DIGNITY ACRES EMERGENCY CAMPGROUND
-Details &
Incentives Plan,
by Robert Mickanen, Retired Deputy, Santa Clara County, 27
years experience & insights
and Sandra Harrison Kay, literary & mixed media artist
The Solution for Homeless
Criminals, Mentally Ill, and Drug Addicts
Keeping communities safe and providing incentives for the
homeless to integrate back into society.
And yes, being homeless is not a crime, but being homeless
should not make it okay to commit a crime. Criminals that are homeless are
still criminals. Criminals are not innocent just because they are homeless. It’s
become dangerous to our society that because someone is homeless, they are
given the green light to commit crimes. They are not being held accountable for
their actions. Some politicians, homeless advocates, special interest groups
(businesses that profit from this crisis), and the media do not want to admit
that a homeless person can commit a crime. The narrative pushed by some of
these groups is that people are only homeless because of financial
difficulties. Not true. Almost all, are either released criminals, drug
addicts, mentally ill, evicted due to their own actions, and those who choose
to live that way. Neighbors are harassed, threatened, and spit on by criminal
homeless. Throughout the city we see homeless criminals illegally threatening
citizens, illegally vandalizing, illegally camping, illegally parking, illegally loitering and
illegally littering. If any law-abiding
citizen committed any of these crimes, they would be either fined or arrested
and forced to move from the location.
WHO IS LEAVING SAN JOSE & WHY: It’s the HTLC community (HARD
WORKING, TAX PAYING, LAW ABIDING, CONTRIBUTORS). They
do not feel safe. Many neighbors, friends and family have already moved out
of San Jose, and many are contemplating a move if crime continues to rise and
the homeless criminals are allowed to wander through their neighborhoods. When
does the value of life and rights of the HTLC community matter? The behavior of these homeless criminals has
destroyed once thriving neighborhoods and shopping plazas. The city should not
allow the destruction of thriving communities, just to accommodate homeless
criminals. The homeless criminals do what they please. This is so backwards.
The goal should be to encourage everyone to be part of the HTLC community and
have everyone thrive and feel safe.
Robert: I’ve been
living in the Berryessa neighborhood for about 45 years. I only knew of one homeless
person living in this area from the 1980’s to the 1990’s. And then I only knew
of one homeless person in this area from the 1990’s to 2010’s. I did not witness or hear about any crimes in
the neighborhood until the past 2 years. In the past couple of years, cars have
had windows smashed, a car lit on fire, a stabbing in our park, and a home
invasion.
San Jose City’s current response is to place these criminal
homeless in densely populated caged tiny homes in your neighborhood. We (Robert & Sandra) visited all current
tiny home sites in San Jose; what we saw and heard and learned from surrounding
neighbors is very disturbing, and why we are fighting this failing agenda as
best we can. We need your help!
One Tiny home supervisor explained the barbwire around the site,
“Is to protect the homeless from the neighborhood”. Wrong, the
neighborhood needs protection from them. The tiny homes supervisor told us
we do not get to know who is living there. What are they hiding from all of us?
If the people living there are law abiding citizens and not criminals, they
should be able to say so. The public wants to know if they are in danger. We
witnessed at one of the tiny home sites, homeless people walking back and forth
from their tiny home facility to a disgusting homeless encampment directly
across the street. The SJPD Officers
parking lot is next to a tiny home site. Some Officer’s personal cars have been
vandalized. One Officer’s car was broken into and one of the criminal
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homeless pooped on the car seat. A neighbor shared how in Sacramento a portion
of her apartment building was transitioned into a shelter for the homeless. The
apartment is now in ruin as a direct result. Homeless are sleeping and leaving garbage
in the hallways. It now smells of urine and feces throughout the building.
Again, a thriving apartment building previously for the HTLC community,
destroyed. We’ve attended many city council meetings over the homeless issue.
Almost every citizen from every district attending these meetings is against
tiny homes in their neighborhoods. No one is in favor. Everyone fears having
criminals in their neighborhood. Everyone wants these homeless communities
built on the outskirts of town so they can feel safe. The only people we
heard speak in favor of building tiny homes in our neighborhoods were the paid
employees who worked for the programs that profit from building the homes. Only
special interest groups who stand to profit support the neighborhood tiny homes
agenda. The citizens of San Jose want homeless
facilities built on the outskirts of town and not in their neighborhoods. The elected officials should be representing the
HTLC Community.
I am a part of the HTLC Community: I worked as a Deputy for 27 years, from 1992
to 2019, and was assigned to the jails. Many of the inmates were very violent and
assaultive and housed in the maximum-security unit. Deputies were very worried for the public when
violent homeless criminals got released. Many of these inmates are mentally
ill. They do not know how to take care of themselves. They do not comprehend
the basic standards of living. They urinate on themselves. They refuse to clean
their cells. Some store their feces in lunch boxes inside their cells. They become
very agitated and violent when these issues are addressed. This is who is
illegally threatening, illegally
camping, illegally loitering, illegally trespassing and illegally littering our
neighborhoods and shopping plazas, children’s sports facilities, parks, etc.
I have many, many
experiences dealing with violent homeless inmates. One of the many experiences I had as a
deputy, dealing with a homeless mentally ill criminal; I encouraged and
convinced this very unclean recently re-arrested inmate wearing torn soiled
rags for clothing to take a shower and put on good clean clothes. This took a great deal of energy and
negotiation. Later that day, the inmate was released from jail. The inmate became
argumentative with the release Officer and demanded the soiled rags be given
back to him. I was ordered by my supervisor to retrieve his soiled rags from
the garbage and give them back to the inmate. It’s “His property”. The inmate took off the good clean clothes and
put on the old disgusting rags of clothing. You can’t help someone who refuses
to be helped. And when you try, they become agitated and potentially violent.
Today, there are 1700 beds available for criminals at the
county jails. They are not overcrowded. The jails were full when I was working
as a Deputy 4 ½ years ago. Also, since then, the old jail was torn down where
an additional 500 beds were available. That equals to about 2200 extra
criminals now on our city streets; many who are homeless.
Criminal homeless are causing businesses to close. Blocking
entrances to businesses, harassing customers, loitering inside the businesses,
and leaving trash everywhere. All these issues turn customers away due to fear.
When this continues, there are no customers, and the business closes. It goes
from one business to the next, each one closing after the next, destroying entire
shopping plazas.
We no longer go to Wendys on McKee because of criminal
activity.
No longer visit Popeyes on Capitol and Hostetter, for the
same reason. Several businesses next to Popeyes have closed. They are boarded
up, covered in graffiti and trash is accumulating exponentially and homeless
criminals are gathering. Another previously thriving shopping plaza
colonized.
Some areas in San Jose look like the city dump. It is hard
to tell the difference. We are witnessing the continuous growth of another
encampment colonization at Capitol and McKee between Wienerschnitzel and a mobile home
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community, across the street from Target. Along
with the homeless encampment, the site is piled high with trash everywhere.
It’s sickening. This is disgusting, it’s dangerous. You cannot distinguish the
area from a city dump.
Another area of great concern: encampments along our freeways. Cars
constantly must swerve to avoid trash that has fallen onto the freeways and
swerve to avoid homeless who are walking on the freeway. Trash gets kicked up
by the car tires and sends potential hard items into someone’s windshield
causing an accident and possible death. Everywhere needs to be cleaned up.
We went on vacation to Portland. The Portland freeways are
littered with homeless encampments, trash and gang graffiti. We witnessed the
destruction of a once thriving area. The hotel we booked and were going to stay
in was in bad shape with broken signs. Restaurants were boarded up and closed.
The surrounding businesses were closed. Graffiti was covering all the buildings
and signs. Trash all over the parking lot with homeless drug addicts roaming
the parking lot. There was a large homeless encampment across the street. We
cancelled our reservation and as we left the city, we had to avoid the many homeless
people that were blocking the entrance back onto the freeway. We will never go
back to Portland again. That’s where San Jose is headed if the city doesn’t
relocate all these criminal homeless from our neighborhoods and businesses. An
excellent documentary on what happens to a city when it doesn’t fix this
problem is called “Seattle is Dying”. Don’t let it happen to San Jose. Return
San Jose to its former glory. Closed businesses equals lost jobs which could
force some HTLC citizens into a financial hardship making it hard to afford a
place to live. The city needs to protect its citizens and businesses.
The term homeless is too one-sided and misleading. The
homeless we see on the street are not in their situation because they find themselves
in financial difficulty. Someone who is from the HTLC community who loses their
job does not end up homeless the next day. Almost all homeless individuals are
in their situation because of their actions and own doing. We all know someone
who has needed help with a place to stay because of financial circumstances.
The people who are from the HTLC Community have somewhere to go. They are the
people who are not criminals and will get help from friends and family. We all
know how families and especially parents will give their children and their
parents a place to stay. Parents will give their children many opportunities to
live with them even when they mess up. The people who end up homeless are the
ones who destroyed those relationships by their own actions. The actions that
forced friends, family, and apartment managers to have those dysfunctional
people removed from their residence are as follows; physical violent assaults,
intimidation, fear, threats, stealing, destroying the property, drug addiction,
verbal assault, conducting criminal activity, not respecting others, not
obeying the home rules, filth, and refusing to be productive and get a job.
Just draining their friends and family financially and mentally. After many
chances, there comes a point when their friends and family can’t take the abuse
from them anymore and must have them leave. This is the fault of the individual.
They destroyed their home situation and are responsible for their actions. This
is why they are homeless. It’s not because, one day they had a financial
hardship, and the very next day they are sleeping in the street. We all know
this is true. We all know of someone who was given chance after chance, and
they ultimately caused themselves to become homeless. We all know of someone
who needed financial help and needed a place to stay. And because they were one
of the HTLC community they were given a place to stay.
The homeless issue is a county problem, not just the city. Dignity Acres Emergency Campground is our solution
to the homeless crisis. Acres in the
outskirts which first responders can use TODAY, to IMMEDIATELY RELOCATE ILLEGAL
CAMPERS. This outskirts location will
have the basic human dignities: portable
restrooms, garbage pickup, food donation trucks, water, and social services
outreach. Tents and pallets in the short
term, while working toward a small tent, big tent, tiny home incentives
program, with ultimate goal of transitioning into a residence in the city.
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MORE LAW &
ORDER; less crime and chaos.
ENFORCE LAWS against threats, trespassing, loitering,
illegal camping and littering. Allow a special trained unit of code enforcement
personnel to relocate violators to Dignity Acres Emergency Campground.
Dignity Acres Emergency Campground should be a minimum of 5
miles away from any residential neighborhoods, schools, and businesses, in its
own separate area. The city and county have lots of land on the outskirts of
the city.
Dignity Acres Emergency Campground is the solution San Jose
& Santa Clara County’s HTLC Community will support. A one stop shop with human
dignities.
Goal: Establish a bus route to Dignity Acres. Include
Dignity Acres in city garbage pickup routes. Provide porta potties, fresh
water, laundry services and food truck services for providing meals. Provide
on-site mental health and social services.
One place for donations from the city, or county, private or churches. ALL
services offered to every individual.
INCENTIVES
GOAL: 3 types of living conditions conducive to the
individual's needs and desire to move towards a higher standard of living.
These 3 types of living conditions can also be used as steps, if desired by the
individual, to ultimately graduate to an existing apartment/home in the city.
Step #1 Pallet on the ground with tent on top.
Sleeping bags. Water hose, designated porta potties, and food truck nearby.
Step #1 is for those individuals who want nothing more than this and already
choose to live in creeks, under bridges, and makeshift tents. These individuals
choose to litter and live around actual garbage. They choose to not bathe. This
is their lifestyle. A service crew would be assigned to pick up their garbage.
Step #2 Pavement foundation with a large community
tent (heavy duty military base style). Portable showers are located inside
the tent. Raised bed frame with mattress. Sleeping bags. Designated Porta
potties and food truck nearby. These individuals are required to get along with
others in their community tent and dispose of their own trash.
Step #3 Tiny Home with its own private bathroom and
showers. Step 3’s intention is to transition individual from a tiny home,
to an apartment.
This level, there is a community kitchen and laundry room.
These individuals are required to obey all the rules of the Tiny Home community
within the Dignity Acres Campground itself. They are required to keep their
home and surrounding area clean and be able to take care of themselves.
Participation in this program allows individuals to graduate to Step #4
(apartment located in the city limits). Step #4 requires the individual has not
committed any crimes or used any drugs for the past full year.
Step #4 Apartment in the city limits. Have a job.
Obey the rules and policies of the apartment building. Take care of themselves.
Keep the apartment clean. Do not commit
any crimes. Do not use any drugs (periodic drug test required on former drug
users). Step #4 requires No criminal charges or drug use for one full year
prior to being eligible for an apartment. If either a criminal charge or drug
use occurs at any time while living at the apartment, the individual needs to return
to Step#3 for another full year. If the individual is removed from the
apartment for committing a crime, the one-year wait starts after the individual
has completed his time in jail.
Thank you for your consideration, Concerned HTLC Citizens of San Jose Berryessa
Neighborhood,
Robert Mickanen & Sandra Harrison Kay NOTonNOBLE.blogspot.com
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