| Main Feature Story - Friday, January 23, 2009
Feature Q&As: Gimme shelter
Marin's homeless community and volunteers talk about their desperate needs in this time of crisis
by James Hall
Interviewed at Ritter House
What is the biggest challenge for Marin's homeless community?
I don't drink anymore, I don't do drugs, so I'm fine. But they really need to put some money into drug and alcohol programs. See, if you got money you can go to a program. If you don't have money, you live on the streets, you don't have the services. For people that are on GA [general assistance], they still want to charge you $10 a day. And on GA you're only getting $11.90 a day. That's pretty much your whole piddly check, you know. And what do they do? The alcoholic just keeps drinking. I've watched thousands of people die...I drank a gallon-and-a-half a day for 30 years and I was fortunate enough to find a place up in Lake County that took me in, and they're no longer in business. But I had a place to go, and I haven't drank since...I mean, they want you to pay, but if you don't have the money.... And that's what's so irritating is that you got a guy that's begging for a program and they're saying, "Well if you've got $10 a day...." I mean, it's like, what part of living on the streets do you not understand?—Stan Wilson, San Rafael; homeless for eight months
Why have you come to Ritter House?
I'm homeless because I got injured at work. I worked at Best Buy and workers' comp never came in—it's been almost two years and I've been waiting for them to pay, and they don't even pay my doctor's bills. I walked into a shelf—and I got blood clots from the situation. It became life threatening and I almost died. I was in the hospital for a month on blood thinners. I've been homeless because of that. Before that, I worked to pay my bills; each paycheck, I lived from month to month. And becoming injured destroyed my life. I can't work; I'm unable to work. And all these people look at us being homeless, and it's like, this didn't happen because I wanted it to happen. It's because I got injured at work...—Sherry Petrakis; homeless in San Rafael for about two years
What's brought you to Ritter House?
Tuesdays I'll be doing bike repair here. I started a nonprofit called The Bicycle Works, and the goal is to open up a location in central San Rafael where anybody can come use tools and learn how to fix a bike. There are a couple of bike nonprofits in Marin County; however, there's no place that has an open workshop where [someone] can come use tools and fix up a bike for free or for a low charge. Right now I have a waiting list of people who want bikes from the Ritter House and so I give about a bike a week, just to set people up. Anybody who needs to get around on a bike should be able to. So people can bring things here, you know, if they have a broken bike, I can fix it.—Jelani Bertoni, Fairfax resident
Interviewed at St. Vincent de Paul's free dining room
What is the biggest need for the homeless in Marin?
We don't have a shelter in Marin County. We have a fantastic program, and I highly recommend it, Mill Street. But it's small and it doesn't fit a lot of people in the community. We do need to have some kind of a shelter, or at least for next winter, we need to plan for a winter shelter. It ends up not just saving lives, but saving resources, too. Unfortunately, in Marin County, when we didn't have the winter shelter set up, it's been the jails. And jails work well. You get medical care that's just fantastic. You get some of the social services; you get medication. But unfortunately, what comes along with that is you also have a record now. So then get a job...
When did you see an upturn in people coming to St. Vincent's?
Things started increasing way before the holidays. At the Homeless Help Desk we used to average about 10 to 12 people, now it's been about 30 to 40 people. And we also have a cap on that—if you've gotten service within the month, we just don't have enough service to give out to people every day. So once you come once a month, that's all, you're kind of on your own. We'd love to give more services...we want to prevent homelessness and prevent people from hitting those hard times, the bottom.—Cris Jones, San Rafael; St. Vincent's director of volunteers
What can Marin do to help the homeless?
There's a lot of land in Terra Linda behind the Dixie School District, and I really think we should have an educational farm for kids, and the homeless can work in to that equation. The idea is sustainability for us, and it's not just the poor, it's everybody. We've got to get everybody out of their cars a little bit and start nurturing nature—the homeless really have a heart for this. I think because they're not self-aggrandizing capitalists.—Christina Healy, San Rafael; homeless for about two years
Where can Marin best improve its help for the homeless?
The homeless especially need help with the police. I do not like them training their crew on homeless when they're already down-and-out. They train their abuses: "You can't sleep here. You can't walk here." Of course, it's hard for them to sort out the ones that aren't doing drugs from the ones just trying to sleep, but they lump them all together.
Will anything change under President Obama?
Oh I feel the change already. I think a lot of Democrats come out of the woodwork because now, "Oh, yay! We don't have to put up with Bush." When he got in and then after 9/11, I got the feeling like, "Oh we're doomed. We're going to go through Judgment Day."—Marti Thompson, San Rafael; recently homeless
What should people know about being homeless in Marin?
I'm staying at a shelter, the Mill Street one—I call it the Mill Street Grind. It grinds you down to the very essence of homelessness; it's like the Bitter House—oh, the Ritter House, not the Bitter House. You're totally irresponsible, you can't take control for your own life and you're here for a reason—drinking, drugging or whatever—well, not everybody. You're just a loser. But there are a lot of people that are professional, quasi-professional, and they're in a situation that they don't know how to deal with.—Mark Burkhart, San Rafael; currently homeless
Will a new president make a difference for the homeless?
I don't know, especially now, we are already tight. The money in the bank, they all went down. You know what I mean? People lost a lot of, a lot of money. But in the future there could be something. I live by myself and I'm not a very big spender. I'm still doing OK. But like, maybe a year from now, we don't know what it's going to be like. I don't know about Obama because he took all the people who belonged to Clinton and Bush who are corrupt.—Miriam Bandera, San Rafael
Will a new president make a difference for the homeless?
There will be no change. For many, many years...nothing has ever changed.Jenie, San Rafael
Interviewed at the Armory
Which programs are the most useful for you?
The ones I use are the Ritter House—I did my laundry today—and we also have the mail, which is a P.O. box. And we can get lunch, we can get food, which is from a Catholic ministry. That's where we are usually because it's open from 6 in the morning until like 5pm when we get the shuttle to bring us here. So many people don't know about any of this unless you're homeless and you go to a place like that. People see us at St. Vincent's and they don't know that it's free food there.
What would be most beneficial to the homeless right now?
The thing we have a lack of is shelter because there's only one shelter there on Mill Street, but there's a building that's been isolated there for a couple of years—it's 999 Third St.—and we could use that for another shelter. So if the weather is bad, the soldiers [at the Armory] are giving us a chance right now, but it's temporary. People are used to giving during Christmas because of the Christmas spirit, but we are still homeless through the rest of the year. We just need a place to stay.
Will a new president make a difference?
Not because he's black or because he's a smart guy. The thing is he's a young guy and he's going to help us out. The thing that we hope for is that he's not going to spend the money somewhere else, another country; he's going to spend it within the country because we need it more. This is what we're hoping for, what we need—changes.—Juan Flores, homeless in San Rafael
What can Barack Obama do to help the homeless problem?
We sure have a whole lot of hope in him, but I hope people realize that he's only one man. It took us a long time to get into this economic situation and it's not going to turn around in four years, let alone eight. He can't, you know, [be like] Bewitched, and just twitch his nose and there it goes. It's like I was reading in the paper not long ago, Congress was starting to balk at some of his stimulus package, but he turned around and said, "Well you come up with a better plan."
What will you do after the Armory is closed at the end of the month?
Homeward Bound on Mill Street only has 44 beds and there are several hundred homeless, so you have to call in every day at 2:30 to fight for those beds. And Mill Street is not a wet shelter; you can't stay there if you've been drinking at all that day. There is no wet shelter in San Rafael, except for this [the Armory] here, so if it's raining and it's cold outside, and you get a couple of bucks and you go buy a bottle, you know, to get warm, then you can't get in anywhere else.
Do you know people who camp out?
You can't legally camp in Marin County, except for Samuel P. Taylor State Park, Pt. Reyes or China Camp, but China Camp doesn't have a bus system that goes there, so the closest is to Santa Venetia and then you have to hike it. There is a bus that goes four times a day up to Samuel P., but unless you have a disabled card it's $20 a night; that's a lot.
How did you become homeless?
I've been homeless for almost three years, and it started with my 30-year relationship, where my husband took off with a young tootsie and emptied the bank accounts and the IRAs and all that.—Yvonne Wild, San Rafael; homeless for about 3 years
Interviewed at Homeward Bound
What brought you here?
I've been homeless six to eight times. My old man threw me out, threw my clothes out. It was domestic violence, more mind-screwing and stuff, dangling my son over my head.
How do you get by each day?
You learn the ropes really quick. You make sure you have someone who's already been there and done that—they help you Dumpster-dive. As long as it's frozen, you can eat it. I got this watch, my pants. Then you go to the park and hang out with your friends...everybody sticks up for each other, you know. Watching for the cops, everybody watches their back. If you put me in jail, you better have a damn good reason.
What advice would you give to the newly homeless?
You don't want anybody to know your laying spot, cause they'll hurt you. They'll rob you or kill you. Especially if you want to hide your stuff. Don't let nobody see that. The worst part about being homeless is pissing and s---ting out there. As long as you got some peanut butter and bread you can eat. As long as you've got a spoon. Then you gotta go snipe hunting. Snipe hunting is where you find cigarettes, but you got rolling papers, re-roll it. Or you panhandle.
How does panhandling work?
You gotta be damn good at panhandling. 'Cause it's embarrassing. You ask for a quarter or a dime. I like finding money on the ground. Then you find booze in [the Dumpsters]. Everybody parties when you find two or three bottles, full. It's a treat. Everybody parties, you know.
What's the hardest part of homelessness?
Everybody looks down on you. Hey, just wait; every dog has its day, and honey, don't you think you're better than I am. Don't count your chickens 'cause you will be sucking that s--t up and wishing you had a goddamn dinner in it. If you're too proud you're never gonna make it.—Lori Martin, homeless on and off for years
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