KCRA's report on Dec 29 march

Here, from YouTube, is KCRA's tepid report on the Safe Ground march to Chavez Park and rally there. I don't think the report made the airwaves, but here is what they put together:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXiyOBKUT5k

There's no mention in the film of my counter-revolutionary effort to the Safe Grounders' revolution-seeking ambitions.

To the homeless citizens of Sacramento

This flier was one of two (the other one's here) I handed out at the safe ground rally at Caesar Chavez Park on Dec. 29. [Links have been added to aid readers of this blogpost.]

To Homeless Citizens of Sacramento:

You need to be made aware that efforts are ongoing to indoctrinate you into believing communist ideology and involve you in a "class struggle" to overthrow the United States government. [I kid you not!] Loaves & Fishes senior management and Board of Directors are more than passively aware of the effort; they are not blameless.

SHOC's so-called Homeless Leadership Project, with the safe ground movement that stems from it, is a central focus of the indoctrinating scheme. Both Paula Lomazzi and, more centrally, Mark Merin-organization attorney Cathleen "Cat" Williams, both with SHOC, write for People's Tribune, a publication that comes out in hardcopy and can be found online [peoplestribune.org]. SHOC meetings, where Ms. Williams presides, are meant to lead you to believe her view of things, which are that revolution needs to occur in America; capitalism needs to be abandoned; jobs should be guaranteed for all; and that technological advancement must be suppressed.

People's Tribune, and another online publication, Rally, Comrade!, are publications associated with the League of Revolutionaries for a New America, a "disguised" modern-day communist group, an outgrowth of The Communist Party USA, which became The Communist Labor Party, which became The Communist League which transformed into the League of Revolutionaries in the 1980s. Nelson Peery is a leading long-time Communist connected with the League and both publications. You can read about him at wikipedia.com

Communism is a morally bankrupt ideology that has been tried dozens of times in the world. It has always failed because it puts an end to freedom and disincentivizes work which then causes a spiral of poverty. Except for the few in power, people living in communist countries have miserable lieves. Walls are put up to keep people from fleeing to democratic countries. Those in power invariably create a totalitarian regime to keep from being overthrown. Over one hundred million innocent people were summarily murdered in communist countries in the 20th Century. It is a key lesson of the 20th Century THAT COMMUNISM MIGHT SOUND LIKE A GOOD THING TO SOME, BUT IT DOESN’T WORK! It NEVER works because it is oppressive and contrary to what can allow people and societies to thrive.

Tom Armstrong
Sacramento Homeless blog
sacramentohomeless.blogspot.com

Some Things You Should Know About 'Safe Ground'

Flyer to be distributed at the Safe Ground rally at City Hall on Dec 29 at ~2pm:

Some Things You Should Know

About 'Safe Ground'

written by Tom Armstrong

of Sacramento Homeless blog

sacramentohomeless.blogspot.com

Since "Safe Ground" and the organizations that sponsor it – Loaves & Fishes; Francis House; and SHOC (which is, itself, sponsored by the Sacramento Housing Alliance) – are all nonprofits that frequently seek donations from the public, you should be made aware that specific political beliefs, that carry national aspirations for change in America, are the core of the so-called Safe Ground Movement.

To the local media's discredit the politics that infuse much of the homeless-help industry in our metropolis is not told to the public. I believe this is so because the media fear the damage that might result to several charities who certainly direct the great majority of their effort to doing vital good work: saving the most disadvantaged of Sacramento citizens from utter destitution. I am a bit sympathetic with the Bee, SN&R and other local media who skirt their responsibilities to the public – to be truth-seeking and courageous, leaving to the public what is to be made of the news – for these reasons.

But nowadays things are getting mighty strange in Homeless World Sacramento and it is time that Sacramento businesses and individuals were fully apprised how some of their homeless-charity donation dollars are likely to be spent.

Tenets of the safe ground political movement are expressed in the online newspaper People's Tribune [peoplestribune.org], identified by several online sources¹ as the publication of the Communist Labor Party of America (or what's left of it). Here, central elements in the movement:

• There needs to be a revolution in America to overturn capitalism as the basis of the economy.
• Technological advancement needs to be stopped since it displaces manual labor.
• Jobs must be guaranteed for all.

If you search the archives of People's Tribune² you will find that a great many of the articles and features of the online publication are written by Cathleen "Cat" Williams, an attorney with Mark Merin's organization, who is an uncredited force with the Sacramento Housing Alliance and SHOC. Ms. Williams is centrally involved in SHOC's weekly safe ground meetings, two of which I have attended, and in a Homeless Power Forum³ held in Loaves & Fishes' Delaney Center last October. Ms. Williams and her husband, Mark Merin, have hosted fundraisers for SHOC in their Sacramento home.

The meetings I attended were filmed (by Costa Mantis in two instances and, in the case of the Power Forum, by another fellow). I say to you that they were certainly centrally all meetings intending to indoctrinate homeless people with the principles of communism – without use of the "c" word.

Further, homeless people who attend weekly safe ground meetings, hosted by SHOC, are taught that they must think in terms of rights they are entitled to and must demand – rather than in terms of responsibilities they should shoulder.

I have written⁴ the Boards of Directors of Loaves & Fishes and Francis House urging that they disconnect the safe ground effort/campaign/movement from any national political aspirations, but they do not do so.

I personally support the initial, now-lost goals of safe ground: to secure a parcel of land where homeless people can legally camp. I cannot support safe ground as it is now constituted, as a tool of a failed political ideology that, whenever it "succeeds," leads inevitably to totalitarianism.
------
¹ See http://orlabs.oclc.org/identities/lccn-n79-36118; http://www.marxists.org/history/erol/periodicals/index.htm; and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_press_(U.S._political_left)#National_newspapers
² http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22cathleen+williams%22+site%3Apeoplestribune.org&aq=f&oq=&aqi=
³ http://sacramentohomeless.blogspot.com/2009/10/far-left-visionaries-at-homeless-power.html
⁴ http://sacramentohomeless.blogspot.com/2009/12/message-from-sacho-to-boards-of.html

Message from SacHo to the Boards of Directors of Loaves & Fishes and Francis House

While what is left of communism in the US is no more than a collection of posturers and grievancers who are as arrogant and thoughtless as communists have ever been, and while there is zero chance that America will become a communist country at any time while any current American is still alive, it remains wildly bizarre and worrisome that communist ideations are alive and thriving at the heart of some homeless-help agencies in Sacramento.

Following is the meat of an email I sent to the Directors of L&F and (thru Greg Bunker) Francis House earlier this month.  The complete text is posted here.  Very recently, I have learned that the newspaper that Cat Williams and Paula Lomazzi, both of SHOC, write for -- the People's Tribune -- is a publication of the Communist Labor Party of America (or, what little remains of it)[evidence: here, here & here]:

As much as we are on the same side on most issues, I am greatly concerned about the radical politics at the core of the Safe Ground movement, which appears to be the sole focus of SHOC, and plays a part in the administration and philosophy of Loaves & Fishes and Francis House.

In my humble opinion, it would not only be wise, but is a no-brainer, that ridding Loaves & Fishes (and Francis House, for that matter) of any association with communist politics would serve the best interests of Sacramento's homeless population and both those organizations.

Donors to L&F (and Francis House) have a right to know when money they give is going toward a fringe political movement they are likely to abhor.

With this very big fee SHOC will be getting for administrating claims payouts associated with the Lehr lawsuit, "wacky communist ideas" (as I would term them) have infiltrated Homeless World Sacramento to an ever greater extent.

L&F (and, separately, Francis House) should sit down and decide which is more important to you of the two efforts: (1) To aid and improve the lives of homeless people, or (2) To remain on the quixotic (and I would add: dunderheaded) quest of completely changing the United States into something similar to the failed Soviet Union.

The two efforts are at odds. Neither L&F nor F.H. will be 'protected' against public awareness of the toxic situation the two organizations have put themselves in, forever.

Yes, but what's the FULL story (re L&F donations)?

A curious, too-careful-by-half call for donations by Loaves & Fishes leaves an obvious question unanswered.

In an article at its webspace, titled "December donations down by 14%," Loaves & Fishes tells us this, in embolded text:

Yet you our donors have been affected by the economic downturn. The number of December donors is the same this year as last but the dollar amount of the donations is down by 14%. The same number of people are giving but they are each able to give less money this year.

Unhappily, Loaves & Fishes, in their rallies and appeals for donations, has a history of truthiness  [Read this and this, for example.], so a question immediate arises: "Yes, but how much are donations up (or down) for the year!?"

Remember that during this past year Loaves & Fishes benefited greatly by all the misinformation that was going out via media sources ― local, national and international ― that Tent City had been erected within spitting distance of downtown because Sacramento families were displaced due to the housing crisis, and thus it was a bellwether or a new Great Depression.

The news that 1200 people, comprised largely by families, was living in tents at a site just north of downtown was always false.  It is probably the case that exactly zero children were living in Tent City, and that the population in TC (better known in Homeless World as the Wasteland), at its max, was less than 200.  AND, that the people there were largely so-called 'chronically' homeless solo adults whom had assembled east of the Blue Diamond almond plant because they'd been rousted from several other, smaller tent communities in town [including on Bannon Street, proximate to the mission; and in Crack Alley, just off of North B Street].

L&F ends its article with this plea:

Donations in the “giving season” sustain us throughout the rest of the year. Please consider giving a special gift, no matter how large or small, to Loaves & Fishes to help preserve this essential safety net for individuals and families who have fallen into homelessness. Loaves & Fishes relies on private generosity; it receives no government funding.

Yes, during normal years, the "giving season," around Christmas, when people are vulnerable, is a vital time to gather in the bucks, but 2009 is a very, very unusual year for Homeless World Sacramento.

The question hangs out there.  It's the two-ton elephant in the room:  "How much are donations up (or down) for the year!?"

The Bee, to its great discredit, used the L&F article without inquiry.  Its piece, written by Cynthia Hubert, published on Christmas Eve, titled "Loaves & Fishes reports drop in holiday donations," ends shamelessly thus:

Donations to the nonprofit organization may be sent to P.O. Box 2161, Sacramento, 95812, or online at www.sacloaves.org.

Such pap is beneath the glorious history of the Bee which now acts too often like a weak incurious throw rag.  I'd have flunked my high-school journalism class had I written pure advertising drival disguised as an article like Hubert's article which appeared in the Bee on Christmas Eve.

Families have begun moving into Mather cottages

Meeting a rather ambitious schedule, the Winter Shelter Task Force was able to make twelve bungalows at Mather Community Campus near Rancho Cordova habitable for families, five of whom will begin moving in today and tomorrow.  The residencies will provide a four-month stay for displaced families.

Volunteers the task force recruited, with additional help from HomeAid and Home Depot, rehabilitated the cottages last weekend, which were shortly thereafter OKed by building inspectors for habitation.

According to the Rancho Cordova Post, St. John's Shelter Program will be administering operations relating to the Mather bungalows.  Michele Steeb, Executive Director of St. John's, also heads up the Winter Shelter Task Force.

It is hoped that eventually all but one or two of the 35 cottages can be fixed and made ready to serve as transitional housing for families.
-----

Additional information (and sources for this SacHo post):
Sac Bee article on 12/24: "Homeless women, kids to begin moving into Mather cottages."
Rancho Cordova Post on 12/24: "St. John’s Shelter to Provide Housing for Homeless at Mather Field."

Bed Stress now, and in chilly seasons past

The winter-shelter effort has everything to do with having places for people to sleep during cold or wet weather.

I wrote the sentence, above, knowing it doesn't sound profound (It isn't.), but just to 'put out there' that the goal seems simple. And that whatever variety of things are done to serve the goal of simply giving adequate 'shelter from the storm' [as the banner had read at Overflow] is good. Or so you would think.

This year, to what seems its great discredit, the county slashed homeless safety-net services, including funding for Overflow at Cal Expo. Likely, the politicians and officials knew there was other money that would flow in to take the place of some of the 'lost' county money [from stimulous funds, the city, and elsewhere] and that being more economical [Overflow was complicated and expensive] things would work out

But it's an addling roller coaster ride, going from no money for winter shelter; to a feeling that the Winter Shelter Task Force performed a miracle [$500,000 found! 269 beds!]; to problems in November [205 of the 269 beds are uninhabitable or not secured!?!]; to our circumstance, now, one-third of the way through the chilly season [which lasts roughly from mid-autumn till the first day of spring], where beds are 'out there,' but not in the same fair, available-on-the-fly way as in chilly seasons past.

To my mind, the Winter Shelter Task Force should have gotten a big warehouse proximate to Loaves & Fishes, put 200 or 250 beds in it; and heaters, of course; put port-a-potties outside; served a simple Overflow-style dinner and breakfast; and that would've been pretty much it. In by 8pm; sleep from 9:30-to-6; out by 6:30am. Simple. Basic. One stop serves all. People would know where to go, what to do. The shelter [like Overflow had been] would've been substandard as compared to the waiting-list shelters, would have been cheap, befitting our economic times, and [unlike Overflow] wouldn't have, effectively, imprisoned people for 16+ hours a day.

In my vision of the perfect (but, admittedly, terrible) warehouse winter shelter, the government wouldn't have accommodated couples sleeping together. It wouldn't have been an ersatz hotel, with honeymoon accommodations, and André's chocolates on the feather pillows for the select, specially treated. [Couples can have still slept together on warm winter nights in two sleeping bags zipped together, or used some of their SSI money for a night at Motel 6.]

IMHO, Winter shelter should just be about combatting the cold-weather emergency, not about reconfiguring homeless culture, somehow. You want to improve accommodations for the homeless, generally? I'm all for it. But winter shelter is about life and death -- or ought to be. There is an unconfirmed report that a homeless man died downtown from exposure during that three-day stretch of mid-twenty-degree nights. Certainly, many downtown homeless people got 'caught' in the sudden freeze and suffered when the winter-shelter effort wasn't up to speed, getting them to warming centers. Helping the downtown homeless who sleep in their day clothes and (many) suffer from mental illnesses be warm is a task of the winter shelter ad hoc committee; getting homeless men nookie, or, even, keeping loving couples together, shouldn't be on the committee's to-do list.  [Yeah, yeah, I'm mocking the Overflow couples suites of last winter AND the problems of motels/hotels this year, which I'll get into in a future post.]

In retrospect, my warehouse vision of winter shelter would have been the way to go.

Instead, now, near the first day of winter, cold homeless people without accommodations have a lot of options, but not quick access to a bed when needed.  Below is my speedy html copy [with links added] of a chart of what there is, as provided by Tim Brown of Sacramento Steps Forward:

Program	Planned Beds	Beds (as of 11-20)	Beds (as of 11-24)	Beds (as of 12-10)	Beds (as of 12-15)	Target Populations
SAEHC	12	0	0	12	12	Families [See Dec. 14 article in the Bee.]
Salvation Army	20	20	20	20	20	Single Women
VOA - Former detox space	32	32	32	32	32	Single Men
Mather	102	0	0	0	0    [OK from county on 12/15 for effort to make units available, some by Jan 1.] [See article in Bee today.]	Families in 34 bungalows
Motel Vouchers	100	0	30	84	100	Chronically Homeless, Special Needs, Families
Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program [HPRP]	100	16	16	32	32	[Stimulus money]
VOA - Readiness	50	0	0	0	50?	Single Men and Women
Totals	316	52	82	180	196 - 246

Of course, it is excellent that all these means of accommodating homeless people have 'come online.'  Props to the Winter Shelter Task Force and/or Sacramento Steps Forward committee for their effort to 'find' beds for the winter [and some beyond winter] for homeless people.

At present, I don't ably understand all that's listed here.

I have heard that motel [and hotel!] voucher placements have been discontinued, except to replace people who leave early.  Getting on the list for a 'replacement' bed is difficult and uncertain.  I also don't yet know if the safe ground beds at Hawthorn Suites are included in the 100 count of motels beds.  I do know that more people than just safe gound folks are staying at the Hawthorn hotel, but approximately 22 beds for the safe grounders were supposed to be part of a separate budget line, perhaps not overseen by the winter shelter task force.

The Salvation Army and former-detox beds require being on a waiting list for an indetermanent span of time.  You have to qualify for Rapid Re-Housing or the VOA-Readiness Program.

Re Rapid Re-Housing:  Many people will qualify, using services they receive, to prevent their becoming homeless.  This category on the chart isn't "winter shelter," and, for many, they never become homeless.  The counting of beds made available by the winter shelter committee is an inexact science; inclusion of these beds may be a mattress bridge too far.  [I note that this category is only included in the TOTAL count for the 12-15 column.  Hmmm.]

All the beds on the chart are good beds that take the stress off the need out in Homeless World.  The problem is one for people who find themselves without a bed and have a big obstacle finding one and securing it.  And finding one in the cool, cool, cold of a winter's evening, no less.

More more more on winter shelter beds in future posts in the days to come.

Mayors' Conference report screws up Sacramento homeless data

	Mayor Kevin Johnson as he is pictured at the United States Conference of Mayors webspace.

A report released on Dec 8 by the United States Conference of Mayors, called "Hunger and Homelessness Survey, December 2009," screwed up data relating to homelessness in Sacramento, perpetuating the myth about the nature of homelessness here becoming evermore one of distraught families left to subsist on the streets.

The text in the report directly relating to Sacramento is on page numbered 42 (or, on page 45 of the 100-page download), and reads in whole as follows:

Profile of Homelessness in Sacramento:

Sacramento reported a 31 percent decrease in the number of homeless individuals on a single night in January 2009 compared to January 2008. This decrease was attributed to the city’s success in increasing the number of permanent housing units available for chronically homeless single adults. However, Sacramento reported a 14 percent increase in homeless families during this same period. City officials attributed the increase to a combination of unemployment, foreclosures, and cuts in state funding for social services. One Sacramento shelter reported a 300-person waiting list for persons in families. The unmet need for shelter could increase in 2010 as budget issues have prompted the city to discontinue funding for emergency shelter. The housing crisis has also made it more difficult for the city to build additional permanent supportive housing units.

Sacramento was awarded approximately $6 million through the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP). The city will use this money to prevent homelessness among at-risk families and move families that are in homeless shelters into permanent housing. One bright spot in the housing crisis is that the number of vacant housing units is making it easier to find and lease rental units for homeless families.

In fact, the "data" used in the first paragragh could not be more wrong or misleading.

Comparisons of the January 2009 Street Count to the January 2008 Street Count DO NOT find the results the survey reports. Rather than a 31% DECREASE in homeless individuals, there was a 4.6% INCREASE in individuals. [See the DHA Report on Street Count 2009; specifically the table at the bottom of page 2.]

The number of homeless individuals increased during the year ending January 2009 from 2678 to 2800 -- a 4.6% INCREASE. It is only among the "chronically homeless," a subset of those totals that there was a big decrease, from 681 to 468 [-31%], due to placements in permanent housing.

Families and the number of individuals in families "on the street" DECREASED, comparing 2009 to 2008, according to a breakdown of data that was released by the DHA in April, 2009. Whereas 59 families, comprising 164 individuals were living on the street or in shelters in January 2008, "only" 47 families, comprising 145 individuals were on the street or in shelters in January 2009. [See the SacHo blogpost "The Sacramento Homeless Emergency That Wasn't There."]

The report also brings up that whopper that there are 300 individuals on a waiting list to get into St. John's Shelter Program for Women & Children. The implication, when this number goes unexplained, is that hundreds are left destitute, on the street, when that is not the case. Families on St. John's list are most often endeavoring to improve their circumstance, moving from housing shared with relatives or friends or a crowded shelter to something more agreeable. Also, families, like solo adult homeless people, often get on multiple housing/shelter lists to give themselves options.

As is the case in all US metropolises, in Sacramento County, most homeless people are solo men.  Homeless men aren't as exotic or sympathy engendering as women and kids, and that may play a part in how the homeless story in Sacramento seems continually to be mistold.

It is greatly disappointing that Sacramento homelessness is being mischaracterized in a recent report from Mayor Johnson's office.  The mayor has seemed to be kindhearted, thoughtful, energetic and keenly interested in homeless issues.  It had also seemed that he had "gone to school" on Sac'to homelessness ― visiting homeless encampments; meeting homeless people and working with homeless-help-agency leaders.  But recent events, relating to the clumsy winter-shelter effort, and now the text in the Mayors' Conference report, has to give us all pause.

Claims for damages can now be submitted by homeless citizens for property confiscated by the county

The class-action lawsuit Anthony Lehr, et al. vs. City of Sacramento and Sacramento County, et al., which was tentatively partially settled last August, is now at a stage where homeless people should submit claims if their property was confiscated by county employees subsequent to Aug 2, 2005, and was not returned.

The Lehr lawsuit was filed in federal court in August, 2007, by famed Sacramento attorney Mark Merin on behalf of homeless people whose belongings had been destroyed by city and county officials. The suit claims that these homeless people were denied basic constitutional rights, specifically [quoting Merin from a Bee article] "the 14th Amendment's protection against loss of property without due process and the constitutional right to be heard before it is destroyed." The county has reached a settlement with the plaintiffs; the city and plaintiffs have not reached agreement.

SHOC [Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee] has been given the responsiblity to administer the processing of forms submitted by claimants for damages.

A Claim Notice and Claim Form, to apply for compensation, are available at the home page of SHOC's new website, "Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee." [This new webspace exists in addition to SHOC's long-existent Wikispace.]

Homeless people who have had their property confiscated by county police or other county employees are encouraged to submit a claim form. Claims against the City of Sacramento [should an agreement be reached between the city and plaintiffs, or should the plaintiffs win in court] are not being processed at this time. Note that claims against the county can have occured within the city.

Instructions on the form tell us that these are the conditions that must be met to trigger it being appropriate for a person to complete and submit a Claim Form:

At any time during the period from August 2, 2005, to date, while homeless, you lost property as a result of it being removed, confiscated, and/or destroyed by Sacramento County Sheriffs, Sacramento County Park Rangers, or Sacramento County Employees.

According to Paula Lomazzi of SHOC, persons who lost property will receive either $350 or $750, dependent on an evaluation of answers given by claimants on their form. [There has been some confusion about the amount claimants will receive.  The notice, claim form and August Bee article all differ in reporting possible amounts of a claim award.]

A completed claim form must be hand delivered or mailed to SHOC with a latest delivery date or postmark of Feb 18, 2010.

Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee, though well known to Loaves & Fishes denizens, is a small and rather mysterious organization, judging from their web presence. No staff is identified in either the organization's website or wikispace. A rather long written history of SHOC mentions no person's name. Paula Lomazzi is known to do the work of SHOC, and "paulal" is named as the sole person making changes to SHOC's wikispace.

SHOC is best known for its Homeless Leadership Project which was instrumental in the development of the Safe Ground Campaign (and safe ground everything else, including the T-shirts).

SHOC is also the center of a radical Leftist political philosophy that has swept across Homeless World Sacramento and is at the core of the safe ground movement.  Both Lomazzi and attorney Cathleen "Cat" Williams, who with husband Mark Merin has held fundraisers for SHOC in their home, write for the communist online publication People's Tribune. The "philosophy" that SHOC embraces calls for revolution in America to end capitalism, guarantee jobs for all, and put an end to technological advancement.

In the most-recent issue [Nov. 09] of People's Tribune, Cathleen Williams writes the following,

Never has it been more crucial to strengthen and expand the circulation of the People's Tribune. Leadership is emerging among the people who are "poor in things and rich in spirit"- and they need the news and analysis from the nation, from all the communities which are on the front lines struggling against harsh and brutal economic conditions. ...  The PT points the direction - it orients our leaders with a class perspective we just can't find anywhere else.

Williams also has a poem in the November issue of The PT called "Safe Ground" where she is described as a member of the Revolutionary Poets Brigade.

Per the Bee article last August, Claims Administration will earn a $100,000 fee. This is a large amount for SHOC, an organization that had less than $16,500 in gross income in the year ending Dec 31, 2007 (the most recent financial data available).

What the hell is "safe ground," now?

Ultimately it was hoped to make articulate speech issue from the larynx without involving the higher brain centres at all. This aim was frankly admitted in the Newspeak word duckspeak […]. Like various words in the B vocabulary, duckspeak was ambivalent in meaning. Provided that the opinions which were quacked out were orthodox ones, it implied nothing but praise, and when the Times referred to one of the orators of the Party as a doubleplusgood duckspeaker it was paying a warm and valued compliment.  ― Orwell, 1984

When the term "safe ground" originally began tumbling out of mouths or onto pieces of paper it meant something specific ― if only because it had to because things hadn't gotten complicated by hearing/reading the term more than once.

It was a friendly term ― spoken in Friendship Park, by gum. It had to be friendly, didn't it? It was safe, after all, and safe is better than dangerous. safe is good, doubleplusgood, while dangerous is unsafe and ungood. It's doubleminusungood!

safe ground meant a legal place to camp. Made sense, right? What Sacramento homeless folk didn't have was a legal place to camp. safe ground was such a place, imagined, a utopian vision -- that it was hoped would manifest, somehow, someway, somewhere.

To bring about safe ground, an effort was needed. A term needed to be devised/concocted/crafted to refer to this effort. It was decided that the effort would be called, um, ah, safe ground! No, not safe ground junior, which could easily be differentiated from safe ground, but safe ground.

But merely just safe grounding (working toward a legal encampment) safe ground (a legal encampment) wasn't BIG enough for the egos of the Trotskyites in the Sac'to homeless-help manufacturing industry, WHO MUST CHANGE THE WORLD, or, the US constitution, anyway. So a term was needed to express the REVOLUTION that was afoot! Inspiring minds got together and came up with just the most-delicious term possible: safe ground! So instead of just safe grounding safe ground they could safe ground!

But what should they do to safe ground (i.e., make an effort). They needed a ploy, a ploy they would call safe ground! -- which was an illegal encampment to draw attention to the need for a legal encampment.

So the safe ground (ploy) that safe ground (the campaign or effort) came up with to create a safe ground (utopia) and, ultimately, safe ground (the end of capitalism! guaranteed jobs for all! no more new technology! free beer and donuts with sprinkles!) was set. Until the turf was pulled out from under safe ground (utopia).

There would be no safe ground (utopia); instead the promise of more more more was met with Houses for All!

The inspiring minds met in the plush interior of a Hawthorn Suite. What to call this new uberutopia that was triplewhammygoodgoodgood? safe ground! And the effort to manifest it? safe ground! And the revolution to put everyone in a mansion where the streets are paved with gold? safe ground!

In celebration, John Kraintz changed his name.  His friends just call him safe.

Hey, Safe Ground! Don't you people know when you've been bought off!?

	Hawthorn Suites of Sacramento: Where the homeless Safe Groundhogs laze around sipping Shirley Temples (not) and watching HBO.
	Living the good life.

The core cadre of Safe Ground people spend their days lazing around on sofas, watching HBO in their Hawthorn Suites hotel rooms. Yes, life is sweet on the public dole. "Thanks, suckers!"

Followers of homeless matters in Sacramento may remember that on Nov 2 there was a press briefing outside City Hall where the mayor announced that the safe grounders had magnanimously agreed to abandoned their comfortable Loaves-&-Fishes-provided tents at a parcel on C Street for the miscomforts of dreary motel rooms.

Yes, instead of handcuffs and RCCC stays, these brave 'Soldiers for the Unfortunate' would, with great reluctance, forgo the pleasantries of sleeping on topsoil if that was necessary to further their cause to make life better for their undercaste brothers and sisters.

Showing great leadership, the safe grounders would be the first to suffer the degradations of winter shelter 2009-&-10. You know, winter shelter? Congers up memories of last year where dinner was always macaroni and oddly-miscolored broccoli stalks and going to the bathroom was a hundred-yard dash through the wintry rain.

And you know Safe Ground. In their meetings they refused to have anything to do with winter shelter since The Cause -- living free on God's bountiful dirt -- was the be-all, end-all.

But, tearfully, they would agree to compromise.

But let us fast-forward to today: Motel? Hell, no! Luxury accommodations? YeeeeeHa! Yep, being an insider [meaning both 'being indoors' and 'being connected to the leaders of the far-far-leftist-political org, Safe Ground Movement'] has its perks. Boy, howdy! Even Stalin never had it this good! Bring on the Winter Palace!

The Safe Groundhogs are living the life of Riley. But every once in a while, even they, for whom doing nothing is an occupation, must exercise their leadership muscles to stay in the Good Life and stir the liberal donation base of their sponsors to do that wallet-emptying thing. And so, slips have been handed out in Homeless World Sacramento that read as follows:

WINTER

PILGRIMAGE

KICK-OFF

MARCH

STARTS AT

LOAVES AND FISHES

TO CITY HALL

TUESDAY DEC. 29

1 PM

STAND UP FOR

SAFE GROUND

housing not handcuffs

	City Hall, terminus of the march/pilgrimage.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but the Safe Groundhogs aren't in direct threat of being handcuffed at the moment. I mean, sure, a nice house might be better than a $100/night hotel room in some respects, but it is hard at present time to work up too much sorrow for the Safe Groundhogs when they get to scrunch up their feather pillows in the morning and watch cartoons when they wake up at 11:30, while the rest of us awaken in the predawn cold to the tune of a clattering cowbell.

BTW, What the hell is this "pilgrimage"!!?  Pilgrimage implies a hajj, a sacred, respectful walk in homage of something virtuous.  Yet "housing not handcuffs" tells us it is a rally in protest.  But I guess any march for any confused purpose stirs the liberal base to give, give, give, write those checks, give.

Yes, the Safe Groundhogs need speedos for the summer.  Give.

CNN not quite right

In a roundup of weather accross the country, a CNN online report says this about Sacramento,

In Sacramento, California, it was snowy and 20 degrees ― unusually cold for this time of year, forecasters said. The city opened a shelter on Monday, and planned to leave it open until Wednesday evening.

Actually, the low this morning was 24 degrees and no snow within the city that I'm aware of. I heard there was a dusting of snow in Citrus Heights. And further east, sure, there was snow. But, hell yes, 24 degrees is unusually cold.

I don't know what CNN meant by a shelter opening on Monday. There were warming stations opened by Union Gospel mission, at the Delany Center, and at VOA's "A" Street shelter. People may have been allowed to sleep on the floor at the Delany Center. Is that what the reporter is referring to?

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 a big part of the task force's plan to shelter the county's homeless during the chilly season, which runs from mid-autumn till the beginning of spring.

That hope met a speed bump soon thereafter when Rancho Cordova officials piped in, saying the cottages were uninhabitable due to having been pillaged and vandalized, and then left such that many were despoiled by mold. The officials said that $105,000-worth of repairs and appliance-replacement costs would need to be met to make the cottages inhabitable.

Now we learn that there are health concerns relating to asbestos and lead paint, both of which present dire health risks, especially to children.  Asbestos fibers cause lung impairment that can lead to death.  Per wikipedia, lead paint "is especially damaging to children under age six whose bodies are still developing. Lead causes nervous system damage, hearing loss, stunted growth, ADD, ADHD and delayed development."

Online comments today by readers at the Bee webspace were polarized. tonid123 wrote, "These 'cottages' (former military housing) are VERY unsafe. They have been completely ransacked by thieves. They have missing/broken windows, exposed wiring, highly covered in mold etc. It would be putting people, especially children, in a LOT danger to stay there without a lot of work being done first."

Perspicacity wrote, "I would suggest that the cottages would certainly be safer then sleeping under an overpass, in a culvert or in a tent with the weather in the mid 20's.. It wouldn't take much to make them livable and safe."

Edmondburke [son of Loaves & Fishes' Advocacy Program Director Joan Burke] wrote, "The city and county need to put aside all of their self-serving anti-homeless ordinances, zoning restrictions, and knit-picking to alleviate suffering and save lives. And SHAME on anyone who gets in the way of making that happen."

Severe Weather Notice

Below is a copy of a notice that is being distributed, in hope of reaching those who might get caught in next morning's, and subsequent days', bitter cold weather.  And at the link here: the notice with a google map.

Severe Weather Notice

Due to projected low temperatures for the next four nights (Monday 12-7 through Thursday 12-10) warming centers have been activated at Loaves & Fishes, Volunteers of America, and the Salvation Army.

Loaves & Fishes will host guests from 3:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at the Delany Center located at 401 North 12th St.

The Volunteers of America will receive people for warming at the A Street men’s shelter located at 1400 B North A Street after 8:00 p.m. This site is two blocks away and is walking distance from Loaves and Fishes.

The Salvation will receive people for warming at 1200 North B St. after 6:00 p.m. This site is two blocks away and is walking distance from Loaves and Fishes.

This is NOT a sleeping arrangement. These are places to get inside and sit out of the weather. Animals will not be allowed inside.

Please pass this information on to any persons who might be interested in this information.

In the map below, Aqua is the Delany Center; Red-Orange is VOA's "A" St shelter; and Yellow is the Salvation Army shelter.


View Warming Centers in a larger map

Warming Center, tonight. Come in from the cold, y'all.

Just a quick note to let y'all know that a "warming center" will be in operation tonight at the VOA's detox center at 5th & Richards, therebouts.

Temperatures are forecast to drop below freezing by sunup.

I will be riding around with the VOA van tonight to pick up anyone outside wanting/needing to come in from the cold.

Update, morning of 12/7: I didn't "make the van," but it did go out to try to bring some folks in. Last night, both the mission dining room and the Delany Center at Loaves & Fishes were open to keep people warm. I understand that Salvation Army and the VOA will be open tonight (and subsequent nights, depending on conditions) to keep people warm and to provide a space where people may sleep.

Winter-shelter funds, the mission, the coming storm and inefficiency

Funnelling people to motel rooms as the modus operandi of the winter shelter effort this year needs to be refined. From indicators last night and this morning, an overabundance of motel vouchers have been distributed to "the wrong" people.

Last night, there were ten or twelve empty beds in the Union Gospel Mission dorm for guests, which can, and usually does, accommodate sixty men.

Why were there only 48 or 50 men in the dorm instead of the usual sixty?

Well, let's back up. There are several factors at play that explain crowding at the dorm that it is helpful to understand. The mission guests, as a crowd, have their own monthly and seasonal rhythms.

On about the first day of a month a great many of the solo men in Homeless World get checks. Most of those in this subset of the guys use the majority of their money on alcohol, cigarettes, crystal meth and/or marijuana with a lesser amount of their funds going toward motel stays.

Of course, each guy is unique, and there are varietions on this theme, but, generally, the guys who get checks and have habits (which can include or be other addictions, such as porn, gambling, being with women, being with men, eating at expensive restaurants, et al) go through their cash very fast. By midmonth, the "money on the street" has pretty much all been spend.

What this means, then, is that beds at the mission are much much more available toward the beginning of a month than near the end of a month. [Because guys are staying on the street or in motels or just elsewhere to sip, sniff and trip.] This is well known to the mission staff, guys who regularly stay at the mission, the Bannon Street Irregulars and the police and emergency services.

Bad-weather conditions play a part in mission crowding, though, too. If it's cold or wet or a storm is in the offing, that brings into the dorm the Bannon Street Irregulars or others who had been staying outside.

So NOW, though it's early in the month, the mission should be crowded. A storm is brewing. The fact that an amazing ten or twelve dorm beds were empty is an indicator of a lot of guys from the near-the-mission crowd having gotten motel vouchers.

It is VERY apparent that the winter shelter effort is being very inefficient.

Were guys out with one-day motel-stay vouchers, the inefficiency would be minor. But from what I hear, guys are getting one-week or thirty-day motel stays and some are getting rooms all to themselves.

AND, just as "bad," the winter-shelter effort isn't taking people in off the streets.  That is, it ISN'T taking homeless people who WOULD HAVE BEEN WET AND COLD and making them dry and warm.  It appears just to be moving people from the dry, warm mission shelter to dry and warm motel rooms that the winter-shelter fund [which comes from the city, county and private donations of some sort] pays for.  In other words ― allow me to be quite clear ― winter-shelter money is being wasted to some non-trivial extent.

Winter shelter: the lost central idea

Part of the problem with winter shelter this year is that there are people trying to secure a motel-stay voucher to improve their personal situation. These people are understandably wanting to "move up" in the shelter they have to something more comfortable and that allows greater freedom. Or, as is the case with many solo men who have SSI, to have winter-shelter funds cover hotel/motel costs that they were previously paying, such that yet more of their money is freed-up to buy alcohol, crystal meth, marijuana or a woman for the night or whatever.

I thought the central idea of "winter shelter" was to bring people in out of the elements, in off the streets, out of the cold and storms, and (for many women) away from the dangers of being out on the street at night.

For the rest of us homeless who aren't highly vulnerable to bad health effects of being on the street every once in a while, the 'risk' of being stuck out in a storm should be shared.

But that is just not happening this year. For everybody, the agencies dispensing the vouchers or running the extra-seasonal shelters and for homeless people seeking accommodations, its a Grand Giveaway [as if in a game-show setting] to the most personable guests.  Some get nearly everything; the rest fight for the scraps.

At Loaves & Fishes, people who have gotten wind of the whispers show up at a certain time to gather the bounty provided by SAEHC. This is all getting done by being an insider, by having the contacts and by being conveniently "Johnny on the Spot."

The mentally ill, the retarded, the most wholly destitute and vulnerable ― who are disconnected from things because their whole world is the mean streets ― are pushed aside while the many gate crashers, line jumpers and sociopaths in Homeless World reep the best of the freebies. In the past, with respect to winter shelter at least, the crashers, jumpers and sociopaths weren't automatically getting the lion's share of everything.

To the homeless people of Sacramento: Welcome to a harsh winter.

To the homeless people of Sacramento: Welcome to a harsh winter.

written by Tom Armstrong of Sacramento Homeless blog [sacramentohomeless.blogspot.com]

Mayor Kevin Johnson's "Winter Shelter Task Force" has failed to step up to its mission: To alleviate the worst of suffering by homeless people in Sacramento in the chilly season that runs from mid-November till spring.

While some people — including insiders like those associated with the extreme-leftist-politics Safe Ground Movement¹ — have guaranteed motel rooms for the whole of the cold period, most of the rest of us are likely to need to scamper constantly to escape very harsh conditions. We will sometimes succeed in gaining shelter, and oftentimes be left out in the storm.

While the VOA-run Overflow shelter at Cal Expo in winters past was horrible, run with unrelieved ineptitude, holding homeless people imprisoned for (effectively) 16 hours a day, making getting or keeping a job impossible, the situation this year has resulted in a favored few getting special treatment, and most of the rest of us facing misery and conditions that can be health threatening.

The mayor, for all his kindheartedness, and his task force — representing major organizations in the local homeless-help industry — didn't do their job. According to Tim Brown, a member of the task force, from a letter he sent to the Sac'to County Supervisors & quoted in a Sacramento Press article, “We have faced implementation challenges, but that is to be expected any time an effort is made to do innovative work across several organizations and jurisdictions in a short period of time.” That's bull. The task force has been a bumbling parade of circus clowns.

105 beds at Mather the mayor claimed to have secured in a late October press conference proved to be uninhabitable. Plus, another 100 beds that were claimed to have been secured, weren't. [The committee hadn't reached agreement for the 100 beds at Extended Stay America, and the hotel chain backed away from further discussions.]

The Cal Expo shelter/jail of years past did do one thing, that which was central: It sheltered people from the storm, often taking in EVERYONE to assure that vulnerable people were not left outside when the weather became bitter. Too, people on the street knew they had this ONE PLACE [The "staging area" at the Delaney Center] they could go to where there was an expectation they could obtain shelter.

This year, things are in chaos. There is no place to go; no one place to call; no one or no place has taken responsibility. Having contacts or being an insider at Loaves or at VOA or at St. Johns is the be-all, end-all.
Per always, the Sacramento homeless-aid industy has shown, with its ineptitude, lack of grace and absense of compassion, that it is unworthy of the population it is tasked to help.
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¹ The Safe Ground Movement advocates for a revolution in America to end capitalism, bar advances in technology and guarantee jobs for all. See the writings of Cat Williams in the People's Tribune [http://peoplestribune.org/PT.2008.05/PT.2008.05.05.html, for example] or the blogpost "Far-left visionaries at 'Homeless Power Forum' hope to transform America" in Sacramento Homeless blog [http://sacramentohomeless.blogspot.com/2009/10/far-left-visionaries-at-homeless-power.html]