Sixteen-year-old takes Grunge Plunge into Homeless World Sacramento

	Thumbnail of photo of E. J. Borg as pictured in the Press-Tribune.

A story in the Roseville Press-Tribune, ten days ago, "Granite Bay resident takes 'the plunge'," tells the story of Jesuit High 11th grader E.J. Borg who spent his sixteenth birthday among the homeless in Sacramento.
Borg's adventure was part of a class project, "devoted to Christian service," where he and four other select students pretended they were homeless. To do this, he and his fellow students spent a lot of time at Loaves & Fishes for an extended weekend.

It began on a Friday afternoon. Borg and the others were given a tour of Quinn Cottages, a transitional-housing facility on A Street in Sacramento, and then spoke with some of the cottage residents.

For the weekend, Borg and his colleagues bedded down in sleeping bags on the grass in locked Friendship Park, under the protection of security guards. At 5:00 in the morning the students were separated and moved out of the park to begin solo experiences of faux-homelessness.

Young Borg likely has a heart of pure gold, and means well, but in his telling of his experience as reported by Susan Belknap in the Press-Tribune, the homeless and Borg, himself, come off looking rather foolish. Loaves & Fishes and its Friendship Park come off as they are, grungy.

Borg says of his meeting with Quinn Cottages' residents only this: "That really opened my mind. Many homeless people are people who have lost their jobs and had bad things happen to them in life.” If merely that was the whole of what he took away from the residents, it is stunning only by being what anyone would easily suppose. Likely, Borg learned much more that didn't make it into Belknap's short article.

Of his breakfast received at Loaves & Fishes, Borg noticed a hair in the pastry and said "I didn’t want to eat anymore." He said of his lunch that it included "mystery meat."

Borg said of his 10am visit to the Friendship Park library that he noticed many homeless asleep throughout the building, and that when he "started reading about the stock market” he "felt a little out of place.” It must have been that Borg happened by when things in the library were atypical. Certainly, you can find some guys sleeping, but seldom are a great many. As for reading, my experience is that there is always a lot of reading going on and that the guys voraciously peruse the Bee, L.A Times and N.Y Times newspapers, including the day's financial sections.

Borg said of Friendship Park, after its early-afternoon closing, "The place was a real mess. There were so many cigarette butts and the whole place was overwhelming filled with trash." This is true, as we Sac'to homeless know. Press-Tribune readers are likely to come away from Belknap's article thinking the grungy condition of the park is due solely to park denizens' sloppy conduct. Truth be known, policies and management in the muddy park contribute mightily to its uncleanliness.

Near the end of the article, Borg is reported saying that his compassion for the plight of the homeless had grown. And that he'd learned, [quoting the article] "what things in life are important and that the bit of discomfort he experienced doesn’t matter."

Disappointingly, the article is wholly superficial in its reporting. It would have been nice, and meaningful, and given Press-Tribune readers something to chew on, had the reporter elicitted a lot more from Borg about what he believed he'd learned. It would also have been nice if the story had connected Borg's experience with Christian service, which was supposedly the focus of Borg's project.

At the Jesuit High webspace, we are told that the Plunge "simulate[s] some of the experiences of homelessness" and is "designed to give students an opportunity to experience poverty 'from the inside.'”

In completing his "service hours," Borg was to have achieved these objectives in Homeless World:

• allow for direct contact with those who are marginalized in our culture;
• expose the root causes of marginalization;
• work to counter the causes of marginalization;
• enable them to reach out to others in Christian fellowship.

We are also told "In Jesuit schools, learning is expected to move beyond rote knowledge to the development of the more complex learning skills of understanding, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Jesuit education insists that students consider the significance of what they learn and to integrate that meaning into their lives. Reflection helps students make connections between their personal experience of service and the larger issues of social justice.

Here, a pdf document, taken from the high school webspace, about junior-level Christian service, which includes material about The Plunge, which gives us some idea of what students, like E. J., are expected to achieve or reflect on based on their experience.

Homeless Count in Sacramento County "Went Well"

Streetcount 2009, a count of homeless people in Sacramento County, was conducted on the night of January 27, and, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Human Assistance [DHA], things "went well."

According to a report in yesterday's Sacramento Bee, "76 counting teams -- comprised of more than 400 citizen volunteers, county staff and local law enforcement -- started the count at 9 p.m., and all were back by midnight."

The teams survey areas and count discrete homeless people, tents, parked vehicles and other factors that indicate the presense of homeless folk. Statistical means are used to extrapolate a well-informed guess of the total homeless people in the county from results of the surveys.

Conducting the count is a federal-funding requirement of the county. According to the DHA website, the county "receives approximately $13.5 million per year from the federal department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD] to provide funding to operate emergency shelters, transitional and permanent supportive housing projects and other vital supportive services."

Results of the street count will not be known for five or six weeks. At that time, in early March, a report will be submitted to the Sacramento Board of Supervisors and results will be released to the public.

Bee blasts county for late wake-up to reality and meanspirited cost-cutting

In a board editorial today in the Sacramento Bee, the county of Sacramento was blasted for unreal revenue projections which are causal for quick and deep cuts in services. The immediate cuts will deny healthcare services to the poor and eliminate the jobs of 50 of the current 60 probation-department field officers who supervise adults.

Writes the Bee editorial board,

This level of program reductions should be unacceptable. If carried out, they will make Sacramento County a more dangerous place to live and spark lawsuits by advocates for the poor. Yet as brutal as they are, these cuts – totaling $8 million – likely are inevitable, because the county's shortfall is so large. At least $22 million in additional cuts will be needed, and [County Executive Terry] Schutten plans to present his additional recommendations to supervisors on Feb. 10.

So far, the supervisors have handled the county's budget crisis much as Pollyanna would have. They have given Schutten far too much leeway to defer decisions and hide the ball on revenue numbers.

That has to end. Supervisors need to immediately consider furloughs of employees in most county programs as an alternative to eliminating clinics and other vital programs.

The service cuts will skew toward impacting the homeless more than other members of society in our metropolis. The homeless already suffer greatly and have little hope of digging their way out of poverty with the economy as it is. Hurting the homeless the most, during bad times, is both a tragedy and an indicator of ongoing political immaturity.

The Bee ends its editorial with these words:

The county is experiencing an epic slide in property values and sales tax revenues, and this isn't a blip. It's a monumental challenge, and it will require sacrifices and realism from everyone – beginning with the people elected to run Sacramento County. [Among the Bee Board's suggestions is that Supervisors cut their $98,334/year salaries and that Schutten forego part of his $250,000/year salary.]

More Dreary Economic News

Things are bad ... and getting worse, and worse, and worse.

Economic news today tells us that there are layoffs across the spectrum of types of businesses. Jobs are evaporating. Times are bad. We are speeding headlong into a depression. Headline in the New York Times, today: "Layoffs spread to more sectors of the economy" -- with a link to a related article first printed/posted ten days ago, "Your money: Preparing your budget for disaster." An AP report, today, tells us Consumer Confidence is down to its lowest levels in the history of that measurement, which began monthly polling in 1967.

The "Layoffs ..." article tells us Home Depot, Caterpillar and Sprint Nextel have announced major layoffs. Caterpillar is cutting its payroll by 16%. Texas Instruments is cutting 12% of its workforce. Microsoft has "announced its first significant job cuts ever." And there is more, and more, and more news like that as everything swiftly spirals in an escalating speed toward disaster.

Rather ironically, bad times with more people in need means that there will be less government money for the poor.

As hopeful as many of us are that having put fresh, vital blood into the White House things can be turned around, our national government may simply not have enough it can do to stop the meltdown.

Be prepared to greet many, many confused and disoriented people, refugees from the middle class, into Homeless World Sacramento.

Bee endorses tent encampments

	Picture of a Sacramento campsite which appeared with the online edition of the Bee editorial.

The Sacramento Bee Editorial Board says “Give tent city a try.”

In robust support of an experiment to see if the establishment of tent encampments can work in Sacramento - as they have in Seattle, Portland and Phoenix - the editorial board of the Bee wrote in Sunday’s edition of the newspaper that “a tent city provides an immediate answer to an immediate problem. It is a humane, if imperfect, response to one piece of the homeless puzzle."

Here, a snip from the heart of what the board had to say,

...a legalized tent city is controversial. Strip away concerns over location, and one is left with an ethical quandary: Is it acceptable for society to sanction people living in tents and makeshift structures? Should Sacramento be condoning a Hooverville?

These important questions need to be balanced with others: Is it acceptable for authorities to keep rousting the homeless from illegal encampments, month after month? Would a sanctioned encampment be a more humane alternative? Would it possibly reduce the problems caused by illegal encampments along the American River and other places? …

Tent cities should not be seen as an end-all to problems of illegal camping and destitution. Equal effort must be devoted toward affordable housing, mental health services and strategies to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place.

The editorial also gave special mention to Dignity Village in Portland, Oregon. It said that that self-run homeless camp was "clean, orderly and safer than living on the streets." Dignity Village is self-governing, elects its own board, determines rules and bylaws, and directly interacts with service providers.

In an article in last Thursday's Bee, both the police captain and Sacramento's new mayor expressed tentative support for the encampment idea. Capt. Dana Matthis said "What we are doing now is not working, so let's take a hard look at other options." Mayor Kevin Johnson said, "I don't know if [establishing a tent encampment] is something every city should do, but it's certainly something our city should be looking at."

More cuts in services to poor and homeless forthcoming

The county of Sacramento has announced that, due to souring economic conditions, services to the poor and homeless are almost certainly going to take another hit. This news comes after such services have already been cut and while the need for such services has been increasing and is sure to continue to increase rapidly.

According to a January 23rd news release by County of Sacramento Communications and Media Officer Zeke Holst,

Because of the continuing economic downturn, Sacramento County officials are preparing for cuts to programs and services offered in the Health and Human Services and Probation departments.

"We have been relentless in looking for every possibility to save money and reduce costs," stated County Executive Terry Schutten. "Our focus has been on saving jobs. We need employees to deliver our services to our customers. So many people depend on us."

The County’s mid-year budget shortfall is approximately $42.3 million. Recommendations to remedy this shortfall include an immediate budget reduction of $8.8 million to the two departments. Programs and services affected include probation supervision of adults and drug offenders, mental health community-based programs, public health clinic capacity and intake for in-home supportive services. If approved, these reductions will result in an elimination of approximately 198 positions.

Ominously, at the same time the county was announcing its proposed (and, let's face it, almost certain to be implimented) plans, the Employment Development Department announced that unemployment in the state of California had hit 9.3%, the highest it has been in fifteen years.

A high and increasing unemployment rate is a certain indicator of burgeoning poverty and homelessness -- and, thus an increasing need for services.

Tent encampments may have moved much closer toward being realized

	This map which was published with the Bee article will be replaced with SacHo's own map as soon as is possible.

Legal campsites for homeless citizens within the county of Sacramento have moved a big step closer toward being realized, based on news reported in a front-page article in today’s Sacramento Bee.

The Sacramento city and Sacramento county governments are moving toward recognition that persons rent homeless are not criminals by result of the circumstance of impoverishment.

The Bee article, written by the reporter assigned to the homelessness beat, Cynthia Hubert, tells us that the leaders and police in the city and county, and higher-ups in so-called homeless-advocate organizations, are now scouting for possible locations where encampments may be established.

Prime spots being considered include a location within the American River Parkway, close to the Blue Diamond nut processing plant, and just a little more than a half-mile from Loaves & Fishes. [See map.] Another idea is to establish an indoor tent city inside a now-empty warehouse.

There was a lot of optimism expressed in the Bee article that opinion has coalesced toward creation of a tent encampment for the homeless. Mark Merin, the lead attorney in a long-standing lawsuit on behalf of the homeless, against the city and county, is reported saying that he is now optimistic something will get done.

Our city’s new major, Kevin Johnson, appears to be fully supportive. His knowledge of success with a homeless encampment in Phoenix, where he lived while playing for the Suns basketball team, assures him that such a project can be successful.

However, enormous opposition to any set plan is certain to emerge. Home and business owners near any proposed encampments are sure to complain bitterly about any perceived cost to their happiness, safety or livelihoods. It’s the well-known (and at least somewhat legitimate) NIMBY argument: Not wanting anything In My BackYard that is undesireable and can possibly negatively affect one's happiness or livlihood.

Comments posted online in response to the Bee article were overwhelmingly negative toward the establishment of any tent encampments. Many of the comments were quite nasty and demonstrated a profound ignorance of what causes homelessness and what homeless people are like.

Sacramento A Cafe

Paula of SHOC [Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committe] writes in the SHOC wikiplace that "SHOC will have a table" at the event advertised in the flyer at right.

Both Paula and the flyer advise that y'all write sactoacafe@riseup.net for more information.

Welcome to "Hard Times"

	A picture in the SN&R report shows the lunch line at Loaves & Fishes.

The sobering frontpage article in the Jan. 8 SN&R [Sacramento News & Review], titled "Hard Times," by Sasha Abramsky, may make everyone in our metropolis lose sleep.

Things are plenty bad, now. Construction in Elk Grove and Roseville on major projects has been suspended and is fenced off. Likely, the projects will never be finished. Many businesses have gone under. Malls have unleased floorspace, as do office buildings. Between Sacramento and Stockton is an area of foreclosed and abandoned homes that rates among the nation's worst.

But worse is sure to come. Writes Abramsky,

...in the short term, the prognosis for Sacramento isn’t pretty: At the very least, a year from now unemployment and poverty will be worse than they currently are, and economic activity, at least that generated in the private sector, will be even more subdued.

In reality, far more jobs are being lost in residential and commercial construction, for example, than are being created at solar-panel factories and staffing new hospital wings—and that’s likely to continue to be the case for many years. “It’s great that we’re doing high-tech,” says [Bill] Camp[, executive secretary of the Sacramento Central Labor Council], “but do I think that’s going to be a solution to the evaporation of the retail industry? No. Forty-two percent of economic growth is in retail. When you’re losing all of these shopping malls and the retail trade business, that won’t be made up by whatever happens in the high-tech industry.”

The result will be, Jock O’Connell[, international trade and economics adviser at the University of California Center in Sacramento,] says glumly, rising homelessness and poverty, and growing social tensions. “Higher crime, more family dysfunction, less ability to deal with this issue because of a lack of revenue to pay for police and social services. So, a coarsening of society. Gun sales will go up. Drug usage will go up. All the normal pathologies will be accentuated.”

The twinkle of good news in the report is that once our years-long economic winter is past our area will benefit from restructuring. Inefficient companies and those with inferior goods or services will be winnowed out. Political muscle may shift from protecting the enormously rich toward favoring a more-egalitarian society.

And, maybe, we will all be more responsible with our personal credit and that of our nation.

ADA Case Settlement May Impact Sac'to Homeless-Service Providers

	Picture from the DC gov't webspace showing a shelter in Washington DC that was being toured before opening in 2003.

Grablogger of E-HAG blog [HAG stands for "Housing Advocacy Group."] writes, in "ADA Case vs Shelter Providers Settled in DC," about the national implications of the Dec. 10, 2008, settlement of an ADA [Americans with Disablities Act] case in the District of Columbia.

The case relates to access to shelters and homeless-services by disabled Americans. While the case applies solely to Washington, D.C., it is certain that advocates for disabled people in communities throughout America will take notice and seek similar access provisions in their area that DC citizens will soon start receiving. Possibly, elements of the settlement will impact shelters and homeless-service providers in the Sacramento area within a few years.

Grablogger quotes the press releases from the Department of Justice and the D.C. Attorney General, summarizing the settlement as follows:

"The terms of the settlement require the District to increase the accessibility of its shelter program by:

• Developing a comprehensive plan to ensure that persons with disabilities have equal access to the District's homeless shelter facilities;
• Implementing specific policies, practices and training to ensure that individuals with disabilities have equivalent access to all services and activities of the shelter program;
• Improving notice and procedures to ensure that shelter applicants and residents are aware of their rights under the ADA;
• Enhancing effective communication with shelter applicants and residents who have disabilities related to speech, vision or hearing;
• and Enhancing oversight of private contractors and subcontractors that provide homeless shelter services in the District"

More information about the settlement, with links to the full settlement text and Department of Justice findings, can be found in the E-HAG blogpost.

Anti-Scavenging Ordinance has been Proposed

	Waste collection carts.

A post in Muriel Strand's blog Sacramento's Sustainable Future, "A Bad New Year's Resolution from the City Council," tells us that there is an ordinance amendment on the pathway to passage that is cruel to homeless folk because it would make "it illegal for the underclass to remove anything from your garbage and greenwaste containers, in addition to the recycling container which is already off-limits."

Writes Muriel:

This ordinance should be amended to also make it illegal for anybody to throw away anything that's still useful. Reportedly, some neighborhoods are excellent hunting grounds for gathering perfectly edible food from garbage cans. Donation to Sacramento's hungry should be required for edible food.

More durable goods, many still perfectly useful, can be found in the junk pick-up piles. This is an ideal opportunity for the city to demonstrate its commitment to sustainability, by making sure we minimize waste by using what we have and only landfilling things that are actually no longer useful to anyone. How many trips to Nevada could be reduced this way? Why don't we have an Urban Ore outlet here?

Muriel writes that there is a meeting today of the Sacramento City Council's so-called Law and Leg Committee to hear the proposed ordinance. Concludes Muriel,

This ordinance is as likely to solve the scavenging problem as for a rich man to enter heaven. Bandaids don't work for gaping wounds like PTSD [posttraumatic stress disorder], starvation and homelessness. The rationale for this proposal includes protecting scavengers from illness and injury, but until the city protects them from starvation and freezing I can't take their concern seriously.

If the city is serious about reducing crime, reducing hunger and hopelessness will be their first priority.

Update on 1/14/09: Here, in pdf format, is the Jan 6 Staff report on the Ordinance Amendment. You can see, at the bottom of the report, there is an undated approval on behalf of the City Manager. The amendment now goes to the City Council for action. I don't yet see the amendment on the agenda for a meeting of the full council, though there are meetings scheduled and agenda available for Jan 13 [agenda] and Jan 15 [agenda] and Jan 20 [agenda]. Here's the City of Sacramento gov't Agenda feed, for anyone following this issue closely.

Bi-Annual Streetcount Set for January 27

	Graphic from the DHA webpage for StreetCount 2009.

The bi-annual streetcount of county homeless will proceed on the evening of January 27, according to a page on the Sacramento county DHA website, and an article in yesterday's Bee.

A count of the county homeless happens every two years. The last count was conducted on January 30, 2007.

The County of Sacramento Department of Human Assistance webpage tells us they are seeking 350 volunteers to help with the 2009 count which will be done between the hours of 8pm and midnight.

The DHA explains the reason for the count as follows:

• learn about the size of the homeless population that we are trying to serve;
• refine existing programs so that they do a better job at engaging and serving the homeless;
• develop new programs where service gaps exist;
• make policy decisions by the respective Boards that oversee ending the homeless problem in Sacramento.

Further, each community that receives Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding for services to the homeless is required to count the homeless every other year. Sacramento County receives approximately $13.5 million per year from HUD to provide funding to operate emergency shelters, transitional and permanent supportive housing projects and other vital supportive services.

Sacramento County does not count each homeless person; instead it uses a statistical sampling method which employs the following nine steps/elements:

• It is based upon successful methods used in other communities, most notably New York City
• It required two weeks of information gathering with subject matter experts regarding where the homeless are, or have been, residing recently
• This information was then mapped onto a huge map of the county
• The density of homeless in each area was taken into consideration
• A research scientist and our Homeless Count consultants then decided which areas would be count areas
• Each area is then randomly placed in an order and we are required to send teams out in that exact order
• The count tally sheets tabulate what the count teams see in the field. If they see a tent, they will mark tent. If they see a vehicle, they will mark vehicle
• The consultants and researchers then apply a formula to what the count teams have counted, assigning a value to tents and vehicles
• The count for our community is then extrapolated from this data

WIND Youth Services profiled in Sacramento magazine

	WIND Youth Services' logo.

WIND Youth Services is profiled in an excellent article by Catherine Warmerdam, “Nowhere to Call Home” in the current [January 2009] issue of Sacramento magazine. The article answers the question that has been uppermost on the mind of the SacHo blogger [see sidebar]: What should teenagers do if they find themselves homeless on the streets of Sacramento? The succinct answer comes to the fore in the first two paragraphs of Warmerdam’s piece: Go to WIND Youth Services. Why? Well, here are those paragraphs:

WIND Youth Services, the only organization in the Sacramento area that caters exclusively to homeless youths, is in the business of helping young people put their lives back together. Through its emergency shelter, day center and school, the North Sacramento-based nonprofit serves a population largely ignored in public policy and programs for the homeless.

“That’s a gap that we fill,” says JD Rudometkin, director of development and community outreach at WIND. “There are places in town where mothers and babies can be housed, but we are basically the only place in town where teens can be housed.”

WIND helps, not just kids who are homeless in the typical usage of that word, but, too, kids who are living lives of “couch surfing.” That is, displaced kids in Sacramento who are not in a circumstance that allows them to be educated and properly taken care of are the target of WIND’s aid.

In her article, Warmerdam profiles three situations where “displaced” teenagers are getting turned around using WIND’s services:

• Annie is a 17-yr-old who is gracious and college-bound, yet lives in a tent. She attends WIND’s charter school to earn a high-school diploma.
• DeJon, a 19-yr-old, works with a WIND caseworker to get his life back in order. He is eager to get things turned around since his girlfriend is two-months pregnant with his child. He is “hoping to enroll in substance abuse and anger management programs.” Since he is of adult age, he cannot use the WIND shelter.
• Mistiee was homeless and struggling and had three teenage boys. WIND is helping the boys with their education, while Mistee stays nearby using resources to put the family back together in a happy home.

Homeless Folk Should Expect to See Lots of Milk and Cheese in the Near Future

	Milk powder stored in a warehouse in Fowler, California.

The New York Times reports a huge glut of milk and other dairy products, which, because of government price supports, are likely to result in much of it being donated to food banks throughout the country. This is sure to mean lots and lots of dairy items will be included with free meals served to homeless and other poor people.

This from the Times article:

…demand for dairy products is stalling amid a global economic slowdown and credit crisis, even as supplies have increased. The result is a glut of milk — and its assorted byproducts, like milk powder, butter and whey proteins — that has led to a precipitous drop in prices.

…But while the government has price-support programs for about two dozen agricultural products, so far milk powder is the only commodity that has sunk low enough to start the flow of government dollars. Some expect that taxpayers will soon be buying blocks of cheese, too, given the plunging price.

Government price supports provide a price floor for agricultural products as a way of keeping farmers afloat during hard times and ensuring an adequate food supply.

The Agriculture Department has committed to buying 111.6 million pounds of milk powder at 80 cents a pound, for roughly $91 million, which includes some handling fees.

The article also tells us that some agricultural sectors in addition to dairy are also struggling. Domestic “corn, wheat, soybeans and pork” are cited as sectors in some trouble due to a lessening of foreign demand. Thus food made from those products may start to be a more significant part of what poor and homeless people will be soon be eating.