Berkeley - #10 Meanest City to Homeless

In the photo above, taken about 7:30am the morning of August 18, 2009, we see a 72 year old man that's been awakened by a Berkeley Police officer and has been sitting in his sleeping bag for a good half hour or so while the officer uses a device to measure the area occupied and actually awaited arrival of a "Crime Scene Unit" so that another officer could bring their digital camera and take pictures.

THEN the first officer gives him a citation ticket for being there. These tickets can mean a fine of over $200, which is more than for entire vehicle parking infractions or even some traffic violations, including those that might pose even dangerous safety risks. Huh?

Does this seem out of scale, at all? Overkill? A good, appropriate or cost-effective use of city budget, police, civic resources?

HOW might this "solve the problem"... and just what IS "the problem"? Did ANYone actually complain about this old guy sleeping there, or is this yet another in a program of basic harassing actions by the cops and the city, on their own initiative?

I mean, really. It's an old man. A homeless old man. One that was sleeping and obviously has tidily arranged his meagre collection of belongings, which have only been temporarily located at that spot and which he'd move once he awoke and got going.

This police action followed a growing number of similar ones in recent times, where homeless folks were disturbed and either made to leave and/or cited. Tellingly, the police deliberately do so either late at night or early in the morning, apparently purposely awakening people and harassing them at the most inconvenient and difficult times. And then only made to go... where else?

Worse, last week like many times before, homeless people not only get chased away and/or cited, but their minimal possessions are taken. Just thrown away. This has included their bedding, clothing, etc. leaving them all the more destitute and trapped on the streets empty handed... where they continue to be at risk for just more of this same callous, heartless harassment... to WHAT possible good end?

Late one night not long before this photo was taken, several cops and cruisers had arrived at a location where a number of people had been sleeping to drive everyone away and I had approached two officers on foot that were walking about waking people up to chase them away. I asked them directly and outright where people COULD go and be peaceably, instead. All they could and did tell me was that it was not there. Nor the next block, nor the next.

One officer said: "If you tuck yourself away somewhere else and there's no noise or problem, then I probably will have no reason to bother with you." Somewhere... else. "Tucked away". Probably.

Berkeley applies for, and receives, millions of dollars in various federal/state/etc. funding "to help the homeless". Here's how considerable city funds are actually being spent, for example.

Bus-ted

My friend "Typhoon" had been living in his bus for a couple of years now. It's one of those smaller ones, just larger than a typical "van". It finally got towed a few days ago, because he'd fallen behind on registration fees. This is a major disaster for many that are living in their vehicles.

He also had a temporary guest staying with him, who arrived there while the towing was underway. She's got a terminal illness and they wouldn't even allow her entry to retrieve her medications -- because she isn't the owner. So they took the vehicle and everything in it.

Often, or usually, this means that the owner is going to just lose their vehicle/home, since the fees and fines for the towing and the additional daily ransom charges are more than a person can muster right away. If they'd had the cash, they could've paid the registration and avoided the seizure in the first place. So the vehicle is heading for the auction and the tow lot will get the proceeds, paying themselves for having gone and gotten it.

Meanwhile, the clock's also ticking on how long is allowed for a person to go retrieve whatever belongings were inside. That is, whatever might be left, since theft is common. Who has a documented inventory of everything to prove what was there? And, of course, there's a fee and a cumbersome process to get an official access permit. Each time.

I've managed to keep a commercial storage unit for some of my own belongings, in all this time. Often, just barely, which is a precarious monthly challenge of raising enough funds to meet that rent to keep virtually all I own from getting seized and sold off there. So I pay a couple of hundred monthly so that my stuff is safely indoors, even with heat/air conditioning, while I sleep outdoors.

I juggled things and made some space and Typhoon borrowed a pickup truck, did the drill and brought some of his things over there, where we've stashed it all, for now. My storage rent day is directly ahead and I've managed to rustle it up, once more, which will leave me with precious few dollars in the pocket.

Just days before Typhoon's bus got taken, he'd been notified that he has been successfully qualified and will be receiving monthly benefit payments, which are to commence in about two weeks. He'll be able to get another vehicle so just has to "rough it" until then.

I don't receive any such benefits or payments.