Story Archives 2000

Harry Jones and the H.O.M.E.T.E.A.M. (Part Two)

09/24/2021 - 11:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
Original Author
root
Original Body

The second part of the story of a very poor San Franciscan who died on the streets after being subjected to abuse in the shelters and harassment by a new branch of the San Francisco Police Department.

by Vlad Pogorelov and Harry Jones

When Harry finally made it to a shelter he saw a long line of people standing outside the building. Harry recognized the familiar faces of his ex-neighbors from his last stay under the 101 Freeway. A few people said, Hello, to Harry, but he was barely able to greet them back. At one point he collapsed onto the sidewalk. Out of the corner of his eye Harry saw a fashionably dressed yuppie couple hurrying towards a fancy nightclub a block away. There was an expression of disgust and fear on their clean, white faces. For a second Harry felt ashamed of something, he wasn't sure what. He should have hated them for what they were but strangely he didnt feel much animosity towards them.

As Harry was lying on the steps of the shelter, his eye caught sight of dozens of rough army boots, cheap dirty sneakers, and skinny white legs dressed in silver pantyhose and red, shiny high-heeled shoesósize 7 1/2ówalking away. Harry thought of his own family, and how he was not able to support them because of his broken back. He also felt some regret for not telling them of his present situation. Maybe if they knew how bad I was, they would accept me, he thought. But somehow, he felt that it was too late, that he had lost his chance and the circumstances were against him.

Fellow homeless in the shelter line, seeing how weak Harry was, let him go ahead of them. Shaking, Harry approached the clerk. He was asked for his Social Security card. Harry searched through his pockets but couldnít find his wallet. He could not show any ID to the clerk. Harry was asked to wait until his Social Security number could be verified. There was no place to sit down so Harry had to sit on the cold cement floor. Harry felt dead tired but he couldnít just close his eyes and take a napóa terrible pain in his back prevented him from sleeping.

After almost two hours his status was verified and he was let into a room filled with rows of wooden seats. Harry was given a dirty blanket and shown a chair. He tried to tell someone that he needed to lie down, that he needed a real bed, but no one was listening to him. Within a few minutes the lights went out and the doors were shut. Harry tried to make himself comfortable, but it was impossible. A hard, wooden seat was pressing against Harryís hurting back. Harry felt betrayed by the whole world. He felt that his pain was only his and no one in the world would help him.

At times, being in the total darkness, surrounded by the hardñsmelling, sobbing, and snoring people Harry started hallucinating. Memories of his childhood came back to him. He saw his deceased parents. They were levitating above the 101 Freeway and calling Harry to join them, ìCome with us Harry, we miss you.ÖÓ Harry tried to touch them. He reached for his mother but suddenly he felt as if he were falling down. When he became more alert, he realized that he was on the floor and the neighbors were yelling at him and telling him to be quiet. With difficulties, Harry got back into his ìbedÓ and covered himself with a thin stale blanket.

No matter how hard he tried to get some rest it was not possible. Harryís desperation reached a point where he could no longer remain in the rough, wooden chair that was supposed to be his ìbedÓ. Still very weak and quite disoriented, Harry left the building and went towards the China Basin area. He crossed Mission Rock Road, slipped through an opening in the fence along an industrial area beside the Bay, and entered through a hole in the cement floor of an abandoned dock. It was dark in there, and as he was lying on the mix of gravel and sand he could hear the water splashing on the shore and the distant sound of an ambulance. They must be coming here to help me, he thought. They must be coming for me. as he was slipping into unconsciousness. Before complete darkness descended upon him, Harry saw flashlights and police officers, who were ordering him to, ìFreeze.Ó

ìShit, this bum is dead,Ó said one of the officers to another after checking his pulse.

ìYep, thatís how all of those hobos are going to end up,Ó replied another policemen. Shortly, an ambulance arrived and Harry Jones, a 53-year-old homeless resident of San Francisco, was pronounced dead.

As the sun was rising above the horizon a group of disheveled men with red sleepless eyes were exiting a ìMenís ShelterÓ. Somehow, they survived another day of their miserable existence, but for Harry Jones it was all over. Harryís name joined hundreds of othersí on the Homeless Death List of San Francisco. Yet, I hope that Harryís case will not just become statistic. Harryís voice deserves to be heard even after his tragic and untimely death.

There are thousands of homeless residents in this city who are facing the grim prospect of standing in long lines leading into overcrowded shelters, where they are forced to sleep on rough, wooden chairs. Or they have the option of sleeping outside and facing the risk of being criminalized by Southern Station's Gestapo UnitóH.O.M.E.T.E.A.M., as well as being exposed to the elements, the risk of serious diseases, and frequently, death.

I am urging all of you, who are now aware of what happened to Harry Jones, to contact the mayor and your elected officials to demand the abolition of H.O.M.E.T.E.A.M. and to demand better conditions in San Francisco shelters before itís too late for another Harry Jones.

To read Harry Jones and the HOMETEAM part I-
go to;http://www.poormagazine.org/index.cfm?L1=news&story=249&pg=1&preview=1

Tags

A New Ooze, Red, White, and True Blue... Is He?

09/24/2021 - 11:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
Original Author
root
Original Body

Green, gray, or clear whatever.

Is Mr. Sup.Gavin Newsome the flavor
of 2004 ..

The latest prepackage version of
what's the word that rhymes with time,
crime, grime or lime it begins with an
S but I forgot.

by Joe B.

Who is Mr. Gavin Newsom?

Where does he come from?
Who or whom are his friends, business contacts, former girlfriends?

And why is it so important for him to be mayor in 2004?
Why the rush of his "Cash Not Care" on the ballot?

I really don’t know about him, don’t care all that much but if he’s gonna improve or muck up my or other people’s lives then a few things should be known about him.

Handsome, charismatic, from a powerful dynasty and that’s it.

Some of you folks know the real dope on the guy as he’s send out feelers, trial balloons for a possible run for City Hall’s top spot the same should be for him.

There is more of you readers out there that know bits and pieces of his life talk to each other tie them together and the whole story will be known long before the day of election.

Good, guy, bad guy, dull, or mundane either way it is only fair we know about him as he assumes he knows about the houseless, working poor families, or individuals.

That’s a fair deal and it seems more than Sup. Gavin Newson is doing.

My next column will be on how this Newsom guy can really help if his plan was more innovative, creative, and imaginative than what he’s borrowed from Alpha City.

Yes, readers may have to wait a day or two for what I have to write but all you have to do is read it; its me, the poor boob that has to think and write the stuff up… Bye.

HouseCare-Pro Price range:
$25 per day or 100 a week for
1 bdrm. Apt, small House.
4 to 3 bedrooms, $50 to $100 a week,
$5,000 a week for 20 to 40 rm. Homes.
$25,000 by the week or $100,000 for
50 to 100 rm Mansions
Prices are negotiable.
Non drinker, smoker, drugs (unless its aspirin & vitamins)
Not a party animal, Boredom, works me.

For Joe only my snail mail:
PO Box 1230 #645
Market St. San Francisco, CA 94102
Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

Tags

We will Be Educated!!

09/24/2021 - 11:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
Original Author
root
Original Body

City College of San Francisco Students WALK out of classes in protest of tuition hikes and demand Education Not Incarceration!!

by Tiny/PNN

He Needs to stop playin' his role and listen to the people" Determined words of resistance poured from the mouth of Arjuna Sayeed in response to my question about what he would say to Schwarzenegger ( aka Herr Govenator- The Terminator)

I strained to listen to him as the minions of students passed us on their way to class at City College Of San Francisco's (CCSF) Phelan Campus. Arjuna, with CCSF’s Associated Student Council was there passing out flyers about a rally and march that was happening that day, April 20th, on campus - but this wasn't any march and rally, this was a WALKOUT - from that day's noon classes in protest to the $33.00 fee hikes proposed by the State Legislative Analyst Office.

"I feel responsible as a student to be here. City College is the ground level entry point for poor and working class students, this fee hike which is also proposed for the UC and State Campuses will make it impossible for many of those students to attend school" Arjuna, who is in school to become special Ed teacher for disabled children worries that working class students of color like himself will be lose access to education entirely

As he spoke I was reminded of my own very low-income, formerly homeless families’ non-income which would feel the impact of these hikes and make it increasingly difficult for me to attend school at all.

The hikes are being proposed while increases of over 7 billion are proposed to fund Californias' prisons, this is a 31.9% increase to the criminal Unjustice systems' budget in the last two years

With the across the board cuts to social services and education proposed I am reminded of the fact that the people of California are always targeted as the way to "find" the surplus rather than the Corporate Welfare recipients (Enron, Halliburton, Chevron, PG& E and of course, Dick Cheny) who stole our state surplus with their (fake) energy crisis in 2001-02 and to this day have not paid our state back what they owe us thanks in part to the govenator's own interest in energy stocks

"He is loverboy for WALMART" Shouted Ed Murray, President of the American Federation of Teachers at the rally that followed a huge march of more than 700 students, teachers and administrators who walked out of their classes at noon and marched through the campus. " He won’t tax the rich, because he is one of them, but the good news is, he is a coward and if he gets pressure from the people – he will back down" Ed reminded me of the huge rally outside of Schwarzeneggers most recent rich people "fundraiser" at the Ritz Carlton Hotel by thousands of working people and educators across the state protesting his rape of Californias pension plan which was so effective that he did in fact shelve his nasty pension plan, For now, anyway, But stay alert, cause last year he proposed to gut and then rescinded those cuts to the the In home Support Services Program, one of the few ways that disabled folks and elders can get help. He did in fact shelve those cuts after a huge outcry (I was one of the outcriers) and now he is starting that up again, proposing to drop the almost living wage salary of ten dollars an hour that ihhs workers receive statewide to the minimum wage!

"He is not just cutting our school’s budget he is cutting our childrens schools' budgets" Tracy Faulkner from the Students Parents United and director of CCSF Family Resource Center brought the issue of how his cuts are across the board not just affecting ‘us’ but all of our poor children, trying to learn, trying to survive and trying to come up and out of poverty.

"WE shall overcome from being dumb…some… Day" spit Javier Ruiz, fellow poet and poverty scholar from Colored Ink was one of the last speakers at the rally, which included the scholarship, words and music of students, teachers and administrators of all communities and cultures. He did his We Shall Overcome poem in honor of all the "dumb" liars and politicians trying to ruin our lives or he so eloquently put it, "we have a man in the white house who is a cokehead and a straight up liar"

Tags

De Yanga Al Presente/From Yanga to the Present

09/24/2021 - 11:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
Original Author
root
Original Body

La historia de nuestras luchas compartidas como los pueblos Africanos y Raza-PNN comentarios instalacion del Museo de Oakland en las influencias Africanas en la cultura Mexicana
The History of our shared struggles as African and Raza peoples-PNN reviews Oakland Museum installation on African influences in Raza culture

La historia de nuestras luchas compartidas como los pueblos Africanos y Raza-PNN comentarios instalacion del Museo de Oakland en las influencias Africanas en la cultura Mexicana
The History of our shared struggles as African and Raza peoples-PNN reviews Oakland Museum installation on African influences in Raza culture

 
 

by Muteado/PNN Migrant and Poverty Scholar

Scroll Down for English

La piel se me hizo chinita y senti un nudo en la garganta al ver mis hermanos Africanos bailando Guapango en la tarima con las hermanas Veracruzanas. Tuve la oportunidad de ser testigo de una galeria en el museo de la cuidad de Oakland El Agosto pasado que se llamo La presencia Africana en Mexico, de Yanga al presente, que se trato de una instalacion de fotos y pinturas que revelaban la presencia Africana en Mexico de la que poco se habla. Yanga fue un revolucionario que peleo contra los espanoles para mantenerse libre de la esclavitud y se unio con la gente indigena de la region de Veracruz, Mexico para crear una comunidad libre.

Yanga vive la lucha sigue

Los primeros barcos de esclavos que llegaron a Mexico llegaron al borde de un levantamiento de los esclavos contra sus captores en la cuidad de Mexico en el ano 1537; el levantamiento asusto a los Espanoles que no se lo esperaban. En esos tiempos un quinto de Mexico estaba asegurado por los Espanoles,y la constante amenaza de una invasion de Indigenas del norte y del sur era una realidad. Los escritores del Rey escribian que si la rebelion seguia y los Africanos y Indigenas se organizaban podian planear una masacre contra los blancos.

En 1540s hubo dos levantamientos de Africanos cerca de la cuidad de Mexico. Por muchos lugares circulaban rumores de que se planificaba un levantamiento en la mera cuidad de Mexico en los anos 1600s.

Durante los anos, 1560-1580s Africanos huyeron a las minas de Zacatecas y se unieron a la tribu Chichimec localizada en la parte del norte de Mexico, que todavia no habian sido colonizados. La poblacion Africana se concentro en las orillas del Atlantico y Pacifico; donde plantaciones de cana, en la costa de Veracruz, ocupaban su labor para producir la mayoria de la riqueza del imperio.

Yanga fue la rebelion mas memorable, donde dejo las files de cana sangrientas en el ano 1570. El lider rebelde, Gaspar Yanga era un esclavo de la nacion Africana de Gabon, y se decia que provenia de una familia royal. Yanga llevo su rebeldia a las montanas, donde crearon un pueblo pequeno de 500 personas. Los Yangas aseguraron su estabilidad, saqueando caravanas de los Espanoles que traian comida de las montanas de Veracruz.

Buenas relaciones fueron establecidas con vecinos que tambien eran esclavos e Indigenas. Por mas de 30 anos Yanga y su banda vivieron libremente y su comunidad seguia creciendo en numeros.

Los espanoles concluyeron que Gaspar Yanga tenia que ser eliminado. Con eso en la mente un escuadron partio de la cuidad de Puebla en el ano 1609. Pero no pudieron lograr su objetivo. Enves antes que Yanga falleciera, ya tenia un tratado en su mano donde los Espanoles, se pusieron de acuerdo a liberar a sus seguidores y dejarlos que establecieran un pueblo libre.

Mi sobrinito que es Black-xican tiene una herencia de culturas bellas con mucha historia

En estas epocas que vivimos es importante analizar que tenemos mucho mas en comun con nuestros hermanos y hermanas de descendencia Africana y Indigena de lo que nos imaginamos. Es muy importante unirnos en la lucha para liberar a nuestros pueblos oprimidos. Como dijo Shaka de Hairdoo, nosotros somos los responsables de crear el Puente que une a los Latin@s y Afro American@s para liberarnos como seres humanos.

El Poder a la Gente, y Hasta la Victoria Siempre

En los Estados Unidos, l@s Afro American@s y Latin@s somos la mayoria en las carceles. La mayoria de la cantidad de homicidios son en contra de la gente Latina y Afro Americana, en esto somos los numero uno. Les hago un llamado a la gente consciente que miremos este tema con mucha importancia porque es la llave de nuestra liberacion. El sistema esta ganando en separarnos y en conquistar a nuestras comunidades. Hay que imaginar que pasaria si los Afro American@s y Latin@s nos unimos y que seria el impacto que podemos crear en este sistema opresivo?

Cierro con esto por ultimo: Que Vivan Las Adelitas, George Jackson, Mother Jones, Cesar Chavez, Fred Hampton, Geronimo, Huey Newton, Gaspar Yanga y las Muxeres por todo el mundo!!

Ingles Sigue

My skin got goosebumps and I got a knot in my throat as I saw my African brothers dancing Guapango on the platform along with the sisters from Veracruz, I had the opportunity to bare witness of a gallery that focused on the African presence in Mexico, at the Oakland Museum this past August. The art gallery was titled, African Presence in Mexico, from Yanga to the Present; it revealed through a series of photographs and paintings the African presence in Mexico, which is rarely mentioned. Yanga was a revolutionary who fought against the Spanish for his freedom from slavery. He joined the Indigenous movement of Veracruz, Mexico, to create a free community.

Yanga lives; the struggle continues

The first African slave ships arrived to Mexico where they were on the verge of an uprising against their masters in Mexico City in 1537; the uprising scared the Spanish because it caught them off guard. At that time, the Spanish already colonized one fifth of Mexico, and the threat of an invasion from the Indigenous of the North and South became a real threat. The King's writers, documented that if the rebellion continued, and the Africans and Indigenous became organized, they had the potential to plan a massacre against the white colonizers.

In the 1540s there were two African uprisings close to Mexico City. During the 1600s rumors circulated that the Movement was planning an uprising in Mexico City.

During the years of 1560-1580, Africans fled the mines of Zacatecas and joined the not yet colonized Indigenous tribe, Chichimec, located in the Northern part of Mexico. The African population concentrated on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, where sugar cane plantations on the coast of Veracruz used their labor to produce most of their wealth.

Yanga was the most memorable rebellion, where it left numerous rows of sugarcane filled with blood, in 1570. The leader of the rebellion was Gaspar Yanga, who was an African slave from the nation of Gabon, and was said to come from a family of royalty. Yanga took his rebellion to the mountains, where they created a small village of 500 people. The Yangas, secured their village, by robbing caravans from the Spanish colonizers that brought food from the mountains of Veracruz. Relationships were created with other African and Indigenous neighbors. For more than 30 years, Yanga and his band lived free, and their community grew in numbers.

The Spanish concluded that Gaspar Yanga had to be eliminated, and with that goal, in 1609, from the city of Puebla, they sent out a death squad. However, they did not manage to meet their objective. Instead, before Yanga died, he had a contract in his hand, where the Spanish agreed to liberate his followers and allowed them to create their own free city. This powerful installation made me think of my own family. My nephew who is a Black-Xican has an inheritance of beautiful cultures with so much history. As Raza peoples it is important to analyze that we have much more in common with our African and Indigenous brothers and sisters than we can imagine. It is imperative that we unite in the struggle to liberate our oppressed communities. Like Shaka de Hairdoo, said, we are responsible for the creation of the bridge that unites Latin@s and African Americans to liberate ourselves as human beings.

Power to the People and Until Victory Always

In the United States, African Americans and Latin@s are the majority in the prison system. The majority of homicides are against Latin@s and African Americans, here we are at number one. I make a calling to all my conscious people, that we take a look at this issue with a keen eye, as it is the key to our own liberation. The system is winning, by separating and seducing our communities. We have to imagine what were to happen if the African Americans and Latin@s were to unite and the impact this would have on this oppressive system?

Long live Las Adelitas, George Jackson, Mother Jones, Cesar Chavez, Fred Hampton, Geronimo, Huey Newton,

Tags

Josh Jones (Southern Ute)

09/24/2021 - 11:45 by Anonymous (not verified)
Original Author
root
Original Body

by Boys and Girls Club of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe

Josh Jones

age 17

Slam Bio


Color Green

Taste Green Chili

Tortillas smell like sage after the rain

A bull elk running lots of power

And freedom

My tribe is anywhere in nature

I live out of town in the woods

With my dad

Our house is made of stone and its always comfortable there

I struggle with alcohol and anger

Tags

WE WILL BE HOUSED!!!

09/24/2021 - 11:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
Original Author
root
Original Body

United Nations Plaza Homeless Project

by PNN Staff

The United Nations Plaza Homeless Project is comprised of dedicated homeless folk who are attempting to make change for themselves and other low income people who have been dealing with poverty and homelessness for several years without much help from the San Francisco city government, a city government who usually resorts to criminalizing homeless citizens rather than helping them. Check in for future development of this ambitious project.

Contact Manuel Morales at (415) 608-8406 pager ( 415) 208-8406.

Tags

Psychotic Break

09/24/2021 - 11:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
Original Author
root
Original Body

Who’s Really Brainfried?
Dept of Public Health or The Protesters

by Joseph Bolden

I do not like getting out of a warm bed where my pills, cough syrup, hot tea ‘n honey is, because going on an assignment sick is bad form for both the interviewer and interviewee. Mr. Allan Ball is around somewhere on San Francisco’s sunshiny day. I feel miserable today as people all over the city, across the Bay, and across the street from that blinding golden dome atop City Hall.

Many speakers are suffering and continue to suffer from the stigma of mental illness but since the Reagan Administration [1980 -’84-1984 to1988] when most of the hospitals, sanitariums were closed, mentally ill persons are on the streets or hidden away as if they are crimi-nals. I lay on the grass, feeling queasy and feel as if I’m about to throw up my split pea soup on those red christmasy plants. After the rally/protest on the grass all the organizations converged in an orderly if loud march to-ward the Department of Public Health on 101 Grove Street in San Francisco.

Inside the building the physically challenged use the elevator while the able bodied use stairs entering a meeting of commissioners al-ready in progress.

Of course it only seems like political theater but many people in the march are really pissed off and angry at how many S.F. Health Department Policies do the exact opposite in stead of help persons with mental illness, physical disabilities, elderly, or people with on-going slow debilitating diseases. Someone called the cops even as voices lessened.

After more chants, speeches, public speaking from real people suffering under these policies, and a protest version of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” Everyone stayed longer than the some of the health commis-sioners, cops, or seated citizens in the meeting deemed equitable.
Translation: [Protester left when they deemed their voices were heard and not before.]

The Commission leave before the protesters only then did every-one protesting in The Department of Public Health in San Francisco. My flu broke as my nose bled profusely, and where’s Allan?
He slipped out when the police entered.

It’s satisfying seeing cops try to arrest people doing legitimate civil disobe-dience and a commissioner or two being steadfast stubborn on it not hap-pening. Has it helped, Did other commissioner get the message, will poli-cies change?

I have no answers to these questions but focused heat must re-main on the health system until the very people affected can show how po-lices and be change, improved, and become a more fluid process and not set in stone, unchanging, and blind to answers coming from the very vic-tims of this system. Bye.

Tags

De-Prioritization

09/24/2021 - 11:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
Original Author
root
Original Body

The Journey to the De-prioritization of Code 647 (j) (the homeless harassment laws)

by Fiona Gow

Last April, after several hundred very low and no income folks and organizers
stormed Berkeley City Council demanding that
homelessness not be criminalized, the City voted to
deprioritize enforcing penal code 647 (j). Code 647
(j) states that it is illegal to "lodge" on property
without the owner's consent. Because there is only 1
shelter bed for every 10-12 homeless people and
Berkeley has a homeless population of approximately
1200 people, this law was unfairly targeting homeless
people.

Last Wednesday, Berkeley's Commission on Homelessness'
met to hear reports on how the city was deprioritizing
enforcing 647(j). Though shelter space has not
increased, homeless people are not being cited or
arrested for "lodging" without permission. According
to Captain William Pittman of the Berkeley Police
Department, only four citations have been issued to
homeless people for illegal lodging since April, as
opposed to 20 citations between January and April.

What is the City doing instead of arresting and citing
people? According to David Wee, of the Health and
Human Services Department, the focus is on providing
outreach and asking people to "move along." "We are
not going out looking for people to arrest. Everything
is complaint driven. If a citizen has complained, then
we are put in the position of having to do something,"
said Capt. Pittman. According to Wee, police are only
brought in when there are repeated complaints made
against an individual.

As an example of the complaints, Wee said that the
colder months bring more cases of bronchitis among
homeless people and the police get calls about people
coughing, "They have a perfect right to complain if
someone's coughing outside their window," he added,
without batting an eyelid. Other complaints he
receives are about people defecating in public. When
asked if public bathrooms could be put in, he
responded that there was no guarantee that the
homeless people would actually use them.

Ken Moshesh, staff writer with POOR Magazine, videographer and artist was recently appointed to the Commission on Homelessness,incidentally
the only homeless person on the Commission at this time. Moshesh
has been the main proponent of changing how 647(j) is
enforced-he recently won a court case in which he
challenged the constitutionality of the code. The
judge in his case stated that she, "did not find the
code facially invalid, but that it was sufficiently
ambiguous and as it applied to Ken's conduct, the
statute was not constitutional." The hopes were that
his case would be appealed at the appellate level,
whereby it would become a binding precedent. At
present, reported Deputy City Attorney Matthew Orebic,
there is no written decision on the case and therefor,
the code is still enforceable. Moshesh would like to
see it ruled unconstitutional in all cases, but at the
moment "deprioritization" of the code is as far as the
City will go.

In regards to the "deprioritization" reports, Moshesh
stated optimistically that this is the beginning of
the challenge, that this process will bring together
groups who historically have been pitted as
adversaries. According to Moshesh, advocacy on the
part of the entire situation is still what is needed,
"What is being done so far is not a solution, it is
merely a rotation." The real problem here is the lack
of safe and affordable housing. "Berkeley may be the
best place to be if you're homeless, but it doesn't
make the nights any warmer or the streets any safer,"
Moshesh said.

Tags

Bleeding from The wounds of Budget Cuts

09/24/2021 - 11:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
Original Author
root
Original Body

What does the state government have in common with city government in San Francisco?

by An illin and Chillin editorial By Leroy Moore/PNN

Both are robbing Paul to pay Peter? From San Francisco to Sacramento people with disabilities will and are bleeding from proposed budget cuts and local propositions. In San Francisco Proposition N, Care not Cash is racing to the implementation deadline of July. First it was the Dot Com Boom that kicked us out of our own community now under Gavin Newson’s Pro N San Francisco’s homeless shelters will be evicting people who are not on CAAP including people with disabilities to make room for recipients of CAAP. That means people like me who are disabled and on SSI will need to be transfer to state funded nursing homes but these nursing homes are full and goes against full inclusions that is the theme of federal, state and local disability laws. On April 17th the Coalition on Homelessness had a rally at Next Door, a San Francisco Homeless Shelter, and many elders and people with disabilities are trying to answer the question that Gavin Newson and some voters didn’t think of! With a lack of low-income accessible housing and proposed budget cuts in the Bay Area and at the capital, where will housing and independent living services come from?

On a state level Governor Gray Davis is proposing the most sweeping cuts to the developmental disability system ever, calling for suspension of the 1977, Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act. On April 7th The Community Advocacy Network headed by Trry Boisot and Marty Omoto who is the legislative director of United Cerebral Palsy Association called over 2,500 advocates, family members and service providers to the State Capital. We attend two budget hearings, in the Assembly and Senate pertaining to services, laws, and other programs that people with developmental disabilities rely on. While Prop N talks about services, Governor Davis is proposing to scale back services for people with developmental disabilities. For example, eliminating18 optional Media-Cal Benefits i.e. physical therapy, medical equipment dental services etc., making parents pay for Regional Center’s service under the Parental Co-Payment proposal and tighten the state’s definition of disability which is used to determine weather individuals are eligible for services. Another common factor of San Francisco’s Prop N and Governor’s proposed cuts in developmental disability system is the hijack of the funds in both systems to the general fund to balance the budget.

For more information on the advocacy activities of the Community Advocacy Network around the state budget and people with developmental disabilities call:
Marty Omoto (916) 446-3202 and for info on updates on Proposition N and to get involved to stop the implementation of it call the Jennifer Freidenbach at the Coalition on Homeless at (415) 346-3740.

Tags

One if by Land, Two if by Budget Cut

09/24/2021 - 11:44 by Anonymous (not verified)
Original Author
root
Original Body

by Bruce Allison and Thorton Kimes

SSI and SSP will be cut by $20 a month beginning July, 2009. This will create a deficit in the personal budgets of anyone with a disability, or seniors enrolled in those programs. California pays $200 more on these grants than the federal government, which gives The Governator room to cut and still give more than other states. The President’s Stimulus package makes it possible for the cut to be only $5 a month by this poverty scholar’s math.

Other cuts devastating to poor folks include cutting home care workers’ pay from $11 to $9 per hour. Many home care workers are providing services for their own parents or other relatives in need of their help; many home care workers provide these services instead of working in other fields for more money--they could even have ended up being some of the people we love to hate for the current state of the economy, except that they had a conscience and chose to help family.

These workers have been helping the California economy by keeping them at home instead of in more expensive nursing facilities. A great example of this is Poor Magazine’s own Tiny Lisa Gray Garcia, who was her own mother’s care giver as well as being a mother herself—and running a fabulous publication—before becoming Communications Director of Justice Matters, a non-profit advocacy organization that helps youth of color get a better education.

People who receive MediCal benefits are also going under the knife, as the Governator is now calling dentistry, vision, podiatry, chiropractic, acupuncture, and some psychiatric out-patient services “cosmetic”. This will inevitably take patients straight to the Emergency Room of the nearest hospital, spending the money Schwarzenegger wants to save anyway.

Last of the knife cuts is to families of three or more, cutting their monthly CalWorks grant from $760 to $690. Many of my friends and Poor Magazine co-writers will be enduring this particular indignity. After paying the rent and utilities there will only be $300 left to get through the month. This is tough for a single person to do, let alone a family.

Please think of them as having some dignity in their lives. It is hard enough to ask someone else for help, they did not ask for this and do not deserve it. Please ask/demand that the Governator change these decisions, as there are other cuts he could make to save money that wouldn’t hurt anyone. Disabled and Senior folks in the state prison system could be paroled and save approximately $100 million.

There are some other solutions this poverty scholar would like to make, but they are not very polite, so dear readers, you must use your imaginations. Consider this article an exercise in anger management!


Tags