Surreal Reality

Vice Mayor Bob Woerner wants facts and figures on Livermore's Homeless. He expressed this in Monday's City Council Meeting in which item 4.04, the ordinance that would make being homeless in Livermore a crime, was introduced. I don't say that lightly, but the fact stand. The council supports this ordinance 4-1, will vote on it on February 10^th and it will take effect on March 12... on that Wednesday in March, I, and all the rest of Livermore's Homeless, become criminals.

I cannot hold the City Council to blame entirely for this. The state of Homelessness in Livermore is a mixed bag of big problems mixed in with people just trying to get by. The big problems make a mess. The people trying to get by suffer... I tried, people, I truly did try to get the word out on how to manage: A Guide to Proper Conduct and Being Conspicuous were both meant to help people NOT be a problem. Very few paid any attention... oh well...

Sometime in February, Mayor Marchand has said, there will be a summit on Homelessness in Livermore he says he is personally going to moderate. At the end of the City Council meeting on Monday, I managed to catch Vice Mayor Woerner and told him Mickey Kundert would be the best place to start for the information he wants. Mickey is, of all the volunteers, likely the one who understands the issues better than most and certainly knows more of their names and faces than any other. I hope one or the other picks up the phone and makes a call before that summit...

Monday's City Council meeting itself was not as packed as I expected it to be. I fully expected it to be standing room only. It certainly attracted a lot of media attention. I'm not sure if this is good or bad, but nothing I've heard from the media or any of the comments aired seem to address the very real issues facing the Livermore City Government.

Largely, and Mayor Marchand made this clear, the issue is the squalor in the Arroyos, especially the Mocho. He characterized the ordinance as a public health issue.

The three people who spoke in favour of this ordinance all described negative experiences in the Mocho with homeless people. I found them credible, valid, and perfectly consistent with my own experiences. Terry McCune (I apologize if I didn't spell your name correctly) spoke of how he and his neighbours who live along the Mocho are constantly policing garbage, and they're getting discouraged. That pleased Mayor Marchand, by the way, who is constantly speaking of how Livermorons should be responsible with trash... oh... he never said “Livermorons” that I'm aware of, by the way... my word, not his.

I have to kick myself because it should have occurred to me long ago that the Creeks should be off limits, and I should have written about that at least once. But here it is now:

The Creeks are Off Limits! Too little, too late from me... sorry...

Of the eleven speakers eight were opposed to the ordinance... I cringed as I heard people talk about the need for “more social services” which tend to be counterproductive and aren't coming anyway. Several Volunteers spoke, including the afore mentioned Mickey Kundert. I think Mickey said it very well when she asserted that Public Officials “Do Not Understand the Homeless.” Hopefully Vice Mayor Woerner will give her a call...

Speakers also asserted that 40% of the homeless are mentally ill... that's a bridge I just don't buy! I do see some mental illness out there, but not even close to the numbers “Homeless Advocates” like to say. What I see a whole lot more of is Methamphetamine Abuse, and to a lesser extent, Alcohol Abuse. Both eclipse the Mentally Ill in numbers each by themselves in my experience.

One homeless man spoke, my good friend Nick. Nick is an Air Force Veteran and one of the most single minded men I know. When he starts a task he'll be on it till it's perfect... and he's deathly afraid of this ordinance.

A few of years ago there was this guy, Mark Watters, who was, to put it lightly, a problem. He was enough of a problem that he scared a lot of us. Nick and I witnessed Mark terrorizing young mothers with children at the Library entrance. He vandalized at least one car in the Library parking lot. Nick, our late friend Richard Fincus, and I took it upon ourselves to watch him very, very carefully hopefully catch him in some act that would get him put away. Watters has since left town and hasn't been seen in Livermore for some time. But Nick was probably the most diligent of the three of us. We didn't accomplish anything beyond making Watters nervous, but at least we got the word out that this guy was dangerous and bore watching. Nick and I have been friends ever since. I also told another story about Nick in an earlier posting...

Nick was raised in Livermore. He's been here all his life, graduated from Livermore High... and is homeless... and will become, like myself, a criminal on March 12. It's pretty much a done deal. By the look of things, the council will vote it in 4-1...

Staring that reality in the face is frightening... it's a little surreal...

Carpet Bombing

Homelessness for Stupid People

The foibles of the most pampered homeless population in the Bay Area...

There was a little fear on faces this morning as the announcement came regarding the Urban Camping Ordinance to be submitted to the city council this evening. Urban Camping, according to the ordinance, involves anything down to laying down a “bed roll” on public or private property, with a $100 fine on the first offence, and a $300 fine and/or up to 30 days in jail for the second.

The City Council will receive the Ordinance at tonight's meeting at 3575 Pacific Avenue, the Mobile just beyond “The Barn.”

This affects every single homeless person I know. If passed, we all become criminals...

The issue I am specifically taking against the ordinance is this; that it makes the “use camp paraphernalia” unlawful.

In the ordinance itself, Camp Paraphernalia is defined in this manner:

“Camp paraphernalia” includes, but is not limited to: bedrolls; blankets; tarpaulins; cots; beds; sleeping bags; tents; hammocks; items used for cooking food; or any other equipment used to “camp.” Camp paraphernalia also includes other personal effects when used or stored with camp paraphernalia as described herein.

I first heard this was coming down the pike a couple of months ago, that Police Chief Harris was working on it and would present it as soon as it was ready.

Well, here it is... and Chief, sorry, I had hoped this would be a little more targeted against those who are a problem, instead of what amounts to legal carpet bombing... Use of a blanket is a criminal offence? Really?

This said, the city needs an ordinance to keep some of these problem camp sites from getting established. It has to happen. Speaking with Mayor Marchand a while back he noted that there were certain places that there would be zero tolerance for Urban Camping, such as the Arroyo Mocho. Many of you may remember the disaster that was the camp site just north of In and Out Burger on the Creek at North Livermore and I580. There was another, less conspicuous, but equally disastrous one a little east where a fire broke out and, rumour has it, where meth was being cooked... (Considering who was camping at that site, it would be consistent with their history...)

One of the local land owners described that site to me as a “Squalid Garbage Dump.” Another person I know said “There was no place to stand (without standing in garbage)”.

At the same time, nobody has ever counted the number of homeless who are also employed here in Livermore. And, though there may be such a survey, I've never heard of anyone counting employed homeless on any level, National, State or Local. Those of us who are working get lumped right in with those who... well... cause problems... with this ordinance.

I shouldn't be surprised, actually. Most volunteers who help the homeless lump us all together anyway... we're all the same so far as they're concerned. If you've followed this blog at all, and yeah, I know I've not written a word in a long, long time, you'll know I hold a very different view.

Just so you know, you cannot “Look Homeless” and get a job. You certainly can't “smell homeless.” I always get a kick out of people who tell me “You don't look homeless!” How many homeless people, who are not flying signs or wearing scraggly beards and filthy jeans would you recognize?

I was looking at the sad, haggard face of a friend of mine this morning. He's wondering what he's going to do if this passes... He'll lose his job. He'll have to leave town, most likely, and where will he go? He's been here his whole life.

I had nothing for him...

The Ordinance can be read as part of the current City Council Agenda on Page 40 of that document.