Overflow's expanded space opens for use today


	Picture at VOA homepage, showing Governor Schwarzenegger at podium with Mayor Johnson [center] at Mar. 25 joint press conference.

Four days in advance of what was expected, VOA has put 3600-sq-ft of space that was added to the Overflow complex into operation today, rather than on the 13th. This news comes from a VOA [Volunteers of America of Greater Sacramento and Northern Nevada] media release. VOA operates Overflow, also known as Winter Shelter, under contract with the county of Sacramento.

The new space exists in five proximate "modular stuctures," that are arranged in back of the main building. The modular structures will accomodate 50 additional people, comprised of 26 individuals and 24 sleeping as couples. The total sheltered at Overflow will now be 204 up from 154 (with 104 men and 50 women & children), previously.

It is expected that the sheltered that will fill the new space will come to Overflow from Tent City, which is now shrinking in number of inhabitants and will close by month-end.

As part of its expanded services, Overflow will be open until June 30 this year; provide expanded daily hours of operation (4pm to 10am); add dog kennal facilities (20 dog kennel runs, located at the Loaves & Fishes facility) and augment storage facilities (on the Delancy Center parking lot).

The media release tells us, as well, "Volunteers of America program director Elizabeth Valentine has hired additional staff for [Overflow] and is in the process of securing a host of outside agencies to frequent the shelter in the evenings to provide a range of services from HIV/AIDS testing to housing and job referrals."

Comments

Sex, Lies and Exegesis

Definition: exegesis [ek-si-jee-sis]: critical explanation or interpretation of a text or portion of a text, especially of the Bible. Painting by He Qi , a prominent artist from China who focuses on Christian themes. This piece is inspired by The Song of Solomon. In his May 21 column, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof stirred up a hornets’ nest. His column wasn’t really a column, it was a quiz, titled “ Religion and Sex Quiz .” The questions and what he provided as the answers were provocative, to say the least. We would later learn, in his follow-up, a post to the Times online in the afternoon of the same day, “ Reader Comments on my Religion Quiz ,” that the information that was used to create the quiz came with the help of Bible scholars, “including Jennifer Knust, whose book inspired [the quiz], and … Mark Jordan of Harvard Divinity School.” Kristof doesn’t name Knust’s book, but a quick googling reveals that it must certainly be Unprotected Texts: The Bible’s...

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 ...

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...

Sacramento Homeless blog

Search This Blog