Skip to main content

Reasons to live on the streets instead of in shelters

Very interesting recent article "Why I Choose Streets Over Shelter" in change.org's Ending Homelessness blog where an Oakland, CA, homeless man, using the moniker SlumJack, provides five reasons why he prefers sleeping on the street to staying in an emergency shelter.

SlumJack's first reason will resonate with anyone who has been subjected to the nightmare of Sacramento's Winter shelter:
1. Shelters usually require that you enter early in the eve and then remain there until early the next morn when you must leave. This can totally waste HOURs of otherwise possibly productive time, just sitting around in unpleasant to worse circumstances -- at a time when EVERY resource, including time, must be marshalled.
SlumJack's other reasons are affected, I think, by his use of a bicycle towing a cart to haul his property. He's subject to having property stolen and has trouble finding a somewhat secure place to keep his things. [As the Sacramento homeless know well, bicycles, themselves, are often and easily stolen.]

Also, very contrary to my experience in Sacramento, SlumJack finds his brother homeless to be "some of the worst people."

Anyway, SlumJack has an interesting perspective. I am happy to find that SlumJack has re-started a blog he first began in 2008 called homeword unbound. In his first new post of 2009, "I am resuming/continuing this blog,"put up just yesterday, SlumJack gives us a list of why the blog had sat idle.

In celebration of finding SlumJack's blog, I am, of course, adding it to the blogroll in the right-sidebar in SacHo.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

More obstacles revealed in effort to make Mather cottages habitable

Mold, asbestos and lead paint, oh my! The 35 cottages out at Mather Community Campus seem closer to being condemned today than ever again being inhabited. But the expectation that some of the cottages can and will be restored to house homeless families before spring abides. A report in the Sacramento Bee tells us ... Some [of the cottages] have extensive mold, a county analysis showed. It's not clear how the county planned to deal with lead paint and asbestos, [Rancho Cordova] Councilwoman Linda Budge said. Still, hope of getting some of the cottages in shape such that homeless families can move in is in play, though not before New Year's day.  Word of where the money might come from to make needed restorations has not been forthcoming, though it is known that the Winter Shelter Task Force hopes to hold a fundraiser to boost the pool of funds to meet the need to keep homeless people warm and safe. At the end of October, placing families, totalling 105 individuals, was
Post a Comment
Read more

Ron Russell and Summerhills Realty

Readers of this blog should be aware that I am receiving some information that Summerhills Realty and someone named Ron E. Russell is using this blog as a reference in an effort to scam homeless people.  Be aware that Mr. Russell and his business is cited as a possible perpetrator of fraud by a website called Ripoff Report .  See this webpage .  Also, there is this claim of fraud against Ron Russell Properties at the website BizClaims - Latest scams, frauds and complaints . Please be aware that the information of being 'ripped off'' may be coming from only one source is coming from multiple sources, with perhaps as many as twelve persons/couples now pursuing legal action after paying thousands of dollars for services and receiving none of the services that were promised/contracted. While I know neither Mr. Russell nor Summerhills, I do know that an inordinate number of “in links” from readers of this blog have come via summerhillsrealestate.com for quite some time.  I
11 comments
Read more

In an act of Collective Punishment, Loaves & Fishes closes its park in the morning on New Year’s Day

Calvin [a "green hat" in Unfriendly Park] makes the argument for continued incompetent management. Hobbes represents me — only, in real life, I don't have that good a coat . In an act of Collective Punishment, Loaves & Fishes closes its park in the morning on New Year’s Day In one respect — and only one — that I can think of, Loaves & Fishes is NOT hypocritical: The management hates the way America is run and wants to turn it into a backward communist country . Consistent with that, Loaves & Fishes’ management runs its facility like a backward communist country. The People’s Republic of Loaves & Fishes. A seemingly minor thing happened on New Year’s Day. A couple of people smoked a joint in Loaves & Fishes’ Friendship Park and one of the park directors, or both of them, determined, at about 10am, that, in retribution, they would punish all the homeless there by closing the park for the day. This is something the managers of the park do all the
7 comments
Read more