{"id":384,"date":"2012-12-15T22:56:46","date_gmt":"2012-12-15T22:56:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/?p=384"},"modified":"2012-12-15T23:29:06","modified_gmt":"2012-12-15T23:29:06","slug":"reflections-on-smart-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/reflections-on-smart-solutions\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on \u201cSmart Solutions\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Reflections on \u201cSmart Solutions\u201d<\/a> link to original post<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
December 7th, 2012The following was written by a HUFF activist, one of several who went to a Conference organized by Mayor Don Lane and others as described below.\u00a0\u00a0 This was originally published on the Occupy Santa Cruz website.<\/em><\/p>\n

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After attending Saturday\u2019s big show, \u201cSmart Solutions to Homelessness: A Countywide Community Engagement Summit,\u201d I gathered a smattering of feedback from \u201cOccupy Folks\u201d on how they felt about the event. \u00a0Consensus seems to be, \u201cIt was not very useful.\u201d \u00a0We (tongue-in-cheek, but seriously) KNOW TOO MUCH.
\nI understand the need for governmental and non-profit entities to communicate with the public regarding their needs. \u00a0WE KNOW that volunteers are needed for the befriending, mentoring, and support of people in distress. \u00a0WE KNOW that material resources are needed to feed, shelter, and house people who are hungry and have nowhere safe to stay. \u00a0WE KNOW that there is no \u201cone size fits all solution to homelessness.\u201d \u00a0It is unfortunate that those who design the agendas of large meetings like this one are unable to withstand conflicting viewpoints about public policy priorities.
\nHere are a few \u201cSmart Solutions\u201d \u2014 my public policy priorities:<\/p>\n
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  1. Decriminalization of \u201csurvival behaviors\u201d such as sleeping at night, camping in your car, or using a blanket to keep warm<\/li>\n
  2. Legalization of drugs, and, hand-in-hand, helping people to learn ways of coping with the emotional pain that can result in addictive behaviors<\/li>\n
  3. Creating safe places to camp<\/li>\n
  4. Subsidizing low-cost permanent housing<\/li>\n
  5. Providing resources to mutual aid and self-help networks for material and emotional support of all people<\/li>\n
  6. Supporting families so there will be fewer children put into foster care<\/li>\n
  7. Transforming the economy so that there will be safe, environmentally sustainable, and meaningful work for everyone at a living wage<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 I despair over the lack of compassion actually expressed at the meeting, which seemed scant, aside from a \u201cbefore and after\u201d set of pictures of one homeless man who became permanently housed in Los Angeles.\u00a0The \u201cproblem\u201d that the \u201csmart solutions\u201d seem to be set to solve is \u201cinefficient allocation of public resources.\u201d \u00a0So the work being done \u201cto end homelessness\u201d is framed in terms of money to be saved instead of lives to be saved.<\/div>\n
    \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 At Saturday\u2019s meeting I summarized a small exchange of perspectives between of five or six persons on the question, \u201cWhat will the future look like without homelessness?\u201d \u00a0I said that there would be personal dignity, care for each other in community, and good feelings about everyone. \u00a0I\u2019m afraid that was the wrong question to ask. \u00a0My question to you is, \u201cWhat are you going to do about the reality of homelessness in our community right now?\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    2 Responses to \u201cReflections on \u201cSmart Solutions\u201d\u201d<\/h4>\n
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    1. <\/a>\n
      \"\" Sylvia on December 7th, 2012 at 1:54 pm #<\/a><\/div>\n
      I\u2019m glad for the opportunity to exchange about this. My reflections:
      \nAll the people I engaged with wanted to talk, a lot, not particularly about the issue that brought us all together. So I think the high attendance, because of or in spite of the rain, met a need for community, cooperation, acting together. I think the issue was arguably secondary, which doesn\u2019t make the result any less valuable.
      \nI heard much particularity, and little, maybe no, grand vision five years out. I heard a lot of buzz words and favorite themes, affordable housing, public spaces, safety, services \u2026 more of what we know (and what isn\u2019t really working).
      \nThe simplification and harmonization suggested by the successful LA business model is compelling. I began to wonder about the strings that come with federal funding (I\u2019d just learned about ALEC) and the consequences of public\/private partnerships and how liberty and privatization mesh.
      \nOccupy Sandy has done positive things. Here\u2019s an idea for a local positive project \u2013 Occupy the Central Branch Public Library. HUFF had a flier about the Dec 3 library board meeting. Saturday I sat next to a Santa Cruz Public Library staff person \u2013 there are a lot of people who use the library as a daytime shelter, warmth, bathrooms, \u2026 Some of those people have trouble with rules and regulation and the library has hired a security person to patrol and be available. And is considering more limitations on behavior and appearance. I see an opportunity for Occupy Santa Cruz to organize itself, be visible, be available in shifts, reach out, provide personal support, find out what\u2019s lacking in the available supports.<\/p>\n
    2. <\/a>\n
      \"\" Sylvia on December 8th, 2012 at 9:45 am #<\/a><\/div>\n
      TBSC members testified at 12\/3 Board of Supervisors public comment, emphasizing the needles they found on the tracks and at the beach, and a couple of bodies, and noting they will be at the 12\/17 city safety meeting. The group is focusing on drugs and needles. This could lead to demonizing many, painting all deviance with a broad \u2018substance abuse\u2019 brush. There are noisy federal initiatives about stopping abuse of prescription drugs, limiting the availability of pain relief medication \u2026 It seems a very harsh world, a world insistent on suffering.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Norse comment:<\/p>\n

      TBSC<\/em> stands for Take Back Santa Cruz <\/strong><\/em>a group co-founded by newly elected Councilmember Pamela Constock, with a focus on community vigilante and police action against “illegal” behavior, particularly public drug use, “sketchy” characters in public places doing things like camping or panhandling, and random violence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Reflections on \u201cSmart Solutions\u201d link to original post December 7th, 2012The following was written by a HUFF activist, one of several who went to a Conference organized by Mayor Don Lane and others as described below.\u00a0\u00a0 This was originally published … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[56],"tags":[4],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":410,"href":"https:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions\/410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}