SHEsaysWITHaSMILE.blogspot.com

We continue to advocate for Dignity Acres Emergency Campground.

And advocate for Santa Clara County Fairgrounds as the place

for Dignity Acres Emergency Campground.

The fairgrounds has over 100 acres.  The fairgrounds already has infrastructure.

The fairgrounds give first responders a place to relocate homeless individuals IMMEDIATELY. NOW. TODAY.  While we resolve the crisis in a more comprehensive way.

And This would be appropriate use of Prop 1 funding.

 We are RE-submitting here today, Our outline for

Dignity Acres Emergency Campground. 

Which is available to the public at NOTonNOBLE.blogspot.com

60 SECONDS @ the SUMMIT, by Robert

The term homeless is too one-sided and misleading. The homeless we see on the streets are not in their situation because of financial difficulty.  The people who end up homeless are the ones who destroy their relationships by their own actions. The actions that force friends, family, and apartment managers to have these dysfunctional people removed from their residence are as follows:

physical violent assaults,

intimidation,

 fear,

 threats,

stealing,

destroying the property,

 drug addiction,

 verbal assault,

conducting criminal activity,

 not respecting others,

not obeying the home rules,

 filth,

and refusing to be productive and get a job.

  Just draining their friends and family financially and mentally. After many chances, there comes a point when their friends and family can’t take the abuse from them anymore and they must leave. 

NOTE:  there were a few people talking over robert's 60 seconds,  'homeless arent criminals!'

                  /which brings me over and over to:   YES, a % of them are!  there is more than one demographic;  the homeless population colonizing our creeks, and sleeping/begging in front of our local businesses are not 100% domestic abuse victims, or 100% people unable to find affordable housing

exactly the point robert was making..  

60 SECONDS @ the SUMMIT, by Tom

Homelessness has become a major crisis in my City, and yet, it isn’t being treated as such. The number of people living on the streets in San Jose rivals those left homeless after earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, and floods. But, for San Jose’s homeless disaster, no federal relief is available. Why is that? Isn’t the suffering of homeless people just as real as the suffering of those displaced by catastrophic events?

The time to act is now! It’s time to lobby the federal government for funding, and It’s time to build-back our mental health and drug rehabilitation institutions. Doing so will take many years, so, in the meantime, we must immediately build tent cities large enough to shelter the entire homeless population of San Jose. Too, it’s time to find new, innovative solutions. The course of action taken thus far has been a very expensive, and very massive failure, with the biggest outcome being an ever-increasing population of those living on the streets.

We the taxpayers, will no longer accept the current trend of slowly building expensive temporary shelters for a projected outcome that only addresses a small percentage of the needed units, and which won’t come online until many years from now. Concurrently, the City is funneling the lion’s share of funding to non-profits to care for the homeless on the streets. This is a failed business model that only serves the non-profits. It doesn’t get people off the streets, in fact, it enables them to remain on the streets.

San Jose not only tolerates camping in public spaces, but encourages it by providing free goods and services like food, medicine, transportation and healthcare to campers. People in need will always migrate to where their needs are met—it’s human nature. People migrate from all over the country to live homeless in San Jose. They survive on the streets with no money, no home, no car, no insurance, and no food. The only thing they aren’t given are the tools needed for reintegration!

60 SECONDS @ the SUMMIT, by Elva

    Here is a version of my commentary given at the Unhoused Summit last week. The actual in-person commentary had to be a bit cut short, due to time limitation.

The explosion of mentally ill and drug addicted living in squalor in our streets and in our creeks is destroying the quality of our lives. The lives of the invisible community of residents affected by this crisis.  The same community you keep looking to as taxpayers for solutions to this crisis.  The community that is not represented here on any panels, either.  

The mentally ill and drug addicted floundering on streets need to be stabilized in residential treatment facilities, not in safe sleeping sites, not in expensive Tiny Homes, and definitely not in permanent housing.  

The County of Santa Clara, not the City, not  the Water District, has the legal jurisdiction, funding and technical expertise to take care of those with mental health and drug addiction (behavioral) issues living on our streets.   

The  City and County’s singular focus in addressing this crisis by providing exorbitant funding to community non-profit service providers as the primary solution to the homeless crisis has been a massive failed solution, with no accountability for results.  The growing inhumane suffering of the homeless on our streets is a loud and clear broadcast of the failure of these non-profits to manage and improve this crisis.  It's time to stop funding failure.   ( i underlined that...)

 It is mind boggling that after 3 hours of discussion from government agencies and non-profits here today at this unhoused summit, I did not hear any new solutions to this crisis that does not  involve seeking more funding from taxpayers.  

The County has under-utilized land available throughout the 15 cities (not just in SJ) under its jurisdiction which must  be explored to develop residential treatment facilities for the homeless who are mentally ill and drug addicted. 

The County keeps buying up hospitals, but continues to shirk its responsibility of utilizing these facilities it acquires as desperately needed mental health and drug rehab institutions to house and treat our mentally ill and drug addicted.  Please start acting on behalf of the people you were elected to represent.

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from the archives:  roundtable flyer from NOTonNOBLE protest

while we are on this topic: