Sheltering The Shelters: Funding gone for Sacramento Homeless Shelters
I just received the following email from Joan Burke of Loaves and Fishes that is alarming and felt the need to pass on the information.
Dear Friend of Loaves & Fishes,
Two things:
1. The Oprah Winfrey show is re-airing the segment on the recession which focused on our Tent City and on Favor Whitesides and her family. Lisa Ling’s report on her home town triggered world-wide coverage of Sacramento’s Tent City as a very visible symbol of our economic and housing crisis. The segment has been updated to include the city’s dismantling of Tent City, its efforts to help its residents, and the county’s plans to close three homeless shelters, thus eliminating 40% of Sacramento’s homeless shelter beds. Favor and her family are now in an apartment of their own and doing well. Favor will be graduating from Women’s Empowerment, a job readiness program, this week.
It will air here in Sacramento on Thursday, June 18th at 4 PM on KCRA Channel 3 and again at 9 PM on KCQA Channel 58.
2. Urgent request As you have doubtless read, Sacramento County is slashing its budget for the next fiscal year which starts July 1st. Would you please email each of the Sacramento County Supervisors and ask them to preserve the funding for homeless shelters – they are scheduled to vote on Wednesday so please send an email right away. The proposed budget eliminates 40% of the current shelter beds at one fell swoop -328 of 800 shelter beds. The winter overflow shelter – the shelter of last resort for homeless men, women and children – has been cut from the budget. The Aid in Kind shelters, which help able-bodied homeless people find jobs and also provide a safe haven for many older and disabled men and women will also close on June 30th. Where are people to go? These shelters have been part of Sacramento’s safety net for more than twenty years. How can the county justify closing them when the number of homeless people has gone up 14% over the last two years? When St. John’s Shelter for Women and Children turns away over 200 women and children every night for lack of space? When the Salvation Army has more than 150 men on its waiting list for shelter?
Roger Dickinson dickinsonr@saccounty.net.
Jimmie Yee jyee@saccounty.net
Susan Peters susanpeters@saccounty.net
Roberta MacGlashan macglashanr@saccounty.net
Don Nottoli nottolid@saccounty.net
Thank you.
Joan Burke
Director of Advocacy
Loaves & Fishes
P O Box 2161
Sacramento, CA 96812
(916) 446-0874
advocate4loaves@yahoo.com
www.SacLoaves.org
I get that funding is near non-existent but this better mean that camping out on public land is less restrictive. What is going to happen to these people? Especially the women, children, and disabled who are far more at risk of harm. I see this as the beginning of some even tougher situations to follow. Very sad. If you feel moved to do so, please contact the Sacramento County Supervisors (email addresses above) and recommend that they find a way to keep the shelters open. If we can continue to fund a bogus war we certainly can come up with the money to keep a few shelters open can’t we?
Thank you,
Julia
I Think I Want Chickens….God help me.
Today in an email from Natural Home Magazine I saw these AMAZING chicken coops. While I HATE the idea of one more thing to take care of, something about these cool looking chicken coops and the whole idea of being able to feed my kid eggs from a little creature we have cared for really appeals to me. This Omlet company really has made it look much easier to have chickens. I grew up with chickens in our backyard and some of the things I remember most were that you couldn’t walk back there without stepping in the most disgusting poop ever AND my brother being chased by the meanest rooster I have ever seen! I’m still kind of scared of them to tell the truth.
The Fowl of Fair Oaks *photographer unknown
Living in Fair Oaks, CA where chickens roam free all over the Village we have plenty of opportunity to experience them. Some of the roosters are totally scary little brutes too! We were at a deli one day picking up lunch when one little rooster decided to chase Katie and me. I realize that I could of probably kicked him like a football if it started to really bother us, but I couldn’t hurt him so I picked Katie up and was kind of at his mercy. LOL It reminds me of the time when my friend Karen and I were at a park having lunch and decided to toss a few squirrels some scraps only to have what seemed like thousands of them come from out of nowhere chasing us onto a picnic table. I swear it was like something out of a Hitchcock movie! Uh yeah… pretty pathetic.
So in my quest of chickens I suppose I have a little something to overcome perhaps. Actually it’s not the hens I’m afraid of and Michael promised that if we did get chickens that he would “take care of” any roosters. I shudder to think what that actually meant and honestly he is such a softie I would bet it meant something like transferring him (the rooster not Michael) to a chicken park of some sort. Well that’s what I’d like to believe at least.
The Victory Garden is Planted!
Extremely busy weekend filled with lots of work outside. Michael got a lot done on the tiny free house Friday. He actually was able to get the roof framed! It’s really starting to look like a little house. I can’t wait to put some little window boxes on it.
Our tiny free house.
After Michael and Katie got back from working on the tiny house at the farm, we had a busy weekend buying plants for the garden and planting them. It looks beautiful! We bought a huge flat of marigolds because somewhere in the back of my memory I remember reading that they are a natural pest repellent for gardens. Michael arranged them around the plants and they look amazing!
Our little victory garden
We planted parsley, basil, three varieties of tomatoes, crookneck squash, and Sante fe chilies. There is a little space next to a shady fence that we could plant something but I’m not sure what. I’m thinking of growing some morning glories and training them to grow up onto the fence. If anybody has an idea about something that is beautiful and edible that can grow up a shady fence I’d love to hear from you.
The garden grows
We’re also considering doing some vertical gardening too. I found these vertical planters Mini Garden Terra Cotta at Smith & Hawkens that would be good for smaller things like herbs or lettuces. Actually Michael came up with a couple of ideas for making some vertical planters using large pvc pipe and a catch pot underneath with a pump to recirculate the water that isn’t absorbed. The pipe would be completely covered up with plants so you wouldn’t be able to see it at all. It’s kind of hard to picture so maybe I’ll have him draw it and then I’ll publish it for everybody to see. We have one side of our house that desperately needs shading. This might be a good way to shade AND grow some food at the same time. I’d love to have a wall of strawberries!
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