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Homelessness Modesto

Homeless: Amputee Alan Davis is Safe Inside

August 18, 2020 By Eric Caine 5 Comments

Alan Davis and Frank Ploof, SRC, August 17, 2020

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 […]

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Alan Davis homeless, Frank Ploof, Homelessness and Poverty in Stanislaus County, Homelessness Modesto

Homeless: 20+ years on the streets

April 14, 2019 By Eric Caine 7 Comments

Kenneth “Pops” Yarber became homeless in 1995, not long after a brain aneurysm put him in a wheelchair. Suddenly, he was forty years old and on disability. Not long afterward, the bank foreclosed on his house on 4th Street in Modesto, and he began bouncing from the streets to short stays with friends and relatives. A few years later, Pops was convicted of passing bad checks and using stolen credit […]

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Homelessness and Poverty in Stanislaus County, Homelessness Modesto, Homelessness Stanislaus County

City Finally Listens to Kristi Ah You on Homeless—Maybe

September 20, 2018 By Eric Caine 9 Comments

After the tents popped up in Modesto’s Graceada Park last Tuesday, the news traveled like lightning through neighborhood group email lists: “They’re allowing camping in the parks.” Whether, “they,” meaning the City of Modesto, are really allowing camping in all the city’s parks remains to be seen. The confusion is the result of a ruling by the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The court wrote, “a municipality cannot […]

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Homelessness and Poverty in Stanislaus County, Homelessness Modesto

Homeless: The Myth of Access

July 18, 2017 By admin 1 Comment

News that Stanislaus County’s Focus on Prevention program for the homeless would soon establish an access center to connect homeless people with a wide range of services was generally greeted with enthusiastic approval. Those not in the cheering section included many volunteers and professionals long-experienced at dealing with homeless people and their issues. While it may be puzzling to some why a central location with access to services doesn’t provide […]

Filed Under: Featured, History Tagged With: Homelessness in Stanislaus County, Homelessness Modesto

Just Another Homeless Winter

January 28, 2017 By Eric Caine 1 Comment

When Randy Limburg saw the crutches and wheelchair in front of the tent, his first thought was Cheri. The woman with one leg had been in the park for several years, and always refused to leave. “That you Cheri,” said Limburg. “You in there?” Probably because Cheri knew him, Limburg got a response, but he couldn’t get Cheri to come out of the tent. She answered a few questions from […]

Filed Under: Featured, History Tagged With: Homelessness in Stanislaus County, Homelessness Modesto

“Let homeless people camp,” says Councilmember Ah You

October 12, 2016 By Eric Caine 10 Comments

Most everyone was encouraged when the Modesto City Council approved $250,000 toward establishing a services and shelter center for our growing population of homeless people. The first stage will include temporary winter shelters (in the form of modified garden sheds) for forty people as part of Stanislaus County’s Focus on Prevention project to end homelessness. Ultimately, city and county officials intend to establish a one-stop service center where people experiencing […]

Filed Under: Featured, Politics Tagged With: Homelessness in Stanislaus County, Homelessness Modesto, Modesto Homelessness

Homeless: The Mentally Ill

March 29, 2016 By Eric Caine 8 Comments

Ramon Alvarez was a fixture in downtown Modesto for years, but by the time he made Jeff Jardine’s popular Modesto Bee column he was near death. Ramon was the “sign guy” or “the guy with the van” who regularly occupied various street corners near the Modesto Arch, protesting what he claimed were heinous crimes  by the court system. While his long-term protest didn’t do much in the way of addressing […]

Filed Under: Featured, History Tagged With: Homelessness in Stanislaus County, Homelessness Modesto

Homeless: The Costly Logic of Busts and Sweeps

March 20, 2016 By Bruce Frohman 3 Comments

Whether by coincidence or design, homeless people in Modesto’s parks have been subjected to heightened harassment and arrests ever since the new mayor and councilmembers took office. Despite the costs and lack of observable benefits, sweeps and busts are occurring more often than ever. Years ago Modesto residents learned through bitter experience that the police department was too short-handed to respond to burglaries and other petty crimes, yet lately there […]

Filed Under: Featured, History Tagged With: Homelessness in Stanislaus County, Homelessness Modesto

Who Favors Rousting Modesto's Homeless?

February 13, 2016 By Eric Caine 1 Comment

Whether by coincidence or design, the Modesto Police Department (MPD) waited until after the February 2 election to roust illegal “campers,” otherwise known as people without homes, from Beard Brook Park last Thursday. The sweep, the second within a few months, forced people to take down tents, gather what belongings they could carry, and leave the park, at least temporarily. Even during the sweep, city workers were making mock bets […]

Filed Under: Featured, History Tagged With: Homelessness Modesto

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Off The Wire

Californians: Here's why your housing costs are so high
Californians: Here’s why your housing costs are so high
Half the state’s households struggle to afford the roof over their heads. Here’s what you need to know about one of California’s most vexing issues.
calmatters.org
Las Vegas Pushes to Become First City to Ban Ornamental Grass
Las Vegas Pushes to Become First City to Ban Ornamental Grass
A desert city built on a reputation for excess and indulgence wants to become a model for restraint and conservation with a first-in-the-nation policy banning grass that nobody walks on. Las Vegas-area water officials have spent two decades trying to get people to replace thirsty greenery with desert plants, and now they’re asking the Nevada Legislature to outlaw roughly 40% of the turf that’s left. The Southern Nevada Water Authority estimates there are almost 8 square miles (21 square kilometers) of “nonfunctional turf” in the metro area, grass that no one ever walks on or otherwise uses in
www.voanews.com
Half of Republicans believe false accounts of deadly U.S. Capitol riot-Reuters/Ipsos poll
Half of Republicans believe false accounts of deadly U.S. Capitol riot-Reuters/Ipsos poll
Since the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have pushed false and misleading accounts to downplay the event that left five dead and scores of others wounded. His supporters appear to have listened.
www.reuters.com
Inside the Koch-Backed Effort to Block the Largest Election-Reform Bill in Half a Century
Inside the Koch-Backed Effort to Block the Largest Election-Reform Bill in Half a Century
On a leaked conference call, leaders of dark-money groups and an aide to Mitch McConnell expressed frustration with the popularity of the legislation, even among Republican voters.
www.newyorker.com
New Zealand raises minimum wage to $20 an hour
New Zealand raises minimum wage to $20 an hour
Taxes on the richest New Zealanders are being raised
www.independent.co.uk
The Invisible Asylum | City Journal
The Invisible Asylum | City Journal
Olympia, Washington, is a microcosm of the problems created by the emptying of mental hospitals.
www.city-journal.org
California needs affordable housing. Could these bills help? | CalMatters
California needs affordable housing. Could these bills help? | CalMatters
Key legislators push duplexes, looser regulations and more money to boost housing supply.
calmatters.org
The rich-poor gap in America is obscene. So let's fix it – here's how | Bernie Sanders
The rich-poor gap in America is obscene. So let’s fix it – here’s how | Bernie Sanders
While working people toil, the richest have never have it so good. It’s time to fight back – our democracy depends on it
www.theguardian.com
Sen. Bernie Sanders' Next Progressive Frontier: Reshaping A 'Rigged' Tax System
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Next Progressive Frontier: Reshaping A ‘Rigged’ Tax System
Sanders will introduce legislation Thursday to restore the corporate tax rate to 35% and add a new progressive tax on the estates of the wealthiest Americans.
www.npr.org
Perspective | Five myths about poverty
Perspective | Five myths about poverty
No, it’s not just an inner city problem. And it’s not the result of individual failure.
www.washingtonpost.com
Los Angeles police clash with protesters in fight to evict major homeless encampment
Los Angeles police clash with protesters in fight to evict major homeless encampment
Echo Park Lake site has become a battleground in the city’s worsening housing and homelessness crisis during the pandemic
www.theguardian.com
The High Stakes in the Amazon Union Fight in Alabama - The Bulwark
The High Stakes in the Amazon Union Fight in Alabama – The Bulwark
It’s about workplace democracy, and could affect not just the tech giant’s employees but those of other firms.
thebulwark.com

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PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

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PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
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Email us at:
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Dedicated to the memory of John Michael Flint. Contact us at thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

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