San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

You are here: Home / Archives for Government / Homeless

‘Community Hero’ Attorney Steve Binder and San Diego’s Homeless Court Program

by

Attorney Steve Binder recalls being in kindergarten in Flint, Michigan, and he and other children were sometimes asked what they would like to be when they grew up.  “We all replied doctor or lawyer or teacher. None of us responded ‘I want to be homeless and be a substance abuser.'”

And yet homeless populations are in every major city — and many are veterans.  In San Diego alone, the latest count for homelessness is over 9,000, 30 percent of whom are veterans.

Binder, a retiring deputy public defender, has just been named a Community Hero for his creation of a Homeless Court Program in 1989. The honor is given by KPBS and the National Conflict Resolution Center.   [Read more…]

The Homeless Hoarder’s Hunger Book | National Poetry Month

by

By Lyn Lloyd-Smith

The Homeless Hoarder’s Hunger Book

Into the coffee shops of idle eyes
She hikes her threads of tat-torn cloth
And residue of mildew breath.
She deftly drags a bulging pram,
Brimming with her rubbish child
Of cradled, cherished, bloated bags,
And crumpled faces off the road,
Her precious offspring
From the moon-blown streets.
  [Read more…]

It Is My Fault | National Poetry Month

by

San Diego Free Press continues its National Poetry Month coverage with the poem Stan Levin, a local activist with Veterans for Peace.

I was not a good kid,
not at home
not at school.
Once I slapped my first grade teacher
and she slapped me back.
I did not like school
and I did not like kids
who liked school
I’m not smart.
I did not like smart kids
Two high schools threw me out
I couldn’t get a good job.
As soon as I could
I left school
I left home
I left the neighborhood

and everything I was mad at.   [Read more…]

ACLU Files Amicus Brief Supporting Civil Rights of Man Ticketed For Allegedly Living in His Truck

by

City ordinance prohibiting people from living in their vehicles is “vague, discriminatory and unconstitutional,” advocates and attorneys say

The ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties and Think Dignity filed an amicus brief in the case of a man cited for allegedly living in his truck. The man’s defense attorney, Think Dignity and the ACLU say the law he is accused of violating is vague, discriminatory and unconstitutional.

“This law doesn’t adequately define what constitutes the criminal act of ‘living in a vehicle’,” said Coleen Cusack, an attorney defending Tony Diaz. “The law is overbroad and may encompass innocent activities that many of us do every day in our vehicles, such as eating, reading or resting.”
  [Read more…]

Pacific Beach Street Guardians Provide Jobs for the Homeless

by

By Caryn Blanton

Founded in October 2016, Pacific Beach Street Guardians (PBSG) is a non-profit (501c3) that functions as a social enterprise. Neighbors who are experiencing homelessness are hired to handle many different tasks, including:

  • Care for the streets, sidewalks, alleys, parking lots and beaches of our community
  • Perform janitorial/custodial work for local businesses, organizations, and residents
  • Provide event services (set up/take down and trash/recycling)

As a social enterprise, PBSG offers much more than a job – Team Members are given the opportunity to gain pride, purpose, stability, dignity, a path to self-sufficiency and hope.   [Read more…]

El Cajon Marks MLK Weekend by Busting People for Feeding Homeless Humans

by

Nine people were busted at Wells Park in the city of El Cajon on Sunday for distributing food to homeless people. Those handing out food were arrested, given a misdemeanor citation with a date to appear in court and released. Nobody went to jail.

Activists calling themselves Break the Ban began Sunday food distribution after the City Council unanimously passed an emergency ordinance in October prohibiting the distribution of food on any city-owned property.

Homeless advocates have called the law a punitive attempt at dehumanizing and criminalizing people in unfortunate circumstances, largely the result of every increasing economic inequality.   [Read more…]

Readers Write: City of a San Diego Needs Dept of Public Health and Housing

by

By John Stump

I am submitting a proposal, for the next appropriate ballot, on behalf of poor, homeless, and displaced San Diegans and their families. The proposal, in summary, would require that the City of San Diego annually budget for Public Health and Housing, as part of its regular and routine “Department” level budgeting. The proposal would require the addition of a “Public Health and Housing Department” to the regular city budget.   [Read more…]

D2 City Council Candidate Campbell Apologizes for ‘Fake Homeless’ Remarks Caught on Video

by

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your article in the San Diego Free Press.

My comments referenced were regrettable and off-the-cuff and I apologize. They do not reflect my values or my beliefs of what we must do to responsibly and effectively address homelessness. This is a multi-faceted, difficult issue and I must stay focused on the right paths forward. Our latest movement toward Housing First and Wrap Around Services through the work of the Regional Task Force on the Homeless must be held sacrosanct.

As a new candidate, I have learned that I need to choose my words more carefully. I vow to use this opportunity as a candidate to contribute to a better civic dialogue, focused on the right approaches.   [Read more…]

Will San Diego’s ‘Fake Homeless’ Issue Be a Winner for a 2018 City Council Campaign?

by

The weather has turned angry. It’s raining and blustery outside as I’m writing this. It’s a bad time to be a human living without a roof over their head.  

I’m also angry. I’ve just seen a video of a supposedly leading Democratic candidate for City Council who seems to think she can win by fanning the flames of hate towards our city’s homeless.

Here’s the money quote from District 2 candidate Dr. Jen Campbell, speaking to a group on Thursday, January 4:

“You see all those panhandlers on the corners? They’re probably not even homeless! They’re just pretending they are. They’re begging. Do they have a license? I doubt it. In the city they have to have a license. Is anyone checking that? No. We don’t have enough police!”

UPDATE: Dr. Campbell has issued a statement apologizing for her remarks. I’ve posted her remarks as a standalone story.   [Read more…]

Will You Spare a Few Seconds to Help Homeless People in San Diego?

by

Editor Note: This Starting Line originally published on December 15, 2016 details the plight of homeless people and steps to solve the problem of homelessness as well as some thoughts on national issues.

Today I’m giving over most of my column to Women Occupy, who have crafted a petition to Mayor Kevin Faulconer to actually do something ‘not mean’ for our rapidly growing homeless population.

Yesterday I sat in on a meeting with homeless advocates and heard a litany of horror stories about how the growth of the population of unhoused humans in San Diego is directly related to policy decisions made at city hall. I’ll report more on what I learned at a later date.

Will this petition end homelessness? Nope. But it could well be –if enough people sign it and YOU tell your friends about it– a step in the right direction. Only in movies has a single action ever righted a wrong. Change occurs because of thousands of little actions. Make signing this petition your contribution to a better San Diego. It only takes a few seconds.

CLICK TO SIGN HERE

  [Read more…]

Veterans For Peace Give Out 3200th Sleeping Bag Set in Downtown San Diego

by

By Gil Field / San Diego Veterans for Peace

Veteran members, associate members, and friends and supporters of the San Diego Veterans For Peace, Chapter 91, are proud to announce that in November 2017 the 3200th  sleeping bag set was given out to the homeless in downtown San Diego!

It’s through the generous ongoing financial contributions of friends and the general public that our Compassion Campaign is able to indefinitely continue this humane, lifesaving program.

In December 2010 the San Diego chapter of the national Veterans For Peace organization began the Compassion Campaign — an outreach effort to help displaced homeless veterans. Ignited by conversations with many homeless veterans on the street in downtown San Diego, the chapter membership determined the lives of homeless veterans and non-veterans downtown could improve significantly if given basic equipment — like a sleeping bag, as many weren’t sleeping well on the hard pavement with only a light blanket, their jacket, or nothing.   [Read more…]

Letter to Mayor Faulconer on the Temporary Shelters in Barrio Logan, East Village

by

By Barrio Logan Planning Group

Re: Temporary (Bridge) Homeless Shelters

Honorable Mayor Faulconer:

Learning of the intent of the City of San Diego to return the homeless shelter to 16th Street and Newton Avenue and Commercial and 14th Streets has raised grave concerns among those of us who live and work in Barrio Logan and East Village. While we understand the need to act to serve the needs of the growing homeless population in San Diego, community residents have a vivid memory of the impacts the last “temporary shelter” brought to Barrio Logan. …

It is understood that the bridge shelters are meant to be temporary while the City implements a permanent solution to housing the homeless in San Diego. Our natural concern is that having temporary shelters relieves the “pressure” on the City to find the permanent solution that is needed. We remain hopeful that this is not the case and a more permanent solution is on the horizon.   [Read more…]

©2010-2017 SanDiegoFreePress.org

Code is Poetry