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Journals and Commentary by Glenn Hefley
"Being Homeless is not a crime, nor is being in public. What is confusing is the costly struggle by law makers and small presure groups to neuter their own rights for life and profitable business, in their persuit to remove basic rights from the homeless". -- Glenn Hefley
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How Long would You be Homeless - San Diego |
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San Diego -- Mar 1, 2010
Susan Madden Lankford brought together a Seminar on Solving the Homeless Problem involving some of the leading minds on the Homeless issues of San Diego today, which had a good turn-out.
After listening to a couple of hours of descriptions, goals and statistics from the speakers (which has given me several articles of material for eddiecat.org), I asked two of the speakers, Scott Silverman of Second Chance, and Brian Maienschein of Home Again:
If you were dropped into downtown San Diego, with two sets of clothes, a backpack, and $25.00, with the current resources San Diego has to offer, how long would it take for you to get back into a home (stable living situation).
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Say No to Cunning Plans and Crap Laws |
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Once you start looking into the laws passed by City Councils all over the United States, which are illegal and/or unconstitutional, it boggles the mind.
You might run across one of these laws in a news story, and then you do a search on Google (because you get curious), discovering that these laws are all over the place -- and most of them are targeted at the homeless.
Wait, there is more! If your curiosity reaches the next level, and you dig just a bit further, you will find that most of these illegal/unconstitutional laws which are currently in the news, are not the first editions of these laws. You find laws like the new Las Vegas law, which states that you can't sleep within 500 feet of feces or urine.
Now, what is that law all about?
Well, Las Vegas just lost in court (again) over the illegal lodging law they had. So, these imaginative law makers decided that instead of admitting that Homelessness is not illegal (as the high courts have told City Councils all over the US, time-and-time-again), they would come up with a cunning plan to make Homelessness illegal, and this Sleeping near Crap law is their latest cunning plan.
Yes, if you are thinking to yourself: This is a huge waste of my tax dollars,
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Some thoughts on laws against feeding the homeless |
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I can't remember when I was first introduced to the reality that laws are passed by City Councils, without being checked for impact or legality. Some laws are simply written up and passed. I remember being stunned. I also remember that there should be some legal function which keeps this from occurring, but there isn't. In fact, as far as I can tell, a City Council Member is not personally liable for such an action.
What brings this topic to mind today, is reading through some of the news on Homeless laws and coming across this line.
LAS VEGAS - City officials have made it illegal to sleep within 500 feet of urine or feces, but the city attorney says the new law was passed by mistake and won't be enforced.
"...the city attorney says the new law was passed by mistake"? Mistake?
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Struggling in a Surplus of General Relief |
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So, you need food and you live in San Diego.
You aren't alone. You live in a city with one of the highest populations of people requiring food assistance. In San Diego, 73,000 people and families receive food assistance every week. That is food assistance, not General Relief.
Food Assistance is a term used for
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Off the Laptop
