02/13/2015
Why can't the county give up the old hospital site that is empty now for a homeless extension to the one across the street to them. There is also an old building still in decent shape on HWY 140 that is vacant and could also be used. Right across the street from CVS Pharmacy and the Producers Milk Place. With the county setting so many guidelines and rules that make it impossible for land owners to even donate a piece of their property to be used. I tired to open a canned good center here for people from our group site here. You have to jump through hoops just to help the homeless be able to access food, blankets or whatever is needed they need to have warm clothing on their bodies.
I have been wanting to get this type of thing going for over 5 years now with the canned goods. I'm hoping the longer I plug in to this growing problem due to economic decrease and the flood of immigrants coming in now. There is no jobs for people to have a shot at gainful employment. So they must rely on the shelter the churches in the area to provide these helpful and very badly needed programs. Our group like many others is a referral group as well as people who will give, the real issue is most of these folks do not want to be homeless some of them do. Many are addicted to serious drugs and alcohol which makes it even more difficult to get them the things they need.
Its going to take the homeless peoples efforts as well to be able to find some sort of place where they can go and keep committed to being clean and sober and their areas clean. The public does not enjoy living next to dirty places littered with trash and often times needles and other unknown environmental hazards. They were able to stay at the tracks for awhile by Walmart then on a church grounds then all over town as well as now a couple of blocks away from my home.
This has since been removed. I heard it was donated by a private land owner but not sure as to the validity of that story. Many are on Social Security combined with a drug and alcohol problem many spend their money on dope or alcohol and what little they have left, there is no finances for a rental. I'm not saying all of the homeless are drug addicts or alcoholics. I'm saying the ones that are not are getting the repercussions of other peoples choices. Many are in community college in Merced i have met them, some are elderly, while others are pregnant and some folks have babies and little ones.
At one point even the pedophiles were being released to the camp by the tracks and they had their own areas to stay at. Parolees and Probation folks, as well were being released and their housing was at the tracks. So you have a whole mix of folks all trying to survive. I believe it solves nothing and causes more problems if these homeless folks cannot find a place to lay their head at night or out in the elements during the cold months as well as the hotter months. If we give them an area where they can go provide community advocacy just like they did and even we did at the old Tent City they would be centralized and able to stay somewhere and not be bothering the community as much. Its makes sense to me to meet that need as well as provide them with portal potties and dumpsters the community advocates and volunteers will fill in the rest of that need.
This did work well accept for the piles of trash when they had no place to put it. Of course it going to pile up and look bad. Homeless people are pretty good at supervising their own cities if they have the proper tools available for disposal like any human being they do govern themselves very well its the human waste and garbage people have issue's with. Many of them are private about their drug use at the Tent Cities as well as the alcoholics who are there are better watched over than on their own. So in closing there are benefits to providing a Tent City area and facilities for them to use the bathroom as well as dumpsters for the massive amounts of garbage accumulated. The problem is finding just the right spot for them away from neighbors residential areas or business's.
Homeless people are always going to be in our mix of society you will not be able to cure them or even control them but you can provide for them a place where they are localized and not scattered not infiltrating peoples homes and private properties. If we can come to that conclusion it would be worth that investment to help them. At the same time we help our selves and our communities. God said I leave you with this, True religion is taking care of the widows and the orphans meaning the poor people of this earth then you can call yourselves religious if your doing just that.
California Department of Transportation employees and the California Highway Patrol, work to remove a homeless encampment near the Bradley Overpass and Highw...
