Baton Rogue and Saffron Strand

I've been doing quite a bit of searching on the net for news stories concerning how other cities are dealing with the homeless, and I found a couple of interesting items. One was from Baton Rogue, Louisiana, and the other from just up the road in Richmond.

The story out of Louisiana, published today, was written by Edward Pratt of The Advocate (a Louisiana news site). http://theadvocate.com/columnists/6254059-55/our-voices-bus-ticket-not

What I found interesting about the story was that Mr. Pratt failed to see what exactly the problem was with homeless flooding down town Baton Rogue. Mr. Pratt's op-ed detailed his opposition to a program designed to give bus tickets to the homeless, shipping them elsewhere. That, in and of itself is fine. Shipping your problems out of town instead of dealing with them directly is never a solution, especially for the town receiving them.

But back to my original point: why is it that a lot of these folks who are “homeless advocates” fail so miserably to see why people at large object to the homeless? Do I have to spell it out?

I don't think so. Not here. Not in Livermore. Most people with common sense (aka, Livermorons) know that when a man is homeless, if he doesn't stink, if he is reasonably clean, and doesn't impinge on their lives by costing them money or being loud or being some other kind of nuisance, he's not a problem.

There's a reason this town is pretty much a paradise for the Homeless. It's because of the character of the town! Don't lose that, Livermorons, you are America at it's best. Livermore's character forces the homeless here to behave better than homeless elsewhere. Elsewhere (such as San Francisco) the homeless have rights! They have the right to smell up your place and chase away your customers. They have the right to be loud and obnoxious and annoying. Miss Judy would fit right in! Livermore's homeless have been described as “Gentile”... not because they want to be, but because they have to be!

What else I found appears, on the surface, to be something of a gem growing in the muck. The CoCo Times today profiled a conference being held Monday and Tuesday just up the road in Richmond.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/west-county-times/ci_23462382/richmond-based-homeless-organization-draws-high-profile-speaker

Richmond is a well known basket case of a town. It was there, in 2009 that an infamous gang-rape occurred at a Richmond High School Dance. People watched and did nothing. Richmond's reputation as a cesspool of crime is well established.

The group is Saffron Strand. And they do not appear to be your typical group serving the homeless. What impresses me about the group is their stated objective:

The objective of Saffron Strand is to reduce homelessness in Contra Costa County, especially in the West County area. Through Saffron Strand, we focus exclusively on providing new opportunities for homeless people to build job and social skills (behaviour, anyone?) so they can achieve and sustain gainful employment and economic independence. We accept homeless persons as members whose volunteer work is required for operation of the organization. We offer membership without charge to homeless people of every origin and background to realize their individual potential. We maintain professional quality office space for members, a place of respect where they can participate with dignity during the work day to expand their work skills, develop their individual talents, seek and find outside employment, and increase their capacity for cooperation and community involvement.

http://www.saffronstrand.org/case-statement-2012/

My question for Saffron Strand is: how are you achieving those goals, and are you seeing success?

On the surface, the group appears to be focussed entirely on what a true advocacy group should be focussed on, but I have a lot of questions for them. As time progresses, and assuming they'll talk to me, I'll try and get all of us some answers. Interesting what you find when you go looking...