A Federal Case

Homelessness for Stupid People

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

What a night Monday was...

The Carnegie People showed up in force and managed to make the Livermore City Council meeting a tedious affair as we we sat in this crowded room and listened to grown men whine about problems at Carnegie Park... why were they there? No idea. Livermore City Government hasn't got a damned thing to do with Carnegie! Thank you guys for a glorious waste of time... I felt truly sorry for those City Workers who staggered out (two hours later than usual) of the City Council Chambers and came into work this morning bleary eyed from exhaustion...

There were important issues to discuss, as there always are... I've found the council meetings to be rife with drama since I started going late last year... who knew?

Anyway, the Urban Camping Ordinance Passed...

I heard some people saying it was pushed through with lightning speed... No... it wasn't. I told you people about it last October! I spoke to many of you about it face to face!

But... there will be a Homeless Summit... maybe this year... we don't have a date, because now we're going to get one or two difficult to coordinate federal agencies involved...

My question is: why?

Why are we bothering the Feds..? unless there's a lot of money on the table, and there probably is...

I maintain this is a local issue. I hear people talking about all these homeless people arriving in Livermore to take advantage of services, etc... one or two, sure... but the implication is that there are hundreds, the number of homeless has gone from ten to fifty thousand in four years and other towns are dumping their homeless on us...

Huey!

I have a little news for everyone: the problems you're seeing in Livermore caused by the homeless are being caused by the same number in the same proportion as it was four years ago. The number of Homeless is also pretty static. I say 300, my guess, and it has been about that for as long as I've been homeless.

There was a study done two and a half years ago which included a portion on the Homeless... but the way it was run it was as if they didn't want anyone to participate... the estimate of homeless at the time was about fifty... yeah, 50... 25 people showed up at the last meeting on short notice because somebody (me) bothered to tell them. Yes, it's online here, and it's not worth reading if you want anything approaching reality, but knock yourself out if you're interested...

To the city council I say this: forget the feds. Councilman Woerner wants data, great, the Feds aren't going to give you any and you're already working on getting that yourselves. If you want the Feds involved, plan a meeting sometime in 2015 after you've engaged the locals... getting the Feds involved is going to make things more complex and take your attention away from those who you need to be talking to...

Everything we need to take deal with the Homeless issue is right here.

People asked for creative solutions?

I spoke with Terry McCune last night. McCune spoke on the garbage the homeless leave on the Arroyo Mocho and how his neighbours clean it up. I told him about the idea I had been trying to get through to Trinity Church for months... They take meals out to the Homeless and I had suggested that they pick a park and do clean-up with the Homeless before serving food... Terry seemed to like that idea...

But nobody else does. Or if they do, they have a funny way of showing it...

Maybe it'll get play if some U.S. Government Official suggests it... then those Glorified Welfare Recipients might be good for something...