Category: Homelessness

Dear OB Convert:

Confused OBcian

Dear Confused: We in OB have had a lot of discussion about the homeless

Editor: The following account was sent to our letters section.

By Devon/May 17 2011

How much tax money does it take to get a man silently resting on a bench in front of the shell station to move? I don’t know that answer, nor do I know if tax money goes towards hollow hand shaped blue latex. What I know is what I saw.

Two weeks ago I made a nearly annual sojourn to the County Courthouse to do my civic duty; jury service. I go through the exercise on a regular basis knowing full well as an ex-cop, retired trial attorney, former judge pro tem, current law instructor and restorative justice mediator I am the equivalent of Satan to any trial attorney looking for an impartial juror. But it is my duty and it gives me a chance to meander around downtown during the ludicrously long lunch hour.

Speculation that Bianca Koch’s Recent Article in Peninsula Beacon on Homeless Count Sparked Torching – and Now She’s Evicted by…

The Point In Time Count (PITC) of the homeless surveys were conducted this morning in Ocean Beach. As my alarm went off at 6am, I thought to myself, “what am I doing up at this hour? why did I commit to reporting Part 2 of 2 in this series on the Point-In-Time-Count?” It suddenly didn’t seem like my brightest idea to date. Yet, after what I witnessed today it was well worth the early wake up call.

By the time I arrived at the First Baptist Church at 7:30am where the surveys would be conducted, I was freezing and wishing I had worn my toe socks.

This is Part 1 of 2 Parts about the Point In Time Count (PITC) in San Diego and what took…

“Help Homeless People Count”

Everyone is invited to the training meeting this evening in anticipation of the January 28th San Diego homeless count. The details are:

Date: Tonight, Friday, January 21

Time: 5:30pm – 7:00pm

Place: Point Loma United Methodist Church at 1984 Sunset Cliffs Blvd., Ocean Beach

Tonight’s forum on the homeless and homelessness in Ocean Beach is the third in a series of community events organized by an array of local churches. It will be at 7pm in the fellowship hall at Point Loma United Methodist Church, 1984 Sunset Cliffs Blvd. There will be reports from focus areas addressed by the first two forums, to include public facilities, community, government, and community activities.

This 60 Minutes video from CBSnews.com was sent to us by a reader.

Stand Down 2010

In the middle of July this last summer, 947 homeless vets walked in to a three day event sponsored by Veterans Village of San Diego.

A safe place, for three days…. 879 of them walked back out and 68, picked by lottery, won a bed in the Veterans Village Treatment Center. It’s wonderful, and sad.

by Dylan Mann / Voice of San Diego / Originally posted August 25, 2010

You see them in the medians at intersections and at the bottom of freeway off-ramps. Suntanned and weary in camouflage pants, they hold magic-markered signs announcing: “HOMELESS VET — ANYTHING HELPS — GOD BLESS.” And you feel empathy for them, don’t you? No matter what you think of our nation’s military campaigns, it’s undeniable that here before you is a person that once served our country, but now he sleeps outside and isn’t sure when he’ll eat next.

A confluence of events is merging here in Ocean Beach this week that in themselves display a healthy village, a social stage active with its many players: on Tuesday night – August 24th – there is the second in a series of community forums on OB homelessness at the local Baptist Church.

And then on Wednesday night -the 25th – there is the OB Town Council meeting and its annual Candidates Forum up at the Masonic Center.

With these two important neighborhood meetings conjoined closely in time, we have a strong indication here of a an active – hence healthy – social and political life underwriting this coastal village.

It was the busiest lot in all Ocean Beach this morning – August 21st – at 7:30 on the 4700 block of Santa Monica Avenue – across from OB Elementary. Church volunteers, homeless people, and community activists were gathering for an early morning breakfast and scheduled alley clean-up. Patty and I arrived at that moment, half asleep but ready with our work clothes.

A while later and by time breakfast was served – a regular thing every Saturday morning at this site – a hundred people had gathered. Some guys were singing and playing a guitar, med students from UCSD were taking blood pressures, and houseless people were collecting food, soaps, and other personal hygiene items handed to them by a half dozen good-natured souls who had arrived early and stood behind tables.