By Thursday, news that Richard “Channon” Myers had been murdered on the mean streets of Modesto had swept through the local homeless community. Known for his long “trains” of scavenged treasures — some would say “junk” — Channon was beloved among the homeless for his good nature. “Channon was a beautiful person,” said Kim, a woman who frequents Graceada and Enslen Parks, two places Channon often pulled in to rest […]
Modesto Outdoor Emergency Shelter
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 […]
Acts of Human Kindness: A Rescue at MOES
Ordinarily, Modesto Police Sergeant Mike Hammond has more pressing things to do than rescue cats. But Friday, May 2, Hammond was the only uniformed person in sight when a persistent cat lover kept urging him to do something about a treed cat near the entrance gate to the Modesto Outdoor Emergency Shelter (MOES), near Modesto’s Beard Brook Park. Hammond looked at the cat, some thirty feet up a sturdy oak […]