“To be governed is to be watched, inspected, directed, indoctrinated, numbered, estimated, regulated, commanded, controlled, law-driven, preached at, spied upon, censored, checked, valued, enrolled, by creatures who have neither the right, nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so.” — Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
And therein lies the problem for most of humanity and extremely so for the houseless. A crisis exists here in San Luis Obispo County, in the state and in the world. As a houseless man, an activist for the houseless and a Cherokee, I will here offer insights into the siege we find ourselves in.
For the last eight months I have been houseless. Prior to this non-elective condition I find myself in I lived much like the rest of you. Life was tolerable. In November 2002, due to the winter weather, I availed myself of the Maxine Lewis (R.I.P.) Memorial Shelter here in SLO and there began one of the most life-threatening and illuminating experience of my existence. Shortly after arriving at the ML Shelter I contracted an upper and lower respiratory infection. Thinking it was just the flu, I let it run its course. Later it became apparent to me that the vast majority of my brothers and sisters weresick with the same thing, and stayed sick.
After looking around and asking questions, it was easy to see why. The heat ducting system was heavily contaminated with mold and was probably incubating bacteria and viruses. The heat duct outlets blew hot air from the ceiling directly onto the guests who tried sleeping on the top bunks, waking them at all hours of the night to a pounding head and saturated with sweat. Outside, the dumpster had rotted through, with raw garbage leaking onto the walkways which rats found irresistible! On top of all of this, the bathrooms were encrusted with mold and the plumbing had a mind of its own. To add insult to injury, no one knew for sure whether or not the sponges used to clean the bathroom were being used for cleaning the eating and serving utensils.
Diplomatically, I began requesting staff to report these conditions to their BOSSES, to no avail. Staff would say they turned in their nightly logs to administration with these problems were noted. Personally I spoke to these BOSSES about said conditions. After months of being stonewalled by the shelter director and her underlings, I began meeting with local officials who subsequently began conducting inspections, and the rest is history. With any luck the problems may be remedied this year. The secret to being rid of the infections, it turns out, is to get the hell out of the shelter and stay out! Five months and five rounds of antibiotics later, I recovered.
The Prado Day Center in SLO, under Dee Torres, butted up to the sewage treatment plant and surrounded by settling ponds with their associated stenches and fowl breezes, has its own message to the houseless – take the wretched contamination and take the insects and flies all over you, or leave it. The day center becomes ghostly after lunch is served, and most people head for clean air elsewhere – mostly downtown. In short, every aspect of services to the houseless is dysfunctional at best and draconian often. Staff insists on deeming us “clients” and treating the houseless as subjects, instead of fellow human beings and citizens.
On closer examination, one discovers that the system is driven by the almighty dollar – not compassion or charity or a sense of community or altruism. Wages and salaries take priority, driven by meetings, workshops and seminars laced with per diems and fleet vehicles. Government and private grant/aid money are the lure, doled out to the bureaucrats as a form of welfare. All along the welfare shuffle trail, the houseless are not included in decisionmaking about policy concerning their wellbeing and needs. A “Keep’em down on the farm” attitude prevails. Mainstreaming the houseless is out of the question. It is thought to be far better to enslave the houseless into “programs.” Programs that limit, debilitate, segregate and humiliate are the order of the day. Yet, there is hope. Hope springs eternal.
Some of this hope comes in the form of the SLO Human Relations Commission (HRC) with whom I have been meeting regularly. At my request, and that of Willow Walking Turtle, the HRC granted us a Working Committee on Houseless Issues months ago. This has given birth to an ongoing series of public forums/meetings involving the houseless, government and nonprofit agencies and the public working together to find and institute changes in the broken system. Traditionally, these agencies have had no oversight or accountability concerning their spending practices, overheads, or outcomes. This must all change. The public is invited to participate in finding solutions. All it takes is a phone call to United Way (541-1234) to be included. It is your duty and your birthright as an American citizen to hold accountable those who spend your tax dollars and charitable donations. This is going on right here in your town! Not in D.C. or Sacramento.
Furthermore, any of you who read this, especially those of you who are a paycheck or two away from joining us, should join in and help make the future of this community a humane, safe and respectful one. We, the houseless, will not be driven as beasts or outcasts any longer! Most houseless people (70%) are disabled. No one, not one of the well-paid experts in SLO, knows for sure how many of us there are. I can tell you that in SLO there could be as many as 3,000 and possibly as many as 10,000 in the county as a whole. SLO has 49 beds for the houseless and a small overflow system for women, children and families. These beds, decrepit as they are, were instituted in 1990 as a temporary response to the problems. Since that time, no one has planned ahead for the increasing numbers. If the money does not fall out of the sky, no one has the will to respond thus far to what has become a crisis in health, quality of life, human dignity, and civil rights. The time is now to make the corrections and to take on a balanced vision. We know there are dozens of Cal Poly students living on the streets, and we challenge the Cal Poly office of Housing & Residential Life to institute a permanent outreach to them. Bring them in!
Last December at Christmas-time guests at the SLO shelter were asked to list three items onto a personal “wish list” for holiday presents. Unfortunately most guests were let down once again by getting gifts that were useless to them. The real tragedy was that hundreds, if not thousands, of gifts given to the houseless by the community were withheld from them. The community had given generously, but the gifts were diverted. Administrators put them into their personal cars and drove off with them never to be seen again. Does Grinch ring a bell? A lame excuse was that they were being “stored.” The mindset of our alleged overseers is right out of Animal Farm: “It’s for your good that we eat these apples!”
Months ago I watched a ceremony at Railroad Square dedicating a statue to the Chinese laborers (slaves) who built the local railroad. That’s how this country does it – hunt down, decimate, enslave and ridicule a people, and a hundred years later give them a commemorative statue! Burn their homes to the ground, cut off their pigtails, rape their women, and a century later mock them with a monument. One hundred years from now SLO could not bear the shame of a statue to the houseless, or at any time. We say, keep your hollow statues. This is not Iraq and we are not your Palestinians, although we empathize with them. We prefer to walk free and tall now.
Give a hand, not a chain. Help us make the community whole for once, and for all. |
