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December 21. The Winter Solstice, four days before Christmas. The shortest day of the year, followed by the Longest Night. Theoretically the COLDEST day and night of the year, and in the middle of pouring, frigid rain. And a few hours before various charitable groups in the county had scheduled events for what’s been dubbed “National Homeless Person’s Memorial Day.”
Apparently The City of Kindness, as represented by their obedient APD “Homeless Outreach Team” tagged along with by Code Enforcement, found this to be a deliciously ironic and effective time to seize the tents and other possessions of numerous peaceful homeless folks in West Anaheim? (In a field behind a nursery on Broadway across from Maxwell Park, around 10-11 AM.)
Or was this a defiant reaction by the reactionary forces of the city, to the fact that several of us public speakers had shown up to the Council meeting the previous evening, to ask the newly elected People’s Council to AT LEAST stop enforcing the City’s unconstitutional and inhumane Anti-Camping Ordinance, AT LEAST for the winter months, until a better solution can be implemented?
It’s probably a fantasy that we speakers already have THAT much power. But we will be back in force at the next meeting, January 10. We should escalate our demands: OVERTURN the anti-camping ordinance, make it clear that police are no longer allowed to seize property that’s not unsupervised, and open up both Karcher Village (the unused city property southeast of the 91 and Harbor) as well as (since it’s not fair for District 3 to absorb all the region’s poverty) the unused city property northeast of Beach and Lincoln, until better solutions are found and implemented. Meanwhile, discuss temporary compounds of small “modular” houses, as well as mobile restroom/showers like other cities have.
Regarding yesterday’s raids, you can see three really good interviews in the video below at 3:42, 6:14, and 9:10, while doing like most of us do and skipping through half-mad Roussan’s anti-gay and anti-Muslim rants:
As of 3pm, it was still raining, and the organizer of the National Homeless Person’s Memorial Day event on the riverbed told us it was cancelled. But apparently it proceeded a little later anyway, when the rain stopped. This memorial, as well as a larger more establishment one at the Christ Cathedral, honored the lives of the 178 homeless people who died on the streets of Orange County this year.
Jan. 10 – Let’s make the new Council DO something about this!
More Delicious Irony® is that on the same day warm an dry Kris Murray lamented the inhumanity of the Christmas week firing of the hack lawyer hired by herself, Kring and the departed brandman – a week or so before the election.
Yeah, I was thinking of that too – I kept thinking not only was Fierro expecting this, but he gets a nice severance package for Christmas and doesn’t have to stress out over our troubled metropolis while spending the holidays with his family.
It was funny how Lucille, despite tirelessly and passionately advocating for him, couldn’t remember or pronounce his name, instead calling him Ferrera like the guy who ran against her. Too many Filipino Arturos I guess.
A cynical person might conclude that the guy knew it was win-win all the time.
Give him a chance?! To do what?
This is just cruel. Shame.
When addressing City Council, don’t forget to remind Krisco Murray that attached to the Motion for “Quality of Life” legislation deeming the homeless’ possessions and activities BLIGHT, was a statement that enforcing this inhumane Ordinance WOULD NOT COST THE CITY A PENNY.
So, WTF does the City sacrifice monetarily to the “homeless liaison” team, the vehicles, extra man hours, raises, overtime, storage, etc.? The main offensive anti- homeless Nazi’s make $250K/year.
The argument of pro human rights violators is that by making the homeless less comfortable, it forces them to seek help. Well, let’s see how that karma works out for people with that mentality.
The population at the river has swelled to over 800. Inclunding more than a dozen children. This needs to be cleaned up it is dangerous.
*The blessing to all of this…is that Homelessness is a National Problem which will increase exponentially in the next five years. Solutions will have to be found, whether that mean City, County, State or Federal Tax dollars will have to be applied for lodging,
health, food and of course the most important of all – environmental impacts to communities. You can only spread feces on so many bus benches before people start to notice. Public Health concerns are going to create the environment that will bring solutions. The cruelty, misery and arms length politics being currently applied to the homeless issue is not only an outrage but a disgrace.
It is not and will not become a “blessing” in the face of disgrace as the homeless population rises. The homeless population has already risen greatly since the 2008 market crash. The homeless population includes more single mothers and children as well as out of work fathers – not just the typical mentally ill and/or veteran.
Federal monies will not be applied to homelessness. If it hasn’t happened yet, it is not going to happen once it reaches such epic proportions it is entirely overwhelming. A multi-billion dollar budget will not be approved to help people that are still being screamed at to “get a job!” By those pulling the strings.
Food has already been compromised. 1 in 4 children in America suffers hunger due to food insecurity. I get complaints daily about homeless fecal matter being left in conspicuous places. Bus stops don’t help so now it is private property.
When people message me about the homeless “taking dumps” or “leaving human feces” on their driveway, cars, garages, etc., they also want to know when this will end and what is the city going to do about it. When I offer compassionate solutions, I often get chewed out because “I don’t have time for that!” And “It’s not my problem!” And “don’t they have any common decency!?”
Well, no. When you’re forced to have a bowel movement out of doors, decency is not the “common” aspect of a person’s life any longer. What happens is, the City, in particular the Police, are inundated with complaints that place even more negativity on the homeless population.
The Mayor I’m most closely connected with in this matter is the City of Long Beach Mayor, Robert Garcia. He feels entirely overwhelmed and caters to those making the complaints as well in spite of his previously liberal ideologies. Long Beach also has anti-homeless Ordinances that allow a person to be incarcerated for spitting and passing gas in public.
All that has happened thus far, is a national spread of “Quality of Life” Legislation. The purpose of which is to deem homeless people’s belongings and activities “BLIGHT” and therefore “illegal” so that those belongings can be confiscated and the homeless can be fined and incarcerated.
These inhumane Ordinances fly in the face of the Constitution which grants us the “Right to LIFE.” You will die if you do not have access to water, food, sleep, and the ability to excrete human waste. When “Jail is a housing option for the homeless” Quote from Kris Murray who put into Motion the anti-homeless Ordinance in Anaheim, it’s obvious no one is headed in a direction of embracing their “disgrace” and actually implementing helpful solutions….. only barbaric ones.
A ) Who the Hell DOES THIS?! Who can be so inhumane to even obey an order like this from above?!
B) How do we help? Looks like the rain has let up but it’s still cold out there.
C) Fiero does NOT get a severance package, that was eliminated when he also agreed to the month to month contract.
D) When we do we apply the phrase, “Anaheim already does so much for them” to the hoteliers instead of the poor?
More rain is predicted for tomorrow. Then it’s a low below 40 on Saturday night.
As for Fierro, while he didn’t get severance, he did get an additional eleven days of employment, through New Year’s Eve on Saturday, courtesy of tender-hearted James Vanderbilt. (Presumably, the holiday season is not likely to require him to do a whole lot.) Realistically, this is as much of a benefit to Kristin Pelletier, who doesn’t particularly want this responsibility, as it is to Fierro, so it’s hard to be upset about it.
My guess is that, if Anaheim becomes known as a City that doesn’t require its City Attorney to participate in what I’ll politely call “sharp dealing” with its citizenry, it will likely have many more and higher quality applicants in its pool. Kring has recently stated at least twice from the dais that the recruiter informed them in closed session that the qualified applicant pool was quite small — apparently oblivious to the possibility that she herself could be one reason why!
(And no, anonymous venomous creatures on the twin Klepto Blogs, I’m definitely not applying. But I’d encourage any attorney qualified in this area to apply — which is not something I’d have said, even if I were already here, since at least 2002. I’d tell them that it’s a great opportunity to help shape the city — which it is.)
A.) We KNOW “Who the Hell DOES THIS!?”
The people who drafted, placed in Motion, supported and now Enforce the “Quality of Life” BLIGHT Ordinance. “Quality of Life” Legislation is a NATIONAL epidemic. It began as part of an effort to “end homeless in… insert number of years City commits to “end” homelessness… by” but instead of doing productive, helpful things, the ideology is exactly as I stated above – by making the homeless less comfortable they will 1.) seek help and/or 2.) go away. Dropping homeless people off in other cities or less known locations outside cities is a common practice. Anaheim, Long Beach, Huntington Beach Police do it very often. Remember, Kris Murray told Donna and I during a meeting about this Ordinance and the upcoming housing requirement that did not become implemented that :Jail is a housing option for the homeless.” They would rather put homeless people in a for-profit incarceration system than open an empty lot for a “Safe Zone.”
B.) Lou Noble is well connected to people that are giving out backpacks, tents and blankets in spite of the confiscations. Tim Houchen has been doing a lot of fund raising as well. Even though I’m no longer there, I’m still well connected and help specific people under specific emergency situations. Push for the “Safe Zone” option. It should be an emergency. If not now, when?
the rest I’ll leave to politics. <3
Thanks Zia, I will connect with Lou.
Our boots on the ground help is, of course, critical to relieving the inhuman conditions humans are expected to survive in. But we also MUST follow the food chain to its source and discover why we have an avalanche of humanity on our sidewalks. Clearly someone cut programs very much higher up, resulting in a painful version of “trickle down” economics.
The victims I see in my neighborhood are mental health patients, and the diseases displayed are not sudden, these folks have been suffering for a long time, but once upon a time had a place to BE and now they don’t and I want to know WHY. What got cut? Fed? State? County? And then we raise Holy Hell to get it put back.
Our leaders find it too easy to cut from “the least of these” because they don’t have a lobbyist. But they do, His name is Christ, we are supposed to be celebrating his birthday (despite the non-mandate and wrong month) and He ordered us to use the gifts he gave us to help the least of these. How do we celebrate the coming of Christ and ignore the very people He commanded we care for? SO SICK.
This is insane. The anti-camping ordinance was already known, and sooner or later the Niño type of winter was expected. The most effective homeless advocates in the county, the Anaheim Poverty Task Force, spent its capital getting the Kraemer shelter approved, and I guess they couldn’t fight Murray and Kring on this ordinance.
Hopefully the new council has the authority to revise this ordinance, and open up temporary spaces where needed. In emergency situations like this rain, perhaps churches could allow the use of their premises, and the Honda Center or the Angel Stadium, when not used for their businesses. OCEA could allow the use of their parking basement if the Courtyard is already full during the rainy nights.
“The most effective homeless advocates in the county, the Anaheim Poverty Task Force, spent its capital getting the Kraemer shelter approved, and I guess they couldn’t fight Murray and Kring on this ordinance.”
Sad but true. They all lined up to make nice with the County to pursue the MOST expensive, MOST time consuming, and WORST placed options.
And they all believed (or pretended to believe) it was the best deal they could get.
Once again: ARTIC. Let them stay overnight in ARTIC. It’s hardly being used — and even less so overnight. This is not rocket science. Bit building, roof, bathroom access: GO!
Of course you bloggers are volunteering at shelters and making donations for the homeless right?
Yes.
Not that we go around beating our chests over our charitable acts the way certain bloggers we know do.
Matthew 6:2-4. http://biblehub.com/bsb/matthew/6.htm
Now piss off, troll.
I’m no angel but at least I haven’t stolen anybody’s tarp and sleeping bag.
Happy Cultural Appropriation Day, “Arturo”!
Perhaps a typo, but the litter collecting 27 acre Weed Farm “unused property northeast of Beach and Lincoln” AKA the former “S(t)inkin’ Lincoln” and rechristened for its sale “The Gateway to West Anaheim” is no longer under City ownership. A few Meetings back, it was sold to the developer who was to buy it before the 2007-9 collapse for conversion into a shopping center / multiuse parcel for (??) Million, which was then used to buy the Gas Station, Car Wash and Motel on the SOUTHEAST corner of Lincoln and Beach, adjacent to the OTHER smaller City owned Litter collection site and Weed Farm parcel (Oh, excuse me, “Gateway”), left over from the Police Substation / Youth Center building.
Well, you know, since the City now OWNS a Motel, what about………
*”The Dream Survives…” we think Ted Kennedy said after his brother Robert was gunned down at the Ambassador Hotel. Cynthia and Zia thank you so much for your true compassion and understanding of the hell that occurs to our Homeless populations. In the olden days before Gordon Geeko…….we had Bums, Hobos and Tramps or Vagabonds…..Rail Riders…..Destitute humans who cannot afford a nights lodging….cannot get medical treatment….cannot afford food or drink or prescription drugs……those that the Private Sector is supposed to take care of….because the job is just too big for Government? Transients……without work…….people that were put in jail in the old days because they had no visable means of support. The bad towns would give them bus fair out of town, or take them to the edge of the city limits in the suburbs and drop them off……with the warning…..don’t come back. These days created of course the Shanty Towns, the Tin Can Beaches, the living hell of the Dust Bowl and those folks who came to California to pick fruit and be abused by Simon Legree type Farm bosses. This was and is soon becoming again……….A Society without the milk of human kindness…..because the voters and citizens would not approve a Measure “H” rather than a measure “M” tax to insure that Andy Gumps are provided these folks that private security guards patrol their tents, their market carts and their bicycles. How can anyone driving a BMW or Mercedes or Jeep or GMC Truck drive by these folks day in and day out and not pick up their cell phone, stop texting their dermatologist and tell an elected representative to fix this problem? “NOT MY PROBLEM!” seems to be their only answer. The only social responsibility seems to be that they have is to stuff their mouth with another piece of cake! Roddy Piper died a few years back…..but he did a great sci-fi movie called “They Live!” If anyone has an ounce of inquisitive nature….please watch it. Meanwhile, God Bless Dr. D,, Zia and Cynnie……we at least have a start……but we need to go National…..really! One place to start is the Governor’s Annual Conference. The 2nd is to call our local Congresspersons and tell them what a rotten job they are doing about the Homeless Issue! Calling every member of the Board of Supervisors is also important.
Roussan’s latest: He interviews a homeless Marine veteran. Don’t worry it’s just the first two minutes of this 58-minute video:
In regards to the National Homeless Person’s Memorial Day event held on Dec. 21, 2016, We are grateful for the generous amount of support shown from local activists, advocates and concerned members from the community at-large.
Nearly twenty individual volunteers, some of them from community organizations, non-profit and faith-based groups showed despite bad weather earlier in the day to serve nearly one hundred homeless persons that call the Santa Ana River Trail their home.
Donations were received on location at the Rampart St. drop-off zone beginning at 8:00 am that morning and continued past the starting time of the event at 4:00 pm. Blankets, tarps, jackets, sweaters, caps, gloves, socks and other clothing items were among the things donated most and were popular with many of the homeless people who attended the event. Also donated were many hygiene and personal items, dog food and other items for pets.
There was one group that contributed a large amount of food including sandwiches, milk and fresh fruits.
Entertainment was scheduled for the event, but was suspended due to the weather earlier that day.
Cash donations were generated by Hope 4 Restoration for several weeks prior to the event and funds were used to purchase 50 pizzas and supplemental hygiene products in order to meet the full needs of every riverbed resident.
This coming week Hope 4 Restoration will return to the encampment to distribute a few tents, 25 poly tarps, 100 flashlights and batteries there.
An additional donation of 50 poly tarps were donated on Christmas Eve by the Islamic Society of Orange County and they will be distributed accordingly by Hope 4 Restoration this coming week. Our thanks go out to them.
The success of this event can be credited to the outpouring of support from the community in terms of donated items and the efforts of the volunteers who showed-up and administered to the needs of the homeless there with compassion and care.
Hope 4 Restoration did survey the homeless encampment prior to the event to determine those things most needed by the residents there in order to make recommendations to contributors who responded by making extra effort to fulfill those needs.
We have intentions of making “The Longest Night” an annual event and increasing the number of homeless people we serve at our event next year.
Another purpose of the event is to raise community awareness and the event represents an opportunity for local homeless activists to educate and inform the public regarding homelessness in the future. Broader support and participation from the greater community and municipalities will also be encouraged.
In the future, this event can be crafted to provide opportunities to engage our communities in discussion of future homeless policies that reduce criminality and increase affordable housing solutions for those experiencing homelessness.
This coming year we will begin preparation for the event much further in advance.
On Jan. 2, 2017 I will begin the process of making Dec. 21, 2017 a date recognized by the City of Anaheim as National Homeless Person’s Memorial Day.
My goal is to have this on the agenda for the Jan. 10, 2017 city council meeting.
I recommend that this is a good place to begin discussion of future policy changes that reduce criminality issues of homelessness in Anaheim.
I am inviting anyone that shares interest in doing this to meet beforehand to discuss a common strategy and a plan of action for how to facilitate this discussion with the city of Anaheim.
I ask that the editor publish my contact information for the sake of establishing immediate communication for those interested.
Another approach worthwhile to consider for temporary potential sites like the Karcher one: ” Instead of Trashing Homeless Camps, This City is Providing Them With Trash Pickup”
http://www.motherjones.com/homeless-camp-oakland-trash-pickup
Well the anaheim pd are at it again at Maxwell park. The hottest part of the summer and in two days ive seen them kick disabled people out of their only home and on to the curb. They should have taken both these individuals to a hospital or ot Kramer.
Or to ARTIC….