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The war against the poorest of the poor just got meaner. The Heritage Foundation-dominated Supreme Court ruled in the Grant’s Pass case that cities and counties have the authority to arrest, cite and fine people camping outside on public property. Governor Newsom used this ruling to call on state officials, counties and city governments to shut down unhoused people’s encampments. Those municipalities who refuse face the possibility of losing some state funding. Los Angeles County has refused. Not so here. The crackdown began. Camps and campers were relentlessly removed. On the Joe Rodota Trail the cops were harassing campers every two hours for a while. A citation or a fine is impossible for unhoused folks to pay so they get arrested – arrested for being poor. According to US law, debtors’ prisons were abolished by Congress in 1833. This is codified in federal law. Unhoused people now scatter and hide in groups of anywhere from one to five people, cowering in the bushes, fearful of the cops and vulnerable. Without the camps there is no community, no support, so people are left entirely on their own. The point-in-time survey showed an increase of 300 unhoused people this year over last year. 2023 also showed an increase from the year before. Homelessness keeps growing. There are more chronically homeless people, those who are so adjusted to being unhoused that recovery is a distant memory. The survey also revealed an increase in women and older people. Unhoused people may be in their 70’s, 80’s or even 90’s. Sleeping rough gets more difficult as you get older. Couple this with a society that tells you, you are not wanted, and it gets even harder to face yet another day. As America is a racist country, there are a disproportion ate number of unhoused black and brown people. People of color have more roadblocks when it comes to accessing public services. It’s part of America’s racism. Also, people with disabilities are vastly over represented here. There are people with mental health issues. Some unhoused people use prosthetics. Others have autism, blindness, or deafness. Many are in need of ongoing medicines and/or therapy that they no longer receive. People die. Some die from suicide, or fentanyl, some are run over by cars. The majority of those dying on the streets die due to ongoing untreated medical issues, the very issues that may have brought them to the streets in the first place. People die frightened, alone and unwanted. For a while people lived on Cal Trans land at the juncture of the Joe Rodota Trail and the Smart Trail, far away from homes and businesses. A few months ago, Cal Trans littered every flat surface where people could sleep with boulders they cemented in place. Then, in July, a woman named Nina Butterfly began asking folks for money so she could buy felt pens. She began writing the names of the dead on the boulders. It caught on with others. Soon many of the boulders were whitewashed and people began painting the names of friends who’d died homeless on these rocks. At last count there were over 500 of these tombstones with more coming. We may have 1,000 neighbors who died fearful and alone being remembered here. These people may be unwanted but they are not forgotten. Is this okay with you? If not, here’s a suggestion. Find one person in need and, on a regular basis, support this person. This may mean bringing them food consistently, letting a person shower at your house once a week, taking someone to lunch regularly, chatting and connecting with them. Less money does not mean less worthy. Any of this may help break down the barriers that money creates, and help reduce the number of people who die. Want to help? NOTE: Since this article was written Sonoma County Regional Parks has desecrated the monuments to the fallen by covering the names with gray paint. Sources: interview with Adrienne Lauby from Homeless Action on Radio Resistance. .
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