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...
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