By Jack Doxey / Veterans For Peace
When I pick up people at the San Diego Airport, I enjoy watching their reaction as they see, for the first time, the San Diego skyline. Most are impressed with the breathtaking views at night. The bright lights shine like beacons; especially the Emerald Shapely Building with its elegant architecture and its emerald green sparkling lights. San Diego is, indeed, a beautiful city.
However, there is more to the city than meets the eye. San Diego, for me, conjures up memories of the movie The Wizard of Oz in which Dorothy and her newfound friends skip along the yellow brick road and although they get to visit the castle and the wizard himself, they never get to the Emerald City because it is illusionary. It does not exist.
I belong to a group called the Veterans For Peace and we often walk at night handing out sleeping bags to people who are unsheltered and have little more than a thin blanket to keep them warm. The unsheltered might be sleeping next to buildings that are lit up all night, but they are denied the dignity of having a place to use a bathroom. They are treated as outcasts. This is not the Emerald City. It is a city where the stark contrast between wealth and poverty is alarming and tragic.
We are a city of conventions and a place where people like to come and enjoy themselves. Do not think that visitors do not notice. Here is what a foreign visitor; Mr. Jonathan Clark of Auckland New Zealand had to say in an article in the San Diego Union Tribune:
“I visited San Diego last week for an electrical engineering conference and exhibition.
As I walked from my hotel on Ash Street to Sunday mass, I was taken aback with the number of shelterless people packing up their meager belongings. It struck me as unacceptable for the wealthiest nation on the planet to present this image to a foreigner who admires the wealth that the US has been blessed with.”
Isn’t it sad and embarrassing that a foreigner, such as Mr. Clark, felt compelled to shine a revealing light on our city in an attempt to shame it into taking action?
According to the Regional Task Force on the Homeless, the number of unsheltered individuals in San Diego County is currently estimated to be 5615 individuals. There are approximately 3231 unsheltered in the city of San Diego. This has become a source of embarrassment for the city. In an effort to make the city attractive to convention visitors and tourists, the city, on a regular basis, forces the homeless to pick up their few possessions and move to a different location.
Some years ago, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) won a suit against the city of San Diego for confiscating and destroying the meager belongings of the homeless. In many cases these belongings consisted of small amounts of money, pictures of family and loved ones, and in some cases prescription medicines. The ACLU won the suit and the city of San Diego was instructed to provide some storage boxes for the poor that would ensure that what little the homeless have in personal belongings can be safeguarded.
The city of San Diego has the potential to become that wonderful mythical, Emerald City that we all fondly conjure up in our minds. San Diego is blessed with wonderful weather and the ocean at our very back door. So, as a city what else do we need to become a real Emerald City? I suggest that our city council members watch the movie, the Wizard of Oz and pay particular attention to the Tin Man because he kept searching for a heart. We know that our fair city has one and all we need to do is go about rediscovering it.
Let us put aside our play toys such as “Soccer City” and the “Convention Expansion” project and seek out the many dedicated individuals and organizations that have created a groundswell of activity in their efforts to urge the city to take dramatic, innovative steps to end the very serious homeless situation in our home town.
I just know we have enough heart to do it. I got my ear to the ground and I already can hear Dorothy skipping down San Diego’s very own yellow brick road.
________________
The San Diego Chapter of “Veterans For Peace” is dedicated to promoting peace and supporting veterans. In the year 2010 we decided to help the homeless by providing sleeping bags and rain gear. When distributing these items we became painfully aware of the countless number of homeless, not only veterans but other men, women and in some cases entire families shivering in the cold and rain. We solicited donations to help promote this project, now called the Compassion Campaign, and to date have distributed 3000 sleeping bags to the homeless in our city. If you would like to support us in this work go to www.sdvfp.org to make a donation.
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I’d forgotten about the legal victory the ACLU won protecting the possessions of the unsheltered. It seems the city has figured out a way around it, though. I’ve seen the videos of city staff stuffing tents and personal possessions into a trash collecting truck. It’s absolutely devastating and sickening. I believe it has to do with the city’s authority to post “clean up” notices in areas that they want to clear, then using that as legal cover to destroy all the worldly possessions of those unfortunate enough to be in the targeted area. Of course, the city apparently doesn’t care that the people affected don’t have a lot of options about where to go.
It is obvious that you had the inner strength to overcome your obstacles in life.Not all are as strong as you. I would like to think that most people are trying to do the best that they can and yes some are professional homeless people but I would hope that they would
be in the minority.
Jack Doxey
If a homeless encampment occurred in your front yard, what would you do? I was once a homeless teenager escaping an abusive father, right here on the streets of San Diego. I panhandled for food and slept and washed up in the Greyhound Station. Slowly I made my way up from there getting temp jobs cleaning and then food service and so on. With zero government help I eventually got my GED went to college and am now retired from a job that made 6 figures. I am a juvenile diabetic so I can tell you it was a real challenge.
I knew many of my fellow vagrants and I can tell you there are four types. Temporarily homeless people looking for work (by the way, people who can’t afford the rents in San Diego have plenty of choices to move to affordable places that’s what I had to do just like every other normal person I know does). People who are willing but unable to work because they have a criminal record, people who don’t want to work, and people who are mentally or physically impaired. Sick people need to be cared for in a facility sometimes and often against their will. These are the people we have failed and it is shameful on our part. People who don’t want to work have no business camping out on the street. They need to be arrested for vagrancy and not be enabled by society. If you make it difficult for them they may find that working is the best solution to their problem. Otherwise at some point they must be considered to be impaired. The criminals and the people with poor social skills need help finding jobs and job training. It is really that straightforward. Poverty is not the issue here. There are plenty of jobs. You don’t see undocumented workers camping out too often cause they came here to find a job and are willing to do anything, just like I was. There are entry levels jobs and entry level affordable housing all over California and the USA. I worked a lifetime to be able to afford to live downtown. It was my goal but if I hadn’t made it here I would have been happy elsewhere. I didn’t lay down on the sidewalk and ask everyone to give it to me.
Thank you, Jack, for reminding us all that there are so many homeless people in San Diego that need our help and support.
The homeless crisis is a crisis of society values or at least our govt. Single-parent families fastest growing people lacking real housing…and they don’t get counted. As we spend our tax dollars on more war & destruction, this moves money from our general welfare to the pockets of the military contractors. This concentrates wealth -drives Wall Street and houses become high value commodity to be traded rather than homes. I am waiting right now for the County Budget discussion to start…too much spent on police and equipment while no permanent homeless shelters in East county. I guess they need more sheriffs to arrest the rising numbers without housing.