“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 […]
Homelessness in California
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 […]
Homeless: One City, One County
By October 1, 2015, homelessness in Modesto and Stanislaus County had become the region’s most urgent social and political issue. That’s when Stanislaus County Supervisors hosted their “Focus on Prevention” symposium to announce, “a ten-year journey of Stanislaus County toward community transformation and prosperity. A primary focus….is to reduce homelessness.” At the time, a few observers noted that “prevention” wasn’t possible for the hundreds of people already in the region […]
Homeless: Falling into the Black Hole of Help
We first saw Cheryl Littlefield on south 9th Street in Modesto in late January. She was badly soiled and had obviously been sleeping outside for several weeks. Her fingernails and toenails were grotesquely long and dirty. Prior to living on the street, Cheryl had had a room at a nearby motel. She said she lost the room when it, “caved in.” Her income is managed by a local payee. Payees […]
Homeless: The Enduring Madness of Sweeps
Consider the case of a 74 year old woman who stood, sat, and slept in plain sight on the concrete along a busy street just outside Modesto’s city limits for over six weeks, her pants soiled with her own waste, her fingernails and toenails grotesquely untended, and the space around her littered with trash and garbage. Consider also that she is almost certainly developmentally disabled, has an authorized payee, and […]
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 […]