I ain't got no home

I ain't got no home, I'm just a-roamin' 'round,
Just a wandrin' worker, I go from town to town.
And the police make it hard wherever I may go
And I ain't got no home in this world anymore.

putting a fence around the Cabrillo ball field is a pretty stupid way to deal with the homeless...isn't it Sharon, Frank et al?

many people have beeen squawking about the homeless lately and Casa Esperanza, the place off Milpas St that takes them in and gives them soup...

SB city councilman Frank Hotchkiss wrote a piece in the News-Press about how to help solve the "problem"..right below Frank's piece was an opinion about the conditional use permit of Casa Esperanza..make no mistake, these people want the homeless gone..period.

of course Frank won't solve the homeless problem until he understands it..first he puts the homeless folks into certain categories and then gives us a profile on them but he forgot to mention homeless vets...guys who went to war, killed some people for Uncle Sam for no reason and then returned severely messed up...did you vote for the invasion of Iraq but never served yourself..then you can accept some blame for the ghostly homeless vet walking by that scares you....

the mentally unstable homeless are especially frightening to Frank: "those you see berating the world around them in a loud voice for affronts real or imagined...they are aggressive and vocal and loudly insult any and all who happen to cross their path"....

gee Frank did you see Peter Lance at his DUI hearing where he loudly berated the judge and insulted the cops who arrested him? the point being the homeless are no different than anyone else..they just live their lives more publicly which upsets some people....now any real crimes by this group of people is handled by the cops, but being poor or mentally ill is not a crime..drunk driving is a crime and drunk drivers scare me...homeless folks do not

most should be in structured safe settings staffed by people who have worked with this population...people who went to school to get degrees to deal with psychological problems of the mentally ill...and the churches should step it up..the big beautiful Trinity Episcopal church in SB on State St tried to help the ragged people but citizens complained there were too many homeless sitting outside on the church grounds...the sight of poor folks is an affront to some of the well- heeled cocktail set in Santa Barbara!

some boneheads have suggested that the more homeless people there are, the more work for the folks who are the caregivers....as ignorant a comment as I've ever heard....the fact is many mentally ill folks are on the streets and they shouldn't be...many have schizophrenia....every minute is struggle for them, can you imagine what it must be like in the streets?? community services must be fully staffed and funded to deal with the situtation..fully staffed..I mean counselors, caregivers, half-way houses, out-patient services...of course, the run of the mill Santa Barbara middle class person doesn't understand that the dirty ragged homeless person sleeping on the beach once had a normal life before being disabled by a serious mental disorder...and these folks don't belong in jail!!

the citizens groups united to get rid of the homeless simply want them out of the way...they don't want to see a poor person  lounging at the beach..it upsets and frightens them and they want to shield their kids from such realities....to them, the homeless are bad for business....but I do believe they are over-reacting...besides most of the tourists don't really care if they see some homeless folks...poverty exists around the world..go to Venice, Italy and poor kids will swarm around you for something to give them...they will try to sell you stuff...we threw pennies out of our second story hotel room and they rushed to picked them up below..laughing excitedly....

the homeless are people who need care..they don't need  fear or judgement..they are not pests that need to be exterminated...it's best to let the pros deal with the situation and let the politicians/snobs/trustfunder boozers look for better ways to waste their time...

Santa Barbara is not defined by the homeless, but how it treats this small population...what next, are we to keep chubby blonde girls or white haired guys from walking on State St??

but there will always be homeless people..there always have been homeless people...call them what you will..beggars, tramps, bums, transients, hobos, Skid Row Joe...King of the Road....they always have been here, and they always will be....