Street roots., July 24, 2009, Page 14, Image 14

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C E L E B R IT 1 N 6 A
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Education * Dialogue ^Independence
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The clock ticks on in the waiting game of health care reform
ark has been around for years. He
folks I know, it seems like he is always |
has even met my sister, and to this
having stuff , stolen or being taken advantage
day he still asks about her. She
of,
came to visit me during the winter before Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about
last, and they spent a cold, dear afternoon
Mark, with all the talk of health care reform
in thè lobby of The Downtown Chapel, |
in the news. Mark is dependent Upon
simply hanging out and talking. From time
hospitals and emergency rooms for his
to time my sister will
primary care, and he is quick to share with
ask how he’s doing,
who ever will listen about his latest
and my answers
struggles to feel good.
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ always feel empty*
“Lately I’ve just been soooooo exhausted,
“He’s OK, he is trying like, major exhausted in the most tired kind
Sally Martin
to get in to his
of way,” he shared one morning, as he
r»OMTKB-
rested his\head in his arms on my desk. He
apartment still...”, ’
DOWNTOWN
“He’s doing alright;
did look tired that day, and like it had been a
he just got out of the
while since he had an opportunity to rest,
hospital again.” This
eat a good meal, and clean up. At that
7 year we have hardly
moment, we were trying to talk to someone
seen him, and every time he has come in to
at the Housing Authority of Portland. Mark
visit I am both relieved that he is okay, and
was worried that he had missed some
messages, since liis new cell phone had
sad to see that he e still in the same place.
Last winter the place Where he was
recently been stolen. We got through, and
there was no news on his housing, but they
sleeping at night burned to the ground. He
was sleeping in the doorway of a building in
thanked him for checking in.
I watched Mark and smiled, hoping to put
an industrial section of town, I read about
him at ease. He started puUing papers out
the fire in the newspaper. I think that I was
of his poCkets and becoming agitated/ •
more upset than he was. I remember
“These hospital papers say that I am sick...
saying, “Mark, Fin so glad you weren’t
that I need rest... Sally, if I"read these to
sleeping there when the fire started.” He
seemed to shrug off my concern that
someone do you think it will matter or will
morning, the look on hisfàce told me this is
they just thank me for calling?”
Unsure of what to say or do, . I asked for
the type of thing that is always happening to
me; this is the chaos-that is my constant
the papers and glanced at them, hoping for
companion in this life.
any clues as to how to help him proceed in
advocatingfor himself. What I saw at the top
I have always admired his determination
of the page gave me pause. It read:
to be positive, despite the circumstances
that shape his life. I know ver^little about
Diagnosis — Lack of access to health care
him, but w hatl do know is that his life is ,
and social support. There was no listing of
hard. He struggles With various mental
any physical health problems, other than
health issues, and has been working with a
exhaustion, and no treatment prescribed. I
number of agencies to help him meet his > scanned the room; most of the people in the
needs. He is One of the mòre vulnerable
room shared the same diagnosis.
M
SaZ/y M artin is the front
office manager and. pastoral
assitantfor The Downtown
Chapel o f St. Vincent
DePaule Cahtolic Parish -
My eyes fell on Leanne, who often needs
our help in paying for prescription
medications she has not been able to afford
for a while. She tries to make ends meet on
her fixeddneome, but prices for everything
have been going up this year. Next to her
was Jamie, who we recently helped with
tickets to the ER because the pain in his
infected tooth had become unbearable.
“W hatl need is a dentist but I am on the
waiting list at the clinic for an extraction.”
As I looked at each person, my mind was \
flooded with more memories: when I had to
What X saw at the top of the page gave me
pause. It read: Diagnosis — Lack of access to
health care and social support. There was no
listing of any physical health problems, other
than exhaustion, and no treatment
prescribed.
call the paramedics for Whitney when she
had a seizure, one of the paramedics said,
“Oh gosh, Whitney, this is the third time
we’ve seen you this week.”'
I am not naive enough to believe that
health care reform is a fix-all solution to the
many-faceted problems people face.
However, I speak for miany people I’ve
known when I say that health care reform
that provides greater access to regular,
preventative care will make a difference in
many lives. It is my hope that this change is
coming, and th atit Won’t be too late.
We’ve lost sight of the value of healthy communities
BY PAUL BODEN
Community Benefits Districts) are able fo
self tax themselves and then control how
t some ,point in history, people will
those tax dollars are spent within their
look back on American responses to
district: they hire security that are authorized
homelessness during the ‘80s, ‘90s
to function in public areas (even though they
and early 2000s and most assuredly they will
are not under public oversight or
wonder “What the hell were these people monitoring), and they use the tax money
thinking?”
they collect to directly lobby government
The notion that local governments can
You have heard talk about “letting no crisis
protect downtown business interests from
go to waste,” talk that within our current
having to bear w itnesstothe realities of ~
economic meltdown there is opportunity.
poverty by simply criminalizing the presence
But opportunity for whom?
of poor people harkens back to the days of
Not for poor people. Not for people
Jim Grow Laws, Anti-Okie laws, Alms houses
without housing or, for families living in cars
and “Let them eat cake.”
or for individuals in hotels who are being
From Portland’s sit-lie and anti-camping .
criminalized out of their communities. It’s
laws to Berkeley’s Public'Commons for
the BIDs who are finding more and more
Lveryonef?) to L.A.’s Safer Cities Inititative
opportunities to expand their agenda of .
and San Francisco’s perpetual “Matrix”-style
displacing poor people so they can enhance
police enforcement, we are seeing a
profit margins and advance downtown
hardening of the premise that public space is
gentrification.
the purview of the Business community and
Los Angeles, San Francisco and Berkeley -
that the only people who are seep to have
are cities that pride themselves on heing
any right to that space are those that the
enlightened and progressive. But our self-
businesses see as potential customers or
image does not reflect our reality.
Condo tenants.
A report just released by me National Law
This concept is advancing to the stageof
Center on Homelessness and Poverty and the
class warfare. Business Improvement
National Coalition for the Homeless, “Homes
Districts BIDs (sometimes calling themselves Not Handcuffs,” ranks these three California
C O N T R IB U T IN G C O L U M N IS T
■
Sag
cities among the top 10 meanest cities in th e .
country. Los Angeles comes in on top, San
Francisco is seventh, and Berkeley is the
tenth among 273 cities listed.
Homelessness is a spreading and
deepening crisis in all of our comtnunities.
To deal with it by criminalizing people is
ineffective, inhumane, and incredibly
expensive. It is also just plain mean.
Fighting back is what we do. We will not
disappear and we will not cease to exist. "We
will continue to organize, to educate, to
represent in court and to build alliances with
our brothers and sisters across the countty.
We will demand a government that values the
humanity of all people. A government that
sees quality education, health care and
housing as bringing value to a community
and prioritizes ensuring it exists. We will see
the day when the value of a healthy <
community has the same importance that the
value of profits for corporations has today.
That day is coming. Join us and it will get
here that much sooner.
Paul Boden is the executive director of the
Western Regional Advocacy Project based ip
San Francisco, Calif More information is at
www. wrap home, org
m m STREETS
gj
A new report by the National Law
Center on Homelessness and Poverty
and the National Coalition for the
Homeless looks at ordinances in 224
cities across the U.S. from 2007 and
2008 to develop a list of the meanest
cities towards the homeless. | | | | l
The Top 10 Meanest U.S. Cities are:
1. Los Angeles, CA
2. St. Petersburg. FL
3. Orlando, FL
|
4. Atlanta, GA
\
5. Gainesville, FL
8. Kalamazoo, Ml
7. San Francisco, CA
8. Honolulu, HI
9. Bradenton, FL
10. Berkeley, CA
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