The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury, a board of citizens impaneled for a year to look into governmental issues, released a report today making recommendations on how to address the region’s overwhelmingly high homeless rate. The 38-page report looks back at the recommendations from the consulting group Focus Strategies that led the city of Eureka and […]
homelessness
Posted inNews
Draft Housing Element Calls for Drastic Solutions to Humboldt’s Housing ‘Crisis’
It is no surprise that Humboldt County has a lack of affordable housing. For years, county government has identified the need for more housing of all types but the private sector hasn’t built enough and many of the new builds are simply too expensive for the majority of Humboldt residents to afford. Consequently, the 2019 […]
Posted inNews
Digital Nomad: A Bipolar Man’s Slow Slide into Homelessness in Humboldt
With his head hung low and a purple, black eye cast to the ground, Robert Stretton crossed the street outside the Humboldt County Courthouse on the cold, rainy afternoon of Dec. 20. He had just been served with a restraining order, a day after being evicted from an office on Eureka’s E Street that he’d […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
‘I’m Indoors’
This is a new beginning after a story that has been long, slow, painful and ever so drawn out. I am (finally) back indoors, in an actual apartment! Not some long-term, extended stay motel nor the local Rescue Mission nor a cold and lonely tent in the middle of nowhere. A real apartment. It’s a […]
Posted inNews
Arcata Council Advances Revised Village Housing Project
Arcata’s The Village housing project is not dead, the City Council decided last night with a unanimous vote to reconsider the newly revised development proposal. The project will go through three more review hearings before moving forward: one with the Arcata Planning Commission and two more with the council, including one focused on vacating St. […]
Posted inNews
UPDATED: Encampment Removal Operation Near the Bayshore Mall
Several agencies are “executing inspection/abatement and criminal search warrants” property near the Bayshore Mall, according to the Eureka Police Department. The operation began at 8 a.m. and prompted the closure of the mall entrance at Bayshore Way, the EPD release states. Blankets, clothes and shoes were hurriedly packed into gallon-sized garbage bags, as residents of […]
Posted inNews
Wood, McGuire Applaud Gov.’s Budget Plan
California Gov. Gavin Newsom released the first budget proposal of his tenure today, proposing a $209 billion spending plan that would increase funding for schools, healthcare programs and the fight against homelessness. The budget proposal — which came in at about $8 billion more than Gov. Jerry Brown’s last spending proposal — also would increase […]
Posted inNews
Volunteers Needed for Homeless Count
The Humboldt Housing and Homeless Coalition is seeking volunteers to participate in its biennial count of people experiencing homelessness locally. The count is dependent on volunteer participation and tries to quantify the number of people living without shelter on a single night. The results of the count serve as the single best quantification of the […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Street Poetry
If not from spotting him around Old Town, you may recognize Bob Hager from his Oct. 26, 2017, Journal cover story “Homeless Survival Guide.” Hager is a veteran and he and his late wife, Kathleen, had been homeless off and on for decades and were evicted after a long-term stay at the Budget Inn in […]
Posted inNews
Capital & Main Takes a Hard Look at Homelessness at HSU
Capital & Main, an online nonprofit publication, published an article yesterday spotlighting housing insecurity for Humboldt State University Students. The article, which cites a Dec. 2016 article in the Journal by HSU Investigative Reporting students, is part of a 10-day series exploring homelessness in California. According to report released by the California State University system […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Homeless with a Severe Disability
Eureka, Humboldt’s county seat, draws a lot of homeless to the city, which seems natural, for here are the services offered to those in need of them (stating this does not ignore the need in other communities of the county). As a disabled individual who depends on a mobility device, looking for housing has been […]
Posted inNews
Board of Supervisors Declare Shelter Crisis
Following more than a month of meetings and deliberation by an ad hoc committee and intense public comment on the issue, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously today to declare a shelter crisis and create a committee to explore housing trust funds and solutions to homelessness. The decision, which came after over an […]