Join us for an important talk about Healthcare and Homelessness
WHEN: Monday, Feb. 16th at 6:30 PM
WHERE: 518 Valencia St., San Francisco, CA (one block from 16th St BART, 5 doors south of 16th St.)
Speakers:
Jennifer Friedenbach – Executive Director of Coalition on Homelessness – San Francisco
John Lozier – John has been Executive Director of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council since January 1990. Prior to organizing the Council, John established the Downtown Clinic and other homeless services in Nashville, and worked on justice issues through the Southern Prison Ministry. John holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Tennessee and a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from Brown University. He has also studied in the Divinity School of Vanderbilt University.
2 responses to “Healthcare and the Homeless”
I wish I could attend this important event. However, I sing every Monday night! As Don knows I have been active in the Single Payer movement for years. In the summer of 2013 the City of Palo Alto enacted a mean-spirited ban kicking out the homeless vehicle dwellers in the one of the wealthiest cities in America with 8 billionaire residents, including Mark Zuckerberg. We formed a Stop the Ban Coalition and thanks to 2 lawsuits the City Council rescinded the ban this year. I worked the night shift in a homeless women’s shelter for 10 weeks last winter in 2 churches in Palo Alto. There are 7,600 homeless in Santa Clara County, the 4th largest # in America. Many freeze to death due to lack of affordable housing and shelters. Again in the wealthiest county in the US with companies making billions unwilling to share that money for their fellow human being. It is a disgrace in light of this humanitarian crisis. Fortunately there are several homeless health clinics in San Jose. And with the Medi-Cal expansion the Downtown Streets Team org. has signed many homeless up for Medi-Cal allowing those who live in Northern Santa Clara County to now be able to access health care at Stanford without having to take several busses to the County hospital, Valley Med. in San Jose. There is so much ignorance and hatred about the homeless. NIMBY folks are everywhere. There are middle class folks who live in their cars due to the exorbitant rents. Many of the homeless have mental health issues which aren’t being addressed. We are having difficulty finding a replacement winter shelter here to house 150 in the winter(a drop in the bucket). We need to get Congress to focus on this National crisis. We should lobby to create a Homeless Committee in both Houses. There are bills aiming at youth and teens and Veterans but there needs to be a committee devoted to ending homelessness for all.
As a longtime adctvaoe of building smaller homes with fewer resources with an eye to living simply that others may simply live, I was a home designer/builder in CT, and am now a street minister in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. Personally, I think Reid’s idea was wonderful, but then again, I live in 286 square feet and find it quite luxurious. Many of my colleagues who work with people who are without long term shelter thought Reid’s proposal was ridiculous, feeling that forcing people to live in such tiny spaces would be inhumane. I agree with that reasoning it is terribly unfair that those of us with so much should expect those with fewer resources than we ourselves are willing to live with should have to live with drastically less. We social justice oriented tiny house adctvaoes could serve by questioning the standards so many strive for, based in the notion that our worth is displayed through the amount of space and stuff that we surround ourselves ourselves with.