Attorney provides downtown Sacramento site for homeless camp

Sacramento Bee ^ | 8/22/9 | Cynthia Hubert

[SmithL]

A Sacramento attorney who has championed the rights of homeless people is opening his private property to campers who need a place to sleep at night.

Mark Merin, who for years has challenged the city's and county's treatment of the homeless, is leasing a parcel of land in downtown Sacramento to an association of people seeking to establish a legal "safe ground" campsite. Three advocacy organizations are leading the "safe ground" effort.

Merin would not disclose terms of the lease but said the vacant lot is on C Street between 12th and 14th streets and should accommodate 20 to 30 tents. Campers had already begun to move in Friday.

The arrangement, Merin said, would prevent police from ticketing homeless people for trespassing and from seizing their property. It would not, however, stop officers from enforcing a city ordinance that prohibits camping in non-designated areas for longer than 24 hours.

Merin said he hopes police will look the other way on the camping ordinance, which is not strictly enforced against anyone other than homeless people. If they continue to enforce the ordinance, he said, he will challenge them in court.

Sgt. Norm Leong, a spokesman for the Sacramento Police Department, said officers would "consider taking enforcement action" against campers only if the site was "unsafe or unsanitary" or if neighbors or others complained.

"We would step back and look at it," he said. "We wouldn't feel the need to jump in as soon as someone pitches a tent and break it down."

[SmithL]

Homeless people begin pitching their tents Friday on a vacant lot on C Street in Sacramento that was made available to them by its owner, Mark Merin, an attorney who has championed the cause of the homeless. "We need to take care of those less fortunate than us," Merin says. "It's as simple as that."

[Parley Baer]

This won’t last to long going by the other times it has been tried along with other foolish notions. The San Francisco shopping cart idea being one of them.

[AD from SpringBay]

You are probably right, but I do applaud the guy for something with his own property, instead of demanding that others use theirs.

[elpadre]

the homeless in the photo do not have the appearance we usually associate with being homeless. The few homeless we have around here would not have a tent nor look as well groomed as these.

I am not suggesting anything herein, just noting the differences between areas of the country. I have supported the battered woman's shelter and the interfaith feeding program.

[Star Traveler]

Well..., that’s a lot better than sleeping in the doorways of businesses overnight, as I’ve seen in other places... :-)

[Vn_survivor_67-68]

nice touch, the Air Force T-Shirt in prominent view.....sort of takes away from the activist green ones in the remainder of the view....

[hoosiermama]

My son has worked with the homeless/mentally ill in the past. He says it shocking how many are vets and/or college educated. His theory is a good cheap mental health/substance abuse program(s) would eliminate many of the homeless.

[nufsed]

Did the city issue a use permit?

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

What a joke this nation is becoming.

[BenLurkin]

He should let them move in with him — then they wouldn’t be homeless.

[GOPJ]

Florida has a lot of homeless - can we do a “new york city” and give them all bus tickets?

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

Yes, there are many homeless families now who are less like the old “typically homeless” stereotypes...I am afraid...brought on by the current economic downturn and, I am also certain, destined to grow in numbers given the current economic Marxists in control of our government.

Faith based organizations have done the best jobs of caring for the homeless all across this country - here are two that I know about personally:

http://communitylodgings.homestead.com/Aboutus.html - Community Lodgings in the DC area

and

http://www.wihn.org/ - Wake Interfaith Hospitality Network in the Raleigh, NC Area

and

http://raleigh-rescue.org/ - The Raleigh Rescue Mission in Raleigh, NC

and

http://www.durhamrescuemission.org/ - The Durham Rescue Mission - in the Raleigh-Durham, NC area

All are doing excellent work and I try to support them when I can - because there but for the grace of God go I...

[elpadre]

I served on a citizen's board of directors for a mental health/mental retardation non-profit that served seven counties where I once lived. Most of the funding came from the state, but it served a wide ranging group of people.

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

LOL = I can count ...I thought of 2 more than the first two I know personally about. So here are FOUR who do an excellent job in areas I know about.

[Ole Okie]

I presume the owner is providing beaucoup porta-potties. Otherwise sanitary conditions may deteriorate.

[Freddd]

‘leasing land to an association of people’...ACORN?

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

This dummy doesn’t realize it, but the IRS does not allow such gifts as tax free. If in their estimation, were he renting that property at typical rental for that area, he would owe them tax on rent monies paid. So they will demand he pay them that money, *as if* the homeless were paying typical rent.

[hoosiermama]

State funding has been cut drastically here.
The once award winning facility is down to minimal staff and the numbers in need keep growing....The local churches do help with the “food banks” and state rules have been changed so that the food servers/restaurants can again contribute to the kitchens.

JA befriends every one he comes across, helps them find a meal. Tells them where to go for laundry service, bathing facilities etc. He’s helped them find housing or a small job, etc etc etc. Knows which bridges are safe to stay under and which are not.

One winter I “replaced” six coats (that he gave to someone who was cold) and help furnish a couple of HUD apartments with mattress and bedding. (Never enough money at one time to buy a new mattress from government funds) Both he and I have limited income....BUT it’s the right thing to do. People who aren’t gaming the system that just need a hand up, who are mentally ill and deserted by family should have at least a decent bed to sleep in out of the weather.

One who broke my heart, had had a beautiful home with flowers beds, a garden etc. She was hit by a drunk driver, has no family and ended up homeless. JA got her into a Hud apartments with flower boxes to grow a few plants. She was doing well the last time he ran into her at the grocery. Has a good couselor helping her regain her life skills.

Now he’s working in group homes for mentally challenged, part time, trying to work web site design business the other half of the time to pay for his “charitable” work.

ANd we’re conservatives....The liberals drive the BMWs spent their client’s money at the GAP for clothes that don’t last, instead of teaching them to shop Good WIll. They buy them snack food instead of teaching them how to shop/cook good foods....JA calls them the trust-fund brigade. Hearts in the right place, but clueless.

[Oldexpat]

Soon to become a focus of crime, drugs, alchohol and public sex. Just what you need in Sacremento.
Here is San Diego they now let them sleep on the streets openly..my god what has our country become?

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Shows a lack of creativity. For a while, I’ve been proposing that metro areas should get on top of this, by constructing “Obamavilles” (after “Hoovervilles” of the Great Depression era), some miles out of town.

To start with, the Obamavilles could be subdivided into fenced sections, with “homeless families”, who are usually short term homeless that most everybody wants to help, in their own area. This will guarantee that they have a place to live, with tent schools for their children, food and water, security, clinic medical care, and job placement, until they have earned enough working to afford apartment rental back in the city.

Not the best place for them, but it keeps them away from criminal scum, the long term homeless, alcohol & drugs, and protects their children, until they can get started again.

In a different part of the Obamaville, they put the younger long term homeless in one, the older long term homeless in another, another area for alcoholics and addicts, and a temporary section for clearly psychiatric problems.

The advantages of doing this are first cleaning out the cities of homeless, second, removing the homeless as prey for criminals, then giving them someplace to sleep where they are not a nuisance, and giving them the cheap basics to keep them out of town, such as food & water, and enough police to keep them out of trouble.

The bottom line for doing things this way is that it is a lot cheaper than keeping them in the city, keeps them out of the jails and the emergency rooms, stops panhandling, and it does so on a budget, because money is tight and getting tighter.

As soon as transients arrive in town, the police are clear that they can either keep moving, or go to the Obamaville. And if the homeless want to leave the Obamaville, unless they have a job waiting for them, the only route is away from the city.

One recent addition to this scheme was the successful effort made up in the northwest, of providing confirmed alcoholics an apartment for them to live in, with a nurse on staff. No effort was made to make them stop drinking, just to keep them from using so many public services, from police to emergency rooms.

Not only did it save the city a fortune, something between $30-60K a year for each alcoholic, but it was noted that the alcoholics began to drink less, living with less stress.

All it took was a willingness on the part of the city to not try and reform the alcoholics, but just to save the public money.