Skip to main content

Loaves takes lead in third "Safe Ground" event

A clock on the homepage of Loaves & Fishes' website counts down the seconds until 10AM on July 1 when a "March for Safe Ground," featuring Papa Roach, will begin at the intersection of 12th & Ahern.

"12th & Ahern" is really the parking lot of L&F's Delany Center, according to where a pin is placed in L&F's map of the spot. In the back of the Center, several of us have seen the construction and temporary instalation of pod-like geodesic tent structures made from corrugated polypropylene, dubbed LibbyPods, which are clearly going to play a part in the First of the Month event. [The pods are actually World Shelter U-Domes which retail for $2,495.]

There have previously been Safe Ground events on December 23, 2008, and on April 21, 2009. The December event was a march from the Loaves & Fishes facility to Ceasar Chavez Park, downtown, where a rally was held. The April 21 event was a rally at the state capitol.

One distinctive and troubling difference between the two past rallies was the definition given by L&F as to what safe ground means. SacHo addressed the matter in a blogpost last April: Last December it meant "a ... location where the homeless can camp legally with access to basic needs such as running water, toilets, and trash cans. Safe Ground does not yet exist." Whereas in April safe ground had eroded to mean "safe campground(s) where homeless folks can have running water, bathrooms, and trash services until our City, County and State are willing and able to provide adequare shelters and affordable housing for the growing numbers of homeless folks due to our depressed economic times."

How is safe ground defined now, for the July 1 event? Hard to say. The webpage at the Loaves & Fishes webspace has the eroded April definition, while a flyer that was briefly posted at L&F's Friendship Park seemed to be using the December definition. [The eroded definition would mean that a Safe Ground encampment would be disbanded in the event of unfull shelters or general recovery from hard economic times.]

A new website, solely for Safe Ground Sacramento, has been created by joint auspices of Loaves & Fishes; Francis House; and the Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee (aka, Paula Lomazi). [See their business-card-like logo, at right.] Neither the L&F webpage nor the new website are founts of information about what the promised rally-followed-by-a-march on the 1st will entail nor what effect the event will have on regular daily services for the homeless at the Loave & Fishes facility on that date.

Unreliable rumor has it that the L&F facility plans to close early on the morning of the 1st. Breakfast burritos will be served and bag lunches will be given to those coming to the facility for food.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Mission Five Years Ago, And Today

I have spent the night the past two weeks plus at the Union Gospel Mission and am having an excellent time of it -- not only regards to sleeping in the dorm that the mission has, but also listening to the sermons that are delivered in the early evening. The Christmas music that is performed is also splendid. [And the food -- the FOOD -- has been fantastic during my stay so far! A happier Tom there couldn't be.] I chatted with a pal last night about The Mish – about how things were about five years ago when we both used the mission’s services frequently, and how thing are, today.
Five years ago, there were a lot scuffles between the guys when the front gate was opened in the early afternoon and in the area near the contact window there were some brawls as guys fought over where guys were in line to get a bed in the dorm.
Nowadays, however, the mission is very much a peaceful place both on the grounds of the facility and and out on the street.
I do not know what transformative eve…
Post a Comment
Read more

Homeless Sacramentans lose case that would have given them the right to set up outdoor camping

8/11/13 I certainly give attorneys Mark Merin and Cat Williams credit for pursuing a case against the city of Sacramento to give homeless Sacramentans the right to set up tents and a campsite. I wanted them to win their case, but they didn't. They lost it.

BUT, it is also necessary to look at the particulars of the case that Merin and Williams brought and see that the situation underlying the court case was not very compelling.

During the period eight years ago when 22 homeless campers set up their tents and brought in supplies to Mark Merin's vacant lot at C Street, near 12th, there was loud noise and plenty of other mayhem. Drug dealers were on the street encouraging buys from the campers. The Hernandez couple that lived in a house nearby were constantly being taunted by the campers, disrupting their lives.

Per always with Safe Ground camps, calm was deserted for the sake of boisterousness.

Leader John Kraintz and the other Safe Grounders would claim to have signed strict a…
Post a Comment
Read more

After a Three-Month Hiatus, a Fall from a Ladder & a Broken Wrist, Evangelist Jimmy Roughton Returns to Union Gospel Mission to Preach

After being away from Union Gospel Mission for a quarter of a year, Jimmy Roughton returned to preach at UGM on the cold night of December 13 -- despite suffering [a little? a lot? dunno.] from a fall from a ladder that likely immediately preceded a significant injury (a wrist that was broken).


It was good to see his group from Capital Free Will Baptist Church up on the pulpit, with Roughton rough-and-ready to seduce and inspire the happily-captivate crowd at UGM.


Roughton told us in his opening words that he was now in his 27th year coming to the mission.

I recall the first preaching I had heard from Roughton on June 13, 2009. At that time and up to the current time, Roughton is the only preacher I had ever heard evoke Pascal's Wager -- which is something he would do, occasionally thereafter at the mission. He would evoke Pascal's wager, yet again, last night [12/13/17].


Pascal's wager

Last night, Jimmy evoked Pascal's Wager. He did so near the end of his talk, citing …
Post a Comment
Read more