Skip to main content

James "Faygo" Clark, social-justice advocate (and emerging Sac Homeless advocate?)

Cover of 3/19 issue
After spending a few weeks away from homeless matters, SN&R has a nice item -- an interview of James “Faygo” Clark – on the next-to-last page in its 3/19/15 issue, in a space that is often used to highlight or introduce interesting Sacramentans.

Clark is described by the interviewer, Editor Nick Miller, as “one of Sacramento’s leading social-justice activists.” He was involved in shutting down Nestle’s water-bottling plant last summer and is nowadays educating himself in regard to Nestle’s longstanding baby-formula scandal in Africa.

He was part of the Occupy Sacramento effort that began in 2011. Now, he is part of an effort to feed the hungry organic food in front of City Hall before Council meetings.

James "Faygo" Clark addressing the
Sacramento City Council on March 17.
James “Faygo” Clark is also a homeless Sacramentan.

In the SNR interview, titled "Meaningful Streets," Clark comes off as very intelligent and highly idealistic.

I don’t know Faygo, which is hardly surprising. There are thousands of homeless guys I don’t know. And now that I am semi-civilized with a microwave and a refrigerator, I’m more than a little removed from what might be going on day-to-day. It follows that this blog – and the Homeless Tom blog, before it – have become more circumspect and less petulant.

Of course, I am wondering if Faygo is now or is likely to become a leader of some sort in Homeless World, thus to make manifest some of the great good things to aid homeless people that abound elsewhere in our country. Central in this quest is for Housing First to get a better foothold in Sac County. I am happy to see that Faygo mentions Housing First as a forward step in the interview.

Now that John Kraintz has for a long time now been 'housed,' following health difficulties AND is fully a functionary of the Loaves & Fishes Machine, it would be refreshing (and possibly a lot more) if someone else from the homeless community became a very visible go-to guy to express what problems there are living out on the streets.  Certainly, there shouldn't just be ONE person in such a role -- homeless folk aren't homogeneous -- but one able visible guy would be a start.

Comments

Slum Jack said…
Glad to hear you're "indoors" now. I was too - kinda' sorta' - for almost three years. That ended fairly suddenly last December.

Looks like Slum Jack is Back. Again. Trying to decide if I'm resuming the blog or not. Quite a bit has changed in just a few years. Unfortunately, that may include that the "public interest" in the very topic has waned.

http://homeword-unbound.blogspot.com/
Unknown said…
Slum Jack. Yes, blogging has pretty much gone the way of the dinosaur thanks to Facebook and Twitter and all those other gosh-darn peoples'-attention grabby social network sites. Nonetheless, I still have about thirteen blogs in disrepair that limp along and eat up electrons like they were corn flakes.

Was thwarted from getting into your blog -- permission denied.

Hope you are well enough; chipper, getting enough calories, not doing anything I wouldn't do, and doing those things I would do twice as long right up to the edge of serious danger.

-- Tom

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

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

Loaves & Fishes implicates Buddhism and Jack Kornfield in its June Donations Plea.

The Sukhothai Traimit Golden Buddha was found in a clay-and-plaster overlaid buddha statue in 1959, after laying in wait for 500 years. It's huge and heavy: just under 10 feet tall and weighs 5 1/2 tons. At the beginning of their June newsletter , Loaves and Fishes relates a story, taken from the beginning of renowned Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield's 2008 book The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology . The first part and first chapter in Kornfield's book is "Part I: Who are you really?" and chapter 1 is called "Nobility: Our Original Goodness," which ought to serve as a clue to what the beginning of the book is about, not that that sentiment isn't strewn through-out the chapter, section and book such that what Kornfield is telling us should be crystal clear. Somehow, the not-ready-for-primetime management at Loaves & Fishes have managed to use Kornfield's wise and kindly words in a way that mangles th