Category Archives: Mainstream Media

Homeless man jailed until trial for stealing flowers from SCPD Cop Altar

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NOTE TO READER: Judge John Gallagher sets bail at $5000 and orders homeless man held until trial

for stealing flowers from SCPD Baker/Butler memorial because he had money to ride in a taxi.

                                                          –Becky Johnson of HUFF

Man who allegedly stole flowers from fallen officers memorial appears in Santa Cruz courtroom

Posted:   03/05/2013 07:37:01 PM PST


SANTA CRUZ — In a tense hearing Tuesday — which drew a courtroom full of indignant Take Back Santa Cruz members — a 53-year-old man appeared to face charges for allegedly stealing a basket of flowers from the memorial to fallen officers outside the Santa Cruz Police Department.
Kenneth Eugene Maffei, a transient, stood in the “box” reserved for in-custody inmates during the short hearing. He was calm at times and other times somewhat frantic as he strained against his handcuffs while talking with his attorney about what happened Friday afternoon when he was reportedly seen picking up the flowers and walking away with them.
In a courtroom crowded with misdemeanor cases and other troubled inmates, Maffei’s attorney, public defender Jack Lamar Jr., made a careful pitch to have Maffei released from custody.
Conflicting Stories
Lamar told Judge John Gallagher that his new client had a good history of coming to court, except for one time.
Lamar said he was making the request respectfully and that there “might be some confusion” about why Maffei was at the memorial.
Maffei had been near the spot where Sgt. Loran “Butch” Baker and Elizabeth Butler were gunned down by suspect Jeremy Peter Goulet last week, intimating that was why he stopped at the memorial Friday, he said.
Maffei was carrying a floral arrangement he had bought for a “lady friend” from a vendor near Burger King on Soquel Avenue when he stopped at the memorial and set the flowers down, and then picked them up again, Lamar said.
But the prosecutor was quick to step in and refute that account and the bid to release Maffei.
“The people absolutely object,” prosecutor Jennifer Hutchinson said. “The people in this community are mourning the loss of these two officers … And Ms. Sparks here (pointing to a woman behind her in the audience) saw him steal the flowers and jump into a taxi.”
The witness, Leigh Sparks, stood and told Gallagher that seeing Maffei walk away with the flowers “broke her heart.” She said she followed in a car, while calling police on a cell phone, and saw him get into a taxi about 1 p.m. on River Street. She said he told police he was going to another memorial in Scotts Valley. He was unable to explain anything about that memorial.
The Judge rules
Gallagher said the information he had Tuesday showed Maffei has the ability to travel significant distances, plus an extensive history of property crimes, including a felony. He said Maffei has “a severe alcohol abuse problem.”
“And the conduct you exhibited in this case — which I can assume to be true for custodial purposes — is incredibly disrespectful to this community and the officers who gave their lives,” he said. “So you’ll stay in custody until the matter is resolved.”
“Yes, your honor,” Maffei said, sitting down and visibly agitated.
He sat back in his seat, drew a deep breath and said, seemingly to himself, “OK.”
Gallagher set bail at $5,000, the standard amount for the charges facing Maffei — a misdemeanor allegation of being drunk in public and a felony allegation that he vandalized a law enforcement memorial.
Maffei is due back in court March 21 for a pre-trial conference.
Outside court, Take Back Santa Cruz co-founder Analicia Cube and others gathered, cheering Sparks when she walked out of the courtroom. Before court, Cube said the group had researched Maffei’s background and found he had run-ins with the law in Arizona and Nevada and in Capitola.
“We’re tired of these criminal coming into town and doing things like this,” Cube said.
OTHER HEARINGS
Back in Department 2, which typically handles misdemeanor cases, a man who appeared to be affiliated with a gang, with a large star tattoo on his neck and others on his face, twitched a bit while sitting there. He stood at attention when his case was called, speaking in a strong voice to Gallagher as they tackled his problems of violating probation on a resisting arrest charge and then “picking up” a new burglary charge.
A few seats over, Jason Matthew Gerety was facing the music for allegedly trying to head-butt a detention officer in County Jail over the weekend, after being arrested on suspicion of being under the influence. So Gerety “picked up” a possible felony assault on an officer charge too, though it appeared it would be treated as a misdemeanor battery. Per jail records, Gerety was “charged in the alternative,” meaning he is now charged with both crimes for that alleged attempted head-butt.
A prominent defense attorney offered a quick reply when an onlooker at the back of the courtroom mentioned the gang member’s appearance and behavior.
“You should be a nurse,” he quipped.

San Jose plans cleanup of homeless encampment that’s grown to 100 residents – San Jose Mercury News

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NOTE FROM NORSE:  By “cleanup”, of course, the San Jose Mercury News and the San Jose Police Department mask the darker reality: the destruction of homeless survival camps.  City authorities provide no alternatives, but simply destroy protective structures, confiscate survival gear, and drive people out of a protective community.

Homeless survival is apparently an “eyesore” to some, but that doesn’t amount to a public health or safety problem–which is the real issue.

It’s amazing how baldly brutal the statements by public officials are, candidly talking about “fences” and “keeping them out” and citing the needs of tourists and airport customers to a sunny view on their drive to and from San Jose.

Another bit of hypocritical window-dressing is the 1000 Homes Campaign program (somewhat similar to Santa Cruz’s 180/180 figleaf, which seeks to provide shelter (actually to lessen the financial cost) of a small percentage of the most visible and intractable homeless folks.

Prior “destroy the encampment” programs in other cities at least would make token efforts to provide temporary shelter for the folks they were displacing (usually for a few days).   Authorities apparently feel more shameless these days in the absence of strong protests.

Perhaps CHAM (The San Jose Community Homeless Alliance Ministry) or the Occupy San Jose movement will do  some documenting of this massive attack on poor people.

San Jose plans cleanup of homeless encampment that’s grown to 100 residents

By Carol Rosen, Correspondent
Posted:   02/28/2013 08:01:47 PM PST
Updated:   02/28/2013 08:01:47 PM PST
A homeless encampment on Spring Street near the Mineta San Jose airport has been targeted for a full cleanup during the week of March 4. Cleanup of the site will include removing trash and debris, eliminating all structures and storing all property and belongings for 90 days.

The site has become an eyesore, according to city officials, who report that the camp started with a few tents and tarps but grew to more than 100 residents in about a month. In early January, Caltrans cleaned up a camp on the Guadalupe River north of Coleman Avenue. The people living there joined what at the time was a small homeless camp on Spring Street’s undeveloped parkland, adding tents and tarps, fire pits and other semi-permanent structures.

One of those structures was built on a plastic-covered mattress to keep cold and wet out of the tent, according to a local news program. As more homeless moved in, groups that reach out to the homeless brought them food, clothing and other items to make those living there as comfortable as possible.

The city is concerned not only for the welfare of those living in the encampment, but also because it is visible from passing cars, and by business people and tourists flying into Mineta San Jose airport.

The city in mid-February began notifying the camp’s residents that a cleanup would take place within 30 days.

The city’s housing department, in conjunction with Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services,

the police department and environmental services are involved in the cleanup. At the beginning of the week the city will issue a warning, followed 72 hours later by the cleanup, which is estimated will take one or two days. The four departments also will coordinate with outside contractors including the Conservation Corps for trash and debris removal, Santa Clara County household hazardous waste and Tucker Construction to remove the structures.Typically, once a camp has been cleaned up, the homeless drift back, sometimes within hours. This time the housing department plans to keep them out.

“There are a number of possible deterrent options that we’re evaluating at this time,” Ray Branson, homeless encampment project manager, said in an interview.

The police are committed to respond to the site on an as-needed basis, but other options include hiring a security company or using the city’s park rangers to patrol.

While numbers from the 2013 homeless census, taken in January, are not yet available, the census two years ago estimated about 18,000 live on the streets or in encampments, according to Branson. This continual challenge to the San Jose community has resulted in a long-term plan to slowly but eventually get people off the streets.

San Jose’s 1,000 Homes Campaign is working to get the 1,000 most vulnerable homeless into permanent homes. Homeless people will be interviewed as to the length of time they’ve been on the streets, their age, physical illnesses or disabilities and mental health. Those determined to be most vulnerable will be moved into homes and given a case manager to follow their progress.

The city is finding help for the program with Destination Home and local nonprofit groups. “We won’t have an answer that will end homelessness in a month or a year, but in the long run we believe our work will yield positive results,” Branson said.

An encampment in San Jose Council District 9 on the Guadalupe River is on the priority list for the program, according to Branson. While the first step will be Spring Street, other areas will follow. As the camps are cleaned up, deterrents, such as access barriers, fences and an on-site security presence, will be used to keep the homeless out.

“We’re not just picking up trash and letting [the people who were living here] come back; we’re hoping to utilize barriers to keep them out. The goal of our program is to have a long-term impact for the community,” Branson said.
At the same time, the project is working to create housing units so the homeless won’t have to camp out. Options include looking at different methods of developing units, ordinance modifications for existing units, master leasing and developing housing and policy methods to add housing units to the community, Branson added.

“The key issue is for the city to make positive progress. This is a complex problem and there’s no question this is a tragedy that hits everyone.”

Demonizing the Sparechangers

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NOTE FROM NORSE:   The “It’s a Racket”,  “The Homeless are Scamming”, “It’s All for Drugs” paranoia is alive and well in Santa Cruz.  I share some of it myself.  But I think this article talks both compassion and common sense about trusting your own instincts in whether to give or not to give to any particular person.   Legitimate doubts and genuine concerns are often much more loudly trumped by a merchant agenda which simply wants to remove visible poverty period.
               Thus in Santa Cruz we have the “give money to the Imagine Real Change” meters (large red parking meters that also serve as “no homeless sitting within 14 feet” markers) placed offensively up and down our main street, Pacific Avenue, as a deliberate urging for people to mistrust poor people, ignore pleas for help, and funnel money to bureaucrats.

February 25, 2013  http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/02/25/homeless-in-february/

An Open Letter to Two Women on the Subway

Homeless in February

by ALYSSA GOLDSTEIN

It’s February, early evening. I’m on the Q train heading home. A young man in a beat-up, threadbare coat with a large backpack gets on at Union Square. “I’m sorry to bother you,” he announces. “It’s your money, and I know you’ve worked hard to earn it. You don’t have to give it to a homeless guy. There’s a hostel I’m staying at, and it’s going to be cold tonight. If I get twelve more dollars, I can afford a room.” I give him a dollar before he can finish his spiel. He smiles. “God bless,” he says.


I’m standing next to two young women, about my age. “Bullshit,” one of them says loudly to her friend. “He’s just going to get wasted. That’s what they do. They make so much money on these trains. I know it for a fact because my boyfriend used to do it. None of them actually sleep on the street, they just stay at their friends’ houses and get wasted all day.” The other woman nods enthusiastically. I say nothing to them. I go home and write them this letter instead.


Dear women on the subway,


I know you are having your own conversation, but I don’t think it’s a stretch for me to assume that you are, at least a little bit, talking to me as well. You probably think I’m a shmuck for giving a dollar to the homeless guy, and you may assume that I will be embarrassed to overhear your expertise on the true motivations of subway panhandlers. You’re not the first people I’ve heard talk this way, and I’m sure you won’t be the last. It’s true that most people don’t go into as much detail as you do; they are content to say “they’ll spend it on drugs” and leave it at that. But for you and all those others, the possibility that you will bequeath your spare change and little bits of pocket lint unto an undeserving person is worse to you than the monstrous reality that there are 50,000 people in this city who actually don’t have homes to live in. And for that, you are assholes.


This may seem harsh, but it needs to be said. While it is true that I think you both are assholes, I don’t mean to imply that you are the only assholes in the world or particularly worse than all the others. Nor am I including in my definition of “asshole” those who fail to give money to every homeless person they see–only those who are smug jerks about it. I also don’t consider myself to be better than you. I have been an asshole countless times in the past, and I know that I will realize in the future that I am currently an asshole in ways that I have yet to comprehend. It is easy to give a dollar to a homeless guy and feel like a generous person who has done your part. I would like to avoid this. Charity in a capitalist society can block the drive for truly radical change by providing an easy, feel-good outlet that avoids striking at the roots of the problems it seeks to ameliorate. Giving a dollar to a homeless guy is not a good deed that deserves congratulation. It is the barest minimum of human decency to give a small token of help to someone who asks.


We are taught that the poor must be scrupulously well-behaved to deserve any sort of assistance. We hold them to higher standards than we hold ourselves. The rich, meanwhile, do not come under such cruel scrutiny, even when they spend their money on drugs (or fancy cars, or extravagant vacations). It’s possible that both of you spend hours quaking with rage over corporate tax cuts and bank bailouts, but I doubt it. We live in a society that encourages this kind of thinking. There’s even an announcement that you hear on the subway all the time, “Soliciting money in the subway is illegal. We ask you not to give. Please help us to maintain an orderly subway,” as if the abstract idea of “order” is more important than the fact that there are actual human beings who don’t have enough food and have to sleep outside in the cold.


Let’s assume for the sake of argument that everything you said about this homeless man is true. He sleeps not on the streets but in his friends’ houses, and he will spend my dollar on beer. You know what? Big deal. If panhandling on the subway were my chosen career, I would want a drink too. It’s possible that both of you are frugal teetotalers, but it’s a lot more likely that both of you, at least occasionally, enjoy hanging out with friends and getting wasted. I wouldn’t be surprised if both of you, like me, think that getting together with your buddies, watching Sex and the City 2, and chugging cheap champagne every time one of the characters makes a bad Orientalist pun is the very definition of a good time (ok, well…you get the point). If both of you had the misfortune to find yourself jobless, homeless, and without the support of family, you would still have the right to enjoy getting wasted with your friends. If your life sucked enough that panhandling on the subway seemed like the best option, you would deserve every bit of fun and joy you could come by.


No matter their background or life story, a person who carves out a living from accumulated tiny acts of kindness from strangers is a thousand times more commendable than a person who gains their wealth from the exploitation of others. A person who sits around and drinks beer with their friends all day hurts no one, yet it is the CEOs, the bankers, the celebrities, the present-day equivalents of the “Captains of Industry”– those who hoard so much wealth that they impoverish others–who earn our society’s admiration. What else is expected from a capitalist system that is collapsing under the weight of its own nightmarish cruelty? Until we can work together to radically transform it, do us all a favor. Don’t be an asshole.


Alyssa Goldstein is a contributing writer at Jewish Currents magazine and an intern at Verso Books. She graduated from Bard College with a degree in Sociology. She can be reached at alyssa.d.goldstein@gmail.com.

San Jose has its Obamaville; Bryantville coming to Mayor Bryant’s Santa Cruz?

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Large homeless tent city springs up near downtown San Jose

By Mark Emmons
Posted:   02/20/2013 04:19:03 PM PST
Updated:   02/20/2013 09:04:57 PM PST

 

Click photo to enlarge

A campsite, built by members of the homeless community, is part of a growing… ( Gary Reyes )

SAN JOSE — As a large homeless encampment has sprouted in grassy fields not far from the Guadalupe River Park, some frustrated local residents have made this sarcastic suggestion:

Maybe the financially strapped city should just start charging camping fees.

“I’ve heard that joke,” said Ray Bramson of San Jose’s housing department.

But he’s not laughing. Nobody else is, either. The tent city, which rapidly mushroomed into a makeshift community of more than 100 people, has become the latest test for officials as they wrestle with the complicated problem of homelessness.

Director of Housing Leslye Corsiglia wrote Wednesday in a memo to the City Council that the site, located along Spring Street between Taylor and Hedding streets, is targeted to be cleaned up — and cleaned out — the first week in March. The “somewhat unprecedented growth” of the encampment has prompted the city into action, Corsiglia told the council.

Bramson, the city’s point person on the encampment issue, said the larger challenge is finding solutions beyond merely pushing the homeless elsewhere.

“This site is our highest priority right now because we can’t accept this,” he said. “We don’t want that land to be overtaken and have people coming from outside the region and set up there. We realize that it’s unsettling for the community and that nearby residents don’t feel safe.”

There has been mounting political pressure throughout Santa Clara County as residents and environmental groups — fed up with crime and garbage associated with encampments — have pushed for more attention to be focused on the homeless issue.

A majority of the city’s estimated 60 encampments are along waterways where they generally are hidden from view. This one is different because it’s so visible and has grown so quickly — much like an unsightly weed. The open area near the popular Guadalupe River Trail, sports fields and San Jose Heritage Rose Garden has become populated with about 70 tents and tarpaulin-covered structures.

Not taking action, Mayor Chuck Reed said, simply will invite more people to set up camp.
“Folks are trespassing and there are no sanitary facilities,” Reed said. “We certainly don’t want people living in unsanitary conditions. We have to go through, clean it up and get people into services.”

Area residents say there used to be one person living in a tent there. But more tents began appearing late last year. Then, a January cleanup of state land along the Guadalupe River by Caltrans had the unintended effect of swelling the numbers on this undeveloped property that is owned by the city and the San Jose Mineta Airport.

“All these new people came up from the river banks in the last month, and I stay as far away from them as possible,” said a homeless man who asked not to be identified. “Most of those people are drug addicts, and you can hear them up all night. It’s horrible.”

Peter Hubbard, 62, visits the green space because it’s a prime location for migrating birds. But he has watched with increasing alarm the damage to the ecosystem and the brazen attitude of some squatters. One man, he said, saw his bird-watching binoculars and advised him to leave.

“I told him in no uncertain terms that he had no right to tell me what to do on that land,”

Hubbard said. “I’m not looking for any confrontations with these people, and I’m sympathetic because I know a lot of them have problems. But they just can’t let people stay there.”

Sgt. Jason Dwyer, a San Jose police spokesman, said the department has not seen a noticeable uptick in crime near the encampment.

“But it’s certainly an eyesore because there’s a lot of tents out there,” Dwyer said. “You can see it growing, and I’m sure thousands of people who drive past them every day see it, too. But cleanups aren’t going to solve the problem. The goal has to be to get people off the streets permanently.”

Bramson agrees. He said the city’s nonprofit partners who work with the homeless have been making outreach visits to the site, letting people know that workers are coming and offering shelter options. The short-term aim will be to prevent repopulating the encampment — which is a common, frustrating pattern.

“It does have the feel of a campground,” Bramson said. “It’s basically park land, and that makes it hard to keep people out. We just don’t have the ranger coverage that we used to have. But there needs to be some level of enforcement to keep it clean.”

A homeless man with a scraggly gray beard who identified himself as Pete, and said he is a 59-year-old Air Force veteran, understands why the city wants them out.

“They’re not picking on anybody personally,” he said. “The city doesn’t want to lose its image. It’s hard to say where I’ll go, but there’s always options.”

Hubbard is just looking forward to the site being returned to its original state.

“It’s such a fine piece of land, and that’s why I’m a real advocate for this parcel,” he said. “When they’re gone, I’ll be back in there helping to clean it up.”

John Woolfolk contributed to this report. Contact Mark Emmons at 408-920-5745.

Herhold: San Jose has modern version of Depression-era encampments

Posted:   02/20/2013 02:28:37 PM PST
Updated:   02/20/2013 09:00:16 PM PST

We can say it officially now. San Jose has its Hooverville, the modern version of the Depression-era encampments that collected the misery of the homeless.

True, it is a suburban Hooverville, with trash bagged on the street, propane tanks for cooking, campsites distanced from one another. Even the homeless don’t like being cramped.

Like the Hoovervilles of the 1930s, however, the encampment rebukes our complacency, reminding us of the fractures in our economic health.

As you drive into downtown on Coleman Avenue from Interstate 880, you can see 70-odd tents blossoming on either side of Spring Street in the city’s airport approach zone.

All that is likely to change soon. Located on the city’s welcome mat, the encampment is too visible to stay. City officials have scheduled the week of March 4 for a massive cleanup that could cost $40,000.

In the game of “whack-a-mole” that we play with the homeless, the tents and their occupants will migrate elsewhere.

For the moment, the visibility of the encampment off Hedding Street forces us to confront a phenomenon that we’d sooner put out of sight, out of mind.

In his state of the city message, Mayor Chuck Reed noted happily that the Milken Institute had proclaimed the San Jose metropolitan area the best in the country at creating and sustaining economic growth. (The study was actually talking about Silicon Valley, but let’s not quibble too much).

Folks

left behind

The truth is that there are thousands of folks left behind in that race — the mentally ill, the drug-addicted, the folks with criminal records.

In the creeks, they were the people who used shopping carts to fish for Chinook salmon.

They were the folks who dumped their trash and sewage into the stream. Environmentalists cried foul. The Santa Clara Valley Water District made cleaning up the creeks a top priority. In early January, Caltrans swept the Guadalupe River.

And the homeless moved to the cleared plots of what a half-century ago was a residential neighborhood — before the jet planes shook the houses to their foundations.

From a not-in-my-backyard point of view, the homeless have landed in a place without too many complaining neighbors.

“The word has gotten out that there’s no resistance,” said Leslee Hamilton, the executive director of the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy.

I rode my wheezing Nishiki 10-speed past the encampment this week and saw a tired-looking man in his 50s walking toward a tent with a cup of coffee.

“Do they give you any hassle here?” I asked him. “No,” he told me, “as long as we stay out of the creek.”

Their own code
It struck me that he and his comrades were obeying their own rough zoning code: Stay out off the creek. Protect the field mouse and the fish. Hope for a look the other way.

Just steps away from the developed portions of the Guadalupe River Park, which some saw as our rough-hewn Central Park, the settlement is too visible to ignore.

And many good people are trying to deal with the unwanted settlers. The Emergency Housing Consortium has dispatched its folks. City staffers work hard to find help. It is not a lack of goodwill.

The Hoovervilles of the ’30s were political statements, located in places like Central Park in New York City or the shores of the Willamette River in Portland, Ore.

The encampment on Spring Street is a political challenge, too, but one less widely shared than the misery of the Depression.

“It’s easy to point fingers at police and just tell them to arrest people,” said Councilman Sam Liccardo. “But if you don’t have somewhere to push them to, they’ll be back.”

The Hooverville of the airport approach zone wilhttps://bay002.mail.live.com/default.aspx?id=64855#n=1874738762&view=1l disappear for a while. The homeless will not. They will gather again under a freeway, or near a creek.

For most of us, they will be out of sight, but they should not be out of mind.

 COMMENTS
From: brent adams
Date: Thu Feb 21, 2013 4:57 am
Subject: Homeless Bill of Rights
To my mind, this is the most important thing going on.. and right up HUFF’s alley.

I’d like to hear you’re all rallying hard for this.
xo
brent
From: brent adams

Date: Thu Feb 21, 2013 12:09 am
Subject: San Jose has its Obamaville; Bryantville coming to Mayor Bryant's Santa Cruz?

That is a great place for a camp as it is in the main flight path of the airport.  The old neighborhood was torn down years ago and nothing

has replace it.  It is just acres of lush green grass and trees.  It is patrolled by a security company.  Occupy San Jose or some other

activist group should jump on this quickly.. it is a perfect place for a sanctuary/survival camp.

FURTHER COMMENTS BY READERS ARE AT  http://www.mercurynews.com/scott-herhold/ci_22630578/herhold-san-jose-has-modern-version-depression-era?source=pkg

 

Berkeley Levels Restrictions on “Unattended Property”–Copying Santa Cruz Bigotry?

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Norse’s Notes:  Is there a contagion of homeless-ophobia?   Are Berkeley gentrification folks watching Santa Cruz and taking their cure from the right-wingers here?   The Berkeley library’s “unattended property” rule change seems suspiciously close in time and content to the Santa Cruz November change banning unattended property.  Other changes included trying to tighten rules on service animals, and increasing penalties drastically for repeated violation by many months.

Those who want to examine the records of complaints and evictions from the Santa Cruz Library should contact the City Council staff at 420-5020 and ascertain whether they are still holding the public records I requested there.

PASS ON REPORTS OF HARASSMENT IN THE LIBARY BY THE LIBRARY STAFF, SECURITY GUARDS, OR OTHER “INTERESTED CITIZENS” TO HUFF AT 831-423-4833.  AS “NEEDLE-HYSTERIA” RAMPS UP AND ATTACKS ON HOMELESS CAMPS AS “TRASH” MOUNT, DEFENDING HOMELESS PEOPLE BECOMES EVEN MORE VITAL.

Has it gotten harder to be homeless in Berkeley?

January 2, 2013 2:45 pm by Emilie Raguso

New policies at the Berkeley Library prohibit bringing in items larger than 24 inches. One reader wondered if the change were related to the failure of Measure S to pass. Photo: Emilie Raguso



After the failure of Measure S to pass in November, we heard from one reader who said there seemed to have been harsher enforcement around town of violations related to homelessness. The reader said a homeless friend had been hassled by police when trying to sleep in a regular spot, and also wanted to know about new rules at the library that limit the size and type of items that can be brought inside.


The reader sent us an email in December detailing the changes, and asked Berkeleyside to learn more.


“Since the no-sit measure failed, the city has begun new, more aggressive treatment of the homeless. My homeless neighbor … has been told he could sleep in the doorway of a movie theater but last night, a cop rousted him from his dry, out-of-the-rain perch in the theater’s doorway. The cop said the theater could face stiff fines for giving [my neighbor] permission to sleep in their doorway on a rainy night.”


The reader continued: “Is this really who we want to be as a city?”


According to police spokeswoman Officer Jennifer Coats, the Berkeley Police Department has not altered its general approach to the enforcement of violations associated with homeless residents.


“There has not been any new change in policy regarding our enforcement efforts after the failure of Measure S,” said Coats, via email, in December. “Officers have the discretion to enforce laws if needed.”


(She said she did not have details about the specific incident described above, as no additional information was available from the reader who contacted Berkeleyside about it.)

New rules at the library

The reader also noted a shift in policy at the Berkeley Public Library, with visitors — seemingly suddenly — forbidden from bringing in items larger than 24 inches.


“This new policy, which appeared overnight … is clearly targeted to keep homeless with their stuff out of the library. Um, if you are homeless, you have nowhere to leave your stuff.  I know that, for middle-class patrons, it can feel uncomfortable to be sitting at a library computer next to a guy who appears homeless and has some luggage with him. Geez, have compassion for that human being.”


Douglas Smith, deputy director at the Berkeley Public Library, said in December that the changes had not come out of the blue, and that library staff members were working with patrons to let them know about the changes and help come up with alternatives.


Smith said the library has rules of conduct that are regularly reviewed and updated. At the Nov. 14 meeting of the library board, members voted to approve the new rules. They went into effect Dec. 1. (See the agenda packet related to this item here.)


Smith said changes to the rules included now letting patrons charge phones and computers using library outlets, which previously had been forbidden, as well as the new limitation on the amount and type of items people can bring inside.


The rules now prohibit entering the library with containers or packages that, singly or collectively, exceed 16 inches by 18 inches by 24 inches. They also forbid leaving items unattended, blocking walkways, and entering the library “with items inappropriate to library use, including but not limited to bicycles, shopping carts, large trash bags, bedrolls, and strollers without children.”
Smith said that, since the last revision of the rules, three years back, there had been “an issue in some of our libraries of people coming in with large amounts of stuff in a variety of shapes and sizes. It does have an impact on other people’s ability to use the library comfortably.”


Unattended items can cause a range of problems, he said, adding that library staff had observed an increase in this behavior, especially at the central library in downtown Berkeley.


“It was at least a daily occurrence, usually more,” said Smith.


Some patrons had made a habit of leaving their possessions around, blocking access to collections and computers, and “walking away for the day,” he said. When items were left around the building, it also made it hard for staff to clear the building in a timely manner at the end of the day.

For the greater good

Smith said the library aims to be accessible to everyone, but that involves putting limits on conduct that might interfere with access to the facility.


“Our mission is to say ‘yes’ as much as possible, but we do have to make sure people follow the rules,” he said. “Part of our mission is to help create a space in the community where people want to come, where it can be a place for silent study, meeting with friends, using collections, using computers and getting information from librarians.”


Smith said Rules of Conduct policies like those adopted in November are “very common” for libraries in urban settings.


Penalties could range from receiving a copy of the written rules, for the first violation, to suspension of library privileges for up to a year, with the fourth violation. Suspensions would only result from more egregious offenses of the rules, such as fighting, Smith added.


He said, as of the first week of December, there had been “a couple of complaints” about the new rules, “but we’re working with people to try and get them alternatives.”


Smith said staff had tried to let patrons know about the new rules prior to Dec. 1 and was making efforts to be flexible as people learned about the changes.


Smith said he understood that the new rules would be a challenge for some patrons, but that they were necessary for the facility to work as a shared resource.


“A lot of businesses — and non-profits, government offices and other organizations — place these sorts of restrictions on what can happen inside their premises and what can be brought in,” he said. “It goes back to the full range of people we need to serve here, from babies to senior citizens, people from all social classes, and every facet of society.”

CRITICAL COMMENT FROM ALMOST TWO HUNDRED COMMENTS FOLLOWING THE STORY:

I was the anonymous reader. I never gave Berkeleyside permission to publish what I wrote. I wrote in and asked them to look into it. I had not written an opinion piece or a letter to the editor. I sent in a story suggstion and did not give permission. I retain the copyright to everything I write and my permission is required to publish it.
Keep in mind the spinmeister police chief we have who sent a police officer to a reporter’s home in the middle of the night. I do not trust anything any spokesperson from the Berkeley police says: its all spin, smoke and mirrors in a department run by a guy who dedicates lots of resources to his kid’s stolen iPHone and rousts journalists in the middle of the night and prioritizies demonstrations in Oakland over urgent calls in the Berkeley hills. I do not trust the Berkeley police public relations spokespeople and the spin they are ordered to spew.
In my email, I copied an email I got from one homeless friend and I did not give berkeleyside permission to quote me because I had shared my friend’s email without his permission. To the people who are active on the street, such as outreach workers, cops and the Downtown Business Assoc workers with police-like powers who routinely order the homeless around like they are less than the rest of us, few regular homeless/street people are unfamiliar. I had no right to give away my friend’s identify without his permission and neither did Berkeleyside.

My homeless friend actually does have legal representation and his attorneys (Yes, plural, he is a well liked and even loved member of our community, an unfortunate but sweetly loving human being) who are licensed are helping him.

This berkeleyside story, written by Ms. Raguso who was merely an intern quite recently and is now ‘senior reporter’ — whatever happened to cub reporters and periods of training and, um, actual training — Ms. RAguso simply regurgitated PR from the police and library. since when is PR statements reporting the news. I did not, keep in mind, force B-side to publish this story.

Did she go out and try to talk to some homeless folks at the library or around downtown? Most homeless folks in downtown Berkeley are warm and friendly.

It is just an irrational cultural bias to reject someone cause they don’t shave every morning cause they don’t have a sink. and the claims that the homeless smell are grossly overstated. Spend time with some and you will see.

I think people are afraid of the homeless, deep down, because for most of it, ‘there but for the grace of god, it would be us” so we villify ‘them’ to feel safe.

They are us. It is as simple as that.


FOR MORE EXTENSIVE COMMENTS–BOTH CRITICAL AND SUPPORTIVE–ON THIS  ARTICLE SEE http://www.berkeleyside.com/2013/01/02/has-it-gotten-harder-to-be-homeless-in-berkeley/ . 

Hilary Bryant: Public safety is our top priority

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Posted:   02/16/2013 05:17:29 PM PST


Hilary Bryant
Our Santa Cruz community is reeling. Residents, business owners and students have said “enough” to illegal campsites, needles strewn in our parks and beaches, and the recent spike in crime. Deteriorating conditions in our public spaces, along with the recent downtown homicide and the attempted homicide of a UC Santa Cruz student are completely unacceptable. These tragedies and safety concerns are a sharp reminder that we must actively protect our safe and vibrant community. Enough is enough.
As your mayor, I am fully committed to changing course. I want you to know that my fellow City Council members and the city staff are with me; we are all actively working to make Santa Cruz a safe and flourishing community by applying the following measures:
First, we are working diligently to fully staff our Police Department. The year 2012 marked our Police Department’s busiest on record. Santa Cruz police officers responded to over 104,000 calls for service and made 8,300 arrests (16 percent and 50 percent increases over 2011). Our police officers are doing more with less, as they grapple with filling vacant positions. In the meantime, the City Council will provide the department with all the resources and support it needs to be successful.
Second, we must address the illegally discarded needles, illegal campsites and degraded environmental quality of our public spaces. While the causes are complex, complete solutions to these issues require other community and government partners. For many years, city staff has been working on camp abatements; this past summer, they ramped up their efforts. At our Feb. 26 meeting, the City Council is poised to increase abatement funding and to explore further measures that we can take to improve water quality at our beaches.
Third, city staff members are working closely with Santa Cruz County to develop a model needle exchange program. This program must have county oversight, accountability and effective public reporting systems in place. It should provide a true 1-for-1 exchange in a manner that does not impact our neighborhoods, parks, open spaces and beaches. That also includes developing better mechanisms for safe needle disposal.
Once implemented, these tools should alleviate some of the immediate public safety and environmental concerns. We will measure their impacts and report regularly back to the community on our progress. However, we can neither arrest our way out nor clean our way out of the current state of affairs. Persistent drug addiction and drug-related crime factor heavily into our public safety issues. These complex problems require systemic solutions.
Therefore, the fourth and final part of our plan is to assess these systemic problems closely with our regional partners and a citizen task force to create meaningful and lasting solutions. While the city provides law enforcement, it is Santa Cruz County that has jurisdiction over public health, our justice system, courts and jails, and social programs. I believe strongly that only through enhanced city efforts and focused participation from our county sheriff, district attorney, courts, human services agency, and drug-treatment organizations can we develop solutions that address these long-term safety problems. These issues did not arise overnight in Santa Cruz, nor can we say with a straight face that we will resolve them overnight. However, the entire City is committed to this enhanced course of action.
My thanks go out to the community for raising awareness of these issues, and to our Public Safety Committee (Council members David Terrazas, Pamela Comstock and Cynthia Mathews) for developing the safety action plan.
Hilary Bryant is mayor of the city of Santa Cruz.

Venice program gives the homeless a place to keep belongings

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 – latimes.com

By Martha Groves, Los Angeles Times

February 10, 2013, 8:25 p.m.
Bone-chilling fog swirled along Venice Beach one recent afternoon when Robert and Nani Valencia and Ana Maria Reyes stopped by the long, metal storage container beside the sand.
After they showed IDs and claim checks, a volunteer wheeled out two blue recycling bins in which the three recent arrivals from Texas had stashed their suitcases. They pulled out toiletries, sweaters and blankets and stuffed them into reusable grocery bags.
“It makes us feel a lot better to store our things here,” said Nani Valencia, 37. “When you have all your [suitcases] with you, people treat you like you have rabies.”
With bags in hand, she, her husband and his 64-year-old mother joined dozens of others waiting for a bus to take them to a shelter. The three would rest, eat dinner and have a shower that night at the West Los Angeles National Guard Armory on Federal Avenue; most of their meager possessions would remain locked up at the beach.
In the wake of court rulings that bar cities from randomly seizing and destroying homeless people’s property, communities such as Venice are seeking long-term storage options to keep their streets and alleys clean.
“We’re not going to let [homeless people] keep items on the beach anymore,” said Los Angeles Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who represents Venice. “We’re going to bag and tag [them]. We want to make it inconvenient but within the law.”
Contributing to the problem was a rule governing use of the city’s Westside winter shelter.
Homeless individuals who choose to sleep at the shelter are allowed to take with them only the items they can carry on their laps. And some were reluctant to leave their possessions for fear they would be stolen or seized. That meant many of the shelter’s 160 beds went unused.
Rosendahl and a local social services agency — Venice Community Housing Corp. — launched a pilot program late last month called Check-in Storage. The initiative allows individuals to store personal belongings in the container for a week at a time and retrieve them between 3 and 5 p.m. daily. (The program is slated to end March 1, when the shelter closes.)
To publicize the service, volunteers and social service agencies distributed bright orange fliers: “If your stuff will fit into a big trash can,” they read, “bring it to our storage container.” The flier noted that the program would not accept medicine, identification, weapons or “anything illegal.”
The storage option, said Steve Clare, executive director of Venice Community Housing, is modeled on successful programs in downtown L.A.’s skid row and cities including San Francisco, San Diego and Costa Mesa.
In September, a federal appeals court ruled in a lawsuit filed against the city of Los Angeles that seizing and destroying property left temporarily unattended on public sidewalks was unconstitutional. Personal possessions may be removed only if the items pose an immediate threat to public safety or health or constitute criminal evidence, a panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found.
Even then, the city must notify owners where they can pick up their property.
On the afternoon the Valencias and Reyes retrieved some items, about half of the 25 bins were in use. Also there for safekeeping was a Schwinn bicycle. Its owner, Love Sha Un of Nigeria, came by to check on his $215 purchase and thank the volunteers. Without the storage option, he said, “it might have gone missing.”
Not everyone is pleased with the program.
Mark Ryavec, a Venice resident who lobbied against overnight parking by RV dwellers, said the city should have sought a permit from the California Coastal Commission before plopping a storage container at the beach. Marc Saltzberg, vice president of the Venice Neighborhood Council, said the program was implemented without a public process that would have enabled residents and other interested parties to weigh in.
Rosendahl said he hoped to notify street denizens of a new location by the end of February and have a new program up and running by March. He said he was working with the Los Angeles city attorney’s office to ensure that any seizures of items would be done legally.

Destruction of Local Homeless Survival Camps in Felton: Another Disgraceful Episode

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Norse’s Notes:  Instead of ordering that the campsites be cleaned up, the real motivation of the vigilantes and sheriffs seems to be to drive away any and all homeless survival campers.
Too bad no one documented the three truckloads of “trash” with video.  When that was done in Fresno, the City lost a two million dollar lawsuit, and actually had to start at least giving token acknowledgment of state law regarding seized property.
More to the point would be establishing emergency campgrounds for folks who need to be outdoors (95% of whom have no legal shelter).  Even more addressing the underlying conditions that create this crisis.
If folks were serious about clean-up’s, the county would provide portapotties, dumpsters, trashbags, and legalization of clean camps.  If they were serious about ending unsafe needle disposal, they’d take local initiatives to end the insane Drug Prohibition war and at the very least expand (rather than contract) harm-reduction programs like needle exchange.
While it’s always encouraging to see community members getting together to clean-up areas that the city and county decline to address, that must not involve scapegoating a whole class of people.  T.J. Magallanes, who created The Clean Team website, has said and written this repeatedly.  But “Take Back Santa Cruz” type hardliners prefer to use the homeless as a political football here and blame them as a means of attacking a power structure (that deserves to be attacked, incidentally).
Screaming about “tolerance for drugs” and “illegal” homeless camps (when virtually all survival camping is illegal) is just blind bigotry and the kind of desperation that ensues when folks fail to identify the real enemies who run the show.
The KSBW news brief on this suggests the sweeps are “controversial” only in that they “aren’t effective” and folks seem to keep coming back.  Sort of reminds me of the homeless = vermin approach, used to describe insurgents, terrorists, 1930’s Jews, etc.  Dehumanizing people is a nice way of covering your fascist ass.
It’s also a pity that the “service providers” in the area didn’t speak out against this destruction of homeless survival camps.  Maintaining the illusion that there are shelter alternatives when there are not.  The sheriffs don’t even pretend there are.  And won’t be even if the pretty-pretty 180-180 program gets fully funded.
There are thousands of homeless in the county.  Is the plan to drive them all out into the rain and make them internal refugees?
I wrote more in the comments that follow this article, which is primarily window-dressing for the sheriffs and demonization of the campers, though as of yet those comments haven’t appeared (other than one brief sentence).  See http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/rss/ci_22545061?source=rss for more comments and to make your own.  Or comment on this article on the HUFF blog at http://huffsantacruz.org/wordpress/ .

Three truckloads of trash hauled from Felton campsites

By Stephen Baxter

Santa Cruz Sentinel

Posted:   02/07/2013 07:05:45 PM PST

 

FELTON — Three deputies and four Santa Cruz County Jail inmates hauled out three truckloads of trash from illegal campsites near Zayante Creek and the San Lorenzo River on Thursday.

Responding to some residents’ complaints and a pile of garbage and human waste at the Graham Hill Road Bridge over the San Lorenzo River, deputies posted notices to vacate the campsites in January.
Since then, much of the debris was removed or swept down the river with last month’s rain, sheriff’s Sgt. John Habermehl said.
Thursday, they hauled out dirty clothing, alcohol bottles, bicycle parts and a broken kayak, among other items.
“It’s not so much that somebody decided to pitch a tent,” Habermehl said. “We try to address the criminal behavior — the illegal dumping, the drug and alcohol issues, and the waste in our rivers.”
He added that the cleanups are a matter of maintenance rather than a long-term solution: “If we don’t do something about what’s out there, it’s just going to get worse.”
The action follows similar Sheriff’s Office sweeps near Highway 9 in September and by Santa Cruz police during the fall and summer of 2012.
No one was cited and no syringes or other drug paraphernalia were found on Thursday, deputies said. The inmates who participated volunteered from the Rountree Detention Center, a medium-security facility.

At a second cleanup site under the Conference Drive Bridge at Zayante Creek, deputies were

surprised to find a relatively clean area with several trash bags left by campers.

Light rain fell on the crew as it loaded food wrappers and dirty clothing into a Santa Cruz County flatbed pickup and a truck loaned by the Mount Hermon Christian Conference Center.

Don Cox, a homeless 53-year-old Air Force veteran, watched the crew work in the rain. He said he camped in the Felton area for years and noticed new people who came from Santa Cruz because of recent cleanups in that city.

“A bunch of them who’ve come down here are drug addicts and thieves,” Cox said.

Having been a mechanic and tow truck driver, he said he is trying to attend job-training classes at Cabrillo College and find a place to live with his veteran benefits.

“It’s not like I’ve chosen to be out here and be a bum,” he said. “I’m too old to be on the streets.”

“They’re really kind of picking on us,” he said of Thursday’s cleanup.

Another woman, Amanda Livingston, 22, saw the deputies and inmates work under the Graham Hill Bridge.

She said one of the men went to Santa Cruz to collect a check Thursday morning, so she scrambled to round up his gear and a bag of prescription drugs before it was removed.

“I’ve been telling him that they’re going to clear the camp,” she said. “He didn’t believe me.”

Originally from Michigan, Livingston said the bridge offered her some shelter during the rain storms earlier in the winter. She and others cooked, drank and tried to stay dry, she said.

Above the bridge, some employees at nearby businesses said they appreciated the cleanup.

“I think it’s definitely necessary but it’s pretty lame that it has to be done in the first place,” said 21-year-old Adam Pomianowski, who works at Budget Truck Rental at 6440 Graham Hill Road. “This is a river running through our little town. I’m glad someone’s paying attention.”

MORE COMMENTS at:  http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/rss/ci_22545061?source=rss

Armed Bigots on the March in Felton

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Norse Note:   What drugs?  What “illegal behavior”?  What provision for alternative shelter is being made?  Isn’t what’s really going on here destruction of people’s survival campsites without warrant or specific justification?     Why bother to ask–when you can just scowl “drug-infested” and “clear” people and their possessions like so much garbage?

Drug-Infested Camps to Be Cleared Thursday

Illegal campsites filled with criminal activity will be eliminated in Felton from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Thursday.
Photos (2)
A series of illegal campsites, known to be full of drugs and other criminal behavior, will be disposed of Thursday morning and early afternoon, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office announced.

The Felton camps, along the Mt. Hermon Road and Gram Hill Road corridor, were identified by community members and are hotbeds of “ongoing criminal activity in the area,” Sergeant John Habermehl said in a press release.

From 8 a.m. until 1 p.m., the camps, which are located under county bridges and touch private property, will be cleaned up with assistance of minimum security community corrections inames under the supervision of sheriff’s deputies.

Over the past few weeks, the sheriff’s office has posted signs at each camp asking people to vacate.

“The goal of the Sheriff’s Office will be to remove the refuse and eliminate criminal activities caused by these campsites,” Habermehl said. “Roaring Camp has graciously donated the use of their dumpsters for disposal of debris removed from the targeted areas.”

Santa Cruz Way Behind Madison in Civil Rights for Homeless Vision, but in State with Highest Violence Against Homeless Rate

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Madison civil rights panel looks at making homelessness a protected class

The Occupy Madison encampment on East Washington Avenue shown here on Oct. 29 has been removed, but the sign’s question,”No legal place to go?” is still highly relevant for Madison’s homeless population as winter approaches.

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Should homelessness be a protected trait — like sex, race, age and many others — in the city of Madison?

The city’s advisory Equal Opportunities Commission is beginning to look into adding homelessness to the list of characteristics which may not be considered in housing, employment and public accommodation under Madison’s Equal Opportunities Ordinance.

Interest in exploring whether homeless people should be designated a protected class to ensure their civil rights goes back to a controversy early this year about efforts to dissuade the homeless from hanging out in the lobby of the City-County Building, committee Chairman Brian Benford told me.

“It’s been on our radar,” he said.

Concern among committee members was renewed this fall, after an incident in which the gear of a half-dozen homeless people was confiscated from a plaza at the top of State Street and disposed of by city employees, Benford said.

“People felt discriminated against,” Benford said, adding that that recent incident was among a number that seemed to “make it criminal to be homeless in Madison.”

Homeless people increasingly are lodging that complaint against local officials. When an encampment of homeless people returned last month to the vacant lot on East Washington Avenue from which they were evicted last spring, for example, they raised a banner asking “No legal place to go?”

The group has since been evicted twice from sites where camping is not permitted, although Dane County officials are making an exception to rules to allow the group to stay the winter at Token Creek Park north of the city. And Madison Police Chief Noble Wray — without acknowledging wrongdoing by his department — apologized to the homeless people whose property was confiscated on State Street.

The city’s Equal Opportunities Ordinance already specifies a long list of characteristics that may not be considered in considering someone for housing, employment, public accommodations or the use of city-owned facilities: sex, race, religion, color, national origin or ancestry, citizenship status, age, handicap/disability, marital status, source of income, arrest record, conviction record, less-than-honorable discharge, physical appearance, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic identity, political beliefs, familial status, student status, domestic partnership status, and status as a victim of domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking.

Anyone who has been found to have discriminated against a class of people specifically protected in the Madison Equal Opportunities ordinance may be liable for damages, said Lucia Nunez, director of the city’s Department of Civil Rights. That might include reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses, back pay, and other economic and non-economic losses, including emotional injury, according to the city’s ordinance.

Nunez said Civil Rights staff had just begun to research the possibility of adding homelessness to the list of protected classes and that “public accommodations” seems like an area in which protections for the homeless might make sense. That would include access to motels, restaurants, taverns, and other services open to the public.

In response to a spike in violence against homeless people, some states are adding a “hate crime” enhancer to sentences for such crimes, Nunez said, adding that she has not heard of many local incidents of physical violence against homeless people.

A study of hate crimes against the homeless released by the National Coalition for the Homeless early this year reported three such crimes in Wisconsin between 1999 and 2010, compared to 213 in California and 177 in Florida.

But one state — Rhode Island — earlier this year passed a law to prevent the kind of discrimination that Benford says Equal Opportunities commissioners here are concerned about. Rhode Island’s homeless “bill of rights,” declares that homeless people have an equal right to jobs, housing, services and public space, guaranteeing the right to use public sidewalks, buildings, parks and transportation without discrimination based on housing status — as well as a reasonable expectation to privacy with respect to their personal belongings.

The law has attracted a lot of attention among advocates for the homeless, and some municipal leaders too. The town of Fairfax, Calif., this fall urged that state’s legislature to add a similar bill of rights to its fair housing and employment act.

These efforts to protect homeless people’s rights come as many cities have moved to criminalize homelessness by banning “urban camping,” (Denver); restricting where food can be distributed to the homeless (Dallas); and outlawing sitting on the sidewalk (defeated by voters in Berkeley, Calif., in the November election).

MORE COMMENTS AT:  http://host.madison.com/news/local/grassroots/madison-civil-rights-panel-looks-at-making-homelessness-a-protected/article_5cd788a8-381f-11e2-b33b-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz2Jq3BTTyK

Homeless violence more common in California than other states

Hayley Fox | December 28th, 2012, 1:01pm
Los Angeles To Allow Homeless To Sleep On Sidewalks

David McNew/Getty Images

California is ranked number one in the country for acts of violence against homeless people.

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Over the past two weeks in Los Angeles County, two different homeless people have been set on fire while they slept.

A 67-year-old homeless woman remains in critical condition after being doused in a flammable liquid and set on fire early Thursday morning in Van Nuys; a 55-year-old homeless man was severly injured after being burned outside a donut shop in Norwalk.

But how common are acts of violence against homeless?

According to the National Coaition for the Homeless, between 1999 and 2010 there were 1,184 acts of violence committed against homeless people in the U.S. resulting in 312 homeless deaths. In 2010, the coalition ranked California number one for the most number of “hate crimes against the homeless,” with 225 incidents occuring throughout these 12 years. Florida follows at number two with 198 incidents.

According to a report from the coalition, these states may have the most frequent attacks because of their warm temperatures make it easier to live outside. But living out in the open can make the homeless easier targets for hate crimes.

And according to the “State of Homeless in America 2012” by the National Alliance to End Homelessness,  California has more than 130,000 homeless people; compared to New York’s approximately 63,000 and Florida’s less than 57,000 homeless.

Attacks on homeless include beatings, rapes, assaults with a deadly weapon, shootings, exploitation and harassment. In 2010, one percent of these acts of violence involved a homeless person being set on fire. Most attacks are “motivated by the perpetrators’ bias against homeless individuals or their ability to target homeless people with relative ease.”

According to the coalition, most of this violence is committed by men under the age of 30.

This seems to ring true with Thursday’s attack in Van Nuys, in which police have arrested 24-year-old Dennis Petillo and booked him for investigation of attempted murder. LAPD said the incident occurred at about 1 a.m. outside a Walgreens drug store near Van Nuys Boulevard and Sherman Way.

“I’ve seen arson deaths before, and it’s very vicious,” LAPD Lt. Walt Teague told NBC. “We’re hoping for the best.”

These outdoor acts of violence come on the heels of a seasonal housing program announced by the L.A. Homeless Services Authority, which aims to provide additional shelter for homeless people during the coldest months of the year. This “Winter Shelter Program” is funded by the City of Los Angeles and County of Los Angeles and provides 1,500 additional beds as well as meals and supportive services for L.A. homeless.

Most of these housing sites – from Lancaster to Pomona, Glendale, Long Beach, Bell, Downtown L.A. and others – opened in the first few weeks of December and will remain in service to March.

Last week on Skid Row, L.A.’s densest homeless population, LAPD Officer Deon Joseph walked the streets handing out pamphlets to homeless and encouraging them to take advantage of this winter housing program. Joseph is the Senior Lead Officer and has worked Skid Row for 14 years. He said that although people being set on fire is fairly rare, violence against the homeless is not.

“As long as they’re sleeping on the sidewalk they’re always going to be susceptible to robberies and things like that,” he added.

Joseph said people have shot paintballs at the homeless, beaten them over the head with 2 x 4’s, and even tried to rape women as they slept.

“There’s a whole lot of things that I can not erase from my mind,” he said.