Tag Archives: Homeless

Sleeping During the Day–Now a Crime in Santa Cruz?

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http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/04/16/18735297.php

ALERT: Two Arrested For “Being” in the Pogonip
by Robert Norse
Tuesday Apr 16th, 2013 5:07 PM

I received the following information by phone a few minutes ago. The charges against the two arrested were not clear, though they may be something like “camping” (i.e. survival sleeping during the day–which is not illegal).

I just received a preliminary report from two of six people who were accosted by authorities in the Pogonip about an hour or two ago. Two others in the group–Freedom of Occupy Santa Cruz and Andrew–were arrested for failing to leave (the charge was unclear). Since it was during the day, the Pogonip was open. One of those I spoke with, Baba, told me that when he asked what their crime was and why they were being told to leave, one of the three officers (a ranger, a SCPD officer, and a sheriff) told him “what if a family with some children came down and saw you here?”

Baba noted that he first found this offensive with the implication that they were “unsightly” because of their appearance (youthful traveling alternative culture folks). Then on reflection he was even more deeply troubled because the officer’s comments implied that the area was open to families but not to “his kind”.

Baba noted that the officers did not confiscate any property, gave them time to move their stuff (including two dogs), and told them they could “go to some other city”. It was still not clear what Freedom and Andrew were arrested for, but I hope to learn more soon.

Freedom had widely announced her interest in convening a meeting to deal with safe and secure sleeping space for the 100 people denied shelter when the Winter Armory Shelter had its last night on April 14th-15th.

The weekly HUFF meeting, as described at http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/04/15/18735243.php tomorrow at 10 AM will discuss the situation. All are invited.

I’m attaching a history of criminalization of the homeless from WRAP (Western Regional Advocacy Project), a group of West Coast organizations fighting for the civil rights of those outside.

Pam Kinkaid–Fighter for the Fresno Homeless

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NOTE BY NORSE:  Fresno has numerous survival camps–none of them funded by the City or legal.  They developed and retain a certain existence through the work of independent activists gathering funds for portapotties, garbage pick-up’s, and oother supplies.  Much of their support came from the  homeless victory in the famous Kinkaid lawsuit of 2007, when the City of Fresno and Cal-Trans had to pay $2 million+ to the  Fresno homeless and their attorneys for seizing and destroying property (sound familiar?).    Mike Rhodes, long-time activist and Community Alliance newspaper editor, gives some of the background in this video:

A fresno activist writes:

Please share the campaign link with your family, friends and network…
Unfortunately, since 2 weeks have passed and I haven’t raised the minimum $500, the campaign is no longer found on the ‘browse’ section of Indiegogo’s website.  It can only be found through direct link.  Those are part of Indiegogo’s merit-based policies to give all campaigns a chance.  Currently, there are $130 in funds raised, so an additional $370 is needed to be featured on the website again for the remaining 40 days. 
Spread the word and donate if you can.  Any amount of money can be donated, including $1 dollar.  You only need to donate a minimum of $15 dollars if you want to receive any contribution ‘perks.’
Remember, 100% of proceeds go directly to the non-profit Eco Village Project of Fresno.
On my part, I will contact several organizations this week, join several blogs and as many homeless & human rights groups as I can to get the word out.
-Mario

A 25-Year-Old Lawsuit and the Persistence of Homelessness Advocates

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NOTE BY NORSE:   Fresno activists are at work looking for locally federally owned property.  A decade or more ago, the city made a listing of its unused properties as possible homeless campgrounds, shelter, or housing under pressure from homeless advocates here.   Time to dust off the local list and join with other advocates to look into the federal prospects as well.

Oh, and in the meantime,  for those outside: postpone sleeping at night and stay out of public spaces during the day.   Santa Cruz’s new investigatory commission on “public safety” as another of the “blame the homeless and their enablers” measures by the NIMBY crowd formed last night by “Enough is Enough” Mayor Hillary Bryant has no homeless people or advocates among its 20 members.

    Written by Ruth McCambridge
Created on Wednesday, 10 April 2013 13:48
April 7, 2013; Source: The Washington Post
NPQ has written repeatedly over the years that it is one thing to pass a law, but an entirely different and more lengthy process to enforce implementation. In this case, after 25 years of fighting, advocates have finally garnered a court ruling to have a federal law properly implemented.
Title V of the McKinney-Vento Act, passed in 1987, requires federal agencies to list unused, surplus, or underutilized properties in the Federal Register, and to reach out to homeless services providers, giving them a 60-day right of first refusal on leasing or buying the sites. Since then, almost 500 properties have been obtained by groups serving the homeless.
But on March 21, 2013, in response to a lawsuit filed by the National Law Center for Homelessness and Poverty, Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found that many government agencies have not been complying with the law. That ruling mandates that the General Services Administration and the Department of Housing and Urban Development must take more steps to ensure that agencies comply.
“We’re very hopeful this order will result in potentially thousands of properties that have never been made available to homeless services providers to be screened for suitability and be made available,” said Tristia Bauman, an attorney with the Center. “We expect we’re going to be able to more closely monitor whether the government is complying, and have access to buildings that were unbeknownst to us before.”
According to this article, the agencies named in the original suit were the Department of Veterans Affairs, Defense Department, Department of Housing and Urban Development, the GSA, and D.C.’s Department of Health and Human Services. A permanent injunction issued in 1993 ordered the government to implement the law and preserved the right for the issue to again be brought to court if agencies did not comply. Attorneys for the government have tried to get that order lifted, but to no avail.
In the March opinion, Lamberth noted a large difference between the count on unused federal properties (28,000 between 2005 and 2011) reported through the Title V process and on properties labeled by the Office of Management and Budget as surplus (69,000 excess, unused ,and underused) federal properties.
The National Law Center for Homelessness and Poverty, one of the groups that filed the original lawsuit in 1988, has long advocated for better administration of Title V. Without constant monitoring and pressure, this law would fade into disuse, wasting the original advocacy effort. NPQ has written similarly about the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Act.—Ruth McCambridge

California Homeless Bill of Rights Goes to First Hearing

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NOTE BY NORSE:  Tom Ammiano’s proposed Homeless Bill of Rights apparently went to a first hearing earlier this month, but I’m still trying to get some specifics:   Has it been weakened?  How effective has its inspiration–the earlier Rhode Island Homeless Bill of Rights–been in on-the-ground protection of civil rights there?  No clear answers yet, but keep your eyes on the bill…  I also include an article detailing Ammiano’s defense of the bill.

Finally, A Bill of Rights for the Homeless!

By Rita McKeon, Member of the BOSS Community Organizing Team (COT), a project of Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency
Thursday April 04, 2013 – 08:35:00 PM

Authored by Assembly Member Tom Ammiano, the California Homeless Bill of Rights, AB5, had its first hearing in Sacramento on April 1st, 2013.

In recent years several cities have enacted or attempted to enact “broken window” laws—laws designed to criminalize homeless people and remove them from public view. The California Homeless Bill of Rights and Fairness Act is a first step to de-criminalize homelessness and grant equal rights protection to ALL: housed and un-housed.

This legislation would be a major public statement recognizing the basic human and civil rights of people without homes. It will help shift our discussions from the characterization of homeless people as vagrants or service-resistant to the reality in our society that there are not enough homes that are affordable on very low incomes, not enough jobs for people with low skills, not enough care for people with serious physical and mental health needs. Our discussions can then shift from blaming the victims to solving the problems: this is what AB5 will do—publicly validate the dignity of people without homes so we can direct our attention and resources to fixing the problems they face.

Inhumane laws do not solve poverty, they only increase the misery of being poor. In many major US cities there are ordinances that make it punishable by law to feed homeless people and laws that make it illegal to “camp” in a public space, ultimately making it illegal to sleep, a basic human need. Some laws even make it illegal to sleep in your car. Hundreds maybe thousands of people end up with citations they cannot afford to pay, some facing jail time because they were caught sitting or sleeping.

This is both a waste of tax payer dollars and a civil rights abuse. In February 2013, in the San Francisco Tenderloin District, a homeless man spent 30 days in jail because on two occasions a police officer found him sleeping on a milk crate. He was charged with public nuisance, unauthorized lodging and obstructing a sidewalk. The first two violations are listed as misdemeanors which can carry a year of jail time each – again, for sleeping on a milk carton.

Whose quality of life is being improved by broken window laws? City officials say the goal of these ordinances is to preserve quality of life and keep down public nuances. Yet, citing homeless people and inflicting them with costly violations and jail time does not address their quality of life—rather, these laws are designed to serve big business and developers who want clear streets and storefronts. The fact is, people do have the right to sit, stand, and gather peacefully in public areas. And for behaviors that are less than peaceful or that damage property, there are already laws in place.

Everyone is deserving of equal rights and protection. The California Homeless Bill of Rights and Fairness Act will assure the protection of homeless people’s property rights, access to public space, right to safety, right to sufficient health and hygiene centers, right to engage in life sustaining activities, right to privacy and confidentiality, right to counsel, right for homeless school children to stay at the same school they attended before they became homeless, and more. You can find the full Bill text on assembly.ca.gov.

It’s about respect and dignity! When AB5 is passed it will help ensure that homeless people are treated as human beings: with respect and dignity. Send a letter of support to your district Assembly Member. Visit www.wraphome.org to learn more about the efforts to pass AB-5.

AB-5 is authored by Assembly Member Tom Ammiano (D, San Francisco) and co-sponsored by Western Regional Advocacy Project, Western Center on LawaBy Dan AiellPSP homelessness.

(This article first appeared this morning in the Bay Area Reporter.)nd Poverty, JERICHO: A Voice for Justice, and the East Bay Community Law Center. See a full list of Bill supporters at http://wraphome.org/images/stories/ab5documents/AB5EndorsersMarch1320

HUFFster denounces Santa Cruz County jail at protest

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http://sinbarras.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/statement-of-solidarity-from-santa-cruz-homeless-united-for-friends-freedom-huff/

Statement of Solidarity from Santa Cruz Homeless United for Friends & Freedom (HUFF)
Posted on April 9, 2013 by sinbarras

Becky Johnson, one of the Santa Cruz 11 and an organizing member of HUFF, gave a wonderful speech at our Speakout + Rally on April 6th on local homeless issues and conditions in Santa Cruz County Jail. Below is the transcript, audio and video are coming soon:

When President Dwight D. Eisenhower left office in 1961, he warned “Beware the Military-Industrial Complex.” Today, it’s “Beware the Prison-Industrial Complex.” For prisons today have become big business in a country where manufacturing generally is suffering & unemployment rates are high.

Santa Cruz County is no exception.

For a jail to be profitable, it must be full. Nevermind that it’s paid for with taxpayer dollars. Our electives & appointees don’t care. For them, it is a job security program for police, judges, bailiffs, deputies, file clerks, probation officers and attorneys.

I myself have been fodder for this system with my “criminal” career: I am a convicted sidewalk hopscotch chalker, criminal songster, & in the case of the Santa Cruz Eleven, a suspected sign-holder & blogger. But what I want to talk about to you today is the criminalization of homelessness.

Currently in liberal, progressive Santa Cruz it is illegal to sit on a sidewalk less than 14 feet from a building. It’s illegal to sit on a park bench with your feet up. The Sleeping Ban, MC 6.36.010 section a, outlaws the act of sleeping anywhere out of doors or in a vehicle between the hours of 11PM & 8:30AM within the City Limits.

A separate provision outlaws the use of a blanket between 11PM – 8:30AM out of doors. Hacky-sacking, hop-scotching, and tossing your car keys to your husband are illegal acts on Pacific Ave., the shopping-Mecca where all the City Council members friends have stores.

Let me tell you about Gary Johnson, a homeless man, and an activist. Gary was arrested 4 times within 3 days for BEING on the County property in front of the Court House after 7PM. He was charged with trespassing. When he pointed out that he had a sign which said “A legacy of Cruelty MC 6.36.010 a, PC 647 ( e )”

and that the trespassing code has an exception for “traditional public forums,” the DA turned around and charged him with misdemeanor illegal lodging. He was sentenced to 2 years in jail for these 4 acts of sleeping. Recently he lost his appeal of the sentence before Judges Symons & Burdick.

What homeless person can pay a fine of $162 for sleeping in a cardboard box? None of them. And the authorities know this. But, they can bill you and me for the salary of the police officer who cited or arrested them. They bill for the time the officer spends in court. They bill for any public defender, but with most infraction crimes, the person charged has no right to one.

This jail is full of homeless people! And many who were marginally housed when they were arrested, will be homeless upon their release.

The Drug War fuels many of these arrests. So do mandatory minimums and the 3-Strikes law. But we could cut down on a HUGE amount of local incarceration if we repealed a whole-host of laws which frankly are selectively enforced against the poor and homeless.

When I spent the night here in “G” Dorm in County Jail, I met women there who should NOT have been there. There was one woman, so mentally-challenged that the other inmates had to tell her to put her underwear on. One mother of four with chronic intractable pain from a car accident, was jailed for the crime of supplementing her inadequate pain relief with heroin.

In jail, despite a known diagnosis of chronic intractable pain due to past injury, for which she had been treated with addictive pain medications, she was forced to quit “Cold Turkey”. Her only relief were hot showers. One day, in serious pain, she was pulled from an “unauthorized” shower dripping wet & thrown into an icy holding cell. While in there, she watched as deputies watched “prison porn” on their monitors where women prisoners were tormented & sexually abused.

Another woman was serving 3 months of a 6-month sentence for assault when she herself was assaulted by three women in Jade Street Park after hours. The women beat her over the head with a frying pan (she showed me the scar on the top of her head). They stole her laptop computer. As they fled the park, she called 911 on her cellphone. Police and an ambulance arrived while the three women were still in the area. Terry, the only injured person, was sent to the hospital.

She was arrested in the emergency ward. The three women had convinced the police that Terry had attacked THEM! When by pure chance, her brother’s roommate was able to buy her laptop back (the smoking gun) the DA ignored it.

Since she was still charged with felony assault, Terry was forced to plea “no contest” to a misdemeanor. Judge Adrianne Symons ok’ed that one.

Another form of abuse is the arbitrary nature of what charges are filed and what the how much bail is set. When Gabriella Ripley-Phipps was arrested in December of 2011 for basically protesting the destruction of the Occupy Santa Cruz encampment, she was charged with “obstructing an officer” and bail was set at $25,000. When shooting suspect, Jeremy Goulet was arrested for breaking into his female co-workers home and sexually assaulting her in her own bed, his bail was set at $250.

In the case of Kenneth Massei, the man who was falsely arrested for stealing flowers from the memorial for the 2 slain police officers, bail was set at $5000. He was forced to spend 18 days in jail here until his attorney showed the receipt for the flowers that he had in his possession when he was first jailed.

Isaac Collins, the only person arrested last year at the UCSC 420 event, was jailed here for 82 grams of chocolate & butterscotch brownies that tested positive for marijuana. Collins is black. The deputy that arrested him said he picked Collins out of the large crowd of pretty much all-day law-breaking because “he was wearing a very colorful shirt.”

So in conclusion, we need to End the Drug War! End the war on the poor! End mandatory minimums! End 3-Strikes! Repeal the Sleeping Ban, Blanket Ban, and laws which were written and are enforced specifically to be us

NOTE FROM NORSE;  Becky Johnson’s blog can be found at http://beckyjohnsononewomantalking.blogspot.com/.

ed against homeless people. Justice demands that we don’t stop until this work is done. Thank you.

A Tale of Two Cities: Denver and Santa Cruz

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Report from the StreetSurvey finds law criminalizes activities necessary for homeless survival without providing alternatives.

By Chris Casey | University of Colorado Denver, University Communications
DENVER – Denver’s controversial “camping ban” has left the homeless no place to sleep outdoors safely and legally at night, forcing them into hidden spots or to seek indoor options that don’t exist, according to a report written by a University of Colorado Denver political science professor.
In collaboration with the Denver Homeless Out Loud (DHOL) community group, Associate Professor Tony Robinson, Ph.D., compiled survey results of 512 homeless individuals regarding the Unauthorized Camping Ban. The 80-page report details the background of the ban, survey results and policy recommendations in the wake of one of the nation’s most severe laws against public homelessness.

The Denver City Council passed the ordinance in May 2012 under pressure from members of the downtown business community who argued that the growing number of homeless camping on the 16th Street Mall and Civic Center Park was impacting business and harming the perception of Denver.
Robinson and DHOL presented their study to the Denver Homeless Commission and held a press conference at 10 a.m. Wednesday in Denver.

Among the survey’s findings:

  • 59 percent of respondents said it has become more necessary to avoid police after the ban; 4 percent report police being more helpful.
  • 53 percent said they feel less safe in Denver since the ban; 6 percent feel more safe.
  • 79 percent who used to sleep downtown regularly now avoid the area far more; 69 percent said they now seek more hidden places to sleep at night.
  • 50 percent their sleeping habits have been negatively affected.
  • Though there has been a reduction in outdoors sleeping, the decline is minor. Before the ban, 72 percent of survey respondents said they sometimes or always slept outside in Denver, as compared to 64 percent reporting outdoor sleeping after the ban.
  • No arrests have yet taken place under the ordinance, though citing and arresting people for other code violations and moving homeless people along through oral and written warnings are very common.

The statistics reveal a deteriorating quality of life for most of Denver’s homeless since the ban passed. “That’s a key finding,” Robinson said. “There was a reason people were sleeping on 16th Street before (the law). It was safe, well lit and patrolled by police. This law has changed all that.”

Camping ban supporters said the ban would improve the quality of life for the homeless by connecting them with health alternatives. Ban enforcement follows a series of steps: 1) determining if there are other violations that the camper should be cited for; 2) issuing the violator an oral warning to quit covering themselves, and/or to “move along”; 3) issuing a written warning; 4) attempting to connect the homeless person to services before arrest.

However, the latter step of intervention rarely occurs, the study found. Instead, the ordinance criminalizes activities necessary for survival, without providing alternatives.

“They’re just spending their time in constant motion,” Robinson said of the homeless. “Some of them are trying to get into shelters, but 75 percent say they’ve been turned away frequently because of lack of space.”

A shortage of shelter space is especially acute for homeless members of the LGBT community, couples without children, fathers without children and the mentally ill, Robinson said. “We’re 48th in the nation

for not having enough service beds to care for mentally ill homeless persons.”

The report recommends four actions:

  • Space should be designated in Denver that guarantees homeless individuals safe, outdoor places to sleep and engage in other survival activities. This space should be well-lit and accessible to homeless services downtown.
  • Increased funding should be developed for programs that address homelessness, ranging from rapid response services for homeless people in crisis to the development of permanent low-income housing units.
  • Dedicate new revenue streams to the “most under-served unsheltered populations” and to the “most effective” programs in reducing homelessness.
  • Change the camping ban enforcement protocol to emphasize provision of services rather than oral and written warnings to desist from “camping” or to “move along.”

The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness has singled out these types of law as being cruel and counterproductive, Robinson said.

“We know there will be hundreds of homeless out there tonight, so we either turn our heads and pretend they’re not there — being forced to make the impossible choice between shelter or criminality — or we admit the reality and find a clean, safe place where our residents can live with us,” he said.


Read or download the full report:
The Denver Camping Ban: A Report from the Streets


View Dr. Tony Robinson’s Presentation to the Denver Homeless Commission on April 2, 2013:
Report from the Streets to the Denver Homeless Commission


Councilmembers Speak at Report Release on April 3, 2013:
Councilwoman Susan Shepherd (District 1) and Councilman Paul López (District 3)


Contact Us:
info@denverhomelessoutloud.org

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Project Homeless Connect–Bus Passes

NOTE FROM NORSE:  Not that I’m a huge fan of the hooplah around the Tuesday 10-4 PM Project Homeless Connect being held at the Civic Auditorium in downtown Santa Cruz.   (The one-day-a-year event seems to serve more as publicity for poverty pimps than anything else)   However it does provide free meals, a once-a-year access to certain services, and a big crowd of folks.  Hence, those up in San Lorenzo Valley might be interested in the following e-mail from a watchful HUFF activist.    HUFF is likely to be tabling at the event.   More about Project Connect from its backers at www.phc-santacruz.org .

To: huffsantacruz@yahoogroups.com
From: foenixhands@yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 20:50:43 -0700
Subject: [huffsantacruz] Bus passes in Felton for Project Homeless Connect

Hi folks, I stopped by the Mountain Community Resource office in Felton yesterday and was told there are free bus passes for people to get to the Homeless Connect event next Tuesday. So if you know people up in the mountain towns who need bus passes, send them over there on Monday from 9-noon. They are closed to drop-ins in the afternoon.

Ever so lightly,
Raven Playfaire, CMP since 1989, CMT since 1991, Reiki since 2001

San Rafael Provides “Helpful” Guide for the Homeless on How to Please Merchants & Residents

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Notes by Norse: Service-providers are now urging the homeless not to dumpster dive (stealing from stores does provide a larger and more sanitary selection), drink in public (bars may be more expensive but they’re so much more fashionable), or urinate in public (public restrooms, anyone?  anywhere?).  More helpful manner tips from those who just need a little less reality therapy and a little more Disneyland North.  After all, we are in a recession–remember to support your local business owner!

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/north_bay&id=9049190

San Rafael asking homeless to help reduce complaints

Monday, April 01, 2013    by John Alston

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (KGO) — In Marin County, the city of San Rafael is reaching out to a certain group of people, hoping to convince them to behave better in public. A map was created featuring trouble spots and suggestions for what they should and should not do.

The paper map was developed by the police department and St. Vincent de Paul where hundreds of homeless people eat every day. It will be used as a tray liner. It also contains a list of things not to do.

As a man picked through trash containers along Fourth Street in Downtown San Rafael, another homeless person walked a bike with his belongings at an intersection. Those things are mild in comparison to what some homeless people have done at some places.

“Yeah, you get people who come and want to do drugs in the bathroom. They really kind of have an independent attitude out here. They kind of do what they want to do,” said Louis Murillo, a coffee shop barista.

So now after complaints from residents and businesses, San Rafael has developed a map with so called “hot zones” — areas near Fourth Street and Lincoln Avenue where police answered hundreds of calls over the past year. The city is asking homeless people to stop dumpster diving, avoid using sidewalks as a bathroom and to stop drinking alcohol in public, suggesting they go to a bar instead.

“Here’s a couple of spots where we’re having some issues right now. It could change. Next month, maybe it could be one of the parks where there is some more increased illegal activity or negative behaviors and to encourage people to take personal responsibility,” said Margo Rohrbacher, the San Rafael Police Department spokesperson.

The hot zone maps are being used as tray liners at the St. Vincent de Paul dining hall which serves about 700 meals every day to homeless men and women, a number of whom struggle with alcohol and mental issues.

“Whether it works in terms of people not being at those locations is questionable, but the success around it is starting the conversations about what is appropriate behavior in public,” said Suzanne Walker, from St. Vincent De Paul.

Residents are hoping for positive results.

“I think it is a step in the right direction cleaning up the streets. I don’t know if it’s going to make a great impact, but I think that if it gets in even just a little bit, then it’s doing to do something,” said San Rafael resident Felix Conde.

The associate director of St. Vincent de Paul says most homeless people are not causing the problems, but it’s just a couple of dozen, many of whom are young and new to the area.

(Copyright ©2013 KGO-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

Notes by Norse: Poverty is such an unpleasant and dispiriting reminder of foreclosures, income inequality, shrinking real wages, and spiraling health care costs.  Let’s all work together to help our middle-class neighbors to keep up with those mortgage payments, work harder at those disappearing jobs, and continue to sip those ever-popular lattes.   Along with the niggers, kikes, and spiks, we should all be aware of how sensitive property-owners are and how important it is to avoid the better side of town and stick to our side of the tracks.  We must eliminate behaviors that may be offensive to them and their children and remember our place.


http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_22917250/san-rafael-gives-homeless-maps-places-they-arent

San Rafael gives homeless maps of places they aren’t welcome

By Megan Hansen, Marin Independent Journal
Posted:   04/01/2013 01:56:09 PM PDT
Complaints from downtown San Rafael businesses and visitors have led to creation of a map that lists “hot zones” homeless residents are being asked to avoid.

The new map was developed by San Rafael police Lt. Ralph Pata and copies of it are now lining the tables of the St. Vincent de Paul Free Dining Room on B Street. Areas of concern include Fourth and B streets, Fourth and A streets and the Hospice by the Bay thrift store at 910 Lincoln Ave.

San Rafael police Chief Diana Bishop said the fliers are a gentle way of asking people to act appropriately in the city, especially in the areas circled in red on the map.

“It’s just a reminder to everyone that there are certain expectations in society,” Bishop said.

She said most of the complaints the city receives about homeless residents are in regards to people defecating or urinating in public, drinking or being intoxicated, leaving their personal items strewn about or having dogs off-leash.

The fliers are meant to be a positive thing, encouraging the police department and homeless residents to work together, Pata said.

“It’s very possible folks are just hanging out in that area and do not know that their behavior is offensive to people walking by,” Pata said.

Suzanne Walker, associate director at St. Vincent de Paul, said the dining hall is cooperating with the police department’s request in an effort to open the lines of communication between police and homeless

people.

She said most of the people they serve are typically receptive to the police department’s requests and respect Pata.

“Most of the people really understand and don’t want to be a problem,” Walker said. “They don’t like be painted with the same brush as those people who are making it difficult for our residents and businesses.”
St. Vincent de Paul makes about 700 meals a day, serving about 300 people. Officers are hoping enough people will see the fliers to spread the word.

In addition to listing the “hot zones,” the flier asks people to “be a good neighbor” by doing the following: no Dumpster diving behind any business — especially Hospice by the Bay’s store — use a toilet, don’t steal power from businesses or the city, clean up after oneself, don’t store property in the city flower boxes, don’t drink alcohol in public — go to a bar if a drink is wanted — and don’t camp at the Elks Club or in the San Rafael Hills.

Pata said homeless residents are encouraged to take part in making the city a better place for everyone.

“We really would like people to start taking more ownership in their neighborhood,” Pata said.

Neglected Aspect of Homeless Activism? Or Hopeless Patch-Up Protests Against Fundamentally Futile “Shelter” Programs?

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Activists: Official Suppression of Peer Advocacy Worsens TB, Flu

by Teach Everywhere ABout Community Health Saturday, Mar. 23, 2013 at 1:40 AM
thefluguru@hotmail.com

Tuberculosis and influenza spreading in Southern California houseless blamed on official disruption of peer education in cough hygiene.Advocating for information that will allow shelter operators to contact persons who may have been exposed to infections.

Advent of the LA-tuberculosis situation problematizes the lack of training in good habits of hygiene amongst the homeless. Programs in WASH (water sanitation and hygiene) have been proven to reduce the incidence of disease in programs on a global level, but in the developed nations many vulnerable populations lack the kind of outreach and training that prevent disease in WHO programs around the world.

Homeless emergency shelter operators came under fire at the Santa Barbara Board of for failure to respond to well established internationally recognized disease control imperatives. In 2012, homelessness organizers were criticized on the basis that people were quartered on grounds of a local Episcopal Church without access to sanitation of any kind: no water and not even portable sanitation units.Subsequent peer advocacy training in Cough Hygiene were initially well received, but later led to bitter factionalization as warming center shelter operators, spurred by religious missionaries, rejected such measures as criticism contrary to staff morale.

TEACH Cough Hygiene Initiative project coordinator Geof Bard spoke to the county board about the problems exacerbated by Freedom Warming Center’s “foot dragging and obfuscation” with regard to infectious disease, citing the outbreak of tuberculosis in Los Angeles hot on the heels of an unusually active national influenza season.

Speaking to the bipartisan panel, he pointed out how [Community Development Block Grant] funding of the warming centers could lead to increased costs when otherwise-healthy homeless people are crammed one hundred to a room and end up with higher incidence of disease. “Everything I am advocating [is based on guidelines] from the Center for Disease Control” and the County Health Department.

With the SBCDPH Director Takahashi Wada, M.D., M.P.H. in the audience, he pointed out tension between the Department and the warming center staff, underscoring that their resistance to implementing any kind of infection control plan places them at odds with established health authority. Elsewhere, it had been noted that a Public Health employee had complained of an epidemic of “deafness” amongs homeless careeer specialists. Mr. Bard pointed out that lack of appropriate response led to more preventable “influenza, and now tuberculosis”, as reported widely with regard to the LA TB situation currently under investigation by the CDC.

In an earlier email, he had called for additional disease control protocols to include contact tracing information for homeless persons. Under current warming center policy, names, or nicknames, are taken only occasionally and sporadically, and no cellphone, address or email addresses are written down. Thus, if it were determined that one of the warming center guests or staff had been disseminating bacterial, viral or other type of infection, there would be no way to implement the standard contact tracing by which health professionals alert possible victims and direct them to diagnostic and therapeutic resources.

In separate communications, TEACH had advocated for confidential contact trace methods based upon STF testing, advocating for information that will allow shelter operators to contact persons who may have been exposed to infections.

Church as Shelter of Last Resort in Hawaii

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NOTES BY NORSE:  Attempts by churches in Santa Cruz to protect and shelter homeless people have been mixed.  The Interfaith Satellite Shelter Program–which operated from 1988 through 2010 (or thereabouts) involved busing homeless people to  different churches every  night and its height served 40-80 people.  Since Santa Cruz has a homeless population of 1500-2000 and a law that makes homeless people  criminal who sleep either outside or in a vehicle in the city limits–this had limited effect in combatting the fear and insecurity homeless people felt at night.   The ISSP  ended because of “transportation costs”, as I understand it.
A new program spearheaded by Calvary Episcopal Church is housing about 20 people each night in a variety of churches.  A Sanctuary Campground proposal is being hammered out by Brent Adams and others at the same time as there is rising hysteria against homeless people in a political “anti-crime” wave mounted by Take Back Santa Cruz, The Clean Team, and other “clean up our town” groups.
The Coral St. Open Air Shelter (1993-5)–a tolerated campground at River St. and Highway 1–was shut down by pressure from the Citizens Committee for the Homeless, and then-Mayor Mike Rotkin.  Rotkin also moved against Father Mike Marini’s Holy Cross Shelter subsequently in the summer of 1996 by (according to the recollection of Becky Johnson) inciting the neighbors against the shelter.  Under his leadership (with Cynthia Mathews a loyal second), the Sherry Conable/Barbara Riverwomon State Parks Sanctuary proposal for the homeless-under which homeless would be bused to state parks to  camp–was
vetoed.
Religious leaders, who were otherwise reactionary, have also played a role in standing up for homeless people by sheltering them in their church.  See, for instance, http://www.huffsantacruz.org/StreetSpiritSantaCruz/066.Rev.%2520Drake%2520Wins%2520A%2520Moral%2520Victory=10-97.pdf .

Kalihi church puts faith in action to help homeless

Posted: Feb 25, 2013 7:22 PM PST Updated: Feb 25, 2013 10:57 PM PST

By Jim Mendoza – bio | email
 http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/21348165/kalihi-church-houses-homeless

KALIHI, OAHU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Kaleo and Russell Pakele and their two-year-old daughter live in one of the tents alongside the sanctuary of Hawaii Cedar Church in Kalihi.

“God brought us to this place,” Kaleo said.

Since December, the Pakeles have been staying on the church’s property, along with about 40 other homeless people.

“I believe everybody needs a second chance. That’s why I call this program that we’re running, ‘A Second Time Around,'” pastor Henry Baxter said.

The church feeds them, and lets them use the showers and bathrooms. There are rules to follow. You either have an outside job or do church chores.

“The rules are very important in our lives. Discipline and rules,” said Antonio Hernandez, who lives with his wife and young child in the tent next door to the Pakele’s.

“Their labor is working in the parking area, the grounds, in the kitchen, the dining room, in the church itself,” Baxter said.

The church offers some job training. Adults pay about $100 a month per person to cover utilities. Pakele said that teaches them responsibility.

“It is a stepping stone for me from here to transition out,” Kaleo Pakele said.

In March, the church starts a new program. Some of the homeless will plant and harvest vegetables at the church’s farm in Waianae.

“We’ll actually be paying them $8 an hour, more than the minimum wage. They’ll only be working four hours a day, but that will be something to get them started,” Baxter said.

Most of the homeless living at the church were on drugs. Baxter said there is counseling and consequences.

“We have drug testing,” he said. “We have zero tolerance on drugs and alcohol.”

Violators are evicted.

Baxter estimates 120 families have been helped in three years, and half are now in housing.