Sacramento Homeless blog

This comes from an opinion piece titled " Decriminalizing Poverty ," written by Bruce Western, in the Dec. 27, 2010, issue of The Nation [emphases mine]: In the absence of any serious effort to improve economic opportunity, particularly among young men with little schooling, drug control has become our surrogate social policy . For all the billions spent on draconian criminalization, addiction remains a scourge of the disadvantaged in inner cities and small towns, drugs are still plentiful and the drug trade remains a ready but risky source of casual employment for low-education men and women with no legitimate prospects. Though drugs are at the center of an array of serious social problems in low-income communities, things are made worse by a dysfunctional policy in which arrest, imprisonment and a criminal record have become a normal part of life . The most important lesson policy-makers can take from this historic failure of social engineering is that the drug proble...

I am increasingly concerned, and am hearing that others' concerns are increasing, about a lack of help for mentally ill people in Homeless World Sacramento. There is a feeling that all the public agencies and nonprofits are shirking responsibility to help those who suffer most and are most in need of help. The state and county are in trouble and it is known that services they provide or fund to help poor or mentally-ill people have been among the first to be severely cut or ended in response to the budget crisis. Advocates for the mentally ill and families that include a mentally ill member are not politically powerful. Schizophrenic people, and others enduring other types of mental illness, can seem to be placid, and even serene, which masks their suffering. I have heard that there is a man who now frequents Friendship Park who has been institutionalized for causing fires and is now acting oddly and is likely off his medication. He needs help, but there is none forthcoming. ...

A day-long conference for clergy and congregant leaders on substance-abuse issues will be held in the auditorium at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute in Sacramento on January 13. The conference planners promise, in a flyer , that attendees will receive “the latest information and strategies on how to educate and provide hope to individuals and families suffering from the impact of addiction to alcohol and substance abuse.” The conference objectives, listed in the flyer, are to … raise awareness of how addiction to alcohol and other drugs affect individuals and their families. discuss the role of clergy and congregations in offering information, hope and recovery support for those affected by alcohol and drug abuse. review core competencies for clergy and congregational leaders in understanding and addressing alcohol and drug abuse. Prime sponsors of the event are Clinical Pastoral Services, UC Davis Health System , Interfaith Services Bureau , the State of California Department of Alcoho...