As I was waiting for a bus last Sunday at the downtown transit center, an elderly man, using a walker loaded with what looked like his belongings, was denied access to a bus. The man stood there on this grey windy afternoon, shouting furiously at the bus driver at the injustice of denying him service, correctly noting — in my estimation — that some bus drivers allow carts larger than […]
James Costello and Modesto’s Homeless Action Group
As this winter’s often heavy rains repeatedly drenched numerous streets and alleyways here in the city of Modesto, I ran across the inevitable evidence — when I ventured out, usually in the aftermath of a downpour — of the toll those storms were taking on the most vulnerable among us, i.e., our unhoused neighbors who are at the mercy of the high winds, the cold rain, and the clinging chill […]
SHARE: Making a Difference for People in Need
Bleak, dark, and piercing cold, it was a night for the well-housed and fed to draw round the bright fire, and thank God they were at home; and for the homeless starving wretch to lay him down and die. Many hunger-worn outcasts close their eyes in our bare streets at such times, who, let their crimes have been what they may, can hardly open them in a more bitter world. […]
Jim Stokes: Champion for Social Justice
The island nation of Madagascar lies in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa, nearly 11,000 miles away from Modesto. But that’s exactly where Jim Stokes — Director of the Salvation Army’s Berberian Shelter and the Low-Barrier Shelter — dedicated a Peace Corps term to assisting the people of that island Republic. It was just one of many missions he has undertaken while trying to make a positive […]
No Relief for Low-Income, Unhoused Valley Residents
A couple of Saturdays ago, a man and a woman lay on the grass beside each other in the deep shade of the First United Methodist Church in downtown Modesto. A shopping cart filled with their belongings was parked on the sidewalk nearby. I saw them as I was walking to the library that afternoon, under dusty sunlight slanting across I Street. They both seemed to be asleep, even with […]
Homeless Crisis Deepens with Summer Heat
As I waited for a downtown Modesto bus one day in late April I saw a woman pushing a shopping cart jammed with her belongings. The woman was still young and athletic-looking, but weather-worn from living on the streets. Nonetheless, she carried herself with a weary gracefulness as she wheeled her cart up off the intersection of Coffee and Floyd. We nodded briefly but companionably as the woman stopped to […]
Homeless Advocates Lobby for Safe Ground
“They walk on the sidewalk next to us, not behind us or under us. They are our community.” — Lynelle Loeb Solomon They meet every two weeks on a leafy street dappled in sunlight, at the offices of the Modesto Peace/Life Center. Some of them are retired, although you would never guess that by looking at their current resumes. Others are younger, still in the midst of busy, demanding careers. […]
HAVEN: Safety for those in Need Since 1977
Healthy Alternative to Violent Environments (HAVEN) is a Stanislaus County-centered catalyst for individual empowerment and societal change, advocating for those impacted by domestic violence, sexual assault, or human trafficking and working to end gender-based violence. It was only weeks into the pandemic and people were dying by the thousands across the globe. Most of us here in the Valley hunkered down in our homes as best we could – isolation […]
Riding the “S”: On the Bus with Tom Portwood
An icy wind buffeted mushrooming rainclouds in early January as two men sat in wheelchairs by a bus stop on Oakdale Road in Modesto, waiting for the 32 bus. It was running late, all the buses that afternoon likely slowed by the atmospheric river that had swept across the northern San Joaquin Valley that same day. One of the men was clothed in jeans and bright yellow pajama tops. He […]
Looking for Holiday Gifts? Try Empathy
I was sitting out front by my apartment the other day, putting a book down as dusk began to gather when I saw my neighbor Sally turn the far corner on the other side of the pond, walking with her floppy-eared fluffy white dog, gripping her walker as she struggled for breath, a cannula attached to her nose, an oxygen container resting on the seat of her walker. We waved […]