When incumbent Stanislaus County Supervisor Terry Withrow brags about his leadership, he likes to compare the county to the City of Modesto. That’s what he did during an interview with the Modesto Bee when he said, “Look at how the city is doing and ask if you want that kind of leadership for the county.” Withrow is running for office against Tony Madrigal, a current Modesto City Councilmember. Withrow was […]
Homelessness in California
Homeless: When False Narratives Fail
For decades, there were a few stock responses to homelessness: “They don’t want help — it’s the drugs — they’re bums” were among the most popular. “They made bad choices” wasn’t far behind. Though none of these explanations holds up to thoughtful reflection, they comprised the largest part of the conventional wisdom about homeless precisely for that reason — they enabled most of us to avoid thinking about a problem […]
Homeless: The Accountability Papers No. 1
Early last year, Stanislaus County officials added accountability to their list of tactics for managing rising numbers of people with nowhere to go. Puzzled by the new standard, volunteer and homeless advocate Frank Ploof asked county management and staff members repeatedly, “Accountable for what?” None ever offered an answer that made sense to people with no means to be accountable. Despite repetitious memes about people “choosing” homelessness and the widespread […]
Homeless: Your (Regressive) Tax Dollars at Work
The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but cannot do, at all, or cannot, so well do, for themselves in their separate, and individual capacities. Abraham Lincoln As homeless numbers continue to rise along the West Coast, more and more voters are beginning to realize that the failure of political leaders is among the chief reasons the problem is […]
Homeless: The (almost) Unbearable Burden of Shelters
“Almost all emergency shelters of today are over their heads,” said Major Harold Laubach at Modesto’s Salvation Army Shelter on November 19. “But for people with mental health issues, we are probably the best alternative. Forty percent of our residents deal with mental health challenges and another 40 percent deal with substance abuse challenges.” Laubach was responding to a growing litany of complaints from residents of Stanislaus County’s low barrier shelter that rules […]
RIP Edward “Popeye” Peacock
“You don’t retire from the Angels,” said Edward “Popeye” Peacock, “you just go inactive.” Popeye’s tales of riding with the Hells Angels may have been his way of warning people not to underestimate the prowess of a man just a bit over five feet tall and a few degrees north of one-hundred pounds. The stories may or may not have been true; he did appear to know quite a bit […]
Homeless: The Wonderful Alchemy of Work
In the end, it wasn’t the beatings, the sexual abuse, the hunger or the ugly words that broke Carrie Turnquist; it was the indifference of others. After she was badly beaten when a passenger in a passing car jumped out, pulled her hair back and began punching her in the face and head, she lay on the sidewalk while people watched and did nothing. “I felt like a dog that […]
Homeless by Any Other Name
“I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happenth to them all.” After a woman died from an apparent suicide in Modesto, a report in the local newspaper said that, “The Coroner’s Office […]
Homeless: When There’s Nowhere to Go
When he’s sitting on the sidewalk, which is whenever he’s not sleeping on the sidewalk, Jimmy Young’s flesh hangs on him like the collapsed folds of a hot air balloon. It’s said that at one time Jimmy was impressively large. Since then, he’s been caving into himself. Jimmy eats whatever people bring him. If he’s lying down, he stuffs the food into his mouth until his cheeks bulge. Then he […]
Homeless: HEART Team Helps a Vet — For Now
Every city and town had them. They were the old men on small pensions nodding on park benches or leaning up against buildings with their hands clutching small bottles of Night Train, Thunderbird, or rotgut whiskey wrapped in brown paper sacks. The boarding houses and cheap hotels they inhabited were called “flophouses” or “rat traps.” The elevators and stairwells smelled of urine and Lysol. Some, like Louis X (not his […]