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How Homelessness has Enabled Cruelty

We’re no longer stunned or dismayed. We’ve become so habituated to California’s vast sprawl of homelessness that encampments along the freeways, bodies on the sidewalks. and human debris everywhere arouse no more concern than a speed bump or fire hydrant. The objectification of human beings in distress has become a norm for almost all of […]

What the Armchair Experts get Wrong about Homelessness

Rachel Sheffield’s widely published OP/ED piece on homelessness earlier this month offers a prime example of misunderstanding the problem. A research fellow for Heritage Foundation, Sheffield recycles the old “treatment first” tactic that has impeded efforts to manage homelessness for decades. Sheffield is correct when she argues that current versions of  “housing first” tactics have […]

Homeless: Cave Dwellers in Modesto

Based on widespread news reports, the entire nation seems enthralled by the recent news of homeless people living in caves along the Tuolumne River near Modesto. In fact, insiders have known about the caves for years. One nearby resident said of the homeless people living in caves near his own home that, “he sees them […]

Frank Ploof: Practicing Humanity among the Homeless

Four people, two wheelchairs — back-to-back atmospheric rivers on the way — those were just some of Frank Ploof’s concerns Saturday, January 20, as he piloted his 2001 Chevy truck through and around the potholes dotting the road that took him to people he sometimes refers to as the “deep homeless” — individuals and couples […]

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 […]

Inside the Global Hospital: With Thanks

“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” Martin Luther King Other than a major airport, there are few places more cosmopolitan than a Valley hospital. At every level of care, Valley hospitals represent a living reminder of America’s original motto, “E Pluribus Unum.”* I was reminded […]

Homeless: Pastor Dan’s Modesto Ministry of Food and Prayer

Years ago, Dan Lempenau was attending church when he had an epiphany. “This isn’t what Jesus is about,” he thought. “Jesus is about caring for the poor.” Since that time, some fifteen years now, “Pastor Dan” has been feeding homeless people in local Modesto Parks three days a week, day after day, week after week, […]

Homeless? Modesto Council Chooses Cold Cruelty

After rejecting a proposal to develop a safe ground program for homeless people during an October 20 workshop, on November 7 the Modesto City Council voted unanimously to support bridge housing, which could cost as much as $75,000 per unit, according to staff reports.  The council voted to spend $3 million of its general budget […]

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 […]