Street Spirit, January 2015

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by Carol Denney

About 300 residents of “theJungle,” a 68-acre camp nearCoyote Creek in San Jose, were

given notice on Monday, December 1,that they’d be arrested for trespassing ifthey didn’t leave. Four days later, onThursday, December 4, city crews andpolice evicted the remaining people andtossed whatever personal belongings theycouldn’t carry into the trash.

On Monday, the residents of the Junglestill had shelter, often tents or makeshiftshelters built of anything handy. ByThursday, they had nowhere to go.

San Jose officials were proud of having“housed” 144 camp residents and handedout vouchers to another 55. Vouchers for

non-existent housing are nothing new toresidents of the Jungle. That’s exactlyhow some of the encampment’s residentsended up camping there in the first place.

It’s easy for most of us to see through adumb idea, such as a canoe made of cottonballs, a lead balloon, or perhaps the comedyof the self-driving car. But, somehow, thedumb idea of forcing homeless people tomove from place to place — only to evictthem once again and drive them away on anever-ending march to nowhere — persistsas a viable political option.

The eviction of the largest national col-lective camp of homeless people in thenation took place on December 4, justbetween Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Hundreds of people had set up tents,

lean-tos, and even a tree house in the 68-acre Coyote Creek area in an effort to restsomewhere where the local policewouldn’t make them move continuouslyfrom place to place. They had children,pets, small amenities, and some bandedtogether in protective families.

It wasn’t a safe place. Not for people,not for wildlife, not for the ecologicalhealth of the creekside, either. But forthose now huddled in shopping centerparking lots and back alleys with what lit-

by Osha Neumann

This very odd question occurredto me after Terry Messman, theeditor of Street Spirit, suggestedI write something for the paper

in conjunction with the publication of mybook, Doodling on the Titanic: theMaking of Art in a World on the Brink.

My day job as a lawyer defending peo-ple who are homeless doesn’t give memuch chance to think about beauty. I’mall about how to squeeze my clientsthrough the loopholes of law and convincea judge that even though they sleep with-out a roof over their head, they’re stillcovered by the Constitution.

Beauty doesn’t enter into it. But here I am, sitting in court, waiting

for the judge to take the bench and thisquestion—Are Homeless People Beautiful?— is roiling around in my mind.

I don’t argue in court about whetherhomeless people are beautiful. It’s notsomething on which a judge will render averdict. Nevertheless, aesthetic judgmentsabout people who are homeless are alwaysthere in the mix, disappearing into a crowdof judgments about their cleanliness, theircriminality, and the risk they may or maynot represent to society’s health, well-beingand economic prosperity.

These judgments are there in the courtin which I am now sitting. They are therein the court of public opinion.

And usually they are negative.Are Homeless People Beautiful? The

answer generally is no. They are not. This should not be surprising. People

who are homeless are the targets of preju-dice. And the target de jour of prejudice isinvariably stigmatized as bad and ugly,morally and aesthetically displeasing.

“Dirty Jew,” the anti-Semite shouts,“with your ugly hooked nose.”

Many Jews in Israel have much thesame opinion about Palestinians.

Call to mind all the racist images ofpeople whose skin color tends towardsblack. Now think of the public image ofpeople who are homeless: dirty, smelly,unkempt, lazy.

The targets of prejudice are invariablydirty. Dirt is a sign of moral degeneracy.It is unhealthy and it’s ugly. Like excre-ment. If it’s in the street, it needs to becleaned up. Then the street will be beauti-ful again. Metaphors of cleansing aboundwhere prejudice attempts to rid itself ofthose who offend it.

Homeless people are constantly cited forwhat we call “quality of life” offenses:blocking the sidewalk, trespassing onchurch steps, lodging (whatever thatmeans), remaining in the park after curfew,etc. etc. I’m in court right now to defendmy clients against just such charges.

But I can’t help feeling their underly-

Silicon Valley’s BrilliantDesign: Homeless FamiliesEvicted in the Winter RainDevelopers and Silicon Valley billionaires are so busy trying tomilk profits out of our communities they don’t see the inevitableresult of ignoring people’s housing needs: Families in the rain.

Are HomelessPeople Beautiful?

See Are Homeless People Beautiful page 8Osha Neumann, an artist and attorney who defends homeless people, has a newbook out: Doodling on the Titanic: the Making of Art in a World on the Brink.

San Jose evicted 300 homeless people from the Jungle, forcingthem to pack up their tents and all their wordly possessions.

“Scavengers” Paintingby Christine Hanlon

See Mass Evictions at the Jungle page 7

January 2015ST R E E T SP I R I T2

by Chris Herring

On December 4, San Jose offi-cials began the mass evictionof what has been calledAmerica’s largest homeless

encampment: 68 acres of creek-side prop-erty inhabited by some 300 men, women,and children residing in tents, shanties,tree-houses and underground adobedwellings commonly referred to as theJungle.

Ray Bramson, homeless response man-ager for the City of San Jose, justified thecamp’s eviction on grounds of “environ-mental risks,” and its “unsafe and unsani-tary conditions.” Yet, it is difficult tounderstand how an eviction might relieveany of these conditions.

THE HOMELESS ARCHIPELAGO

First, the eviction will not mitigate theenvironmental damage to Coyote Creekby homeless habitation. Even if the citysucceeds in preventing resettlement afterthe police sweep, it will not resolve thepollution problem, but merely move itaround.

The Jungle is the largest camp in amuch longer archipelago of 247 tent citiesalong Santa Clara’s waterways that con-tain 1,230 people, according to a recentcounty census. While the $7,000 invest-ment in an eight-foot steel fence and sev-eral boulders to seal the site may restorethe natural habitat of the former campsite,it will be at the cost of increased environ-mental degradation further upstreamwhere the evicted will relocate.

THE MASS EVICTION WILL EXACER-BATE THE UNSANITARY CONDITIONS

Second, the eviction will exacerbaterather than improve the unsanitary condi-tions faced by the evicted — pushing themfurther from clean water, recycling centers,and toilets. An obvious alternative would befor the city to provide access to toilets,clean water and trash disposal.

In November, Jungle residents protest-ed for better sanitary provisions in anevent eerily similar to those occurring inthe favelas of Rio and slums of Mumbai,shouting “No Potty, No Peace” in front ofthe three port-a-potties provided by thecity. Not only was the ratio of one toiletper 100 persons grossly inadequate, theywere only open between 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.After hours, residents were encouraged touse city-provided sanitary bags.

When a United Nation’s SpecialRapporteur on Human Rights visitedSacramento’s Tent City and discoveredsimilar conditions, the city was found inblatant violation of the UniversalDeclaration on Human Rights, for deny-ing access to safe water, and its policy ofevictions. Far from a solution to unsani-tary conditions, San Jose’s evictions arelikely in violation of international law.

EVICTION ENDANGERS RESIDENTS

Third, eviction will only increase theinsecurity and violence experienced bythe evicted. According to longtime Jungleresident Robert Aguirre, police officersand social workers had been sending peo-ple to the Jungle for years as a placewhere homeless people would find safetyfrom citation and arrest.

From the interviews I’ve conductedwith residents of 12 large encampmentsacross the West Coast, the primary reason

that homeless people “chose” to live insuch congregate settings (as opposed totheir limited alternatives) is the “safety innumbers” they find from persecution bypolice, the harassment and assaults of thehoused who all too frequently exploit, rob,rape, or beat-up the unhoused, as well asattacks by other homeless people.

Yes, the Jungle was a violent and dan-gerous place. The sad reality is that it waslikely safer than the places the evictedwill be spending the coming nights.

LACK OF SHELTER AND HOUSING

Fourth, San Jose officials refute thecritiques leveled above by highlightingtheir “housing first approach” to eviction,noting the 144 Jungle residents who havebeen successfully housed with two-yearrental subsidies, the 60 who have vouch-ers in hand, and the opening of 250 wintershelter beds. This incomplete excuse isthe fourth fallacy of the Jungle’s eviction.

The claim that the provision of the reg-ularly scheduled 250 temporary shelterbeds is an ample response to a permanenteviction in a city with more than 5,000unsheltered individuals is an insult to citi-zen’s intelligence.

The fact that 60 voucher holders, morethan one-third of recipients, could not findhousing even with government-guaran-teed rent is an embarrassing indictment ofcity, state, and federal policies that subsi-dize wealthier homeowners at the expenseof poorer renters.

Furthermore, as cities such as LosAngeles and San Francisco move towardscoordinated assessments to distribute lim-ited housing to those most in need, onemust wonder if San Jose’s blanket-provi-sion of vouchers to Jungle residents is themost efficient and just use of resources ormerely a strategy to reduce the publicrelations bruising of the eviction.

Most importantly, the housing provi-sions did not cover all those in the Jungle.At least 50 people were evicted by policealong with countless others who leftbeforehand in anticipation of eviction.

MASS HOMELESS ENCAMPMENTS ARE

INCREASINGLY COMMON IN U.S.As San Jose captures the momentary

media, it’s important to remember thatthere is nothing exceptional about theJungle in its existence or its eviction.Mass homeless encampments are increas-ingly common fixtures of U.S. cities.

The last time America’s tent cities cap-tured the same degree of national andinternational media attention was in 2009,when they were vividly portrayed as crea-tures of the recession: re-bornHoovervilles for the laid-off and fore-closed. The headlines proliferated: “FromBoom Times to Tent City” (MSNBC),“Tent Cities Arise and Spread inRecession’s Grip” (New York Times), and“Economic Casualties Pile into Tent

Cities” (USA Today). This time the headlines project a mirror

image. With titles like “Struggling in theShadow of Silicon Valley Wealth” (USAToday) and “Hanging out with the Techhave-nots” (Mother Jones), the Junglewas lodged in the heart of the venture-capital drenched Silicon Valley, 10 milesfrom the headquarters of the world’s mostprofitable corporation, and was evictedjust a day before the Labor Departmentannounced that hiring growth is at its bestpace since 1999.

While economic booms and busts drivethe media’s attention towards largeencampments, encampments of this scaleremain persistent.

As the media has a field day with itssensationalistic — nearly pornographic —stories focusing on the poverty of squalorin the midst of opulence that the UnitedStates is so prone to produce, it is impor-tant to remember that those living in theJungle were not there “by choice,” butbecause they had nowhere else to go.

Expelled from all other public spacesby the region’s criminalization of thepoor, they have now been pushed intomore remote, dangerous, and unsanitaryjungles along Coyote Creek.

Chris Herring is PhD Candidate ofSociology at University of California Berkeleyand focuses on homelessness and urban policy.He is the primary author of the NationalCoalition on Homelessness report: “Tent Citiesin America: A Pacific Coast Report.” He canbe reached at chrisherring.org.

The Eviction of America’s Largest Homeless Camp

A contractor in charge of cleanup (at left) hands a warning notice to a resident of the Jungle, the nation’slargest homeless encampment. Hundreds of people were warned that they would be arrested for trespassing.

Photo credit:Associated Press

Homeless people were forced to pack up all their belongingsand leave the Jungle as the bulldozers arrived to demolish it.

Photo credit: Squat!nethttp://en.squat.net

The Jungle was lodged in the heart of the venture-capi-tal drenched Silicon Valley, 10 miles from the head-quarters of the world’s most profitable corporation.

It is important to remem-ber that those living in theJungle were not there “bychoice,” but because theyhad nowhere else to go.

god made visibleby Judy Joy Jones

can you really put a soul in jailfor loving

does handcuffinga 90 year old manfor feeding the poorput his heartbehind bars

no i sayfor to loveand be loved is ours soul’s purpose

bars are made by man’s fears

compassionate soulssuch as heare god’s tender mercy made visiblethrough our own hands

For the Homeless inSan Jose by Joan Clair

Isn't there a city somewhere,where people can live peacefully in tentsand not pay rent, and not be bent?The light in the heart of a flowershines more brilliantly than power.

January 2015 ST R E E T SP I R I T 3

DDoonnaattee oorr SSuubbssccrriibbee ttoo SSttrreeeett SSppiirriitt!!Street Spirit is published by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). Homeless vendors receive 50 papers a day, earnincome and and educate the community about social justice. Please donate or subscribe to Street Spirit !

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January 2015

Contact Street SpiritVendor Coordinator

The Street Spirit vendor program ismanaged by J.C. Orton. If you havequestions about the vendor program, e-mail J.C. Orton at [email protected] call his cell phone at (510) 684-1892.His mailing address is J.C. Orton, P.O.Box 13468, Berkeley, CA 94712-4468.

by Lydia Gans

St. Mary’s Center in Oakland held anannual memorial for homeless peo-ple on December 10, the

International Day for Human Rights. Itwas an occasion to honor the memory ofpeople who had died homeless on our citystreets during the past year.

But more than that, it was a time toreaffirm a commitment to the fight forsocial change, and to grapple with the life-and-death problems homeless people haveto deal with in their daily lives.

Executive Director Carol Johnson’swelcome and the blessing by Rev. DonnaAllen of New Revelation CommunityChurch expressed the love and sense ofcommunity that St. Mary’s offers to allthe needy who come to its doors.

As part of the event, a special memori-al was held in remembrance of DaveFerguson, the executive director of theOpen Door Mission, who died recentlyafter serving poor and homeless people inOakland for many years.

Frances Estrella, a longtime member ofthe community at St. Mary’s, describedthe profound impact Dave Ferguson hadon his life. Estrella said his life was insome disarray when he first came to theOpen Door Mission, and his descriptionof how he developed a relationship withFerguson was full of humor.

He recalled their lively discussions ofreligion, with Estrella declaring himselfan atheist and Ferguson never proselytiz-ing or preaching. Rather than playing thesolemn kind of music that is usual formemorials, Estrella took up his ukeleleand led the audience in a lusty singing of“We Shall Gather by the River.”

Shon Slaughter, who now succeedsFerguson as executive director of theOpen Door Mission, assured the audiencethat the spirit of the Mission is unchanged.

The main thrust of the memorial eventfocused on the crucial issues affecting thelives of poor people, culminating in Callsto Action to bring about change.

In weekly meetings throughout theyear, St. Mary’s Seniors for Hope andJustice become informed on the socialproblems that concern them and prepareto become advocates for change. They goout and speak at organizations, civic bod-ies and nonviolent demonstrations abouthunger, affordable housing, social justice,and other key issues that concern them.Four Senior Advocates, Sharon Snell,Diana Davis, Guitar Whitfield and JudyAguilar, each spoke about their advocacyand organizing.

Jonathan Lopez of the WesternRegional Advocacy Project (WRAP) dis-cussed the Homeless Bill of RightsCampaign. WRAP is working with othersocial justice organizations to preventcriminalization of homeless people.

Lopez cited information gathered fromsurveys of homeless people in variousparts of the country about their experi-ences with police and law enforcementagencies. In virtually every city surveyed,the overwhelming majority of homelessrespondents reported being cited andarrested for sleeping, sitting or lying, orsimply loitering or hanging out. Many

were harassed by police or security guardsjust because they “looked homeless.”

Lopez distributed a fact sheet withmore detailed information on the surveys.He also issued a Call To Action by orga-nizations and individuals in support of theHomeless Bill of Rights Campaign to passRight to Rest legislation that will allowpeople to rest or sleep in public places orparked vehicles without being harassed.

Hunger was the other major social jus-tice issue addressed at the event. KeishaNzewi, advocacy manager at the AlamedaCounty Community Food Bank, reportedon the latest hunger study that found onein five Alameda County residents needhelp from the Food Bank and its memberagencies to feed their families.

Even when families receive CalFresh(California’s SNAP or food stamp pro-gram), for many people it is not enough tocarry them through the entire month.

Nzewi talked about the Food Bank’scampaign to undo the devastating cutsmade by Congress in passing the farm billlast year. California now has the highestlevel of poverty in the United States. Therecent cuts imposed by Congress are a terri-ble new burden for people throughout thestate who are already struggling with a ris-ing wave of poverty and hunger.

Nzewi explained that SupplementalSecurity Income (SSI) benefits for seniorsand people with disabilities come partlyfrom the federal government and partlyfrom the states. The first action in thecampaign is to convince the governor andthe legislature to increase California’sportion of the SSI benefit by $100 amonth for each recipient. This would lift amillion people out of poverty.

The legislature will begin its budgethearings soon, so people are being urged to

join the Food Bank in speaking up on whata difference that small amount of moneywould make in their lives. There is moremoney in the California budget this yearthan before, and it should be utilized to helpmillions of people living in poverty, ratherthan all going to the big corporations.

Closing remarks at the memorial weremade by boona cheema, retired executivedirector of BOSS. Articulate and inspiringas always, she spoke of her feelings aboutthe homeless people who have died. Shesaid, “Deep down a flame was lit, andeach time the flame got bigger and thatflame was the flame of action. With eachdeath I was moved to more action.”

She recalled, “Ten years ago, therewere some of us activists in a room sayingwe’re so sick and tired of having to con-tinuously feel the sense of hopelessnesswhile holding hope in our hearts, and feelthis anger while holding peace in ourhearts, and we started to begin the conver-sation that became the Western RegionalAdvocacy Project.”

She reminded the gathering that just ashomeless people die on the streets everyyear, homeless children are born intopoverty each year. She said, “Today I’malso going to remember the children thatare born in our streets and take the littlehands of those children and teach them tobe warriors and have courage to rise fromdespair and feel the hope, the love, andthe peace that’s rightly theirs.”

A basket of small stones was on a sidetable and people were invited to inscribe aname or message which would be placedin St. Mary’s rock garden.

To learn more about Dave Ferguson’swork at Open Door Mission, see “DaveFerguson’s Lifelong Mission of OpeningDoors” by Lydia Gans on page 7 of this issue.

Street SpiritStreet Spirit is published by AmericanFriends Service Committee. The ven-dor program is directed by J.C. Orton.

Editor, Layout: Terry MessmanWeb designer: Jesse Clarke

Contributors: Alameda County PublicHealth Department, Claire J. Baker,Joan Clair, Robbie Clarke, CarolDenney, Lydia Gans, Christine Hanlon,Chris Herring, Judy Joy Jones, JustCause, Zoë Levitt, Osha Neumann,Steve Pleich, Mary Rudge, Squat!nethttp://en.squat.net, George Wynn

All works copyrighted by the authors.The views expressed in Street Spirit arti-cles are those of the individual authors,not necessarily those of the AFSC.

Street Spirit welcomes submissions ofarticles, artwork, poems and photos. Contact: Terry MessmanStreet Spirit, 65 Ninth Street,San Francisco, CA 94103E-mail: [email protected]: http://www.thestreetspirit.org

“Remember the Children Born on Our Streets”

Frances Estrella described the great impact Dave Ferguson had on hislife. He played his ukelele and sang, “We Shall Gather by the River.”

Lydia Gansphoto

Last Fragments from aPanhandler's Journalby George Wynn

Forget theword demoralizedif you want tosurvive on Market Street.Forget about where youused to sleepbefore you were broke.

Pray every dayyour body doesn'tlet you downbig time whenlight turns to nightand you huddlein cold desolation.

Never stop to askdid you get whatyou wantedfrom this life?

Enjoy the simplepleasuresthe pen uponpaper brings youand hopefully others.

homeless person by Judy Joy Jones

one day in timethe homeless personwaiting in linefor foodwill be you

so don’t close ya heart toya brothersdying in gutters

they are mirrorsof our soul’sown greed

January 2015ST R E E T SP I R I T4

by Zoë Levitt

The Alameda County Public HealthDepartment has witnessed thehealth consequences of gentrifica-

tion for years. As Oakland neighborhoodshave become less affordable and housingresources have decreased, the healththreats have increased for the county’smost vulnerable residents.

Case managers in the health depart-ment’s home-visiting programs haveheard numerous stories of low-incomeclients being threatened with eviction ifthey complain about housing conditionsthat contribute to asthma and other healthissues, as Amy Scholinbeck described inher testimony at the Oakland City Councilon Oct. 14, 2014.

Many of our clients have been forcedinto areas where services are less accessi-ble and still others have been pushed intohomelessness — a devastating scenariofor health.

Gentrification and displacement havealso come up repeatedly in the work ofPlace Matters, a community-centeredlocal policy initiative of the AlamedaCounty Public Health Department(ACPHD). This initiative was built on therecognition that the places where we livecritically shape our health. Socialinequities drive health inequities, andpolicies and institutions are largelyresponsible for the vastly unequal condi-tions faced by people based on race,income, and geography.

Alameda County Supervisor KeithCarson’s office and ACPHD launchedAlameda County Place Matters in 2006, atthe invitation of the national PlaceMatters Initiative, now part of theNational Collaborative for Health Equity.

Over the years, it has become clear thatwhile Place Matters and our communitypartners were successfully engaging theissues of housing, land use, and trans-portation policy to improve health, gentri-fication was undermining those efforts bydisplacing longtime residents and prevent-ing them from benefiting from neighbor-hood and city-level policy change.

THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIP

When Causa Justa::Just Cause (CJJC)approached Place Matters in 2012 to workon a report about development withoutdisplacement, it was a perfect opportunityto deepen our understanding of the causesand consequences of gentrification as wellas the role of public health in respondingto the crisis.

Our organizations had built a strongpartnership, starting with a joint effort toprevent water shut-offs in foreclosedhomes in 2006 and leading to our ongoingwork to improve tenant protections andcode enforcement practices in Oakland.We also co-authored a report on the pub-lic health impacts of foreclosure in 2010.

Our extended partnership taught uswhat was possible when we pooled ourdifferent powers. CJJC has people power,organizing strategy, and a deep politicalanalysis of the housing crisis developedthrough years of resident and communityorganizing on the ground. ACPHD canbring public health data, access to techni-cal resources, and institutional credibility

to reach and convene a broad audience.Together, we could build stronger evi-dence and advance more effective policycampaigns.

When CJJC released their report,Development without Displacement:Resisting Gentrification in the Bay Arealast spring, a number of reporters focusedon the public health angle of the story.

Through a year-long partnershipbetween CJJC and Place Matters involv-ing resident interviews, local data, andresearch, we learned that gentrificationhas serious impacts on the health andwell-being of longtime residents of gentri-fying neighborhoods, displaced individu-als and families, and eventually, on ourbroader society.

IMPACTS OF GENTRIFICATION

Some of the impacts of gentrificationin the East Bay include rising rents, eco-nomic hardships, evictions, foreclosures,displacement of black households, and aloss of social and economic supports thatcan save lives.

Rising rents cost elderly residents andpeople on fixed incomes over 50 percentof their income and force them into diffi-cult budget trade-offs, such as paying forelectricity but not heat. Gentrification cancause overcrowding, increase tenantharassment and eviction, and exacerbatediscrimination in the housing market. Itcan also lead to closures of vital commu-nity-serving businesses and institutions.

Foreclosures combined with gentrifica-tion have deeply affected the wealth andwell-being of the African-American com-munity in Oakland. Between 1990 and2011, Oakland’s black populationdecreased from 43 percent to 26 percent,the largest drop by far of any group.

During the same period, more than2,000 black households were displacedfrom North Oakland, while homeowner-ship, a significant wealth-building oppor-tunity, dropped and renters grew amongthe city’s black population. Income andwealth are among the strongest determi-nants of health, as they enable access tomultiple health-promoting resources andopportunities, which accumulate overgenerations.

DISPLACEMENT AND ITS DISCONTENTS

Displacement is financially burden-some and psychologically taxing, particu-larly on the poor and elderly. Moving atany age reduces social supports andincreases stressors, but the longer one haslived in a neighborhood, the more likelyone is to experience anxiety or depressionafter a move, hence elderly residents areat greatest risk of social isolation anddepression due to displacement.

Displacement disrupts access to educa-tion, employment, health care, andhealthy neighborhood amenities.Residents forced to move may face longercommutes to work or school, leading toincreased stress, loss of income, job lossor greater school dropout rate. Displacedresidents may have trouble obtainingmedical records, prescriptions, and afford-able health care services.

Displacement can also mean relocationto neighborhoods with fewer health-pro-moting resources, such as high-quality jobs,

healthy food options, accessible publictransit, and safe and walkable streets.

Displacement fractures the social andeconomic supports that can save lives. InCJJC’s report, the case of the elderly resi-dent saved from a diabetic coma by aneighbor who shared coffee with her on adaily basis is a clear example of theneighborhood relationships and ritualsthat are disrupted by displacement andcritically important to health.

Displacement can also mean the loss ofpolitical voice, as residents lose their abil-ity to shape the future of the city from theplace where they socialize, work, or pray.

Gentrification is the latest in a string ofurban policies causing “serial displace-ment” of communities of color throughdisinvestment and disruption. [See “SerialForced Displacement in American Cities:1916-2010” by M.T. Fullilove and R.Wallace, Journal of Urban Health, 2011.]

This repeated upheaval and disposses-sion in the name of development has pro-foundly undermined the support systemsneeded to survive and thrive and impactedhealth and well-being across generations.

Displacement also harms society as awhole by increasing metropolitan segrega-tion and inequality, which contributes to

poorer health outcomes for all. As urbanresidents are forced into neighborhoodswith less accessible public transit, displace-ment may also increase driving and green-house gas emissions for the region.

PROFIT-DRIVEN GENTRIFICATION

In their report, CJJC points out thatdevelopment is the investment ofresources, services and infrastructure.This is something all neighborhoods andcommunities deserve, but for decades ithas been denied to many areas based onthe race and class of their residents.

Gentrification, by contrast, is the prof-it-driven transformation of working-classcommunities and communities of colorthat have suffered from a history of disin-vestment and abandonment.

It’s not inevitable, but a result ofdecades of government policy and practice,which give private developers and incom-ing affluent residents more resources andpolitical voice than longtime residents,compounded by policy shifts that have mas-sively eroded funding for affordable hous-ing and diminished the ability of publicinstitutions to protect and provide for ourmost vulnerable residents.

GENTRIFICATIONIS MAKING US SICKOakland activists and the public health

department create a vision of healthydevelopment without displacement.

Defining the Terms of the Struggle:Gentrification and Displacement

Gentrification is the profit-driven race and class remake of urban,working-class communities and communities of color that have suf-fered from a history of disinvestment and abandonment. Thisprocess is driven by private developers, landlords, businesses andcorporations and supported by the state.

Displacement is the out-migration of low-income people and peo-ple of color from their existing homes and neighborhoods due tosocial, economic, physical, or environmental conditions that maketheir neighborhoods uninhabitable or unaffordable.

— Definitions from CJJC’s report Development without Displacement.

“Seniors can’t wait for housing.” Photo credit: CJJC

See Gentrification and Public Health page 5

January 2015 ST R E E T SP I R I T 5

by Robbie Clarke

On November 5, 2014, the OaklandCity Council approved the TenantProtection Ordinance (TPO), a

landmark policy victory that will protectthousands of Oakland’s tenants fromlandlord harassment.

The TPO resulted from the work thatCausa Justa::Just Cause (CJJC) has beendoing with the Alameda County PublicHealth Department’s Place Matters pro-gram. It was a key policy solution high-lighted in CJJC’s Development WithoutDisplacement report released earlier thisyear. [See http://www.cjjc.org/en/publica-tions/report]

Dan Kalb, councilmember for District1, sponsored the ordinance, which wasapproved by five out of eight coun-cilmembers last November.

The TPO is a major win for the BayArea tenants’ rights movement and a criti-cal step forward in ensuring thatOakland’s longtime residents are not dis-placed by new development. It’s part of agrowing tenant justice movement, whichincludes establishing a rent cap and limit-

ing rent increase pass-throughs forOakland’s tenants.

It was also the first tenant protectionpolicy to be approved in Oakland in morethan a decade. Previous protections, suchas the rent stabilization program and justcause evictions, only applied to tenants inunits built before 1983. The TPO extendsto all rental units built up until 2014, withthe exception of owner-occupied build-ings and nonprofit-owned housing.

The TPO is also a win for immigrantrights and the fight for healthy housingconditions for all because it specifies 16categories of harassment, including threat-ening to report tenants to ICE(Immigration and Customs Enforcement)and refusing to make basic repairs deemedcritical for the health of tenant families,seniors, and immigrants.

The TPO includes attorney fees fortenants forced to take landlords to courtand obliges landlords to pay damages iffound in violation of the ordinance. It alsorequires the City of Oakland to track ten-ant complaints across the board in order toaccurately assess the scale of the issuesfaced by Oakland tenants.

The fight for healthy housing forOakland tenants is far from over, but theTPO is a good start. We will continue todemand that the city prioritize resources

for enforcement of tenant rights and estab-lish an administrative program to directlyfine landlords who harass Oakland tenantsand violate tenant protection laws.

Tenants’ Rights Movement Wins New Law in Oakland The Tenant Protection Ordinance is a landmarkvictory that will protect thousands of tenantsfrom harassment by landlords. It was the firstlegislative protection for tenants’ rights inOakland in more than a decade.

In order to truly prevent gentrificationand displacement, a new approach to devel-opment is needed, and public health depart-ments have a role to play in this shift.

CREATING HEALTHY DEVELOPMENT

WITHOUT DISPLACEMENT

Public health departments have longworked in partnership with other publicagencies to initiate neighborhood changein the name of health. While many ofthese changes have been positive, toooften government-supported neighbor-hood change has excluded and displacedexisting residents.

Public health departments have a histo-ry of involvement in destructive policieslike Urban Renewal, which displacedthousands of black residents and business-es from urban centers in the name of“blight removal.” [See “Public health, theAPHA, and urban renewal,” by R.P.Lopez, American Journal of PublicHealth, 2009.]

Our historic role in this racialized peri-od of mass displacement demands that wemake the prevention of displacement cen-tral to current work to build healthier com-munities — including partnerships betweenurban planners and public health toincrease opportunities for physical activity,public transit access, healthy food access,and safe and walkable streets. Otherwise,these efforts may simply reproduce theunjust patterns of the past.

Dr. Muntu Davis, county health officerand director of ACPHD, said in an inter-view last summer: “Preventing displace-ment may be the single greatest challengeand the most important task in our effortsto create healthy communities for all.”

There is much work to be done to bringabout healthy development and publicagencies cannot and should not do italone. Community organizations, advo-cates, and residents throughout the BayArea have advanced a powerful move-

ment for development without displace-ment and secured a number of excitingvictories in recent months.

CJJC and the Tenant Justice Campaignsecured improvements to Oakland’s rentregulations last spring, and more recently,won the adoption of the Tenant ProtectionOrdinance, which will protect thousandsof tenants from landlord harassment, acommon cause of displacement. Together,these represent the only legislativeadvances for tenants’ rights in Oaklandfor over a decade.

Other promising actions underwayinclude a community-based planning part-nership to create “Healthy DevelopmentGuidelines” for Oakland — a joint effortbetween East Oakland Building HealthyCommunities (under the leadership ofCommunities for a Better Environment,CJJC, East Bay Housing Organizations,and HOPE Collaborative), ACPHD, andthe City of Oakland Planning Department,with technical assistance from ChangeLabSolutions. This multi-year resident engage-ment process will result in a tool that cityplanners can use to ensure that new devel-opments meet community-identified priori-ties for health equity.

Many other exciting efforts are hap-pening across the region. In both ContraCosta and San Mateo Counties, localhealth departments are raising displace-ment as a health issue, supporting anti-displacement community organizing, andproviding policy and technical support tocities facing displacement pressure.

Public health departments and commu-nity organizations can and should strive tobe allies in community-led struggles fordevelopment without displacement. To sup-port these efforts, public health departmentscan provide public health data, research,and analysis to document the significanceof displacement and the health conse-quences it brings. This means addressing allthe reasons residents are forced to move —including lack of opportunity, habitabilityand affordability.

We can also provide testimony at pub-lic meetings and convene institutional andcommunity partners to advance neededpolicy change such as tenant protectionsand affordable housing preservation,among other solutions.

Ultimately, our healthy developmentefforts should focus on ensuring thatexisting residents have the voice, opportu-nities, and resources they need to behealthy and thrive in the places and com-munities they already call home.

As Maria Poblet, executive director ofCJJC, stated in “The Struggle for theFlatlands: How Oakland Can FightGentrification”: “The struggle for stable,habitable homes needs to be a collectiveone; a people-powered process that showsus our power as creators of communityinstead of as consumers; a process thatcity officials accompany us in as allies ofthe people they represent; a process thatbuilds grassroots institutions throughwhich we build long-term progressivepolitical power and grow in community

with each other in the city we call home.”In this collective struggle, the task of

public health departments is to see ourrole as allies of the people and use ourinstitutional powers to protect health andwell-being for all — including the right tostable, affordable, and healthy homes andneighborhoods.

This article first appeared in Race,Poverty & the Environment, published byReimagine! Movements Making Media(http://reimaginerpe.org).

Zoë Levitt is the Local Policy Associate atthe Place Matters Initiative of the AlamedaCounty Public Health Department.

Special thanks to members and staff ofAlameda County Public Health Departmentand staff and members of CJJC. Special thanksto Katherine Schaff, Tram Nguyen, RobbieClark, Anna Lee, Kimi Watkins-Tartt, DawnPhillips, Alex Desautels, and Will Dominie.

CJJC’s report, Development withoutDisplacement, is available at www.cjjc.org

For more information on Place Matters, seewww.acphd.org/social-and-health-equity/poli-cy-change/place-matters.aspx

Staff from the Alameda County Public Health Department speak outon the health impacts of displacement at a Tenant Justice Campaignrally outside Oakland City Hall.

Photo credit:ACPHD

The Destructive Impact of Gentrification At a recent discussion hosted by CJJC and Place Matters, an

Alameda County employee and lifelong Oakland resident illustratedthe unhealthy and unjust consequences of gentrification with the fol-lowing personal story.

As a young person growing up in West Oakland, he and his friendswrote repeatedly to City Hall requesting improvements to a parkwhere they played basketball, but to no avail. It was only decadeslater that the City initiated major landscaping and improvements tothat park — alongside the introduction of several market-rate housingdevelopments, the influx of whiter, wealthier, and more politicallyconnected residents, and rising rents.

When residents who have lived, worked, and contributed to theirneighborhoods for decades in the face of disinvestment aren’t able tostay and benefit from change, such development is neither healthynor sustainable.

At a Baptist church in West Oakland recently, I learned that 60 to 70percent of the congregants had been displaced to other cities aroundthe Bay, which meant that they could not vote in their city of worship,even though many of them would have liked to support increasingOakland’s minimum wage.

Gentrification and Public Healthfrom page 4

January 2015ST R E E T SP I R I T6

by Steve Pleich

Advocates for people experiencinghomelessness have long lobbiedfor the right of the unsheltered to

a peaceful night’s sleep in a safe environ-ment. As Santa Cruz attorney and activistEd Frey says, “The right to sleep is notonly a human right and a constitutionalright, it is essential to the physical andpsychological well-being of every person,housed or not.”

The recent effort to establish a safesleeping space for homeless people inSanta Cruz is being led by Rabbi PhilPosner, whose son Micah Posner sits onthe Santa Cruz City Council.

The vision of a “Camp of Last Resort”is founded on Rabbi Posner’s belief thatthe right of every citizen to have a placeto sleep is fundamental to our nation’sconcept of life, justice and the pursuit ofhappiness.

He says, “We know that there’s proba-bly close to 3,500 men, women and chil-dren unsheltered in our community at anygiven time without a secure place to sleepat night. The Camp of Last Resort is anopportunity to address this situation in asubstantive, community-wide way.”

Rabbi Posner explains, “In proposingthis partial solution to homelessness inSanta Cruz, we appreciate that there arecommunity programs that are successfullyproviding other forms of housing and shel-ter and see the idea of a public camp site asaugmenting those important programs.”

The camp proposal was created inresponse to the lack of more permanenthousing for the homeless community inSanta Cruz. Supporters believe that a camp(or camps) of last resort will at least provideshelter for some of the thousands who arepresently found illegally hunkering downon streets, trails or along the river.

Although Rabbi Posner freely admitsthat such a camp of last resort would notbe perfectly safe or orderly, he is confi-dent that it will provide a far healthierenvironment with less crime and violencethen the unregulated and chaotic situationthat presently exists.

Supporters of the program are seekingapproval for a six-month pilot camp. Theyare calling for the City and County ofSanta Cruz to designate one or more ofthe city parks, possibly a part of SanLorenzo Park, as a place where individu-als may bed down for the night. The pro-posal further calls for the City and County

to join together to support and fund thispark project by providing large tarps orsome other form of public shelter, alongwith access to bathroom facilities.

At the end of the trial period, represen-tatives of the homeless community, camporganizers, and city and county officialswould review the program and decidewhether to terminate the camp or continuethe project for a longer period of time.

The proposal holds out the promise of asafe haven for people experiencing home-lessness in Santa Cruz, but also requires adegree of commitment and accountabilityon the part of participants.

Park sleepers would agree that thesleeping area would be limited to sleepingbags, blankets and personal belongings.Camping would be permitted only withinset overnight hours. No tents or cookingequipment would be permitted.

This restriction aims to head off main-stream objections to an officiallyapproved “tent city” which has long beenan unresolved bone of contention betweenneighborhood groups, government offi-cials and homeless advocates.

Rabbi Posner is realistic about howpersonal behavior will affect the successor failure of the proposed camp.

He says, “Each of our campers mustunderstand that his or her personal behav-ior will impact the success of this Campof Last Resort and it is essential that eachperson respect the rights of others who

also use this park. The social interactionbetween park sleepers and other commu-nity members who use the parks willdetermine in large part the long-term suc-cess or failure of our idea.”

Advocates for people experiencinghomelessness believe that 2015 may final-ly bring some long-awaited progress onthe issue of homeless rights.

With Warming Stations opening toprovide warm, safe spaces on very coldnights, with Safe Spaces RecreationalVehicle and Sanctuary Village programsmoving forward, and with the continuingwork of the 180/2020 and Smart Solutionson Homelessness initiatives, this comingyear holds great promise.

Perhaps longtime homeless advocateLinda Lemaster, the founder of HousingNOW Santa Cruz, says it best. “The newyear is full of hope — hope that we canfind a place in our community for peopleexperiencing homelessness, and a placefor them in our hearts as well.”

Rabbi Posner and his supporters arecurrently gathering petition signatures inadvance of a full presentation to city andcounty officials. Contact Rabbi PhilPosner at [email protected].

An online petition also has been created:https://www.credomobilize.com/peti-tions/petition-to-establish-a-camp-of-last-resort

Steve Pleich is an advocate for the SantaCruz Homeless Persons Advocacy Project.

New Vision of a ‘Camp of Last Resort’ in Santa Cruz

A homeless man sleeps on the sidewalk in Santa Cruz. Homeless advocates are proposing a “Camp of Last Resort” to provide asafe sleeping place for thousands of people who are unsheltered and forced to sleep outdoors in a city where it is illegal to do so.

“We know that there’s proba-bly close to 3,500 men, womenand children unsheltered inour community without asecure place to sleep at night.”

— Rabbi Phil Posner

No Passport Neededby Claire J. Baker

Come, let us jointhe multitudeson the journeytoward peace.

We, the people,motley, memorable,poised, unprepared,gay, and not so happy,handicapped and holy,

varyingyet all the same —getting out ofour own way.

No tether, weatheror war shall deterour journey,our passage.

Peaceably we go,peacefully we stay.

In The Thrift Shopby Joan Clair

Lady 1 carries a golden purseand a dollar bill,asks Lady 2,“Will you pay for my purse?”

Lady 2 turns around,flips open her coat,a price tag shows.“Can't pay for my own,” she says.

“The truth is we all livein an economic systemthat is heartless.” — Helen Keller

(1)

The sun in through my window when I wake up makes me feel warm and loved. I like to wake up and see sky.But the old, old window broke, we couldnot afford glass or someone to fix it.We have found board and cardboard,and sealed up the window hole,because it is winter and we will be cold.When I wake in the morning and seedarkness, still I knowto feel warm in my heart, to feel lovedbecause my mother and brotherfound cardboard and board.If we find enough cans extra to pay,we can have a glass window again.

(2)In winter we only heat one room.We hang blankets over the doors and put all our bedding on the floor and sleep there, together in one warm room.I like to hear our breathin the dark, one familyhelping each other keep warm.

(3)Today by the thrift storewe said a prayer before we went inthat the saleslady would try to find something she could mark downwith just a few loose threads or tearor spot, someone had given

for the poor to buy.Today mother saidlet us put in our mind’s eyethe perfect sweaterwith only a tiny unravelingmother can fixif we have enough money to buy.

(4)My mother takes us to the library.We love being warm.All the colors of books,words and pictures for freeare there for me,bright light I can read in,and the light in the mind.

A Child’s View of Winterby Mary Rudge

Outside Our Window by Claire J. Baker

We spot on a rain-strippedeucalyptus trunkcolors we've never seenbefore: shades of yellow,gold, lime green, tan.

A homeless womanstripped of an easy lifealso reveals colorswhen we pause longenough to sense and see.

January 2015 ST R E E T SP I R I T 7

tle they can carry, it was all they had. TheJungle, as it was called, offered a measureof privacy, yet was near services, jobs,and housing prospects.

Coyote Creek is visible from the free-way, yet it is reminiscent of old San Jose,with native grasses, chaparral, sage,sycamore and oaks. Its historical tendencyto flood made it a bad bet for otherwiselucrative development.

The creek still meanders freely, mak-ing it a diverse set of habitats long gonefrom many of San Jose’s concrete, chan-neled creek beds. Concern about steelheadtrout, among other native species, wascited as one reason for the eviction.

But there is no sane reason any ecolog-ical concern should be used to justify thewholesale eviction of people in need with-out supplying them with the obvious alter-natives — “a public campground withclean water and sanitary facilities.”

No story on this eviction, which wascovered by the New York Times, theAssociated Press, and many TV newsbroadcasts, neglected to marvel that theJungle was a stone’s throw from SiliconValley’s vaunted tech giants, among themost lucrative businesses on earth.

Apple’s corporate headquarters is 50

acres. Their new campus will be a sprawl-ing 176 acres. Silicon Valley’s largest 150tech companies began the year with $500billion in cash reserves, according to theSan Jose Mercury News, and played nosmall role in sending the average apart-ment rents to around $3,000, doublingfrom only two years ago.

Those of us who had friends at therecently evicted Albany Bulb know whatcomes next. Some people do find housing,or at least charity, and make their way offthe streets. But the majority join a raggedcaravan from place to place, hoping forrespite by the train tracks or in a culvertthat’s not too wet.

Within ten days, San Jose roustedhomeless evictees — people who had pre-viously lived at the Coyote Creek areauntil the Jungle was dismantled — fromSenter and Tully roads, taking theirbelongings and giving them mere minutesto move in what had become, after morethan six inches of rain, the wettestDecember in 60 years.

Imagine taking all your clothes andblankets, all your books, all your musicalinstruments with you from place to placeas you try to find someone to help orsomewhere to go. It’s a relentless lessonin detachment to watch your most impor-tant belongings end up in the trash, your

papers tattered and covered in mold, yourvaluables stolen or lost, your artworkdestroyed.

A mandated, free public campgroundin every city is not enough, of course. Weneed shelters, low-income housing, singleroom occupancy housing, seriousstatewide rent control, vacancy fees, aminimum wage hooked to inflation, amaximum wage for the bankers and CEOswho never seem to get so much as a handslap when they steal billions, and an endto wasting valuable square footage neededto meet community housing needs onubiquitous condos for the wealthy.

Most cities, including the state capitolin Sacramento, have public groundsaround their city halls and libraries whichought to automatically convert to publiccampgrounds and shelters at obvious,measurable indices: the number of home-less people on the streets, a count whichalready exists, and the outstanding gapbetween the minimum wage and the aver-age rent, another easily obtained number.

No politician has any business ignoringthe obvious: that a full-time, minimum-wage worker cannot afford housing in theBay Area.

Many of the people displaced in SanJose were born there and watched theirhometown transformed into a playgroundfor the rich. But this is a national story, asmore and more cities find their planningand politics dominated by the power play-ers, real estate interests, property owners,and developers.

Can you afford to take your localpolitician to lunch at the new, trendyrestaurant and pick up the tab? Your localdeveloper can.

These groups, just like Silicon Valley

billionaires, have politicians’ attention,but are so busy trying to milk profits outof our communities that they don’t see theinevitable result of ignoring people’shousing needs: Families in the rain.

On the same morning when a localradio station mentioned the latest report of2,200 homeless children in San Franciscoschools, the next program featured a techenthusiast promoting little hand-held gad-gets for classrooms as a panacea for learn-ing — without acknowledging the factthat it’s hard to learn at all when yourfamily sleeps in a car.

Ordering people to traipse from one endof town to another makes as much sense asa self-driving car. When critics objectedthat the Jungle encampment needed assis-tance, not eviction, San Jose protested thatthey had spent $4 million over 18 months tohelp address housing needs.

It sounds impressive, but it doesn’ttake a fancy app to figure out that $4 mil-lion over 18 months divided between7,600 homeless people breaks down toabout $29 per person per month. TheDowntown Berkeley Association spentfifty dollars a day hiring homeless peopleto work against their own civil rights onan anti-sitting law two years ago, moneythat came straight out of merchants’ pock-ets by business improvement district man-date, whether they liked it or not.

We need public campgrounds now. It isthe obvious response to the immoral andembarrassing reflex most cities have ofpushing homeless people out of sight. Ifyour local politician has to greet homelessfamilies on City Hall’s lawn on their way towork every day, it might help both short-term and long-term housing needs finallyreach the top of the community agenda.

from page 1

Mass Evictions at the JungleThe Jungle wasn’t a safe place — not for people, not forwildlife, not for the creekside ecology, either. But for thosenow huddled in shopping center parking lots and backalleys with what little they can carry, it was all they had.

by Lydia Gans

Dave Ferguson, the executivedirector of Open Door Mission inOakland for 41 years, truly dis-

played a lifelong dedication — in everysense of those words — to his calling tobe of service to the poorest of the poor.

Ferguson continued to work with thehomeless and needy people who came tohim for help right up until two weeksbefore his death from cancer at the age of81 on August 31, 2014.

Ferguson made a very deep impressionon the many people whose lives hetouched. Shon Slaughter, the Open DoorMission’s new executive director, said hefirst encountered Ferguson 14 years ago.

Slaughter recalls, “The first day I methim, I was on the edge of my seat — untilthe day he passed.”

Slaughter became close friends withFerguson and soon was involved in thework of the Mission. Ultimately,Ferguson spent his last six months inten-sively training Slaughter to take over.

When I attended the memorial eventfor homeless people held at St. Mary’sCenter on December 10, I was moved bytheir special tribute to Dave Ferguson.[See the article about St. Mary’s memorialon page 3 of this issue.]

Shortly after attending that memorial, Imet with Shon Slaughter in his office inOakland to learn more about Ferguson’s

lifelong work. Slaughter explained thatrunning the Open Door Mission involvesmanaging a multiplicity of programs andservices. The director helps poor peoplefind housing, helps them manage theirfinances, and locates whatever basic ser-vices they may need.

Open Door also provides breakfast anddinner six days a week. Slaughter said thatwith Ferguson as the director of OpenDoor, “the meals were always hearty,always fresh, and he did all the shopping.”

The Mission also offers mail and payeeservices, and Slaughter said that Ferguson

took on that large workload all by him-self. “At one time, he acted as payee foras many as 50 folks,” said Slaughter.“That could be a fulltime job—plus. Hedid it all himself.”

Slaughter said that Ferguson’s passion-ate dedication was the thing thatimpressed him the most. “He was passion-ate about his work,” Slaughter said. “Hewas punctual. His word was his bond. For41 years, these doors opened at 6:25 p.m.at night and at 7 a.m.”

Ferguson expected people to go out afterthe meal and take care of business, but hewas available for counseling or help withpractical issues if they needed him.

“He commanded respect because hegave respect,” said Slaughter. “He ran atight ship for people who needed structurein their lives.... They loved to comebecause they knew this would be a safehaven.”

It involved far more than simply satis-fying the physical needs of the people

who came to Open Door Mission. Onceasked to give a workshop on how he dealtwith difficult clients, Ferguson hesitated,saying that it was not something thatcould simply be taught.

“It was always spirit driven,” Slaughtersaid. “It wasn’t specific. He explained thatyou have to have a relationship with peo-ple. You collect their mail, you feed them,you minister to them, you talk to them,you hug them, pray for them, love them.That’s the relationship. It happens overtime, it doesn’t happen in one day.”

For Dave Ferguson, the Open Door

Mission was like a family. Often, peoplemaintained a connection long after theystayed there. Rodney Bell first stayed atthe Mission when he was homeless in2004. Ferguson got him a job.

In a recent interview, Bell said,“Dave’s Open Door has been the calmafter the storm in my life.”

Bell is a talented piano player and afteryears of moving around, he reconnectedwith the Mission. Now, Bell plays musicfor the people when they come for theirmeals. The opportunity to enjoy livemusic together creates a sense of peaceand community. You can look at it as“music therapy,” Slaughter suggested.

It is customary in many missions tohave someone give a mandatory talkbefore the meals. One of the first thingsthat Ferguson did when he became direc-tor was to reduce the time given thespeakers from an hour to 30 minutes andultimately to 15 minutes. And no one isforced to come in and listen. Rather, they

can come in for their meal when the talkis over.

I asked Slaughter how he woulddescribe Ferguson. “I would describe himas a fatherly-looking man,” he said.“Maybe ‘Leave it to Beaver.’ He alwayswore either short-sleeved or button-downshirts. Very clean-shaven. Not tall, fivefeet six or seven inches. Gentle-looking,that’s the word.”

Susan Werner, a social worker at St.Mary’s Center who has been workingwith homeless seniors for 25 years,expressed her deep admiration forFerguson. In her work with seniors, sheknows of their appreciation and gratitudefor the help and inspiration that Fergusonhas given them.

“I’m grateful,” she said, “for the workthat he’s done because it has uplifted peo-ple who I care about too.”

She spoke of the importance of com-munity, “how much he and I need com-munity when working with people inneed, people who are homeless.”

“It’s heartening to know other peoplewho also are champions of the cause.Dave has been constant, like a rock, offer-ing the welcome, free food — and basichuman kindness to everyone.”

Shon Slaughter pledges to carry on thework of the Open Door Mission. “We area family here and I want that to continueand even flourish more.”

Slaughter now talks about makingchanges and reaching out to other agen-cies, knowing that he had Ferguson’sblessing. “It’s just like he made changes,gave me the baton and said, ‘Shon, youmake the changes that you know that theLord has laid in your heart.’”

The message for all those who are hun-gry and homeless, and who need not justfood and shelter, but love and support, isthat Dave Ferguson’s spirit continues tolive.

Dave Ferguson’s Lifelong Mission of Opening Doors

“It’s heartening to know other people who are championsof the cause. Dave has been constant, like a rock, offeringthe welcome, free food — and basic human kindness toeveryone.” — Susan Werner, describing the lifelong mission of Dave Ferguson

The message for all who are

hungry and homeless, and

who need not just food and

shelter, but love and support,

is that Dave Ferguson’s spirit

continues to live.

January 2015ST R E E T SP I R I T8

ing offense is that they violate society’ssense of order — order not just as in “lawand order,” but an order that people per-ceive as attractive, comfortable, and ulti-mately beautiful.

The good, the true, and the beautiful arethe triumvirate at whose feet we worship.The bad, the false, the ugly, are their oppo-site. How did homeless people end up onthe wrong side of that great divide?

Women are tyrannized by concepts ofbeauty. They mutilate themselves withliposuction and Botox, and strenuous diet-ing to conform to an impossible ideal.

Homeless people are also tyrannizedby a concept of beauty to which they willnever be able to conform as long as theyremain homeless.

I like to think of beauty as somethingeveryone on the planet can appreciate. Weall find sunsets and meadowlarks andfields of blooming flowers beautiful,whether we are rich or poor, housed orhomeless.

Beauty is liberating. A joy. A relieffrom toils and troubles.

So how did it become a cudgel withwhich to beat people up?

The judge is late. Court was supposedto begin ten minutes ago. I start to scrib-ble my thoughts on a yellow pad. ThenI’m stopped by a thought.

I’ve been thinking of what others thinkabout people who are homeless. Howwould homeless people answer the ques-tion, “Are Homeless People Beautiful?”

My guess is they’d find the questionridiculous. Their answer might be some-thing like: “Well, Joe here is a beautifulguy, but Gus over there—he’s ugly as sin.”Or, “Maureen keeps her campsite nice andclean, but Davida’s place is just a mess.”

Then I think, well maybe the answer ofthe homeless would not be that differentfrom that of the housed. Almost all home-less people would prefer to have a home.If they could be miraculously transportedto one of those mansions in the hills withglorious views of the Bay — all clean andtidy, tastefully furnished, freshly paintedon the inside and landscaped on the out-side — would they not find their new sur-roundings beautiful, and their old camp-sites, by comparison, not so much?

Poverty is ugly. Homelessness is a blight on a society

as rich as ours. Why pretend that home-lessness is beautiful?

Perhaps the only difference in point ofview between those who use the conceptof beauty to beat up on people who arehomeless, and those of us who use it as abeacon pointing the way toward a betterworld awaiting, is the conclusion we drawfrom our observations, and the directionto which our moral compass points.

Once people who are homeless are notseen simply as “the other,” but are seen askin to us who are housed, then we housedones will find in the houseless, the rangeof beauty, truth and goodness that residesin all of us. It just takes familiarity.

I really believe that. And I am comfort-ed by this conclusion. It preserves myhope that all human beings can share in acommon perception of the beautiful.

But it implies that universality can onlybe achieved if beauty can be extricatedfrom all the moral judgments, contemptand disdain that infect it when it is appliedto groups that we disparage. Perhapsinevitably, where we stand in the hierar-chies of society — housed or houseless,rich or poor, comfortable or uncomfort-

able — will infect our judgments aboutthe beautiful, and until those hierarchiesare dismantled there will not be a univer-sal concept of beauty that we can all shareand which will not be a tyranny of onegroup over another.

Here’s a case study in divergent per-ceptions of beauty:

In Albany, California, just up the roadfrom Berkeley, people who are homelesslived for many years on an overgrown land-fill amidst the fennel, the coyote bush, andthe pampas grass. All manner of birds flewoverhead and nested in the pines and palms,the acacia and the bay laurel. Lizards,ground squirrels, mice and rats scurriedthrough the underbrush and clambered overthe rubble. Trails meandered to hiddencampsites, dead-ended at cliffs and wounddown to the waterfront where, for manyyears, my son-in-law and I made sculpturesof the scrap wood and metal which thelandfill supplied in abundance.

I loved the place. I found it beautiful.And I wasn’t alone. A whole host of usfrom all walks of life, especially includingthe folks who made the landfill their home,loved its wild unruliness. We loved its wel-coming anarchy. We loved that there wasstill a piece of land on the edge of the city,untamed, un-pruned and unplanned.

The powers that be hated everythingwe loved. Where we saw beauty, they sawugly. The landfill didn’t look the way apark is supposed to look. Bad things hap-pened there. Drugs were consumed, dogsbarked, sometimes angrily, and even bitpeople once in a while. Some of thecampsites of the landfillians were unsight-ly piles of refuse and garbage.

At council meetings, the elected repre-sentatives of the citizens of Albany sat onthe dais, rigid and uncomfortable, when wecame to beg them to leave the landfill as itwas. Representatives of the local SierraClub chapter lobbied furiously to kick thehomeless out, claiming to speak for nature,but in fact speaking only for their preferredversion of nature. The council members lis-tened to them, for the Sierra Club was agreat power in Albany.

And so the homeless for whom the land-fill was home had to go. The place neededto be cleaned up. Tamed. Made beautiful.The powers that be mobilized the forcesthey had at their command — first policeand lawyers, then maintenance crews andgarbage collectors. With the big stick ofcitations for violating Albany’s campinglaws and the wilted carrot of a little cash fora few and empty promises of housing, theycleared the place out.

Now it sits empty, life-deprived, andsad, a shell ready to be bulldozed andwrestled into the form of a proper park.

The “stakeholders” in Albany detestedwhat we saw as beautiful. We detest theprim, proper, tamed, shorn and shackled,unwelcoming and un-nurturing naturethey admire.

Conclusions? I have only more ques-tions.

In art, there is no such thing as uglysubject matter; there are only ugly paint-ings. There are beautiful paintings of thedeformed and wretched, the broken anddisabled, and there are ugly paintings ofthe muscular and symmetrical, the young,the toned and curvaceous. Is that observa-tion even relevant?

Can we extricate our idea of beautyfrom moral judgments? Is that even some-thing we should do?

Oops. No time for answers, even if Ihad them. Got to put my yellow pad away.The judge is taking the bench.

by Osha Neumann

ON THE VALUE OF ART WHEN THE GOING GETS ROUGH

A condemned prisoner in the hours before his execution might write a poem, andwould no doubt appreciate the pen and paper with which to do it, but he would cer-tainly prefer a file to saw through the bars or a gun to shoot his way out of jail.

ON WHETHER ART TAKES SIDES WHEN ARMIES FIGHT

The sound of bugles leads armies into battle, but the beauty of a song rises abovethe conflict, and the same melody, with the words changed, can inspire either side.The truly great works of art, no matter how fervently they were painted against theirtimes, no matter the scandal they once provoked, eventually are accepted into thefold, and take their place, like honored elders, in the hushed galleries of the museumsof the world.

ON THE RELATION OF ART TO REVOLUTION

The revolutionary on the barricade fights to return the world to the people. She raisesher fist and shouts: “You stole our lives, our health, our happiness. You stole the wealthwrung from the earth by our sweat and blood. The diamonds dug from your minesbelong to us who work in their dark bowels. The wheat in your sunny fields belongs tous who planted it and reaped the harvest. You have sold the fruit of our labor and pock-eted the profits. We want what’s ours. We’ve come to take the world back.” The artistalso struggles to take back the world. Van Gogh struggles with the sunlight and thewheat to make it his, to appropriate it. He struggles alone, but if he succeeds, his victorybelongs to all of us. His struggle is not with the bosses or the owners of the wheat field.The police will not be called when he leaves with his picture under his arm. He takesonly the image, not the reality, only the hope, not its realization.

ON THE MAKING OF ART IN A WORLD ON THE BRINK

Art has always been the hope of the hopeless, the refuge of those without shelter,the joy of the bitterly sorrowful. Without hope, there can be no art; and without art,there can be no hope. When all hope is lost, we seek solace in a song. The motherwhose child is dying in her arms will, in its last moments, croon a lullaby to sooth ittoward sleep. And if we, as humanity, are killing our mother, we might as well croona lullaby to ourselves, and rock ourselves in each other’s arms, as we descend intothe everlasting sleep of the human race.

******************Doodling on the Titanic is available online from Amazon (if you can stand it) and

Barnes and Nobles. It can be ordered by your local bookstore. Osha Neumann can becontacted at [email protected]

Are Homeless People Beautiful?We all find sunsets and meadowlarks and fields of flowersbeautiful, whether we are rich or poor, housed or home-less. How did beauty become a cudgel to beat people up?

Selections from Doodling on the Titanic

Osha Neumann’s cover art for his new book depicts an artist on the brink of oblivion,doodling on the deck of the Titanic while all the passengers are swept overboard.

Book Launch Party for Doodling on the TitanicJanuary 22, 7 p.m.

Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA) 1101 8th Street (near Harrison) in Berkeley

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