*****
Robert
Mickanen & Sandra Harrison Kay
NOTonNOBLE.blogspot.com
WHO WE REPRESENT:
The HTLC Community
Hard-working.
Tax-paying. Law-abiding. Contributors.
WHAT WE SEEK: Dignity Acres Emergency Campground. The Solution.
SOLUTION: Dignity Acres Emergency Campground provides a
specific location (an
option!) that our first
responders can use to legally and IMMEDIATELY bring illegal campers, loiters,
transients, panhandlers.
PROBLEM
THIS SOLVES: The short-sighted, negligent
and counter-productive decision made by the 9th Circuit Federal
Court of Appeals which limits the ability of California public agencies to
relocate unsheltered individuals who are camping on public lands “.. cannot enforce ordinances that ban
public camping or criminalize sleeping outdoors on public property if there is no real option
for sleeping indoors..”
SOLUTION:
Dignity Acres Emergency Campground is in the OUTSKIRTS of San Jose/Santa
Clara County.
PROBLEM THIS SOLVES: ALL 10 DISTRICTS that make up San Jose say NO
TO EIH in their neighborhoods. No
one wants, or should be forced to have EIH.
EIH is failing in city after city; no one wants to spend one more tax
dollar investing in a failing program. Dignity
Acres Emergency Campgrounds is the alternative people are looking for; it
provides a place with services which helps restore dignity to ‘unsheltered
individuals’ without
encroaching on or threatening the safety and cleanliness of established neighborhoods,
school campuses, shopping plazas, parks, etc.
SOLUTION:
Dignity Acres Emergency Campground provides all the basic human
dignities: Portable toilets, garbage
pick-up, water/food/clothing donations; professional social services outreach
PROBLEMS THIS SOLVES:
Unsheltered Individuals
defecating/urinating on public property; toxic garbage accumulating in
dangerous proportions; compassionate donations inadvertently making matters
worse; begging/panhandling; untreated/undiagnosed growing demographic of
unsheltered individuals
Portable Toilets: Currently, our demographic of ‘unsheltered
individuals’ are defecating and urinating directly on sidewalks; in front of
and near school campuses, local businesses and restaurants; they are defecating
and urinating indiscriminately, in full public view, without human dignities
like portable toilets, toilet paper, and without means (or motivation,
apparently) for cleaning up afterward; themselves or the area they defecated
on. This is uncivilized, it is a health
hazard, and it is disturbing that anyone should experience or be made to
witness this behavior in San Jose City, Santa Clara County, California in 2024. Dignity Acres has portable
toilets/clean-up/maintenance.
Garbage Pick-Up: The majority of us living in San Jose/Santa
Clara County pay for and receive the benefits of garbage pick-up. It is convenient and a regular practice for
us to place our garbage/recycle cans on the streets in front of our
homes/businesses on a weekly basis. Our
‘unsheltered individuals’ do not pay for, and do not have garbage cans. They are not on truck-driver routes and their
garbage accumulates in gross and toxic and very hazardous ways. Dignity Acres has garbage and recycle cans
and is on the weekly garbage pick-up route.
One place for the truck drivers to go (vs. several different locations
throughout the 10th largest city in the nation) This keeps things
more streamlined, less expensive, less time-consuming, less human-resource
taxing, etc.
Money/Food Donations: Currently, our ‘unsheltered individuals’ do a
great deal of begging, stealing and panhandling. What we learned after direct conversations
with 24+ small business owners is this:
People with compassionate hearts who give food or money to
beggars/panhandlers sitting outside stores; while their intentions may be good,
the result is that this attracts several more beggars while
simultaneously deterring large numbers of paying customers. This contributes to our ‘unsheltered individuals’ colonizing and
closing our shopping plazas, store by store and it must be stopped! Dignity Acres Emergency Campground is
where compassionate people can donate and genuinely help people without
inadvertently destroying local businesses.
Panhandlers/Beggars: Currently we have ‘unsheltered individuals’
hanging out in dangerous locations; i.e., freeway off ramps, high traffic
medians, -and again, while the intention
may be good, giving to said individuals increases their numbers and the
population of beggars/panhandlers only grows.
In some cases, they become very aggressive and intimidating, which can
make it unsafe and very undesirable for people who are forced to wait in
traffic lines and worry about dealing with…
beggars/panhandlers often have signs which indicate they are
hungry. Dignity Acres has food/water;
food trucks; food donations; No one is
going to go hungry or thirsty. If
& when you see a panhandler, you can immediately call, and have someone
from Dignity Acres come pick up said individuals and bring them to wear
food/water are.. Now are streets,
medians, freeway on and exit ramps are free from ‘unsheltered individuals’ and ‘unsheltered individuals’ have a place to
go for food and water, shelter, etc.
Social Services Outreach
Professionals/Experts: ‘Unsheltered
Individuals’ are unsheltered for a myriad of reasons. Those reasons do not give
them the right to colonize/close businesses; to destroy students schools, to
threaten their walks to and from school; their reasons do not give them the
right to steal, to intimidate, to threaten, to litter, to degrade, to destroy;
to vandalize; their reasons
do not give them the right to ruin the quality of life for others. Dignity Acres Emergency Campground is where
trained/educated, Social Service Professionals/Experts are available to
interview and assess each ‘unsheltered individual’s’ unique circumstances and
prioritize and place accordingly.
CAVEATS:
While ‘sleeping outdoors’ cannot be criminalized; many
individuals who are sleeping outdoors are also stealing; vandalizing;
loitering; disturbing the peace; assaultive…
There should be a
population cap of ‘unsheltered individuals’ who reside at Dignity Acres
Emergency Campground at any given one time based on acres/space.
San Jose/Santa Clara County should not carry the
responsibility for the entire, wide-spread population of ‘unsheltered
individuals’ across the land ; but can provide a successful example/template
for other cities, counties, states to
follow
Repeat: The goal for
this demographic of ‘unsheltered individuals’ at all times is to DIGNIFY & DETER, not ENABLE
& ATTRACT
Location: DIGNITY
ACRES EMERGENCY CAMPGROUND must be in the OUTSKIRTS, or it does not problem
solve at all; being in the outskirts
immediately addresses all the very valid concerns of all districts (1-10) in
San Jose who do not want EIH in their neighborhoods. One Central location in the outskirts also
makes it very streamlined, cost-effective, logistically optimal for city
services and donations.
We believe the HTLC Community of San Jose and Santa Clara
County would love the opportunity to see Dignity Acres Emergency Campground
created and supported. We believe it
will provide a great deal of immediate relief to students, teachers, parents,
families, business owners, managers, employees, customers/shoppers, librarians,
park and recreation staff.. on and on; immediate relief being able to call and
report ‘unsheltered individuals’ and know that a first responder can and will
come and relocate said individual(s).
We know, said individuals who are relocated to DAEC will
have the basic human dignities and be professionally assessed, have shelter,
food/water/clothing and have opportunities and incentives for improving their
lives. We know DAEC gives people with
compassionate hearts a place to donate that will be benefit struggling
individuals directly without jeopardizing local businesses.
DAEC helps restore San Jose to its former glory, helps the
HTLC community maintain a healthy, civilized, safe, clean, productive and creative way of life,
which is often very hard earned and greatly appreciated. We want to make sure our efforts help and
lift the struggling vs. allowing the
strugglers to ruin and pull down the healthy.
We believe DAEC -the
idea of it- is well worth sharing and
supporting; that people will feel hopeful and grateful and be very willing to
give it a solid chance to prove its value as the solution we claim it is.
And that the energy and hope from the larger population will
itself result in the answer as to ‘where’ exactly it should be. That crowd-sourcing will yield great
results.
We understand cost are involved, but when we compare and
consider what it takes to find the space; build EIH; maintain EIH, battle,
district by district, neighborhood by neighborhood against EIH; the cost of the
failures.. -but see the money that seems
so available to invest in this unwanted and failing system -We have just as much confidence in the
ultimate funding, as we do in crowd-sourcing for the specific location in the
outskirts.
Candidate
for Dignity Acres Emergency Campground. This picture taken 3/13/2024 on the corner
of Capitol and Hostetter, where a larger encampment was recently removed ( -to where..?
by who? ) to the right of Popeyes. Not seen in the picture is a great deal of
graffiti/vandalism within the shopping plaza itself.. and a new encampment,
fenced in, where the now colonized/closed Carl’s Jr used to be
It is our hope and belief, that our 9th circuit
federal court of appeals judges would re-visit (and rescind) their decision upon
seeing the results and
consequences of not being able to enforce city ordinances.
-the inability to immediately address what you see here;
negligent! And as it grows
exponentially across the city and county; unaddressed.. -third world This is an emergency! Dignity Acres Emergency Campground is the
solution. DETAILS regarding the 4 different communities,
steps and incentives within DAEC attached/included.
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