Matt Leslie for Fullerton Rag
The Fullerton Police Department has issued an ultimatum to the homeless people living in a camp near the closed Hunt Library facility, ordering them to leave by 3:00 pm Friday, June 14. Police have promised to store property for the displaced homeless people for up to thirty days, but some have expressed skepticism over the eventual fate of their posessions. Just last week police officers raided the encampment, making several arrests for drug use.
On June 4 the Fullerton City Council approved the beginning of lease negotiations with neighboring Grace Ministries, who want to rent the Hunt Library property for up to two years while their offices are renovated.
A two part video on Youtube by former Fullerton Public Library Trustee Marlena Carrillo shows the encampment of eighty people trying to figure out…
If I were the homeless person, I would not leave because the worst that can happen is I have a place to sleep, a shower and food. Homelessness is not a crime…its a crime that our society — who claims to be the richest country in the world — would treat those less fortunate this badly. We can thank Reagan for closing the mental hospitals and sending the mentally ill out into the streets… and don’t get me started about the homeless vets!
Where are all these churches that CLAIM to help the poor???? If they walked their talk…MAYBE the homeless could get the help they need. What a joke for politicians to say “stop government hand outs and allow the churches to help those in need”. So WHERE IS THE CHARITY???
It wasn’t Ron Reagan, but rather the ACLU, and the Legislature that put the bill on his desk
*Inge…….blaming Ronnie Reagan for closing the Mental Hospitals is the same old nonsense that took Max Rafferty out as Superintendent of Public Instruction and had Wilson Riles replace him. Basically…lies. That action of course….liberalized the finest educational system in the country….next to Iowa. It basically made our entire school system a wreck and created the most powerful Teachers Union on the planet. CALPERS and CALSTRS. Ronnie Reagan, as Max Rafferty was…..were trying to protect the integrity of the two very different systems.
The true story was this: Psychotics….so diagnosed were, are and will always be placed in places like Patton and other locations for the criminally insane. Others, so-called with now a dozen different names will all glomed together. People, family members and even children were being abritrarily called “Mentally Unstable, Incapacitated or simply Unable to Relate to Reality”. When a member of any family went to Court….got a court order and had their rich folks, grand parents or bad kids made “Ward of the State”. All it took was one paid off Psychiatrist. The 50’s as you may recall were a huge boon for Freudian Psychiatrists. Many were taking LSD and many more were very dirty and paid off. Reagan knew many who had become victims of their very own “so-called Loving Families”. They had these family members “Committed and Institutionalized”. You might remember “One Flew Over the KooKoos Nest” or “Snake Pit”…. The best one ever was “Lilith” with Jean Seberg and Warren Beatty and Peter Fonda.
Today, you might notice…..the Homeless folks….have no money! Their families don’t care about them. Look at Kelly in Fullerton for example. No money….and they want you out of their lives. You have money and in the old days they could simply “Commit You” and take Power of Attorney. Thank Reagan for not letting everyone become another Sunny Von Bulow. Claus couldn’t get her “Committed” to get her cash, so he had to poison her.
In the old days: Catholic Chairities, some Baptist Ministries and enen the Red Cross attempted to help people. Today? Too many folks that have been disenfranchised by their own families – one way or the other. Rehab homes are for those that have rich relatives and want those folks out of their houses and that certainly are drug or alcohol abusers that can’t get off the Turkish Wheel.
The main thing is: Don’t Blame Reagan……he just tried to make folks take care of their own problems. “You can choose your friends….just not your relatives!” Basically, you might call these folks: Part of the “Lost Generation”….Part II.
*Inge…Just look up Psychiatric Hospital on Wikipedia……..you will get the entire story in about 5 minutes.
Ron and Anna… yes, you are correct that families (not all) but — it seems *white* families in particular like to toss out their loved ones when the going gets tough. Just check out the population in assisted living homes. They are mostly white. People of color are more likely to care for their family members.
What do you suggest doing about the homeless problem? — and this problem will not go away…the more people who are out of work or become the working poor will be homeless.
I have an idea…how about we — a group of us who write for the OJB spend at least one night, preferably two on the street. No money. No food. Nothing. Then maybe we can experience — a tiny snapshot of what their life is like.
And I prefer other resources to get my information from — Wikipedia is not my go-to for reliable information.
*Inge – If you don’t like Wikipedia…try Google or Yahoo or Ask…
The homeless issue starts with Electeds Firmly Addressing it in an Open Forum at City Council Meetings, at Mayor’s Breakfasts, at Chamber of Commerce meetings at Citizen Outreach meetings with State Assembly, State Senate and even Congess people. Why do they dodge this issue each and every time?
It goes like this: Homeless shelters need to be provided, security provided and oversight. They do not need to Buy Property like the County of Orange wants to do…to put people up. They may need a wide variety of solutions that may include Rental or Leased Commerical Buildings or deserted Strip Malls that can provide Andy Gumps, Water and Food Facilities. These facilities may in fact be transitory. They could be used when needed and then returned to the Commercial Real Estate Market as required. Some solutions may include tents as they do at Theo Lacy…… They can put them up and take them down as required.
The main issue is to protect, feed and water those from the elements. Those that are drug or alcohol addicts need to be institutionalized as required when facilities become available. They may include empty beds in the plethora of Rehab homes throughout Orange County. The County should be able to
pay these Rehab homes and Companies based upon a yearly contract with no number of beds designated. Upon availability….get it?
No, Inge….there are many solutions to the Homeless Problem….but it takes “Polticial Will” to step up to the plate. Ask one or all of our OC Supervisors why they want to buy limited numbers of properties throughout the country when they would require actuarial tables to project the number of Homeless in the next five years….exactly to do it efficiently.
One element of this “problem” is that some of those who are homeless actually want to be homeless. Spend some time on a ride-along with SAPD or another agency and see for yourself. It may be totally counter intuitive but it’s true, some people actually want to be out there on their own, some of them are even “sane” from a clinical definition. It sure as hell shocked me!
The problem with some (not all, or even most) is more our viewpoint than their reality and choice. I don’t understand it fully, but I have to respect that they have made a free choice to live that way.
They are willing to take charity, while on the outside of society, but unwilling to accept the concept of a “confined” living in a modern society.
Don’t ask me to make sense of it, I can’t. I’m just telling you what I’ve seen and been told while trying to “help” those, who sometimes don’t want it.
*Independence…..is the one of the answers. They do not want discipline….time to come in….time to eat….time to do certain things. They want their own schedule. Normally, those in that category have prescription drug issues or meth or whatever other so-called anti-social behavior concerns. No one ever asks about the criminality factor. Carl, you are right however that the homeless issue is not a easy one to quick fix. Those that refuse food and shelter should be moved back to their own remnants of families wherever they are. A legal guardian should be selected, perhaps…even by them to be a responsible person for their behavior. Ward of the State? That could always wind up being a possibility…..but certainly not preferrred.
Mr. Overmyer is right. There ARE some (but not all) homeless who do not want to be part of mainstream society — for a variety of reasons — and so being homeless allows them to live outside of social constraints and expectations. As a former homeless person, I have seen this firsthand, while living on the streets. Part of the problem is that not only does mental illness make people more likely to be homeless, being homeless makes people mentally ill and to engage in behaviors that make them less likely to be able to hold a job or fail to find a job, etc.
Also, there is a lot of discrimination by employers against people who are homeless or even used to be homeless; this discrimation also makes it harder for them to find housing and find a job.
Drug and alcohol addiction are other reasons underlying homeless, but in my experience, many homeless become addicted to drugs and alcohol AFTER they become homeless, not before. And this addiction keep thems homeless.
But there is also a sizeable number who have no addictions at all. They just have a precarious living situation.
It is very enlightening to talk to homeless people about what they used to be, where they came from, and how they got to be homeless. In my work with the homeless (for several organizations), I’ve met people from all sorts of backgrounds who are homeles: stock brokers, bankers, computer programmers, doctors, nurses, steel workers, homemakers, students, etc. They each have unique stories to tell.
Homelessness will probably NEVER fully go away. Too many factors cause it, and many of those factors are inherent in the way our societies work and demand of their citizens. Unfortunately, some communities believe that they can police away the homeless by outlawing them. All that will do is to push them elsewhere, into other communities.
What the homeless really need is stable, affordable housing, in which they can store their belongings, get cleaned up, use as an addresss for phones service, and then use all of that to start looking for work. A homeless shelter is NOT affordable housing; it is a prison, and many of the street-based homeless dislike being in shelters. Also, many homeless dislike church-based programs because they force the homeless into engaging in services or entering into rehab programs that do not fit their immediate needs.
Lockers, 3/4 bathrooms, and a permanent address. That doesn’t seem too extravagant for homeless people’s needs.