 PM. Join us.

Broken Promises, Buses to Nowhere: the City Council’s Homeless Solution–the Nationwide “Homeless Bound” Scam

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NOTES BY NORSE:   “Liberal” SCPD Chief Andy Mills showed up at the Ross Encampment last week around the time “Abatement” notices were being posted, to give warnings.
            If you live in distant towns, you will be given (one-way) tickets; if you live in outside Santa Cruz City Limits, you will be forced to leave; if you live in here, you will be evicted by March 15th.  You will never be allowed to form another Ross Camp style survival encampment again.   These were his words as remembered by Mama Shannon, a long-time homeless activist and resident of Ross Camp and as reported to me last night
            Thanks to the key vote that killed a proposal to restore last year’s rent freeze and just eviction protection law, hundreds of Ross camp residents are facing loss of their lodging, belongings, privacy, and safety.  New Councilmember Justin Cummings voted with the Mathews-Watkins majority  to back a slippery City-County plan to offers phantom floor spaces and uncertain prospects of future shelter.  Why?  A cosmetic cover for the joint City-County “eliminate the eyesore” Ross Camp which prompts anxiety from nearby housed residents and tourist-seeking businesses at the Gateway Plaza.
              Cummings made an apparent promise on February 12th that the announced “abatement” might be altered at the February 26th or March 12th Council meetings if it became (even more) obvious that there was insufficient shelter to meet the needs of the Ross residents.  However he also voted for the provision that allowed for closure notices to be posted immediately and has not responded to repeated requests tostop the forced eviction until real guarantees can be provided.
              Santa Cruz also uses the deceptively-termed “Homeward Bound” as part of its one-way-trip-to-nowhere plan to lawlessly deport homeless folks, often in collusion with law enforcement authorities, social service “providers”, business interests, and courts.  This provides the charade with both humanitarian and legal cover.  Last year’s Boise v. Martin decision makes laws that enable arresting homeless folks for sleeping, resting, sitting or lying likely unconstitutional here.
              The makeshift Ross Camp Community was created largely by the unhoused themselves. This was prompted in part by the shameless reduction in even token winter shelter space.  In part by city staff betraying promises to keep open the small and cramped River St. Camp until next April (while actually closing it in October=–thank you  City Manager Martin Bernal, Susie O-Hara and Tina Shull).  And partly by the inevitable explosion of the local homeless population as rents escalate, jobs disappear, and services shrink.
               Police and rangers may have had a plan to use the camp as a concentrating device.  Numerous survival sleepers report being (illegally) driven to the camp under (false) threat of arrest and property seizure.  However, once there, saner and more compassionate heads in the community began to provide food and shelter support.  The City and County were forced by the numbers to provide minimal portapotty, trash, and needle disposal services.
                Keith McHenry of Food Not Bombs announced a nonviolent direct action campaign to establish temporary survival campgrounds in downtown parking garages  (See “This is a Homeless Emergency” at https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2019/02/15/18821195.php )
                 Tomorrow (Tuesday February 19th) is a Special City Council meeting behind held at the Harvey West Clubhouse  326 Evergreen St. at 9 AM where there will be a brief public comment period (http://scsire.cityofsantacruz.com/sirepub/mtgviewer.aspx?meetid=1230&doctype=AGENDA).
                   Wednesday Conscience and Action meets at 11 AM at the Sub Rosa Cafe followed by HUFF at noon to firm up strategies.  Councilmember Glover is reportedly going to be going to an open meeting that night at the Felton Community Hall  6191 Highway 9 in  Felton (6:30 – 8 PM)
                  The Guardian article below documents how widespread the homeless-dumping practice is throughout the U.S.  For more details, video, and commentary, go to https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2017/dec/20/bussed-out-america-moves-homeless-people-country-study .

Protest and Evening Battle Likely at City Council -Tuesday 2-12-19

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NOTES BY NORSE:   This article by Councilmember Glover and attached commentary gives some important background on the evening session coming up at City Council for Tuesday night.  A speak-out and protest outside Council chambers will begin at 6:15 PM with food supplied by Jumbogumbo Joe Schultz of India Joze.
                 Originally, the protest was intended to focus on continued harassment by SCPD and P & R rangers harassing and citing homeless folks in public places, with some reports that folks living in their own camps were being driven to the Ross Camp.  Though the Ross Camp has been provided with some more (but still inadequate) facilities in the last month, it is still badly overcrowded and under severe pressure from raging neighbors.
                 In response, HUFF called for additional campgrounds, laundry and shower services, and the end to citations for being in a park after dark, reopening public bathrooms during the day and at night city-wide, and protecting the rights of those whose homes are their vehicles.
                 Councilmembers Glover and Krohn were rebuffed on rent control/just eviction and then by the City Manager and Mayor Watkins for not putting homelessness on the last January Council meeting.  In response, Glover mobilized his interns to propose 6 measures in consultation with homeless activists, and folks from Ross Camp and the RV community itemized in the PDF’s attached to his Indybay story  “The Fierce Urgency of Now”.
                  Glover and Krohn may have a 4-person majority on City Council not just to pass the homelessness resolutions, but also to rein in Mayor “One Minute” Martine Watkins censorship proclivities which were in full foul flower at the last Council meeting.  Speaking times were reduced to one minute, speakers were excluded, speakers were interrupted, and oral communications was crunched and contracted in her desire to “welcome” a foreign delegation from Japan.  There was little protest if any from the “Progressives” at the January meetings.
                   Unless members of the audience demand it vocally, there’s no guarantee we won’t see a repeat of this disgraceful performance on February 12th.  Folks need to come in numbers, ready to speak out, unroll sleeping bags, hold up signs, and stand their ground.
                    Note that there is no mention of rent control or just eviction, just a fig leaf proposal for yet another Task Force that will babble while tenants and their supporters get driven out of town.
                    Review Glover’s article and the attached documents.  Check also the “Flyer for 2-10-19 City Council Protest” which gives more details.
                    Come on down to City Council on Tuesday at 6:15 PM.  Form connections with folks at the Ross Campground.  Contact City Council by e-mail (citycouncil@cityofsantacruz.com )or phone (831-420-5020) .  And contact HUFF at 423-4833 or rnorse3@hotmail..com to be advised of upcoming flash protests and to resist the demolition of the Ross Campground.
The Fierce Urgency of Now
by Santa Cruz City Councilmember Drew Glover
Friday Feb 8th, 2019 10:45 PM
This Wednesday I went to the “Ross Camp” with some of the interns that work with me at the Resource Center for Nonviolence to get an update on the situation and to engage people in a conversation about poverty. As we arrived we met Mel Nunez, a dedicated advocate for the poor and representative from our local faith communities. [Photo: The view of the Ross Camp from the River Street side.]
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original image (1280×720)
We joined him in passing out anti-microbial “Bombas” socks, fresh apples, salad greens, spinach and water. It was almost immediately after we arrived that people began to approach us expressing their need for food, materials and clothing…
Story continues at https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2019/02/08/18821045.php and the comments that follow.

Vote for the Best Spot to Camp as City Council Abandons the Homeless Camp November 15th

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Polling Folks Outside for November 15th
by Robert Norse (rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com)
Tuesday Nov 6th, 2018 9:06 AM
This poll was distributed yesterday at the Red Church meal and will be made available to unhoused (and housed) folks throughout the City to provide input for the march on November 15th to begin at the Town Clock and lead to a Campsite.
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Download PDF (663.7kb)

Download and Distribute

You may also e-mail your vote to rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com or leave it at the Food Not Bombs literature table Sat/Sun 4-6 PM just outside the main Post Office fence or at the Sub Rosa Cafe at 703 Pacific Ave. when it’s open.

More info at https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2018/11/01/18818652.php (“More Fences, More Tickets, Less Winter Shelter, More Cruelty”)

Even more info: https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2018/10/24/18818475.php (“Campground Crisis As Winter Approaches”)

§History of the Campground Controversy

by Robert Norse Tuesday Nov 6th, 2018 9:06 AM
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Download PDF (227.4kb)

A detailed account of the last year’s slitherings of the City Council and staff to present the illusion of shelter which actually covers only a small fraction of those outside in Santa Cruz. And even less this winter than last winter.
TO DOWNLOAD THESE FLYERS AND MAKE COMMENTS,

Sunday 3-4-18 9:30 AM-2:30 PM Bathrobespierre’s Broadsides at 101.3 FM & freakradio.org: Flashback Free! All Current Calamaties with special focus on the Destruction of the San Lorenzo Benchlands Campground and the new Barbed-Wire Boneyard

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Current Stuff:

  • Interviews aplenty from City Manager-created refugees on the last days of the San Lorenzo Campground
  • Big Drum Brent Adams on the Boneyard River St. Campground with additional remarks by employees there
  • First They Came For the Homeless self-run encampment activist Stacy on the Berkeley Alternative
  • “Push Back”  Pat Colby on the Santa Cruz Street Scene
  • L.A.’s Peggy Lee Kennedy on the Fight Against the Beach Curfew
  • Gloomy gobs of grim from the last City Council meeting
  • On-going updates and looks back from Food Not Bombs activist Keith McHenry

This show archives tomorrow or perhaps later today at http://www.huffsantacruz.org/Lostshows.html

Leave your comments and questions at 831-423-4833.

Contact 575-770-3377 to volunteer to help Santa Cruz Food Not Bombs locally through Facebook. Donate blankets tents, and tarps to folks directly on the street (80% of the homeless population) either directly or through the Warming Center Project  at 831-234-9848.

Check out Homeless Outside in Santa Cruz  on Facebook for grim details of the Boneyard River St. Campground.
HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) meets Wednesday 3-7-11 AM at the Sub Rosa Cafe (next to the Bike Church at 703 Pacific).  Coffee on the house.

Call 423-4833 to volunteer for or learn more about civil rights work on homeless civil rights issues.

HUFF in the Wilds: Special meeting 10:15 AM Wednesday 2-28-18 at San Lorenzo Benchlands Look for the Protest Signs

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We will be moving from our usual Sub Rosa location next to the Bike Church to the San Lorenzo Benchlands as the City forces campers to leave.

  PLEASE COME DOWN TO SAN LORENZO PARK TODAY TO ASSIST FOLKS:

    •   Help document the mass deportation to nowhere with audio and camera
    •   Assist, if you wish, in helping move homeless gear
    •   Support the Warming Center, Food Not Bombs,  HUFF and other activists in documenting, providing resources, & publicizing the situation.
    •   Back up homeless efforts to organize either as in protest or to demand adequate and accessible facilities.
    •   Exchange information with other supporters there to generate more communication and better solutions in the future


    UP FOR DISCUSSION AS WE EYEBALL THE BENCHLAND EVICTIONS:

  • More Reports from Santa Ana Riverbed Encampment,
  • Communicating with Other Encampments to the North and South
  • Stories from the Street Around Us

 

Several Suggested Strategies for Those Left Outside

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A double-sided flier I circulated today and will do again tomorrow, energy willing. The San Lorenzo Benchlands area contains scores of tents which now face eviction. The “humanitarian” cover for this removal operation is a $90,000/month fenced off area on the edge of town at 1220 River St. with unclear access policies and three levels of policing (internal hosts, First Alarm Security outside, and a nearby mobile Police Substation.

The deadline for eviction tomorrow, according to workers at the River St. campground, is 11 AM. While I found numerous City-funded workers helping move homeless property from San Lorenzo to River St. today, there is clearly no place for most homeless people in the City to go.

HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) activists will be down at the San Lorenzo Campground to observe and document the eviction of the poorest in our community 10:15 AM Wednesday 2-28.  Join us and post any video you take.
Read more and make comments at

https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2018/02/27/18807021.php

Flyer is at https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2018/02/27/campground_evictions__side_one.pdf
and https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2018/02/27/campground_evictions_side_two.pdf

LAST DAY OF THE SAN LORENZO CAMPGROUND? COME DOWN TO DOCUMENT THE CREATION OF INTERNAL REFUGEES!

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According to Channel 8, today, Tuesday February 27th, is the last day for survival campers in the San Lorenzo Benchlands.  


      The only immediate campground alternatives is a barbed wire-ringed fenced-off space at the edge of town at 1220 River St.  It looks to be 1/3 the size of the current San Lorenzo campground.   Homeless people are considered too dangerous to be able to walk to and from the campground, so those using it must be ferried to and from.  It is reportedly already almost completely filled.  It costs $90,000 a month–which is likely far     more than was spent on San Lorenzo, with only a fraction of its clients.  Homeless advocates and homeless people were not consulted in its creation.  Its existence seems more of a fluffy PR cover for the elimination of the San Lorenzo campground with no real alternatives..

       The other “shelter alternative” is the Winter Shelter program slated to end in mid April. It involves body searches, strict entering and leaving times, and other aspects that make it unsuitable for many outside.  It is current limited to around 110 people.  There are no plans for a summer shelter program other than the “have your ‘Path to Housing’ cash or vouchers” ready program of the Homeless (Lack of) Services Center.

        Given these sober facts, it’s nonsense to believe government claims that San Lorenzo campers are being given a real alternative –at least for most.  Much of the ballyhoo around these “shelter proposals” seems simply to be a way of dressing up mass eviction & possible crackdown city-wide.

        The San Lorenzo campground was initially created as a “toleration” zone given the Hepatitis A epidemic.  Won’t removing the campground recreate the bad conditions?


       PLEASE COME DOWN TO SAN LORENZO PARK TODAY TO ASSIST FOLKS.

  •   Help document the mass deportation to nowhere with audio and camera
  •   Assist, if you wish, in helping move homeless gear
  •   Support the Warming Center, Food Not Bombs,  HUFF and other activists in documenting, providing resources, & publicizing the situation.
  •   Back up homeless efforts to organize either as in protest or to demand adequate and accessible facilities.
  •   Exchange information with other supporters there to generate more communication and better solutions in the future.


This e-mail is from HUFF and does not necessarily represent the views of the Warming Center or Food Not Bombs.

A LONGER E-MAIL WITH MORE DETAILS WILL FOLLOW

       PLEASE COME DOWN TO SAN LORENZO PARK TODAY 

    •   Help document the mass deportation to nowhere with audio and camera
  •   Assist, if you wish, in helping move homeless gear
  •   Support the Warming Center, Food Not Bombs,  HUFF and other activists in documenting, providing resources, & publicizing the situation.
  •   Back up homeless efforts to organize either as in protest or to demand adequate and accessible facilities.
  •   Exchange information with other supporters there to generate more communication and better solutions in the future.

This e-mail is the opinion of HUFF and does not necessarily represent the views of Food Not Bombs or the Warming Center.