Sacramento Homeless blog

" The newspaper lies, the radio lies, the TV lies, the streets howl with truth." - Henry Miller A new breakdown of Street Count, 2009, figures by the County of Sacramento Department of Human Assistance shows that fewer families with an aggregate fewer family members were on the street or in homeless shelters in 2009 than was the case in the 2008 count. This defies the basis of the newsstorm that developed the past three month where it was believed that a huge outbreak of homeless families in Sacramento was a bellwether of the beginning of a new Great Depression in America. The following tables show the breakdown of the new data: 2008 Households with Dependent Children Unshel tered Emer gency Shel tered Subtotal Sheltered and Unsheltered in Transitional Housing Grand Totals Number of Households 12 47 59 102 161 Number of Persons (adults and children) 33 131 164 278 442 2009 Households with Dependent Children Unshel tered Emer gency Shel tered Subtotal S...

Ever since the Oprah show , broadcast on Feb. 25, there's been enormous interest in homeless families in Sacramento. Many national news providers have misinformed the public about homelessness nationwide, using Sacramento as the iconic prime example of homelessness that has befallen families. You might think that Street Count, 2009 , taken by the Department of Human Assistance in Sacramento county, would tag numbers to wild guesses and either end or confirm the reports of booming family homelessness. The data for the count of homeless in our county was due "five or six weeks" following the count on Jan. 27, but only got reported out Friday. SacHo [in " Street Count, 2009 Data: Homelessness up 4.6% in county in past year "] and the Sacramento Bee [in a headline article " Sacramento homeless study mixed: More families, fewer 'chronic' cases ."] posted/published articles on the count results over the weekend. The Sacramento Bee report by Cynthia ...

Photo from the Chronicle story. Despite all the attention that has come to homelessness, both nationally and here in Sacramento, it remains mysterious how many homeless there are. Whatever happened to the "Street Count, 2009" data that was supposed to have been made available "five or six weeks" following the count, that was taken on January 27? The lead story today in the San Francisco Chronicle is about the growing number of homeless: " Ranks of homeless swell as middle class teeters ." The story tells us, Homelessness across the entire nation is soaring, and experts say most of that growth is among ... middle- to lower-middle-income workers – or families. But here's the tricky thing: They aren't all showing up in shelters yet. There's a long ladder of resources they first have to tumble down before they hit bottom . ... Right now, experts say, the newly homeless are mostly invisible – living with relatives and tapping friends and unemploym...

Picture that appeared with today's Bee story, showing an Australian TV crew conducting an interview in Tent City. Great interest and attention and benefits and detriments and wild factual errors have come in conjunction with the international media frenzy that has descended on Sacramento's Tent City. Sacramento Bee homelessness reporter Cynthia Hubert writes about it all in a frontpage story, today, titled "Spotlight shines -- and stings" [in hardcopy] and " Some feel burned as media spotlight falls on capital's homeless camp " [in the online edition of the Bee ] Reporter Hubert does an excellent job at targetting the weirdness and inaccuracies in reports that are going out around the country and around the world. What's most troubling are great inaccuracies in the reporting of local TV stations, which couldn't be more out-of-touch if they were headquartered in Zanzibar and their News Directors were seriously psychotic. One local TV station repo...

John Leguizamo, as Frank Diaz, and David Castro as the son, Justin, in "Where God Left His Shoes." On February 18, the film " Where God Left His Shoes " will be screened at The Crest theater on K Street to benefit Faith and Homeless Families Initiate , "a 2009 pilot program of the Ending Chronic Homelessness Initiative [which will match] ... homeless families with faith communities to mentor and help them obtain self-sufficiency and permanent housing." Now, this new initiate of an initiate is very very likely to do good work for a good cause, efficiently and effectively rising to its ambitions, helping many homeless Sacramento families. The little-seen arthouse film to be screened to raise money for the pilot initiative has gotten mostly good reviews [5 of 7 reviewers at rottentomatoes.com call it Fresh, whereas only two give it a thumbs-down Rotten rating.] And even in the bad reviews I've read, star John Leguizamo's performance is bountifully l...

Federal Administration for Children & Families logo. A story in today’s New York Times comports to something many Sacramento poor and homeless people are experiencing or are well aware of: As the economy contracts, the poor are taking an inordinate and unconscionable share of the ‘hit.’ The article, “ Welfare Aid Isn’t Growing as Economy Drops Off ,” begins with these words: “Despite soaring unemployment and the worst economic crisis in decades, 18 states cut their welfare rolls last year, and nationally the number of people receiving cash assistance remained at or near the lowest in more than 40 years.” What is the culprit for this contra-intuitive development? Welfare rolls getting cut as the economy tanks !? Answer: State and local discretion in how to respond to growing hardship. Or, more simply, the lack of political influence poor people and their advocates have. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families [formerly, “welfare”; aka, TANF], which provides cash assistance to indi...