In 2005, I lost a race for Stanislaus County Supervisor. A major plank of my platform was to upgrade our health care system in order to keep the community safe from disease, including epidemics. Voters did not agree. The winner of the supervisor’s race followed the Republican doctrine of letting the free market provide all medical services to the public. The county hospital was closed and clinical services were cut […]
History
Covid-19 Brings New Challenges for Haven Emergency Shelter
While many of us are making often radical adjustments to our lives during this tragic time, those people living in an abusive environment at home can find themselves even more isolated than ever. May Rico, the Executive Director at the Haven Women’s Center of Stanislaus, shared her thoughts on that issue in a telephone interview the other day: “If someone is living in a violent relationship, they have few safe […]
Before Corona, there was Homelessness
The pandemic isn’t the biggest news everywhere, no matter what people think. Out in the streets it’s still about who died, who’s in jail, who’s got a cigarette, and where the next deal’s coming from. Self-isolation is nothing new for the most desolate of homeless people, and those lucky enough to have formed small communities and camps aren’t about to give up the comfort and safety of friends for a […]
Salvation Army Berberian Shelter: Safe Harbor for those in Need
The stark reality of the Coronavirus Pandemic has brought new hardships to one of our community’s most vulnerable populations—our fellow residents who are homeless. But while the pandemic presents a fresh set of terrifying challenges to those living on the street, the staff at Modesto’s Salvation Army Berberian Shelter, on the corner of 9th and D streets, is vigorously responding to the health crisis in this time of “all hands […]
Coronavirus? Just Chase it Around Town
Imagine some of the most vulnerable residents in your town being chased from place to place during a pandemic. Imagine that their only access to hygiene is public restrooms, back alleys, and the great outdoors. Fanciful as it may sound, that’s exactly the case with members of Modesto’s homeless population who didn’t make it into the county’s new 182 bed shelter on 9th and D Streets in Modesto. When the […]
How to Think About Homelessness
Few people would argue that releasing mentally ill people from institutions of care into the streets would have good consequences. That policy—closing mental institutions—is usually attributed to Ronald Reagan when he was governor of California, but it began in the 1960s, well before the Reagan administration. Today, the consequences are all around us; the best estimates show 25% of homeless people are seriously mentally ill, and up to 45% have […]
Homeless: Inside a Sweep
“It’s sad,” said the cop while he watched a John Deere bulldozer scoop up the trash and discarded belongings at a homeless camp just south of Modesto. Nearby, a Caltrans worker remarked that someone had bagged up, “A lot of trash. There’s a lot of trash bagged up at this camp. Some of the homeless people clean up and some don’t. They’re not all the same.” “There was a guy […]
Frank Ploof: Martin Luther King Legacy Award
Last Saturday, at the conclusion of his remarks after receiving the Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Award, Frank Ploof offered a quotation from Congressman John Lewis that urged people to, “speak up, speak out, and get in good trouble.” Ploof’s own version of “good trouble” includes consorting with derelicts, drug addicts, drifters and ne’er do wells, people who are alternately scorned, shunned, and demonized by the general public. Naturally, Ploof […]
Homeless: “Ready or not, here we come”
When local authorities shut down the Modesto Outdoor Emergency Shelter (MOES) early last December, no one pretended the numbers were going to work. With 450 or so people at MOES and the new low-barrier shelter in the Salvation Army’s Berberian building serving only 182, the math was simple. Even after the Salvation Army added 50 beds, the spillover was about half—over two-hundred people were left with no place to go. […]
After a Horrible Accident: Was Justice Served?
Always combining his experience as an attorney and journalist, Steve Ringhoff has an ongoing interest in law and justice. Below, while investigating a horrible accident, he looks closely at LaGrange Road, transecting parts of western Tuolumne County and eastern Stanislaus County, the primary feeder route for drivers between foothill communities and Southern California. It was Trista’s turn to drive. It was a school day—a Friday, October 21, 2016—so, when Trista […]