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| <back | home A Letter to the Community Homeless Neighbors in Need by Kathleen S. Ramberg What is our response, as a community, when one of our own is not safe? What is our responsibility to one another when there are people amongst us unable to advocate for themselves? If one of us is not safe, are any of us safe? These are questions that our community has been confronted with following the senseless murder of Sharon Ostman. I spent several hours with Sharon on Thursdays of each week seeking to help provide services for her and the other homeless people in San Luis Obispo. I meet a friend, Michael, downtown and we visit the many places the homeless people spend their time. Many are eager to tell their story of their life and what led to the circumstances they are presently in. There are always stories of family disfunction marked by violence and neglect. There are often stories of alcohol and drug abuse as a means to escape from the past, the present and their sense of failure and rejection from society. Many times, when we listen to them, we are the only people who have interacted with them that day. The need for human contact is very evident. Sharon had a diagnosed mental illness. She needed to be in a secured place at night where she was safe and where she would be given her medication. When given her medication, her thought process was lucid and articulate. She was well read and freely shared her knowledge of many things. She had a deep faith and enjoyed the wisdom she learned from the Bible. She sought to apply it in her everyday life. I have enjoyed reading letters to the editor in the Telegram Tribune which chronicle acts of kindness Sharon showed towards others. She was like so many of the ‘poorest of the poor’ in our community who would readily share what they had with someone in need. Homeless people know the need of others because they are directly experiencing the same need. Women on the street are especially vulnerable to violence and abuse. Where would you or I go at night to find safety if we had no shelter of our own to live in, no family able or willing to take us in, no friends to offer us a bed? We would do what Sharon and the other homeless people do. We would sleep in the donut shop or the post office or a doorway of a church. We would camp by the creek or in a field, hoping to remain unnoticed, or in an abandoned car until it was towed away. I was with Sharon four days before she died. She was afraid because someone had repeatedly robbed her of money and belongings. She knew his name, but would not disclose it to me. She felt she would be less safe if she did and the police became involved, because she said he would end up back on the street and come straight to her in retaliation. This is the reality she lived in. She made a decision and the decision was fatal. Sharon had had a studio apartment downtown fairly recently. She was evicted. What had she done to cause this to happen? Had she had wild parties? Had she damaged the place? Had she been loud and rude to her neighbors and landlord? No, none of these things occurred. She was evicted for allowing other women to sleep on the floor in order to help protect them and keep them safe at night. Are we as a community, willing to provide shelter for the mentally ill? Are we willing to do what Sharon did for others in order to help protect them and keep them safe? Each time I meet and work with a homeless person, I realize once again that this is someone’s mother or someone’s father or sister or brother, or aunt or uncle or grandpa or grandmother......These people share the same humanity we are all a part of. We truly need to understand and act on the truth that we are our brothers (neighbors) keeper. Please contact me if you would like to help address the need to provide more shelter for the homeless in San Luis Obispo then exists at this time. Thank you, Kathleen S. Ramberg (ksramberg@hotmail.com) <back | top^ |