“Being homeless is exhausting!” said Ann Marie Christian, a retired caregiver who is disabled.

Both she and Randy Leighton, who said he was an out-of-work civil engineer and also disabled, sat at the outdoor table in the parking lot of Jewish Family Service. They are clients of Dreams for Change, a non-profit organization that works with homeless individuals and families who live in their cars.

San Diego has become a magnet for homeless people while shelters and government agencies struggle to provide help. Not only that, these are not “one size fits all” folks.

There are generational homeless, those who want to be on the streets for one reason or another, those with drug or alcohol related problems, or those who live in their cars with some but limited resources. For the latter, Dreams for Change strives to be an agency that can assist them.   [Read more…]

I really want to believe that we are getting closer to a coordinated plan for housing people who’re experiencing homelessness. But I’ve sat through enough of these meetings over the last decade to justify my skepticism.

I’m not intending to criticize the concerted and well-intentioned efforts of the RTFH to craft a solid, viable plan for ending homelessness in San Diego. And this isn’t to trivialize the value of the work being put forth by Focus Strategies, a consulting firm from Sacramento, in crafting a plan based on data and metrics. But when I heard during the RTFH membership meeting that their plan won’t be completed for another year, my heart sank.

Surely most of the providers and advocates attending that meeting are close enough to the human beings currently experiencing homelessness to know what another year of waiting and planning and meetings will mean in human suffering. For many, a breaking point where they lose hope and turn to drugs and alcohol for solace. For others, another year on the streets will result in assaults and rape, loss of their children, loss of employment, loss of dignity and even entrapment in human trafficking.

For some, it will mean death.   [Read more…]

By Jack Doxey / Veterans For Peace

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.   [Read more…]