Page 10 - Sonoma County Gazette - August 2017

Homeless
Impact of Safe Parking Eviction
Victims
By Kerry Fowler
Nearly three weeks has elapsed
How would I get enough sleep to function well at my good-paying, part-time job as a Personal Assistant and caregiver? Would I be able
of Crime
since, one by one, Administration Drive Safe Parking participants were approached by the program manager and a monitor and handed sheets of paper on the evening of June 20. “Good!”, I thought, from the front seat of my car, several rows away, “They’re finally enforcing the designated smoking area and dog leashing rules.”
to continue my job search to find more work that would enable me
to afford the exorbitant rent in Sonoma County—with my devoted friend Senon, my rock through nine months of homelessness thus far?
Victims receive services through Homeless Outreach Team
District Attorney Jill Ravitch has announced that over 100 homeless victims of crime have been provided services through the Homeless Outreach Team (HOT), which launched in March 2017. Over 300 transportation, food, motel, and clothing vouchers have been distributed to help victims meet their immediate needs. Six of the victims served by the program are currently in permanent housing. The program leverages partnerships between the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office Victim Services Division, Catholic Charities, Verity, YWCA and the Family Justice Center to expand outreach and bring each agency’s specific skills and services to this population.
District Attorney Ravitch stated, “Homeless individuals are among the most vulnerable in our county and are highly susceptible to victimization. We are excited that HOT is providing these victims with critically important support services.”
Using a multi-disciplinary approach, outreach and case management, the Homeless Outreach Team provides timely and comprehensive services to homeless crime victims. The goals of the program are to reduce barriers to obtain social, health and housing services and to foster coordination across the county to address difficulties facing homeless victims of crime. The program is currently funded through December 2019 by a CalOES grant received by the Sonoma County DA’s Office Victim Services Division.
The District Attorney’s office thanks program partners Catholic Charities, Verity, YWCA and the Family Justice Center for their commitment to serving homeless victims in our community.
10 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 8/17
Would I develop bronchitis for
the fourth time since becoming homeless and be forced to rent a motel room with the small amount of money I’ve saved toward housing? Would my pristine background be negatively affected if I was cited? Will the public perceive the Working Homeless of Safe Parking in the same way it does
They were taking far too long
to get to my car. I didn’t want to
wait forever so I ventured out
and joked with the monitor about
him running for mayor. His sober
expression and somber response of
“No” intimated that whatever they
were handing out was private and
didn’t apply to me so I went back to
my car. Soon, a poker-faced fellow
Safe Parker approached me and told
me that we were being evicted.
I knew that couldn’t be true. He
and the rest of them must’ve done
something wrong and it certainly wouldn’t apply to me.
the people on Homeless Hill and under the overpasses, as drug and alcohol addicts and could I count on its understanding and support? I finally cried when I considered the impending worry and stress to my
I still wasn’t believing him but began to feel increasingly uncomfortable as I watched my Safe Parking friends walking from car to car, sharing
this paper. Finally, my turn came, I was handed the ominous white sheet of paper and my name was swiftly checked off the monitor’s list and they moved on
already concerned elderly father when he received my latest news.
down my row. It was indeed true. It was over. No more relatively safe, legal place to sleep in my car.
The lot was soon filled with shell-shocked
Attempts to figure out how Catholic Charities could justify unceremoniously throwing the underemployed Working Homeless to the wolves with no time to investigate options and unite with others to figure out alternatives became a fruitless obsession. We were told it was a funding decision but why were we the last to know about it at the eleventh hour? It was an insensitive, heartless, and cruel action to say the least.
expressions, wailing and soft sobbing as people climbed into their vehicles and closed the doors for
the night. I took my beloved old dog Senon for a final evening walk, prayed for God’s guidance and direction. I tried to sleep but it was interrupted by periods of wakefulness with thoughts that this eviction notice was only one of many frightening dreams but realized at each waking that it was not a dream. I tried not to cry.
I needed to be rested tomorrow because I would need fully engage on the strength and courage I had prayed for and forced myself back to sleep each time.
I reminded myself that I had prayed for strength and courage and I would need to engage it NOW, for my beloved dog and me, and for others. It was just wrong. I decided that
I could either roll over on my back and pee on myself or get up and unite with others who were recovering from their own shock and reach out to advocates who knew more about politics—I’d decided that was likely what the action stemmed from—and figure a way to turn this around and unite we did.
Tomorrow came. I re-read the notice and the inescapable feeling of being sucker-punched in the
gut by Catholic Charities, the most trusted name of Christian goodness and mercy toward t, stayed with me as I tried to digest the options presented. After 9 months of homelessness I was being thrown from the frying pan into the fire. I wasn’t going to choose to be assigned to the Family Support Center parking area
to be immersed by the unsavory activities of the street homeless population and I was not going to subject myself to the unhealthy conditions that reportedly
exist at the shelters. I’d been told that I could receive help through Rapid Rehousing Program but I first needed to find a place that I could afford. I was stuck
in the same cycle of trying to market my valuable administrative skills but being so sleep-deprived that
I could hardly search for housing and work daily. I suddenly envisioned myself seeking remote parking places but being scared out of my wits with a tap on my window and a flashlight in my face telling me, “Ma’am, you can’t sleep here, please move along.”
Our self-advocacy paid off. Our plight and the impact it had on us was heard by local politicians, the press, homeless advocates and members of successful homeless communities, women’s advocates, churches, and most importantly by Catholic Charities. After countless emails and phone calls
by many, Catholic Charities graciously agreed to offer Safe Parking participants a three-week reprieve until July 17. We all slept little better with a little gift of time that would be put to good use.
Swirling questions began to flood my mind that exacerbated already plaguing anxiety and depression.
Perhaps the best news near our last days a Safe Parking
is that Catholic Charities has recently expanded its Rapid Rehousing Program to assist the Working Homeless with a case manager who will regularly meet with each one of us, return phone calls and texts, and who appears to be sincerely and passionately dedicated to executing that role. This is a far cry from June 20, when I felt like I didn’t matter. Because of asking for strength and courage to persevere, I now have renewed hope and look forward to peace in my life with my faithful old dog and a prosperous future once more.
During the last fleeting three weeks we have held informal meetings amongst peers and advocates and formal meetings with Catholic Charities staff to ask questions and explore our options. The majority of us feel that even though we don’t have answers to 100% of our questions about how an organization that has been a champion for the homeless could—by all appearances—suddenly kick the Working Homeless population to the curb, we have improved communication with Catholic Charities, which is key to our collaborative efforts to find housing.