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Beneath The Halloween Mask: San Diego War on Homeless and Poor People Is Ugly

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By Jeeni Criscenzo

How do I write about a wrong without shutting down respectful communication with those who hold the power to block all efforts to find a humane solution to the growing number of people who are homeless in our region?

The way I found out about the Homeless Town Hall held on Wednesday evening at Town & Country Resort and Convention Center should have been a clue that that this wasn’t a serious effort to find solutions. It wasn’t announced through the usual channels that would reach those who are working every day for solutions to homelessness. There was a mention on the Facebook post of Homeless News San Diego, from Michael McConnell, a highly respected a local advocate, who was one of the early leaders in the 25 Cities Campaign to End Homelessness, who had been asked to be part of the forum.

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Dear Hillary Clinton, I haven’t been your biggest fan

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I haven’t been one of your biggest fans and I still think that the DNC used some dirty tricks to defeat Bernie Sanders in the primaries, but today I’m ready to put that behind me. Until Wednesday night, my only reason to vote for you over Jill Stein would have been to make certain that Mr. Trump is not elected president of our country.

Since I live in California, I thought I had the luxury of waiting to see how the election was going in the rest of the county before casting my vote. And that was my plan – to wait until the last hour to choose you or Jill Stein. Since California is not a swing state, it was highly likely that I could have used my vote as a form of protest without risking Trump winning.   [Read more…]

As Trump’s Shadow Grows — Let’s Plant the Seeds of Revolution

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Last month the OB Rag had a survey asking what people would do if Trump is elected president. Since my husband’s parents were from Mexico, and we have friends in Baja, we have had conversations about moving across the border, even before the possibility that Trump could become our next president was considered anything but ludicrous. Now, that possibility is neither far-fetched nor funny.

A year ago our reason to consider leaving San Diego was more for financial reasons and for now, at least, we have under control. Mexico might be more affordable, but are plenty of other issues that convinced us to take a move there off the table. Now, it’s back.

There is a conversation in JRR Tolkein’s “Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring”, in the second chapter (The Shadow of the Past) where Gandalf explains that The Shadow has returned and this time it is Frodo who must confront it:   [Read more…]

San Diego Sandbags Efforts to Shelter Homeless People

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City snubs California law for emergency shelters

By Jeeni Criscenzo

If the City of San Diego really wanted to solve the ever increasing problem of homelessness, they might be willing to try something more innovative than eliminating 98% of the areas previously designated as suitable for emergency shelter without a Conditional Use Permit.

I first became of aware of a map in the City of San Diego General Plan, Housing Element called Figure 1 Areas Suitable for Emergency Shelters – November 2006. Amikas, a non-profit I founded with four other homeless advocates in 2009 to work with homeless women and children with a focus on veteran women, was considering the Midway Post Office as a potential site for veteran housing. The map was required by California Senate Bill 2 (SB2) also known as the Cedillo Bill.

This Statute became effective January 2008. Chapter 633 clarifies and strengthens housing element law to ensure zoning encourages and facilitates emergency shelters and limits the denial of emergency shelters and transitional and supportive housing.   [Read more…]

Whatever It Takes

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Sometimes I read something that someone I thought I knew posts on Facebook, that is so incongruent with my previous perception of them as an intelligent and decent person, that I just have to shut it down and walk away, because I feel like my head is going to explode.

Whatever It Takes (WIT). The first time I heard that expression I was uncomfortable with what it implied. There has to be a limit, a line you won’t cross, even if that’s the only way to win. But it seems that there is a growing percentage of the population who think that when winning is at stake, there are no lines too sacred to cross. If you want to be a winner, you must be willing to do WIT, even if that means you break the rules, lie and cheat and hurt innocent people. Right?

I always thought it was subliminally biased that the conservatives got to be called The Right – as in, “They are right and we are wrong” and the liberals were stuck with being The Left, as in, “That’s all you got left?” Well now it’s the Left acting like the Right, so I guess that makes everybody right.   [Read more…]

Local All-Stars Help the Homeless People — Will You?

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“Silence encourages the tormentor …”

This is what happens when those in authority disparage a particular group of people. Whether they mean to or not, their public expressions of contempt and disrespect give permission, and even encouragement, to those looking for an excuse to manifest their anger and hatred in violent actions against the most vulnerable. I predict that future history books will call this the Trump Effect.

So it comes as no surprise to me that here in San Diego, we are suddenly seeing an increase in brutal attacks on people sleeping on the street. For months we have watched our police, as authority figures, acting on orders to torment those experiencing homelessness and struggling to survive on our city streets with weekly sweeps.

Talk about kicking a person when they’re down!   [Read more…]

Yes, Some People Experiencing Homelessness Are Alcoholics

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Nanette’s eyes tear up when she recounts the day she was chased down the block by a group of kids throwing rocks at her and calling her names. “That was the lowest I got. I was nothing. These kids were screaming at me to get out of here. They were only about ten years old, boys and girls, who were telling me I was so worthless that I couldn’t just sit in the park on J Street.”

Looking back now, Nanette can understand why even kids might have found her repulsive. Even the drug lord at the house where she would sometimes hang out would tell her, “You stink!” She confesses that one night, just to get out of the pouring rain, she and her boyfriend sought refuge in a full porta potty. But even that wasn’t enough to get her clean and sober. It’s not that she didn’t want to be sober, she just didn’t want to stop drinking.   [Read more…]

Let Them Eat Rocks

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This has been a helluva week for those of us helping people without a place to live.

There were plenty of tweets and Facebook posts about the heatwave, as well as the Border fire that was threatening several communities out in East County. But unlike the all-out effort to help residents, pets and livestock in the path of the fire, there was no effort to help the residents of downtown under direct assault from a relentless sun.

Except for access to the library which, for those living on the street, would entail leaving all of your few meager possessions outside, unattended, there was no Health and Human Services program to help them.   [Read more…]

Sore Loser!

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Sore losers! you sneer,
because they question the way the game was played.
Cheaters! they cry,
because it just doesn’t make sense
the way it went down,
compared to what they saw with their very own eyes.
Just politics.
That makes it all OK,
As if this was just a game of chess,
With nothing lost but the round,
unless you waged a bet.   [Read more…]

Homelessness and Housing by the Numbers – A San Diego Shell Game

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The San Diego Point-In-Time Count is a federally mandated annual report that identifies the number of homeless individuals and families in the county on one particular day. The 2016 report, which was released at the end of April, showed less than a one percent decrease from the previous year in the number of homeless people in San Diego County.
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San Diego’s Crisis of Compassion: Scorn, Indifference Don’t Solve Homelessness

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It doesn’t take the recently released Point in Time Count report to know that the number of unsheltered people in downtown San Diego is exploding. Seeing every vacant lot encircled with blue tent and tarp encampments propped against chain-link fencing, has ceased to evoke alarm. It’s now the norm.

Last week, homeless advocates, including myself, confronted the mayor for authorizing installation of a $57,000 rock bed under an overpass where homeless people frequently camped. On social media, we were accused of being bleeding hearts who were giving aid and comfort to creatures who don’t deserve our concern. They called the ugly barrier that was built without a shred of effort to be attractive, a “rock garden”! When one of our group spoke at City Council about the inhumanity of using pest-control tactics to repel human beings, two councilpersons actually giggled!

When did we get to be so heartless and mean? When did it become acceptable to scorn those who are less fortunate and mock those who are compassionate?   [Read more…]

San Diego Homeless Advocates Rock the City Council

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Anatomy of a successful press event

Some days I marvel at the value of the network of good people that has grown in our community—people involved in so many different areas, all so critical, who come together to support one another in our various efforts. Without that, we could have never pulled off the very successful action on Tuesday April 19 in protest of the City’s reprehensible decision to fill an underpass in Sherman Heights where homeless people take shelter with rocks.

This was a case where all systems were running at peak performance. For the sake of all of those younger people who are just starting to dip their toes in the art of community organizing, here’s how it goes when you have a cadre of like-minded friends to call upon for a cause. (I’m using actual first names here because all of those people deserve the kudos.) In the end, that’s more valuable than a pile of money and hired hands.   [Read more…]

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