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 homeless people have been victimized at any given time. Most reports of violence are made […]
History
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 of death is not yet officially determined, Chavez was run over by a tractor and […]
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 problem, but a growing list of facts about wages and homelessness suggest work may be […]
Gruesome Death of Unhoused Woman may have Saved a Life
Even though she was at a public meeting, Lynelle Solomon couldn’t hold back tears. Solomon was listening to public comments at a meeting of the Modesto City Council on July 11 when she heard a homeless advocate describe a grisly death by mowing machine at a park near Modesto’s Airport District, where Solomon has done homeless outreach for almost four years. The deceased woman’s name was Christy Chavez. “All I […]
Family Members Demand Answers in Gruesome Death of Unhoused Woman
“There was no yellow tape, there was no yellow tape,” said a family member of a homeless woman who was reported to have died Saturday, July 8 at Beard Brook Park in Modesto. The speaker was the brother-in-law of Christy Chavez. He was with family members visiting the site of Christy’s death on Wednesday, July 12, four days after she had last been seen near a hillside where a man […]
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. […]
Homeless: The Drug Fallacy Rises (Again)
The state of Hawaii ranks sixth in the nation in homelessness per capita and dead last in drug use and addiction per capita. Ordinarily, such data would be of minor interest. Within the context of a recent widely published OP/ED by Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig and several other purported authorities, however, it’s highly pertinent. Hawaii’s statistics are part of a fact pattern that presents conclusive rebuttals to Reisig’s […]
Homeless: Angels on the Mean Streets
Two or three times a week — sometimes more often — Lynelle Solomon jumps into her 2008 Ford Expedition and leaves the serenity and comfort of her home in one of Modesto’s more secure neighborhoods. Her destination is just minutes away — the badlands of Modesto’s Airport District, where the governing authorities are just as likely to be youthful gangsters as uniformed cops. Solomon has frequented Modesto’s mean streets since […]
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 […]