Archive for January, 2009

Jan 30 2009

Rape is the silent epidemic in San Diego

Published by girlsthinktank under Uncategorized, violence against women

Today in the San Diego Tribune it was reported that crime has fallen in San Diego with only a blip on the screen that rape is up nearly 1/3!   How are San Diego’s women not outraged by this?  Join us in our dignified rage about sexual violence in our community.  We have to bring this silent epidemic out into the light in our communities and stop rape in San Diego. 

 

Crime falls for a third year in a row

Number of rapes rises significantly

By Kristina Davis

Union-Tribune Staff Writer

2:00 a.m. January 30, 2009

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Online: For a detailed crime report, go to sandiego.gov/ mayor/news

SAN DIEGO — Crime in San Diego dropped by 8 percent over the past year, marking the third consecutive year of declining crime, Mayor Jerry Sanders announced yesterday.

Violent crime, including homicide, robbery and assault, was down about 5 percent, while property crime, including auto theft and burglary, was down about 9 percent.

The only type of crime to jump substantially was rape, from 296 incidents in 2007 to 376 in 2008, an increase of 27 percent.

Police Chief William Lansdowne said much of that rise can be attributed to programs in high schools and colleges that encourage young people to report the crime, especially acquaintance rape and rape involving alcohol.

“We found that people were very reluctant to report the crime, and now we’re seeing a lot of that reluctance has gone away,” Lansdowne said during a news conference at the department’s Northern Division. “We hope next year to see a reduction.”

Crime attributed to gangs had an 8 percent increase overall, but police say a concentrated effort to combat gang violence over the year has made quite a difference.

According to the data, gang homicides decreased 25 percent; drive-by shootings are were down 42 percent; and arrests of gang members were up 5 percent.

However, robberies and assaults by gang members continue to be an issue.

“Gangs are a cancer on every city in America today,” Lansdowne said.

Assistant Chief Cesar Solis said gang officers are focusing on the growing trend of gang members targeting people leaving parties.

In December, high school students Monique Palmer, 17, and Michael Taylor, 15, were shot to death after leaving a party in Valencia Park.

In an effort to quell some of the violence, authorities had a sit-down with all the members of a large southeastern San Diego gang and offered them help to get out of the lifestyle. Those in the meeting included Lansdowne and representatives from the District Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and several other social service providers. The idea of the gang summit came from the mayor’s wife, Rana Sampson.

Solis said a few gang members have since expressed interest in the help.

Kristina Davis: (619) 542-4591; kristina.davis@uniontrib.com

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Jan 28 2009

GTT Launches Homeless Art Project this Saturday, Jan. 31st!

Published by girlsthinktank under Uncategorized

Art by the Homeless is Beautiful
Art by the Homeless is Beautiful

Art by the Homeless is Beautiful

Our last scheduled distribution of winter survival packs is this Saturday, January 31, 2009.  We will meet at the lobby of 655 W. Broadway at 11:30 a.m., then carpool to the Neil Good Day Center at 299 17th Street, to launch our homeless art project and distribute backpacks and warm clothes in the neighborhood.  This is a great opportunity for families and kids to participate in a public service.  
 
Calling for Magazines and Art Supplies
 
GTT’s Noor Kazmi is heading up our homeless art project to foster the visual art, creative writing, stories, and photographs of San Diego’s homeless community.  We hope not only to humanize the plight and experiences of the homeless, but also to showcase talent and create an income stream for the artists by putting on a public art show here in the city.
 
Do you have magazines, books, journals, sketchpads, notebooks, disposable cameras, pencils, pens, or other art supplies lying around?  Donate them to GTT!  We will put them to good use, starting with our project launch on January 31st. 

Or are you an artist, gallery owner, or an art connoisseur who could help get this valuable project off the ground?  Email us to get involved in this fabulous project to Noor’s attention at girlsthinktank@gmail.org.

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Jan 27 2009

GTT’s Winter Report from the Streets

Published by girlsthinktank under Uncategorized

Brilliant photography donated by Aron Thompson
Brilliant photography donated by Aron Thompson

Brilliant photography donated by Aron Thompson

 

The reverberations of the economic crisis are being felt here in San Diego where there are more than 7,500 people on the downtown streets any given night.  This winter, we have been shocked by the growing number of tents, families in cars, young couples, and pregnant women on the streets.  The new wave of homeless are every-day working families who have lost jobs, lost homes or rental units to foreclosure, and are struggling to get off the streets. 
 
We are working with the homeless community to document what is going on.  Thanks to you, we have been recording the stories of the homeless through video and photography.  We are also meeting with homeless vets in the VVSD seasonal shelter to create a survey and compile a list of needs in San Diego.   Are you a statistician, a photographer, videographer, editor, or just someone who would like to help out on documenting what is happening on the streets of San Diego?  Please email Rachel at girlsthinktank@gmail.com.   

GTT’s first trip out on the streets this winter was in December at the downtown shelter run by Alpha Project.  We thought we knew what to expect based on our prior experiences of the past two winters, but what we encountered was more troubling than what we have seen before. We had come to know the kindly wrinkled vets in their worn fatigues that smell of stale cigarettes. We had come to know the ageless leather-skinned women who could talk your ear off for hours. We had come to know the alcoholics, the parolees, the sick, the runaways, and the hobos. There are always those who have just hit a rough patch or are down on their luck. But, it was a whole new wave of homeless that shocked us last week.

This new wave of homeless includes families and youth and single men who have been laid off from their jobs, had their hours cut back, and/or lost their homes due to foreclosure. Near the downtown winter shelter, families have set up tents and other temporary structures, people are living out of their cars, and reportedly some 200 or more people now live under bridges. All the shelters are filled to capacity and according to “waterman” David Ross, 50 or more people can’t get into the downtown winter shelter any given night and the number of homeless downtown has quadrupled. This is consistent with a report from a Bay Area shelter network who told us their numbers have increased by three times this winter. Here are the highlights from just a few of the stories we heard:

We spoke with Melvin who is in his late 40s and was laid off from his job as a trucker in October. Melvin told us this is the first time ever that he has been homeless. The company fired him and about 20 others out of a workforce of 200. He lost his apartment and his car within a month of his firing. Melvin has seen several of his former coworkers living in tents or sleeping on the streets. After his lay off, he began looking for work feverishly. He offered to show us his email account which contains numerous emails to temp agencies and contract employers across San Diego. At some point, he managed to land a temporary job unloading trucks at a hotel downtown, but the job lasted less than a week. The hotel started firing all its new hires after losing several large conference contracts due to a boycott. Melvin finally found permanent work last week. On Monday, he started work at a food processing plant for $8.75 an hour. It will be some time before he can rent a place. He heard a story about a man who went through a foreclosure, then got laid off, and drove to a rural area outside of San Diego and shot himself in the head. Melvin thinks more and more of this will be happening. People are suffering and people are desperate out here. He hasn’t ever seen it this bad.

We talked with Dave, an attractive guy in his 30s who has lived around the world, speaks three languages, and found himself on the streets for the first time. He was embarrassed to take a GTT winter survival backpack, insisting he was fine even as he shivered in the cold night. He has held a steady job at a local shoe store, but his employer cut back on his hours because business is down. After his hours were cut, he couldn’t make rent or find an apartment that he could afford. Being new to San Diego and without family here, he decided to brave the streets long enough to save up for a plane ticket out of here to Canada where he knows people and hopes to find work.

At the vet shelter later in December, we met 150 vets with Grace’s delicious homemade cookies thanking each for his service to our country.  We met Jason who worked for a prominent law firm in town for 12 years before being laid off; he asked if any of our firms would hire him for clerical work, explaining “it’s been a long time since I have felt useful.”  We also met John, a 42-year old veteran who is clean and sober and has a degree from SDSU. He vented about how difficult it is to get a job without a phone number, mailing address, transportation, storage, and clean clothes.  GTT member Jonathan came up with some ideas that could help, such as a “bank” of prepaid cell phones and mailing addresses for folks to receive mail.
 
At our downtown shelter distribution last week, 50 or more people lined up outside but could not get in because the shelter was full.  We met Terry, a former counselor at Salvation Army, who had a fall on the job and sustained injuries that prevented her from doing her job.  She went on SSI, then succumbed to substance abuse and ended up on the streets.  Today, she is sober and aspiring to go to City College to finish a counseling program so she can assist others who are in her situation.  As we were talking, she offered her assistance to a young military couple who were pregnant and struggling to get basic documents for collecting his military benefits.  We also met Rita, or “Mama Rita”, who though she sleeps in a tent downtown, is known as Mama because she is always taking care of others, offering what little she has, be it water, toilet paper, or advice. 
 
After the distribution, we drove around to survey the number of people on the streets.  Down by an overpass, a few of us met Richard, 32-years old, who had lost his start-up marketing company, and everything he had, due to a bad business decision.  He was well-read and quoted Voltaire as we discussed life’s ups and downs.  He stayed in San Diego to resurrect his business here – he has done it once, he wants to do it again.  Richard, like others we meet, is full of hope and determination that he can get back on his feet and have stable shelter again. 
 
Come out and join us as we continue to meet and brainstorm with folks who are struggling to get folks off the streets and back into sustainable living conditions, and endeavor to document what is happening on the streets of San Diego.

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Jan 27 2009

Who’s going to handle all of this crap? (thank god for David Ross and his clean up crew!)

Published by girlsthinktank under Homelessness

Kelly Davis wrote a fabulous article in the Jan. 20, 2009 issue of City Beat about David Ross’ heroic mission to provide public toilets downtown, and of city council’s failure to live up to its agreement to fund them.  Thankfully, newly-elected City Council Marti Emerald has put the matter up for reconsideration and we strongly urge city council to vote to fund the port-o-johns.  It’s a shame that America’s finest city can’t even provide a place for people to relieve themselves with dignity.   

‘A great success’

Two port-o-potties times more than five months of use equals lots of icky stuff that’s not on the streets of East Village

Labor Donated by Clean Up Crew -- Thank you!!
Labor Donated by Clean Up Crew -- Thank you!!

Labor Donated by Clean Up Crew -- Thank you!!

By Kelly Davis

Juan Soto Prieto’s job might be dirty at times, but last Friday afternoon, it wasn’t thankless.

“Hallelujah, the port-o-potties are clean,” a woman sang as she pulled open the door to one of the units on East Village’s 15th Street. Prieto, an employee with United Site Services, had just finished emptying the potties’ holding tanks and disinfecting the interiors.

“Smells good, huh?” he asked.

“God bless you,” the woman said as she closed the door behind her.

The two port-o-potties sit just off a public sidewalk, on property owned by God’s Extended Hand, a homeless-outreach ministry. The units went in on Sept. 2 and, since then, have been the receptacles for an estimated 17.5 tons of human waste and a few items of clothing that seem to get thrown into the mix when toilet paper runs out. Though not perfect—they’re basic units with no flushing mechanism and no sinks—they’re a stopgap solution to the lack of 24-hour public restrooms for East Village’s homeless population, estimated at roughly 500.

“We need more of ’em,” said John, a homeless man who declined to give his last name. “It’s a good thing…. When you gotta go, you gotta go—not on city streets.”

So far, a small nonprofit called The Isaiah Project has covered the cost of the toilets’ rental and maintenance. Last May, CityBeat wrote about the project—the effort of David Ross (known as “The Water Man” because he distributes bottled water to the homeless); Bill Sharp, chief operating officer of local contractor Barnhart Co.; and Gerry Limpic, a marriage and family therapist.

Ross said the impetus for the project was a conversation he had with a woman who described the humiliation of having to crawl through the bushes near Interstate 5 to relieve herself out of public view.

Of all the things that come with being homeless, the woman told Ross, that was the most difficult. “My mother would be so ashamed of me,” she said.

Ross, Limpic and Sharp worked with city code-compliance officers to get the permits necessary to install the toilets on God’s Extended Hand’s property. They believed they had a guarantee from City Councilmember Kevin Faulconer, whose district includes East Village, that if a two-month trial period proved successful, the city would pick up the cost of the toilets—estimated to be about $1,500 per year, per toilet. The goal, Limpic said, is to increase the number of toilets to 10.

The trial period ended more than three months ago, though, and The Isaiah Project is still footing the bill; United Site Services has, at no cost, upped the pumping and cleaning to five days a week from three, and a couple of weeks ago, two more toilets appeared near 16th and K streets. Prieto said he’s been emptying that pair as well. A sign on the toilets said they were placed there courtesy of an anonymous donor.

“The plan was, the assurance was, the encouragement was that after two months, if they were relatively successful, there would be money available,” Ross said at a Jan. 20 City Council meeting. Battered and bandaged from an attempted carjacking on Jan. 16, Ross told council members that when two police officers came to his apartment to take a statement, once they realized who he was, they thanked him for the port-o-potties. “Police who came to my apartment the other day, they use them,” Ross said.

More public restrooms have long been cited as a need Downtown—not just for the homeless but also for tourists and itinerant city workers. But an ordinance that forbids advertising in the public right-of-way has kept San Diego from installing the sort of public-access toilets that are found in cities like San Francisco, L.A. and New York, where advertising on the restrooms’ exteriors covers the cost of installation and maintenance. A 2001 memo from then City Attorney Casey Gwinn advised against amending the ordinance, arguing that it would force the city to allow other kinds of advertising in public space.

For now, the port-o-potties appear to be the cheapest and best—perhaps only—solution. Ross has been speaking at Tuesday City Council meetings for several weeks; at this week’s meeting, for the first time, he got a public promise from Faulconer to work on finding a solution to keep the port-o-potties in place. Councilmember Marti Emerald told Ross that she’d docket a discussion of the toilets at the City Council’s Public Safety and Neighborhood Services committee.

“They’re a great success,” Emerald said of the potties, “and we need to find a way of keeping them there.”  

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