Tag: Stanislaus County homelessness

After over a month on the streets, Mary Baca still has her nice watch and amethyst ring. That’s probably because she was lucky enough to wander into a park where Phil Ham and his long-time homeless friends often spend their days. At sixty-two years old, Ham likes to joke that Mary, fifty-four, is too old […]

With its high poverty and unemployment rates, the San Joaquin Valley has a larger homeless population than the nation as a whole. Even so, most homeless people aren’t outside longer than a few months. The exceptions can include those who routinely use shelters, work at least part time, and have small incomes.  The canners are […]

When Carl Wolden hit the streets of Modesto late in 2004, he was embittered and angry. He had never gotten over the injustice of paying child support to a woman who used much of the money for hard drugs. After making $31 an hour in his job at a major auto parts firm in San […]

Enough resources are available to eliminate homelessness in Stanislaus County. The barriers to elimination include lack of coordination of resources, failure of the homeless to cooperate, and an ongoing influx of homeless people attracted by the very resources that are being misallocated. County Resources Consider all of the available resources to aid the homeless: Social […]