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 could think of was, ‘What if that was one of my people?’” said Solomon.
Solomon calls the people she brings homemade food, clothing and hygiene products “my people” because of her belief that anyone in her community is a cherished member of that community, no matter how poor or needy. She has served as a volunteer outreach worker for years and is an associate member of Stanislaus Homeless Advocacy and Resource Enterprise (SHARE).
Recently, Solomon has been worried because it has become increasingly difficult to locate the people she regularly cares for.
“They are being chased out of their usual locations and now the city, county, and Caltrans are fencing off places where homeless people used to stay,” she said. “My people are being driven deeper and deeper into the shadows.”
Solomon was so disturbed by the death of a person so close to her usual routes of care that she vowed to visit the site. The next day, as she searched Beard Brook Park in an attempt to discover where Christy Chavez had lost her life, she saw a tent on a cement slab under sycamore trees near recently mowed grass.
Solomon approached the tent and hollered, “Anybody home?” At first, there was no answer. After a couple more tries, she heard a faint, “Yes.”
When Solomon asked the person in the tent if she knew anything about a recent death nearby, the woman answered, “No, I’ve only been here since yesterday.”
After further inquiry, Solomon learned that the sixty-year old woman had been dropped off in the park Tuesday, July 11. Weak, disoriented, and without water in temperatures approaching 100 degrees, the woman kept asking whether her wheelchair was still in front of the tent. A sit-down walker piled with blankets was near the tent’s entrance, but no wheelchair.
As Solomon grew more concerned, the woman told her she was suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
“What can I do for you?” asked Solomon. The woman replied that she needed an ambulance. Solomon immediately called 911. A fire truck and ambulance arrived a short time later.
While Solomon was grateful that fate and her concern for homeless people had put her in the right place at the right time and might even have saved a life, she couldn’t help reflecting on the increasing plight and peril of homeless people in Modesto. In addition to the closure of Beard Brook Park, which has now become private property, at least three other parks have been closed recently in the Airport District alone. Homeless people have been pushed deeper into the shadows and onto private property, where they are often arrested for trespassing.
“Where are they supposed to go? I’m having more and more trouble locating them and worry more about them every day.”
Lynelle Solomon’s fears came true the next day, Thursday, July 13, when she checked on homeless friends who had been living next to a dumpster behind a fenced enclosure. After asking frantically about their whereabouts, Solomon learned they had been arrested for trespassing. It was one more example of Modesto’s escalating campaign of cruelty to the most vulnerable members of the community, people with nowhere to go and nowhere to lay their heads.
The city of Modesto makes me sick. with their lack of even the smallest amount of concern for these poor souls. Homelessness should be considered a crime against humanity. Not one person can say it can’t happen to them, cause today is here and tomorrow is not promised you never know what may come. Be thankful for what you have but don’t look down on someone who is not as fortunate and blessed as you
Preach it, so well put, It’s so sad to see and our children and grandchildren to witness so many people in need. There’s not enough being done. We are all human. I pray things get better ❤️🩹 somewhat safer for the less fortunate. 🙏🏼🌹
Word
I second that comment. Life’s crisis don’t discriminate, and if they did, I highly doubt the invicible group would be the wealthy, able always ones who may think they are safe from such demise. Truth is, what happens unexpectedly can break down the strongest of souls, and when that happens, the money isn’t gonna be the savior! It’s a shame judgement falls so heavy from people’s mouths sometimes.their time of hardship will come. When, is to be determined by forces we never see coming. Teaching the next generation a series on empathy, kindness, resilience, and coping skills would do wonders for our nation moving forward. Why the entire kindergarten years aren’t spent solidifying the foundations of these things is beyond me. It should beasolid influential year of building the structural walls in all facets, to hold in everything academically to come. If children had more true guidance on society expectations and included the humanitarian efforts of extending themselves to others, I guarantee the result would be pivotal. Anyway…I come from a well estab fam unit, educated with multi degrees and still have a homeless period i went thru. It was scary, traumatizing, and debilitating. The bureaucracy of bs u have to tread seeking help is cumbersome and broken. It made me sick seeing how much compromise is going on to AVOID getting people the help they need, and the addl judgement by those very same workers paid to provide such help. It makes me burn to this day recalling how corrupt and cruel things were that I witnessed. Saying so, got me absolutely nowhere in a hurry. Tis life I guess. But its a broken nightmare needing a staffing overhaul to ones whom have a passion for the purpose. Like the volunteers in this article. Imo, they should head the department and be paid appropriately for the results. Id bet the results on that would be worth their weight in gold. Feel free to implement the same changes in the CPS system. The bay area is screwed up in social services. Coming from one here who has been thru it all as first a victim of violence, then as employee, and then as a needy recipient depending on those services. Been all thru them from outside in and back again. Signed: the poster child left forever disturbed.
Shannon, The Poster Child, I thank my Almighty God for all the people who think like you and are not fearful, to express what is on your mind, to the rest. We need each other to stay close by…
Millions would suspect Poverty and Homelessness are by design, if Gov’t and the 1% did not teach children in school, that ain’t so. Their
plausible denial.
Willing to look our children right in the eye and teach them a pack of lies, sorted, regimented, and distributed for the Wealth of the Nation, but not for the children, who are being bred to grow up and be good little do-bees, who are not supposed to think critically, but rather become those law abiding citizens who keep forking over their minimum wages to the IRS, so “safety net funds” will be there, just as soon as they wind up poor, destitute, and even living rough out on the streets, “illegally”, as deemed criminal trespass homeless deviants.
The REAL deviants are those who PROP UP these lies, one voted proposition after another: NIMBYs, who get all sqimish, just at the thought of one of those have nots resting their weary bodies in one or more of the NIMBY’s precious parks. You see NIMBYs believe once anyone becomes homeless they cease not only to be citizens, just like criminals, but they cease to be human beings.
To NIMBY’s those who are “homeless” become “invisibles”, part of a caste system, the lowest of the low, scourge of the earth, to be down trodden under foot. Easily swept away if they do not know what is good for them. To be done away with. Mowed under.
Homeless are to know their place. No where, it seems, with the exception of being hid away, safe and sound, in a temporary shelter.
Shelters are, day by day, more so, being transformed into permanent mini sanctuary prisons, right before our eyes.
What if the 9th District court panel was not concerned about the homeless as much as they were about over crowding jails and prisons. Their court order pointed in the direction of building more shelters. Did it not?
Let’s think seriously about this: Homeless citizens cannot collect on the streets, in the parks, on public or private property, but only in designated shelters beds, that there clearly are not enough of, at any given time, for all the homeless to congregate in at once. Agreed?
Yet, the homeless are to ignore common fact, just like the authorities do, and accept punishment as criminals, because why?
If they all lined up single file, obediently, outside the shelters, waiting patiently for a shelter bed to open, 24 hours a day, so as to avoid arrest, or death, guaranteed the authorities would be called out to order them to scatter (to someplace that has yet to exist.)
Brilliant deduction, my dear Watson, I think you solved the problem, cracked the case, came up with the solution: Modesto’s 24 HOUR CAMPING/PARKING SAFE GROUND COLLECTIVE, to gather it’s abundant homeless overflow.
THIS, while the over flow population waits for Modesto and the county, to get off their FAT butts, cease and desist sitting on their own hands and laurels, change ZONING, and FUNDRAISE enough money, finally, to build plenty of PERMANENT LOW OR NO INCOME HOUSING, instead of swapping valuable land and buying up defunct businesses like playing tiddly winks with their pals
O’, but, they ONLY have eyes for the homeless, they will sell you, winking and blinking!
While, all the while, they plot amongst them selves HOW they can do the least, or not a single action, for the most amount of money…
NIMBY’s lack conscience!
It’s all of california
Perfectly said.I definitely agree. I feel for my people’s safety as well,as I am formerly homeless.I have had housing now for four years.I only wish all of my people did.😔
Homelessness extremely saddens me. I had a brother that served over 10 years in the Air Force, at some point he became homeless. He met an older man in Stockton that had land in the country side and let my brother park his old motor home on his land. Shortly after it broke down, he could no longer drive his motorhome. This man’s family were mad that their father helped my brother, he even helped my brother with extension cords so he could have electricity for his microwave. This man became ill and passed away. One day having gone into town possibly for food etc., my brother returned to find his motor home burned. With nowhere to go he slept in that burnt and wet motorhome. Totally heartless people. My brother went to the streets of Stockton where he was welcomed by people in his same situation. He stayed under a bridge across the street from the Stockton Police. He set up a tent. All this information I found out after his passing. He then went to the VA for help. He didn’t like the rules very much so he would come and go to the VA. I miss you Hector, I wish you would have come home and things had been different. I love you brother,
Thank You For Your Service 🇺🇸
Sleep Peacefully 🙏✝️🙏
As someone who was formerly homeless, I will say Modesto doesnt have enough programs for homeless people. Turlock, a town half the size, has tons more programs and outreach services. Its crazy. I have encountered all manner of homeless people: the drug addicts, the mentally ill, the ones just down on thier luck, ones leaving abusive relationships, and ones that honestly CHOOSE to be homeless (why i dont know). Not every homeless person is a piece of crap or on drugs…although a vast majoriry are on drugs….and let me tell u why. Its a lot cheaper to buy a dope sack for $20 and not be hungry for a couple days than to spend it on food and be hungry in 4 hrs. Also, women are especially vulnerable. You see lots of homeless people with dogs – the females do that to keep from being raped at night. Its very sad. I wish Modesto would open another shelter in town and have some kind of program to try and get these people into some kind of housing.
Brenda! Well said. Exactly true! I once was homeless but now bc of Merced county HSP program I was able to get into a place out here. Some cities just don’t care. Sad. And hard for people to do better when there isnt better . I got clean, had a baby, and now have a place of my own. ( next car and job) hopefully people remember that sometimes asking for help sux but also closed mouth don’t get fed! Somebody out there willing to help! God bless. -K
This Breaks My Heart The City Of Modesto Needs To Find An Adequate
Long Term Situation For Our Homeless Its Our Community That Needs To Work Together And Help Our Homeless One Thing That Modesto Has Is Plenty Of Land Instead of Addressing Major Corporations Coming In Taking Over That Space When Modesto Should Be Addressing Their Community In Building Small Housing For Our Homeless Their Our People Who Are In Need Of Assistance So Why Does The City Of Modesto Not See This As A Priority Were Our Community Now Addresses Our Homeless It’s Time
It’s sad but Modesto keeps homeless people to stay homeless and even go as far as labeling them criminals. There’s no money in helping people anymore. Frankly it’s sad what this country has come to. We don’t even really punish criminals we let them loose so they can act like there is need for more police.. frankly there is no money in having a clean healthy American anymore everything from the courts to the medical field has become a business more then offering true help to rehabilitate people we are in social decay.
Jorge, you get no argument out of me. The system is bent.
Then onlookers want to know what is wrong with those who are Homeless and their families.
Do not get us started, huh, Jorge? We can tell them a thing of two.
Nice to meet you through your reply. Nice to meet all. May Almighty God bless you and all…
May Almighty God bless Christy Chavez’s family, especially in this time of pronounced need. May He guide their steps to make their family whole.
God sees all that goes on but the people that run things don’t care just care what they can get from money put in for people being homeless but in thee end every one that doesn’t got a heart n compassion the day will come when the master of this earth will know how they treated homeless people God bless all
May Almighty God bless. you, Cee!
And I pray He opens the eyes, ears and hearts of all to repent. To make a 180° turn back to Him on His path, living out His ways.
Thank you for your tender heart.
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First Modesto compassion outreach served our vulnerable community members at beard brook and other places around Modesto..I was deeply saddened upon hearing of the death of the lady at beard brook…It’s a shame that the City of Modesto fumbled all those millions they got for the homeless I believe Salvation Army benefited quite a bit…But everyone else got left out in the cold…..
Julian,
Your reply is VALUEABLE and VALID
You speak volumes.
I sincerely want all readers to allow what you said to sink in DEEP
The money that should have done the most, did the least for those it was meant to relief. We STILL have hundreds [by my count THOUSANDS] who were and are being badly represented, LOCALLY.
BUT the Salvation Army is doing okay for ITSELF. Gets its name in the news by hook or by crook. Have not heard the FULL story on under what circumstances Christy Chavez felt compelled to leave out.
Whomever is crunching the numbers on behalf of our HOMELESS PEOPLE sure shows a great lack of business prowess.
GONE should be the days of ludicrous spending habits. We WELCOME in the days of homegrown down to earth making GOD’S GOOD sense.
Local government does not know how to govern other people’s money.
They traded in Beards Brook park for a river
walk. For WHOM? They gave up MOES for a river walk. For WHOM?
They sank far too much money into buying up and remodeling old defunct businesses, to allegedly house the lower working class, and a scant amount of endangered youth, when PRIORITY ought to have been HOUSING those ALREADY WITHOUT immediate HOUSING, and making ways to SAFELY ENCAMP those who were left and those who they HAD TO KNOW were coming soon er than later…
Let us take a good hard look at their colossal fund fumbles. WHO is REALLY being bailed out? NOT THE HOMELESS, period.
LOCAL OFFICIALS CARED MORE ABOUT BAILING OUT THEIR FRIENDS AND SAVING FACE. CAN’T HAVE TOO MANY MORE BOARDED UP BUILDINGS ALTHOUGH THEY COULD HAVE PURCHASED THEM FOR MUCH LESS TAX PAYER DOLLARS ONCE BOARDED. YOU THINK?
BUT THEY OWED A DEBT TO BUSINESS GONE BY. I’LL WASH YOUR BACK, YOU WASH MINE. MODESTO AIN’T NO BATHHOUSE OR YMCA. WHAT MODESTO IS, IS GOING DOWN THE DRAIN, ABSOLUTELY NO THANKS TO GOV’T.
CAN NOT WASH THAT DIRT OFF. NOT MANY VOTED THESE IN TO TAKE CARE OF THE OLD BUDDY SYSTEM. SOS, MODESTO IS IN NEED OF PRAYER AND MEN OF MORAL AND RIGHTEOUS FORTITUDE, MAKE WAY FOR AN UP COMING NEW ECONOMY MADE UP OF STAKEHOLDERS, NOT STOCKHOLDERS WITH BOTTOM LINES.
WHO, exactly, is ever going to take river walks? They sure as hell do not want HOMELESS people strolling down there. They rousted them out and off their precious Tuolomne River project. Is there a plan to develop expensive housing on stilts down around there? Entice more money, oops, people with money, to come and suffer here?
WHO and WHEN is anyone going to reside in those OVERPRICED buildings dotted all around Modesto, that still have to be paid for SOMEHOW. Build it they will come philosophy? Modesto has EARNED quite a reputation, who dares venture out here? Only neuvo desperate…
OR the right kind of HOPE
THE HOMELESS NEED A SAFE PLACE TO REST. NOW, IMMEDIATELY…
NOT WHERE THE PLACE WILL BE TRADED OR SOLD OUT FROM UNDER THEM. NOT WHERE THEY WILL BE SWEPT AND MOWED DEAD.
PS:
MAYOR ZWALEN AND SUPERVISOR WITHROW,
WE DEMAND YOU START SAVING THE LIVES OF THE MOST VULNERABLE,
STOP CRIMINALIZING THOSE WHO HAVE NO PLACE TO GO. DUE TO YOUR RESISTANCE TO SPEND THEIR MONEY ON THEM, YOU HAVE MORE LITERAL BLOOD ON YOUR DIRTY HANDS. I’D MOVE FASTER THIS TIME
WE KEEP HEARING ABOUT ABUNDANCES OF MONEY POCKETED HERE AND THERE. HEARING ABOUT MILLION DOLLAR SUDEWALKS ON COFFEE ROAD, HOW MANY LIVES DID YOU ENHANCE? HOW MUCH DID YOU LOSE OVER YOUR RIVER WALK TRADE? DOES IT ALL LOOK FINE ON PAPER/DIGITALLY? DO NOT EVEN TRY TO SNOW US. IT IS NOT GOODWILL!
WE KNOW THE REAL DEAL AND DEALERS.
Is it not a concern to anyone that that lady said she was dropped off, so where did she come from? Maybe that’s where it should start why was she dropped off there and who was responsible for dropping her off there
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May God Hear Our Prayers.
2 CHRONICLES 7:14 makes Almighty God’s instruction clear. HE holds out,
HE has IFs and THENs:
IF, MY people do this, THEN, I will do this…
HE is waiting on us to turn back to HIM.
Things got like they are, because mankind turned their backs on HIM.
WHO has all the solutions to mankind’s needs?
Do not blame HIM for not being willing to enable mankind to run amuck again,
IF they have not at least been willing to live with HIS solutions, what would be the point?
Mankind wants the impossible from ALMIGHTY GOD.
Mankind wants HIS cake, and eat it, too!
That will solve nothing!
I, too, PRAY, ALMIGHTY GOD will be MOVED to hear all our PRAYERS.
All mankind suffers when there is SIN in the camp.
The definition of SIN means when Mankind misses HIS mark.
When mankind rides roughshod over HIS line of demarcation, SIN abounds.
The Torah/Bible is our manual of instruction for living righteous.
That is how we learn where HIS boundaries lie.
May ALMIGHTY GOD bless us all, sooner than later.
It is up to us, collectively!
Thank you, Eric!
Yes, Priscilla
Children have always had to face the cold, hard, cruel facts that the enemy is often the wolves in sheeps’ clothing: government, and, the church, at it’s worst. If anyone knows how to misappropriate funds guess who it is
The saddest part is that children seldom have anyone to explain how or why the facts are so grim.
Parents are usually busy keeping all the children’s heads afloat, experiencing others heads going under for a 1st, 2nd, 3rd time…not even time for a cozy, snuggle, with a Bible bedtime story, just before lights out.
It is not the fact people have faced being homeless before, down through all the ages, that is the worst. The fact that after all the ages gone by, government, and, the church, has yet to come up with a doable solution.
Treating fellow mankind as one’s own brethren, thus family, is not rocket science. Yet, they sure act like it is. No one is fooling anyone. The have nots see them for who they are. No wonder why the government is viewed enemy number one, and, church numbers are falling through the gaping holes, as they pick and choose which Torah/Bible verses they will pay any real attention to.
The majority of the church has left it’s foundation. If it had ever found the cramped and narrow path that leads to life. Opposed to the wide and spacious road that leads off to destruction.
Just like the church has left it’s children to wonder in the dark, all alone. That is what street gangs are made of. The lost leading the loss.
A good analogy for many of the homeless, including the behaviorally, aka, mentally, ill. Has anyone came along side any of them, suffering inside a lifetime of confusion, to show them, role model for them, the way they could go?
Whom ever popped up that tent in Gallo, aka, Beard’s Brook, property, and left a woman suffering from Parkinsonism, bad enough to require a walker and a wheelchair, on Tuesday, July 11, seemed desperate, with no where else to turn.
I have, often, bemoaned why it is the church builds for itself such large footprinted idols, BUT only to be open for the public, one or two, nights and days per week, on average. Pastors fleecing the sheep when he/she could be out earning a living elsewhere, like the rest. The tithe is to be set aside, in storage, for the needs of widows, the fatherless, and, poor.
I suggest the public and professed church folks read the Torah/Bible, for a change of mind, and, Frank Viola’s books, to learn how the church got hijacked off the true path.
Almighty God is seeking those who have a heart after HIS OWN HEART, not, hirelings, living off the sheep backs. The sheep earnestly offer their 10%+ of income, in faith, that they are pleasing ABBA FATHER, by not robbing HIM.
Why HE would see HIMSELF robbed by the sheep, is due to HIS having made himself perfectly clear, HE appointed them to care for the imprisoned, the lowly, whomever, is in need. Not in want or desire. In need! Of shelter, warmth, food and water, HIS love. Because GOD is love. Anything less than HIS love is deemed filthy rags, indifference towards
They don’t need to earn their help, by sitting through a sermon. Get to know the needy, one by one, up close, and personal. Honor them with a kiss on the cheek. Don’t be fearful they may love you back.
The mission HE set before HIS sheep, in order to remain under HIS good graces, was, is, and, will be for them to spread HIS blessings to the poor. Blessed are the poor.
When HIS mission for them, was not followed, HE sent them into exile for 100’s of years, where conveniently they too could experience what it was like to be marginalized, living under the boot of a wicked government, oppressed by neighbors, the full gamut. ALMIGHTY GOD does run out of patience. I suspect ours is coming…the obedient and the disobedient went in one fell swoop. Even the prophets of old.
People, like, Eric Cain, Lynelle Solomon, Frank Ploof, and, many, many others, are on a mission. Thank God for each and every one of their loving spirits.