Cold Shoulders
A point-in-time survey on January 27 of this year, in which counters fanned out across the county and interviewed as many homeless people they could find in a single day, found 1,497 homeless adults and 416 homeless children. Arcata alone had 219 adults and 44 kids. Eureka had 723 adults and 262 children. And the rest were distributed amongst the county’s other towns.
Meanwhile, the only shelters are an 11-bed night shelter in Arcata, the Eureka Rescue Mission (“where they cram them in,” Shelter said), plus some emergency winter accomodations at the Serenity Inn, churches and other places, and some safe-and-sober homes in Eureka. Most people camp in the marshes and woods, or sleep in cars or on friend’s couches and occasionally in motels.
Shelter said if he had more support from the city of Arcata — with whom he just temporarily settled a nasty battle over the location of the services center — he’d have his homeless work crews doing some outreach to the panhandling homeless. The crews are already out and about, he said, setting up and taking down events on the plaza and cleaning up trash for the city.
“They would talk to them, you know, like peer counseling,” said Shelter. “And they would bring them down here to feed them and get help and we’d teach them about respect. So, instead of police issuing them a citation, we’d be asking them, ‘Do you need anything?’”
Shelter said his programs already have pulled a number of homeless people — as long as they’re willing to work and educate themselves — off the streets. And some of them already are going out into the community to work with other homeless people. For instance, in the New Directions program, volunteers and staff venture three times a week into Palco Marsh in Eureka to talk one-on-one with illegal campers and train them to respect the land and clean up their camps. So how about extending that idea to Arcata’s panhandlers?
“Why not use us, the agency intended to do this?” he asked.
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on the cover
Railroad!
Proposed lines ‘set rich blood a-tingling’ in early 1900s
Some Other Proposed North Coast Railroads
Choo-choo Fantasies
Exposing this east-west rail nonsense
seven-o-heaven
Undeterred Will
Will chides Andrew for lack of attention to detail and makes plans for his inevitable victory.
Recent on the cover
May 17
Ring of Fire
Sun and moon will perform a rare pas de deux in Humboldt skies on Sunday
May 10
District Soup
Racing for the top county seat in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd districts
May 3
A Place in the Woods
As park closure deadline nears, a scramble to save what we can
Today
44th Annual Kinetic Grand Championship Race
STAFF PICK / events, art, outdoors, sports, for kids, free / 9 a.m.-6 p.m. A 3-day, 42-mile kinetic sculpture race over land, sand, mud and water! LeMans start at the Noon Whistle on the Arcata Plaza. Follow the race through Manila, Eureka and into Ferndale on Memorial Day for the Glorious Finish. kineticgrandchampionship.com. 889-3024.
Flow 2012 Fashion Show
STAFF PICK / events / 8 p.m. Arcata Theatre Lounge, 1036 G St. Student designed and produced clothing. Fundraiser for Arcata Arts Institute. $35/$25 students. artsinstitute.net. 822-1220.
Woodside Preschool's Rummage/Bake Sale
events / 8 a.m.-noon. Woodside Preschool, 900 Hodgson St, Eureka. www.woodsidepreschool.com. 445-9132.
Lanphere Dunes Restoration
STAFF PICK / outdoors / 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Meet at Pacific Union School. Help remove non-native invasives at the Lanphere Dunes Unit of the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Tools and gloves provided, wear work clothes and bring water. Carpool to the protected site. 444-1397.
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SEVEN Comments
Comment / By Natalia Leonard / Dec. 10, 2009, 3:43 p.m.
Maybe Humboldt is afraid of “If you build it they will come”. Well they are already there and a winter shelter is needed. Additionally jobs provided in running it along with some of the programs listed could help the situation. The square may then return to all the community.
Comment / By Charlotte Fonsec / Dec. 10, 2009, 9:08 p.m.
I am a homeless youth who just moved to Humboldt County in August. I am in school, and have an awesome job now, but I have my fair share of tickets for panhandling and camping. This ordinance would be an unfair way to target someone for a situation that they may not have any control over. The homeless are not going to just diappear, so maybe instead of criminalizing homelessness, the city should put their efforts into positive alternatives, such as shelters.
Comment / By Journal BIAS / Dec. 11, 2009, 6:39 a.m.
As usual, the real legal expertise of the civil rights community (the ACLU in this case) is shoved aside for the faulty legal advice of Nancy Diamond, who has the flimsiest grasp of Constitutional Law and who has an amazing track record of LOSING every time such an issue comes up for Arcata (which is often considering how often the self-righteous yuppies stick their foot in their collective mouth there).
We’re waiting for the Media Maven to call out the blatant imbalance in this article, the way-apparent tilt in favor of the usual gang of police state suck-ups in City Hall. We’re going to be waiting a long, long time for that, aren’t we?
Comment / By timL / Dec. 12, 2009, 9:09 a.m.
Sadly, the homeless who ‘choose’ to be this way, will never understand that this is a SMALL, under-funded area. many of us work 2 jobs to stay above poverty level!
We have more than enough compassion here, but we simply cannot AFFORD to take care of hundreds of ‘hobos’ any longer! Downtown Arcata and Eureka businesses dont owe YOU anything, yet you punish them by driving off their few customers!
GO to a major city, where you will find missions, shelters, lawyers, and who knows? maybe even JOBS???
Comment / By do work for money / Dec. 16, 2009, 11:10 a.m.
Unfortunately most pan-handlers are working- they are working panhandling money. It is a profession for quite a number- sort of like the craft fair ciruit except they don’t make things to sell- they just try to push guilt or fear depending on what they think gets them something. And it can be pretty good money depending on location and technique.
It’s amazing to some one who has worked all their life to hear how difficult it is for some who “will work” to get a job. Something, never their fault, always gets in the way. Makes you really wonder how you’ve been so lucky all your life. Like the man in the story whose relatives wouldn’t take him in for the holidays- probably because they have lots of experience with the result. Truth is that most people, with very few exceptions, who live on the streets are there because they exercise very poor judgement- they can’t adjust to normal society, To expect them to exercise good judgement on their own about begging without police assistance is just not realistic. Look at the man quoted in the article- people were not willing to assist him in his chosen way of life so he came here. Whoopee.
Comment / By Trish / Dec. 16, 2009, 11:20 a.m.
When times are hard, why do we try to make public policy that makes it harder for those already less fortunate? The entire reason I moved here is because I felt a real sense of community in this little town. This situation has made me want to volunteer my time to try to solve this problem and help my community and ALL of its inhabitants. We need more food, clothing and job awareness! Who’s with me Arcata??!!
Comment / By nan / Dec. 20, 2009, 6:43 p.m.
Remember when there were laws against vagrancy? What happened to them? Hats off to John who knows how to get things done. I am so excited about his Palco Marsh project. I take my dog for walks there (I bring a biodegradable bag to clean up his mess) and I am disgusted by the trash and wet clothes left by the homeless. A box of plastic bags at the dollar store could keep the place cleaned up and the clothes dry. There is no excuse for leaving the trash the way they do—it is lack of responsibility and now John is calling them to task.