Promoting A General Welfare...

 

        Autumn comes as a time of reflection.

    It used to be the season to prepare for winter by putting in storm windows, Hatteras or winter shutters, turning the garden, digging out the winter clothing, going long on research or projects, putting up firewood and the other tasks that fall to those days of shortening light. 

    There is less call for those labors now, but the pensive urge of autumn remains. Amidst a few local fall scenes, we'll reflect.

    

        Hearing the dental hygienist, a single mother of two, recount her maternal concerns in this age of pandemic was tender but also affirming. She is but one of the working Americans with earnest values, practical sense, and with hopes their government cares about and can be supportive of them.

    Millions are hard at work to make ends meet and to provide enriching and aspirational lives for their children. The hygienist spoke lovingly and supportively of her dyslexic son, who struggles with learning. She says much depends on the sensitivity and training of individual teachers as to how supportive they are. Some are good, some are not. It was her expense for a diagnosis. 

    Medical and emotional needs of American families, transportation and day care costs, housing, groceries, and other expenses are crushing.

        It is an era of working multiple jobs and still struggling to pay all of the bills. Recent graduates begin life with a mountain of debt. These American citizens are hammered, through no fault of their own. 

            The stock market, corporate value, and high income wealth soars. America's standard of living and ranking in quality of life, health care, longevity and happiness declines. In key categories we are way out of the top ten.

        Changes, big changes are due. The well of support is deep and runs across the political spectrum, far left to far right and the majority in between. That is public support. The legislative arena is more complicated and out of synch with 70 to 80% of Americans.

living rough

           A homeless encampment on the beach north of San Simeon represents labor to establish shelter, but poses risks.

        I mistakenly took the structure to be a surf or beach party hut. Closer in I noticed clothing and personal belongings. Someone shelters here. Fire pits were recently used.

        Nearby, in a less elaborate structure, a more dangerous placement of a fire pit....

        ...here the area of the pit was directly under scrub brush.

        The area bore evidence of habitation and waste.

        People are pressed to survive. The crisis of homelessness requires more from "us" than "we the people" are doing.  

a parting shot

The cool cats.

Hemingway and his new "brother" Sunny.

Joy had no time in her schedule to post for a shot.

        Like these guys, stay cool.

        See you down the trail.

Making a Difference

         Rare is the city or village where some are not unhoused, homeless, or living on the margin.

      In San Francisco we saw something transformative, and it is on the way to Los Angeles. All cities should take note.

        The gentlemen in the vest is part of something making a difference, Urban Alchemy

        Founder Dr. Lena Miller calls it a workforce development program that is a transforming force as a social enterprise.

        Men and women wearing the Urban Alchemy colors are visible in several neighborhoods.

        

        In three years Miller's "troops" have turned around once troubled neighborhoods through attention to detail and a full on presence.

            

Photo from SF Weekly

        When an area begins to look like the frame above,  beset with crime, filth, drug dealers and or homelessness, Urban Alchemy takes it on.

     Miller says it where a job meets the homeless, mental illness, addiction, merchants, residents and tourists.

            Urban Alchemy teams tend to the needs of the unhoused, do CPR, rescue drug overdoses, and assist those with mental crises.

        Other teams hit the alleys and streets, cleaning up, getting rid of needles, trash, human waste. 

        They've developed and care for public toilets and rest stations.

        They have created safe zones, safe walking areas and even parks.

        As one of the urban alchemists told me they are "here for everyone, just making it good for everyone."

        They try, as they say, "to hold the space" so it is safe and clean. They are guardians, clean up crews, ambassadors.

               

photo Upshot Stories

Photo San Francisco Examiner

        Urban Alchemy hires long time offenders, released on completion of sentences. Millar says they are people "with barriers to employment."

        They are men and women with street smarts who are given a job and income with the ability to earn an honest living and provide for themselves and families. She says she has seen many success stories in people who might have ended up homeless too. Her staff has a special relationship with the homeless.

        "They feel a special bond. They know what it means to be dismissed and disrespected."

        The Urban Alchemists evince a pride in the work they do. As they transform neighborhoods, bringing civility, caring, cleanliness, Miller says they too are transformed. She says there is a sense of mission and a kind of spirituality in this mix.

       As unhoused people try to survive in cities, living rough, it creates challenges and changes in the chemistry of urban life and commerce. Urban Alchemy has a balm for that.

        See you down the trail. 

        

The night returns

  

     The sound of something wakes her. It is 6:00 AM and the 45 people in the church fellowship hall are stirring. She stretches and her cot creaks. She sits up rubbing the sleep from her eyes and feels that her back pack is still there. She is nine and her every possession in the world is in that back pack.

     Her mother has already brushed her hair and gotten her coffee and tells her to get an orange juice before it is gone. Soon they'll line up for a bus ride to the day shelter where volunteers will offer smiles and cereal. If she is lucky she may get a muffin before another bus takes her to school as her mother meets with a case worker trying to help her find a job and housing.

     She will spend the day at school, maybe wishing she had a phone or a better change of clothing, or that her mother had a car. Unable to afford after school activities she will take a bus back to the day shelter where she will get a chance to take a shower and wile away time until dinner, served by volunteers. Then she and her mother and other women and children will be bussed to a church to spend the night. Lights out at nine.

      This is a representation of a day for a homeless child in San Luis Obispo. She could live in any city or town. Grace Macintosh of Community Action Partnership provided the details and narrative of this girl. Social workers in every city and town in America can provide their own cases.

      As a case in point, some 1,515 homeless have been counted in San Luis Obispo County. 35% are women, 15% are under 18 and 87% are unsheltered.  There are fewer than 150 emergency shelter beds through out the county.  The specific numbers are significant, but more important is to understand that similar statistics  are replicated across the nation. 

       As Grace said, "Just imagine what that is like for that 9 year old?"

       The increasing number of homeless is a problem. These are not refugees of war or disaster. These are people who cannot afford housing, victims of an economic system that leaves them short either of money or employment. There are working homeless as well.
        We've all read of fights to prevent the building of shelters or housing options-"not in our neighborhood." That too is common in most communities. 

       Social workers are seeing more seniors as "newly homeless" because a death, loss of income, support, medical bills, or other changes of fortune upend their world. Imagine being in your 70's or 80's, a product of a stable life but suddenly without a home. 
       In addition to those made homeless by economics are those who are on the street because of mental illness, addiction, transients who work a circuit and who may panhandle or do crime. That too is a growing population of Americans, especially young men and women.
       What are the solutions? What options do we have? What can be done?  The more cynical among us opine "there have always been the poor and there will always be." But what kind of answer is that? 
      No matter where you read this, these scenarios play out, not too far from where you are.

    See you down the trail.