Housing Conference Weighs Homelessness in Humboldt County

This is a press release from the Humboldt State University Homeless Student Advocate Alliance:

What: Housing: Alternative Insights is an open-community dialogue between Humboldt State University, citizens of Humboldt County and the indigenous populations of the surrounding area. The goals of this event are to influence compassion toward members of the community Who are not living in a traditional dwelling. The homeless population in Humboldt has been suffering an increased legal reprimand due to its ever-growing population. This event will revitalize compassion within the community and develop an authentic understanding of the hardships of housing insecurity.

 

Who: Altruistic citizens of middle and elder communities, Nonprofit organizations, Social justice advocates,  Humboldt State University students, student-volunteers, indigenous nations of Humboldt, HSU faculty, staff, and homeless members of the community.

Impacts and Benefits: The Humboldt County community will greatly benefit from the synthesis of information gathered at ‘Housing: Alternative Insights.’ The events are characterized by diverse perspectives on the issues of ‘Homelessness’ and housing insecurity through the lenses of: social justice, indigenous, and innovative perspectives.

When and Where:

Day 1 Nov. 28th from noon to 1 PM on the HSU University Quad.

Afternoon sustainability fair consisting of student innovations and ideas of sustainable living outside of traditional dwellings.

Housing: Indigenous Insights 6 pm to 8 pm in the Native American Forum at HSU.

A night of storytelling featuring Jene McCovey, an open forum for attendees to share their stories.

 

Day 2 Housing: Social Justice Insights Nov. 29th from 6 pm to 8 pm in the Native American Forum at HSU.

Perspectives of social justice and breaking stigma. Featuring a Native Speaker, also Vernon Price a highly knowledgeable advocate for homelessness rights and co-star in I Am/ I was Homeless a featured video to be shown; faculty members from the Department of Social Work, Members of the Multi-Cultural Center, Affordable Homeless Housing Alternatives and more representatives from HSU.

 

Day 3 Housing: Innovative Insights Nov. 30th from 8 pm to 12 pm in the University Center Quad at HSU.

The final day of the summit will consist of an idea fair, featuring student, faculty, and community projects focusing on anecdotal solutions to housing insecurity. The workshop will provide opportunities to acquire skills that will help support the lifestyle should you encounter it.

*Food offered at all three days (vegetarian options).

*Children welcome with supervision. 

Schedule of events, and sign up Sheet (signups due by November, 17th 2017. 5:00 pm): 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10gYZ1M927G_KerhqiahwFWQ0tAP9_ROzEpEm63s54Nw/edit?usp=sharing

Participant/table Agreement:  

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-NJZd-LyoEZlHYvMD0GOYU3-1lIFaLvwsYjXWJIIxGg/edit?usp=sharing 

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Trillium Hummingbird
Guest
Trillium Hummingbird
6 years ago

Here is a thought for everyone to mull:

When people are forced to rely on themselves, they will adapt, travel, work, and exist in a constructive and positive manner.
When folks are mollycoddled, sheltered, and protected in a socially aberrant lifestyle, given everything from food to medical care, and tolerated by the community, they go off the tracks, take drugs, assault and even kill each other, and create a huge management problem while existing in public where everyone’s life is affected by their presence, in a toxic way.

People who choose to live outside the structure the community operates within, should be “moved along”, not provided for or tolerated, and NOTHING non-essential should be provided.

Life for the “indigent by choice” should be SO HARD, that the indigent keep seeking and eventually WORKING toward an easier life. Tolerating the folks who choose this life, is the wrong approach.

Has heard all the stories
Guest
Has heard all the stories
6 years ago

Having a reason for being homeless is not the same as having a good reason.

Having too many of people choosing this ‘lifestyle’ creates a disaster for the society that tolerates them. They are not really homeless at all- they are squatters who spread their chaos everywhere within walking distance. They spread disease and crime, use way more resources than they ever give back. Yet simultaneously they make demands that everyone treat them with the respect they don’t earn. If it is a pattern for society to accommodate their wants, the same destructive wants that got them where they are, this is a power they will exercise to get what control they can find in their life, leading to society’s own destruction.

On the other hand, if the society around them demands that people take care of themselves, the marginal people, who actually can, are coerced into doing it. That leaves resources, and hopefully the will, for society to take care of those who truly can not take care of themselves.

So far society’s increasing tolerance and accommodation has lead to more human casualties than intolerance ever did. A person who took pride in taking care of themselves, no matter how marginally, has had it made clear to them that it is not considered a virtue to those social working aficionados pressing society to give them a better life. So they end up with nothing left but resentful parasitism.

You can’t expect adult decisons from people treated as perpetual adolescents.

shak
Guest
shak
6 years ago

I agree with both, Hummingbird and Seen it all.
But, let’s go a step deeper shall we.
As long as the unprincipled voter keeps passing the buck to their big daddy government we are left with only unprincipled solutions.
The principled voter votes for the principles that create a principled life for self and for others.
When we pass the buck, we pass self responsibility and self sufficiency. We then beg big daddy to fix the problems we ourselves created.
Big daddy has other plans with the funds raised off the taxing of the guilt ridden unprincipled voters, such as creating more guilt for raising more taxing.
7 out of 10 congress(wo)men are newly made millionaires, while 7 out of 10 families are barely getting by. Think about it.

Me
Guest
Me
6 years ago

Too many folks consider them a victim of all the bad things that have happened to them in life, and as a result, expect to be given a free pass for what is too often their questionable behavior that got them to this point. I have worked all my life for what I have. Unfortunately, too many people these days think they should not have to work for anything, and be treated as well as folks who have. I am tired of handing out to much of my taxes to people that don’t deserve it. They need to move on.

shak
Guest
shak
6 years ago
Reply to  Me

That’s how it’s always been, yet we never seem to learn collectively from it, due to too many revisions of the old old story.
Eve blamed it all on the snake. She refused to take self responsibility for her own actions.
Adam blamed it all on Eve and on God himself for creating her. He too refused to take self responsibility for his own actions.
Today we have many many serpents whispering in our ears to blame others. We even pay good money for more whisperings. We worship the snakes who we put in power to take our money to fix the problems we ourselves created. The problems increase as the snakes create more laws that forbid … ahhh, that forbidden fruit… self sufficiency and self responsibility. Follow the money.

hmm
Guest
hmm
6 years ago
Reply to  shak

Horrible example you chose.

Yahweh is all knowing.
Yahweh created the serpent and allowed him in the garden.
Yahweh placed, in the garden, the tree of knowledge.
Yahweh created Adam and Eve and knew the choices that they would make (being all knowing).

Yahweh is ultimately responsible, even if the deity granted to humanity “free will”. Knowledge drove man away from Yahweh, as faith not knowledge/evidence, is the way to know and love Yaweh.

shak
Guest
shak
6 years ago
Reply to  hmm

As I was sayin’ (revisions of the old old story).
Nice try though.
God wants us to love him honestly, through Free Choice. This is his WILL, to be honestly loved, not coerced, deceived, or threatened into faking it until ya make it. Knowledge leads us through the doors of wisdom that can only be opened when we freely open our heart, mind and soul to God’s WILL. Seek YE first, is knowledge. It is we who must seek HIM. God can only stand accused of wanting genuine love.

Truthy
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  hmm

You both lost me with Adam, Eve, Yahweh, Yahoo, Yeehah, or whatever. Most of us believe this is a problem of too much entitlement, hand outs, laziness, no real mental health services, etc. Your Old Testament beliefs have nothing to do with the problem, or solutions. And, FYI, snakes don’t talk.

fuckwalterwhite.com
Guest
fuckwalterwhite.com
6 years ago
Reply to  Truthy

“The lord helps those who help themselves”

shak
Guest
shak
6 years ago
Reply to  Truthy

Truthy, it has everything to do with victim mentality. Look around you, everyone is blaming everyone else for all their woes, while creating more woes.
Adam and Eve were the first to blame others, even God, for their own lack of principles. They broke the bond, the trust, the moral code. They did what they KNEW they shouldn’t do, then they blamed others. They turned to lies, guilt, embarrassment by believing deception. Before this, God took care of their every need. Abundance was theirs for the taking. They didn’t have toil or labor for anything.
What would have happened if they would have owned up to their mistake? Would they have been forgiven for giving in to curiosity, a natural emotion? Would they have been able to continue living in abundance had they of not lied and blamed each other and God himself?
We can only ask questions.
What would life be like today if everyone were principled? Nobody lied, cheated, coerced, controlled, or deceived others? What would life be like today if we stopped blaming everyone and everything for all our woes and instead stepped up to the plate and took self responsibility for our own weaknesses, mistakes, and deceptions?
We’ll never know. We are stuck in the victim-hood mentality rut. We feel entitled to the toils and labors of others. They owe us. It’s all their fault why I’m so miserable.
Even pastors blame the “sinners” instead of teaching self responsibility and principles.
Wouldn’t it be miraculous if every person on earth decided at the count of 3 to take self responsibility? Instead of begging man to fix all the woes we brought upon ourselves, we reached inward and drew upon the strength of HE who lives within but whom we have ignored in favor of that shiny object somebody else owns.

Crime stopper
Guest
Crime stopper
6 years ago

Boycott this progressive socialist driven conference. Having it at HSU demonstrates the liberal agenda even more so. Stop attracting the transients who travel from all over the US to California-THE LAND OF THE FREE literally. Say NO NO NO NO and NO.

tired of all this
Guest
tired of all this
6 years ago

When a one bedroom house in South county rents for $3000 a month, with a $4000 security deposit, that is $10,000 to move in….I bought my home 30 years ago for $11,000. Full price.
That is not inflation. That is extortion. How does anyone expect homelessness to go away?

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago

Amazing how that mostly seems to go hand in hand with liberal values. It is a puzzle as to how it works that way. Taxes, regulations, welfare. You’d think that would go hand in hand with a better life for the poor. Yet it doesn’t. Somehow where the richest seem to want to congregate, wages are suppressed (except government emploment), NIMBY restricts access, regulation is imposed which the rich deftly avoid paying for yet merrily vote for, costs rise, etc. Strange how it works that a rich population never seems to want to spread the wealth- the more rich, the less anyone else has. Oh well, at least they vote their consciences even if they shuffle the cost down to everyone else. That is the Democrat version of the Republican trickle down theory. A maid, gardener, pool service, in every house in their gated community. Lots of jobs. Lots of immigrants. All low wage.

Now of course there are university towns. Lots of money, lots of ideas, lots of lectures. But what’s paid in a university, stays in a university. Where incidently the housing is probably the most expensive in the area. Funny how that works, isn’t it?

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/01/06/260282186/eight-reasons-why-the-rent-is-too-damn-high

Winchell Dillenbeck
Guest
Winchell Dillenbeck
6 years ago

Thank you for putting the Conference on. Do not listen to the ignorant comments. They have eaten the Kool-Aid. Society does have an obligation. That old tired argument about pulling yourself up by the bootstrap. socialism is not evil. I think folks love Social Security and Medicare. There is a huge income inequality problem in America and there is a complete shortage of affordable housing. There are solutions if our government would step up to the plate to implement them. Being homeless is not a picnic.

Memy Selfandi
Guest
Memy Selfandi
6 years ago

Thank you. Bootstraps do not materialize out of thin air.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Memy Selfandi

Yes, they do. At least a whole lot of people with nothing seem to be able to locate them at will. Others don’t- even when handed the boot straps, they can’t find a place to attach them.

Trillium Hummingbird
Guest
Trillium Hummingbird
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

AND: There is so much money in this country, if you can’t afford anything, it is your own fault, for not planning, or working. Respect is not cheap, either. It has to be earned. Homelessness is not caused by a lack of housing, is is caused by a lack of caring or trying, and by cheap and easily available drugs like meth and pot and alcohol, and a healthy dose of self hatred.

Bootstraps are inaccessible, when you are too messed up and apathetic to locate them…

shak
Guest
shak
6 years ago

It’s not the government’s job to do anything for or against the people.
Their job is to secure our rights so we can help ourselves.
The only jobs and housing the government can make, are government jobs and housing.
The only jobs and housing the people can make are government jobs and housing as well as people housing and jobs.
The more the people hand over to the government, the less the people can do.
Meanwhile, billions of dollars go missing from the people while congress people become richer than their wildest dreams.
If the people truly want to help themselves and others, they need to take self responsibility back and stop the not so merry merry-go-round. It’s fun to blame government, I suppose, but government can ONLY do what the people ALLOW them to do. If the people want corruption, they get corruption. If the people want dictatorship, they get dictatorship. If the people want to hide their heads in the sand and turn over all responsibility to others, they must take responsibility for the outcome of having no responsibility for the wrongs that are done to them. Forcing everyone to send in the toils of their labor in order to fund wars and dictatorships is up to you. Only you can prevent corruption.
You want housing? Get rid of the laws that forbid the hiring of the experts that build housing. Get rid of the laws that make it impossible to build without it costing an arm and a leg to build. The experts who love their careers can build incredible works of art if we let them. So can non experts who build only for themselves.
If birds had the same regulatory committees that people have, they wouldn’t have nests either.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago

No, being homeless is not a picnic. But then holding a job, juggling wages to stretch to paying taxes that show up everywhere, while arranging safe child care, getting the car fixed, donating to charities, getting up every morning to get the kids to school and yourself to work seems to be what is really hard.

curlybill
Guest
curlybill
6 years ago

By virtue, every US citizen is entitled to the basics to stay alive, what we call welfare.

I believe in UBI Universal Basic Income http://basicincome.org/basic-income/ where every US citizen is payed the same amount without means test.

Automation and AI will displace 57% of the worlds workforce https://futurism.com/images/universal-basic-income-answer-automation/

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  curlybill

And where does the money to pay this universal income come from? And why won’t whatever income paid become the new base line for poverty? And yet again, why wouldn’t it become a new source for fraud?

curlybill
Guest
curlybill
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

It would be like a personal exemption on your income taxes, only this way you don’t have to have income to get the exemption. Every citizen gets a check and decides how to spend it.

shak
Guest
shak
6 years ago
Reply to  curlybill

Curlybill said “Every citizen gets a check and decides how to spend it.”
In other words, ever household gets a check and decides who not to feed.
It’s a pitiful way of killing yet another class of inconvenient atm citizens through the “right to choose” logo.

tired of all this
Guest
tired of all this
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Guest, you have no problem with the wealthy sucking up an ever larger share of our nations wealth through manipulation of the taxation & regulation they purchase through lobbying our legislators? If there WAS a level playing field, this kind of intervention would not exist and there would be many fewer poor folks and many fewer wealthy.
If you look at historic economies you would know that this was true.

shak
Guest
shak
6 years ago

Tired, isn’t that backwards? If the rich didn’t have to pay all that money to fight for their right to make and spend money, they would have more money to spread throughout their workforce, improve their innovations, build more prosperity for all.
They are in for the fight of their lives. Very few companies remain that are not “subsidized”. To them we owe our thanks and gratitude.
It is not the companies who are gobbling up the funds, it is the legislators and the courts.
Government is monopolizing and dictating.
It is not the car manufacturers threatening the senate with fines for not being oil free by 2030. It is the senate who is threatening the manufacturers.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago

I have problems with a society that rewards not being self sufficient. And burdens those who labor by telling them that they are responsible for those who don’t labor. Yes, some of those who labor are rich. Most are not rich yet still get burdened constantly with demands for what they have earned to inefficiently reward the those who do not do even the little asked of them. In fact to reward the very people who are the most likely to damage them.

The very idea that society owes anyone anything but the opportunity to be a productive member of that society creates more of the misery it promises to fix.

shak
Guest
shak
6 years ago
Reply to  curlybill

The pilgrims ended forced socialism when they discovered that the strong were having to work day and night while the weak and the lazy were sitting on their laurels complaining about the lack of abundance. It didn’t take long to declare an end to that miserable plan. They created a new plan, called Capitalism. “You no work, you no eat.” The lazy HAD to pull their own weight. Eventually, thanks to the new self empowerment, everyone was competing for an abundant life, including the lazy.
Nobody is entitled to anything from anybody.
Abundance without principles is impossible.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  shak

I don’t mind forking over some of my income but I resent the unceasing demands for more, more and more. And the constantly being used by the critics, blamers and bullies as the reason that drug addicts take drugs, thieves steal, cheaters cheat, brutes assault, etc.

The self indulgent just loves being told it’s not their fault but society’s. They grab that thought with the speed of light while the idea that they might just have the power themselves to lift their situation can’t penetrate their armor. In reality the hyper defensiveness of such means they know where most of the problem lies but they play along as it is so much more pleasant to shift blame elsewhere. They can continue to take the path of least resistance and leave as much of the burden for the result for others to carry.

That is the purpose of assigning personal responsibility. It is to reinforce the idea that almost everyone can do something. Offering the idea that they can’t is a self fulling prophecy.

shak
Guest
shak
6 years ago
Reply to  curlybill

Universal means, excludes individual needs. Football players, wrestlers, growing boys need 10x’s the food that a ballerina needs, yet your plan will only feed the ballerina. How is this equal and fair?

fuckwalterwhite.com
Guest
fuckwalterwhite.com
6 years ago

Just a couple years ago,everyone said it was because housing was overpriced,due to growers willing to pay higher rents on multiple houses.
It does seem expensive compared to the local career opportunities. Will legalization help? Maybe.

How much is dorm rent? What is the dorm to student ratio? Seems like HSU should be able to sort their own housing issues. Especially with all of the financial aid the students get.Yet bars are doing fine. More on campus housing would free some apts for non-students. Maybe.

curlybill
Guest
curlybill
6 years ago

In Arcata an EIR for Nov 28, 2017 – A couple of large housing projects – one for students, the other for seniors and others – have reached the stage of environmental impact report.
http://www.madriverunion.com/the-village-eir-posted-planco-takes-project-up-nov-28/
On Foster construction in progress 142 one bedroom apts.
https://www.cityofarcata.org/704/Major-Development-Projects

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago

If a landlord buys into a stereotyped sob story, they can find themselves have a tenant who never pays a dime of rent yet can’t be removed for a year or more due to tenant rights. There are such people who are called professional tenants, beneficiaries of the multiple layers of regulations.

Then to build, even in a developed area, can cost many thousands of dollars to just get permission to start. The only reason low income housing gets built is because the tax payers fund those costs. It never occurs to government to reduce the costs. Just get someone else to pay for it.

Then much of the easily built on land is gone. Now there are wetlands, park land, prime agricultural lands, slopes, etc to build on with all their accompanying regulations and protest groups.

Wasn’t there a bunch of articles about residents of a newly build DANCO project complaing about it being a dangerous place because of some unsavory tenants? Public housing tends to become very difficult to administer.

No, altogether no one who can’t afford to pay for lawyers, accountants and grant writers would ever want to build a rental these days. It’s a soul sucker.

fuckwalterwhite.com
Guest
fuckwalterwhite.com
6 years ago

I paid a lot of money,time and backache to remodel an older home. It’s nice now. So my property taxes go up. My neighbors pop out kids on gov’t assistance. How can they be rewarded for not being able to take care of the first one? ‘Cause my ass is paying I guess…
College kids get financial aid. Yet those same kids are pissing away cash at the plaza’s bar strip nightly. I don’t drink,but I feel like I’m buying plenty of booze.
And elementary schools are closing due to lack of funds. Yet new bars and pot “clubs” open frequently.
Nothing will change until folks prioritize education over inebriation.

Skippy
Guest
Skippy
6 years ago

We are all slaves to one thing or another. A lot of our homeless are veterans who went to war for the freedoms that many of us take for granted. There are no excuses for veterans to be homeless. Although some choose to live outside because of ptsd. As far as others who are stranded here or have mental illness issues or domestic or homes that are unsafe to live in we as a county need to address all of this in a humane way. Stop passing the buck and find healthy ways to help those who really need it the most. Some of you know someone who is or was houseless. Everyone has the right to have the basics food water & shelter but many just want to pack the problem up and give it to another Cty to take of. Let us all be the change we want to see in our own communities and help where you can and stop the excuses it could be you one day loosing everything because of a mass wildfire as many down south of us have gone through. Let us be a people of compassion and help when we can. I’m retired and worked all my life in a better economy but I still give back to those who need it the most in my community. You might want to try also.