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 […]
Alan Davis homeless
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 […]
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 […]