There’s a lot to unpack in Stanislaus County Supervisor Jim DeMartini’s recent comments about homeless people, but let’s start with his claim that they’re “bums.” Not too long ago, most any high school senior could have recognized such an assertion as a hasty generalization, but after decades of talk show bombast and free market propaganda, too many people agree with DeMartini, no matter how much evidence to the contrary. Included […]
Search Results for: homeless
Homeless: The Covid Correction
For many of us, the cause of homelessness is simple: “It’s the drugs.” Not far behind drugs as a cause of homelessness is the belief that, “They’d rather be homeless than work for a living.” This explanation goes back to Ronald Reagan’s declaration in 1982 that, “the people who are sleeping on the grates — the homeless who are homeless, you might say — by choice.” Neither explanation is going […]
Who Was the Homeless Man Shot by Stanislaus Deputies?
The man shot to death by Stanislaus Sheriff’s deputies in late September was once a star high school athlete, a doting father and a solid wage earner who was brought down by drugs, says the woman who was his girlfriend for about a dozen years. Are these just the nice things we say about everyone once they die, even if not true? How would she know these things? Well, she […]
Questions Remain in Shooting Death of Homeless Man
Was this guy a burglar or just some homeless man sleeping rough in the bushes alongside a commercial building? That question apparently was not answered before he was shot to death by Stanislaus County Sheriff’s deputies just about a month ago. Still, that question, and others, have not been publicly answered. All we really know is that Eloy Mares Gonzalez Jr. was hit by several bullets fired by two deputies […]
Homeless: Amputee Alan Davis is Safe Inside
Alan Davis, the wheelchair-bound double amputee who has haunted the streets of Modesto for the last few years is safe inside — at least for now. Homeless outreach worker Randy Limburg found Davis near 9th and J Streets in downtown Modesto early in July, badly soiled and ravenously hungry. It wasn’t long after Davis’s friend and advocate Frank Ploof had found him across town and taken him for a shower […]
Homeless: When the System Fails
Last Tuesday, while he was pushing a wheelchair-bound, double-amputee along the shady sidewalks of Modesto’s La Loma Avenue, Frank Ploof had plenty of time to think how he’d gotten there. It was circuitous story, one that always seemed to begin and end in the same place. Just the day before, after Ploof had learned Alan Davis was badly soiled and in dire need of a shower, he had paid Davis […]
Poor and Homeless: The Plague after Corona
And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand Our New Normal Just a little over eleven years after George W Bush signed the $700 billion Emergency Economic Stabilization Act to save banks and financial institutions from defaulting on mortgage backed securities, the Trump administration is into a second round […]
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 […]
Homeless: Time to Focus on Accountability
The sign on J Street reads, “Cruising Prohibited.” Below that, “Loitering Prohibited, 6pm to 6am.” Another warns, “This area is under video surveillance.” It’s very doubtful Alan Davis, the amputee across the street, ever reads the signs, even though he’d haunted downtown Modesto for months before being taken by volunteers to the Modesto Outdoor Emergency Shelter (MOES) last fall, where he had a tent, a bed, and routine checkups of […]
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 […]