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Isn’t It Good, Norwegian Wood?

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I didn’t think much of the novel, Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami while I was reading it. But just like the Beatles song of the same name, that became a maddening earworm for weeks after hearing it recently, the story keeps creeping into my thoughts and coloring my perspective of life.

Life is dark and sad and fraught with uncertainty, and yet buried in all of that sadness are bits of light and delight – like tasting the fruit of a Peruvian Apple Cactus that seems at first to be tasteless, but suddenly delights your mouth with an irresistible crystalline popping sensation.

Uncovering these hidden gems in a bleak life is the raison d’être of artists. We spend our lives with imaginary magnifying glasses extended, searching for the ubiquitous gems hidden in plain sight. That moment when a reader exclaims, “Ah yes, I’ve had that feeling!” or, “I never thought about it in this way until I read what you wrote,” is when I feel that I have lived with a purpose.   [Read more…]

Homelessness and Capitalism: Some Untold Truths

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According to the survey in the 2018 Point-in-Time Count (PITC) of homeless people in San Diego County, the four main reasons for becoming homeless are: Loss of Job; Money Issues; Cost of Housing, and Other. Abuse/Violence ranks lowest. But this survey is missing input from thousands of families, as I explained in my prior column, so in reality, fleeing from domestic violence could be a major cause of homelessness. So too could deportation of the primary breadwinner be a factor, which is not even listed as an option, but is a contributing factor for some homeless families.

Underlying those four highest causes are specific failings in our current economic system, such as: jobs that don’t pay enough to cover the basics; lack of reasonable family planning; unsustainable rent increases; lack of affordable housing for people with extremely low incomes; social safety nets that are cut off as soon as a family starts to get on their feet, leaving them worse off; a broken health care system, and racism that sets young blacks and Latinos up for failure.

I’ve been told, “Don’t go there,” when I suggest that homelessness is a symptom of an economic system struggling to stay alive. But if we can’t be honest about the systemic causes of homelessness, we are doomed to be the archetypal dog chasing its tail. It’s my opinion that homelessness has a symbiotic relationship with unchecked capitalism – both being a result of it, and serving to sustain it. The “tell” in this game is the recent escalation of the criminalization of homelessness.   [Read more…]

A Chicken Carol

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It was the week before Christmas
and all through the house
there wasn’t a sound
‘cept for that damn mouse.

Then out in the garden
there arose such a clatter,
I shuffled out in my bathrobe
to see what was the matter!   [Read more…]

Cruel Downtown Sweeps against San Diego Homeless People Have Got to Stop – Now!

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On April 5th, while I was in City Hall with other advocates for homeless people voicing our objections to the Mayor’s proposed ballot measure to increase the Transit Occupancy Tax to pay for an expansion of the convention center, with a few crumbs tossed in for “Reducing Homelessness”, only a few blocks away, some of our City’s most destitute citizens were being cruelly victimized.

Their tormentors not only took away everything they had left in the world, including what little makeshift shelter they had, but in one case documented in photos and a video by Michael McConnell, they even took a man’s pet dog!   [Read more…]

The San Jose Solution for Emergency Shelter

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A state law allowing emergency sleeping cabins could work for San Diego too.

San Diego County / City of San Diego are in the middle of a serious emergency shelter crisis. The Point in Time Count numbers for 2016 for the county counted 8,692 homeless persons, with an 18.9% increase in the number of unsheltered individuals. Numbers from the recent count will not be available until April, but are expected to be worse. San Diego has the unenviable distinction of having the 4th highest number of homeless people in the nation – more than Las Vegas, Washington DC, Chicago and San Francisco. By comparison, Santa Clara County / San Jose reported 6,556 homeless persons in 2015, and came in 9th for number of homeless people.

The San Jose Solution – San Jose took bold action to address the human crisis.   [Read more…]

Sleepless

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I have not actually slept
since that long night when astonished reporters went off script,
as we watched one incomprehensible red piece after another
inserted into the puzzle
that was supposed to be mostly blue.

Hearing them stammer words that couldn’t possibly be true,
but were,
was when my subconscious determined
that if I never close my eyes
I won’t awaken to that same nightmare that millions woke to
in Germany, under Hitler,
and other fascist regimes…
the morning after the coup.   [Read more…]

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.

  [Read more…]

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…]

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…]

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…]

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…]

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