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Is Bridge Housing the Answer to California’s Homeless Crisis?

It’s become more and more apparent that transitional shelter units such as tents, Pallet Shelters, or tiny homes are the only humane options for California’s ongoing homeless crisis. Predictions of another wet winter forecast even more hospital time and deaths for people with nowhere to go, especially the sick, elderly and disabled. Many shelters are […]

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 […]

Homeless Workshop Will Spotlight Sweeps and Safe Ground

As homeless numbers continue to rise throughout the state, most of California’s leaders have followed Governor Gavin Newsom’s lead towards criminalizing the poorest among us. The default tactic of sweeps — chasing homeless people from one place to another — remains the most favored method of dealing with people on the streets, in the parks […]

Homeless: Gavin Newsom Chooses Cruelty

Gavin Newsom has doubled down on his failed policy of sweeps and criminalization as the state’s primary tactics for coping with homelessness. Late last month, California’s Governor called for the United States Supreme Court to overrule decisions that have protected homeless people’s rights to sleep in public spaces when no other options are available. Newsom […]

Councilmembers Propose Homeless Management Action Plan

Three Modesto City Councilmembers have submitted a “Safe Ground Homeless Vision” to City Manager Joe Lopez, Mayor Sue Zwahlen, and fellow Councilmembers Rosa Escutia-Braaton, Jeremiah Williams and David Wright. Brief and pragmatic, the plan is intended to reduce, “impacts and public health and safety concerns of unregulated encampments on local businesses and residents.” “We need […]

Stanislaus Sheriff Supports Safe Sleeping for Homeless

During an early September interview with the Modesto Bee, Stanislaus County Sheriff Jeff Dirkse voiced strong support for safe camping for homeless people. “(With safe camping), outreach folks can actually solve problems because we’re condensing them into camps where they can interact with them” said Dirkse. “So, yeah, I fully support it — it’s a […]

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, […]

Series of Violent Assaults Terrorize Modesto’s Homeless

Beginning in mid-August, a wave of violent assaults has terrorized homeless people near Modesto’s Yosemite Avenue and Riverside Drive. Most attacks occurred while people were sleeping. At least one involved assault with a large board, most likely a 2×4. Because of their reluctance to report crimes against them, it’s difficult to assess accurately how many […]

Stanislaus Supervisors to Study Sleeping Plan for Homeless

“Christy Chavez would be alive today if we had safe sleeping for homeless people,” said Lynelle Solomon last Monday, July 31. “All she was looking for was a place to lay her head.” Solomon was referring to the death of 27-year- old Christine Chavez on July  8 in Modesto’s Beard Brook Park. Though the cause […]

Homelessness and Work: A Few Hard Facts

Despite voluminous facts to the contrary, the conventional wisdom still holds that homelessness is a choice. The popular view is that people choose homelessness to avoid the burdens of rent, car payments and honest work in favor of drugs, sloth and moral turpitude. No one has suggested that work itself might be part of the […]