"Santa Cruz Local Anti-Exploiter"--as one who seeks honesty from others, I'm sure you'll have no trouble in starting at home. Any problem with telling us who you are, for instance?

I don't own a home. I live in close quarters in a trailer with a housemate. When I lived in a bigger place (sharing a house), I regularly put up people. Becky frequently does this, though she's on the edge of homelessness herself. But, as Steve points out, that's no solution.

What little help I provide lies in speaking out about issues in a time when there doesn't seem to be the political will to do the decent thing.
And lots of clueless bigots are attacking activists instead of addressing the issues.

Treating people like criminals for exercising basic human functions like sleeping is morally wrong, politically backward, economically unsound, and socially degrading.

When governments, residential associations, businesses, strip poor people of their rights systematically, it is important to raise the alarm, to document and expose these abuses, and to encourage people to organize against them.

People need to demand their rights--the right to use public spaces, the right to a decent standard of living, the right not to be treated like a charity case or a piece of shit. That will happen when people band together and come out. Whether we're talking about renters, street performers, workers generally, or homeless people.

Practically speaking, as Frederick Douglass wrote, power concedes nothing without a demand.

Most of the improvements we've gotten in Santa Cruz for homeless people have come from loud noisy embarrassing protests--ranging from Jane Imler's 1985 33-day-fast to open the first cold-and-rainy-overnight-shelter at Cedar St. to the repeated sleepouts at City Hall and downtown that led to the expansion of the Interfaith Satellite Shelter Program, the opening of the Back 40, the Free Meal, and the Homeless Services Center to the late 90's fasts and Sleeping Ban Reform Initiative organizing that prompted the few pathetic portapotties and public bathrooms we have.

There's a steady relentless gentrification going on in Santa Cruz that is creating homelessness, driving locals out, and deforming the face of the City.

For those who want to jump on board and raise a few embarrassing questions--Mayor Scott Kennedy is meeting with the Downtown Neighbors in a public meeting in the Community Room of the S.C. Police Dept. Wednesday night August 25th at 7PM.

If folks are interested, they can come to the SAFE (Society for Freedom and Expression) singout in front of New Leaf Market at 6 PM Wednesday and then meander over to where Kennedy, the cops, and some of the reactionary residents may be cooking up new anti-homeless laws and policies.

Kennedy and his Council can also be called at 420-5020 (24 hour message line).