Greetings!
On Tuesday, November 21st, the Santa Rosa City
Council heard a report from its City Manager that its activities to evict the
homeless from the City's underpasses encountered problems.
"Outreach efforts were impeded by interference
from activists. Consequently, many of the occupants vacated the area
rather than being placed into services and shelter, including a group which has
relocated to Roseland Village (Camp Michela aka Remembrance Village)."
Here are some responses from our members who were at
the eviction:
“I did not go near those people. when I saw them
come up the block finally all I did was tell everybody that host is here and
you better cooperate with them to get your housing I was encouraging everybody
to cooperate with host this is a red herring. Puro pedo! !”
Victoria Yanez
Victoria Yanez
“I was present the morning HOST did the intake
interviews. The man there working for them dropped his clipboard and some
cards or paper right in the middle of the street (left turn lane) as traffic
was oncoming, and I offered to help. I got rudely barked at for the
offer, so I walked away.
Later, when one or two of them were at a corner (6th
and Morgan) waiting for their colleagues to walk a block or so and join them
again, someone asked if they could see a blank intake form to know what
questions were being asked. This request was denied, and the requester
did not press.
The next day when HOST was picking people up to go
to the shelters and waiting for residents to get their stuff ready, I asked one
of the women working for them a couple of questions after she was done talking
to a resident: how many beds were available, and—after she claimed not to know—what
their plan was if they transported people to a shelter and those people were
turned away at the door. I was told there were more than 8 beds, but she
didn't know how many more, and they "could fill some extra space with
cots." She didn't know if there was room for 15 people. She
didn't know if there was room for 10. That was it. This back and
forth probably took 30 seconds to a minute, and she was standing around waiting
so it's not like I was holding her up.
That is the full extent of "interference"
I am aware of. I and several others I talked to stayed away from HOST as
they conducted interviews, both to respect residents' privacy and
confidentiality and fully hoping that as many people who could and wanted to
would get through the process and into a shelter. I believe HOST was
present for all of 45 minutes to do their interviews the first morning (far
less than that when picking people up the second morning), and nothing we did
caused them to pack up and go home at the end of that. To the best of my
knowledge they did not visit 5th Street. Personally I was there to
observe and record the whole process (especially the role of the police), get
people food and essential supplies, help them pack and move things, and raise
some awareness by displaying signs for passing cars and people. I was not
there to interfere with HOST in any way, nor would I have supported anyone else
doing so.
By the way, those arrests that supposedly happened
for reasons unrelated to the encampment happened while people were being
detained for reasons related to the encampment. For example, they
detained people who they said they suspected were not giving their real names,
and at least one arrest proceeded from there. If these people had just
been walking by on the street, they almost certainly would not have been
targeted, detained, or arrested. Saying the arrests had nothing to do
with the encampment is complete fiction.
So now—in addition to claiming we got directly in
HOST's way—they are trying the angle of claiming that we actually scared
homeless people away from accepting space in the shelters and convinced them to
move to another camp instead. Holy shit! Love being the dumping
grounds for failed public policy, eh?”
Merlin
“Greetings, everybody!
I am investigating the charges that activists
interfered with HOST or the police or any other entity participating in the
evictions as well as the transport of people and possessions to the new
sanctuary camp next to Camp Remembrance in Roseland.
Personally, I witnessed no interference nor
complaints from any of the above about such allegations. The one
exception is that Sgt Jon Wolf told me that an activist was hovering too
closely near the Mental Health Unit, which had been called and was assessing
somebody [not sure if that was at 6th St or Roseland].
I'm going to be speaking with all the parties quoted
in the PD piece by Kevin McCallum, including Kevin, and I intend to set the
story straight.
I already have a long list of the myriad forms of
invaluable assistance that we provided and it is my contention that we were not
obstructors, we were protectors.
If anybody
has any further information of any sort about encounters, particularly with
woman who appeared to be the captain of the HOST team, please let me know asap.
i daresay
that this latest absurdity has this old woman ready to spout out some very,
very unlady-like exclamatories. How dare they? i challenge all
of 'em - city council, BOS, Holmes, Kuykendall (with the exception of Julie Combs)
because there wasn't a one of them on the scene last week. i
challenge them to march themselves right down to last chance village to
interview the residents because not one of them was talked out of going to
their stinkin' shelter.”
Thanks.
Onward!
Kathleen
“I saw the
HOST workers on 2 occasions. They walked around with clipboards
speaking to those on street who were most vulnerable. We were told
to “go away”, if we even got close enough to hear their conversations. Since
we were assisting in the move by organizing belongs and taking down tents, we
might have come in contact. Since even those most vulnerable had to
clear out that day, it’s a question of who was most helpful and who was ‘impeding’. Our
presence was deemed to be this way because we hindered crass and insensitive
direction by HOST or the police. It is unfortunate that observers
and witnesses are necessary. No one should treat the downtrodden
with impunity. Our sole goal was to expedite their uncertain move
and to remove garbage. Homeless Action viewed this as supporting our
neighbors.”
Sincerely,
Anita LaFollette
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