[UPDATE 6:33 p.m.] One Person Found Hanging in Wooded Area in Redway
Emergency personnel investigating a death east of Redwood Drive in Redway this evening. [Photo from KMUD’s Lauren Schmitt]
Schmitt will be reporting on this during KMUD’s 6 p.m. news.
UPDATE 6:04 p.m.: Lauren Schmitt interviewed a houseless individual who said the person who died was a friend who was also without shelter. He said that he believes the lack of shelter in bitterly cold weather contributed to what is believed to be the person’s decision to commit suicide. (Please be aware that the cause of death has not officially been released.)
After Schmitt’s interview, Kelley Lincoln reported on the lack of extreme weather shelters in Southern Humboldt and what is available elsewhere in the county.
UPDATE 6:33 p.m.: Listen to both Schmitt and Lincoln’s report here:
Helpful information from the Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS):
Community members are…welcome to join Humboldt County Suicide Prevention Network or sign-up for the . SPN meets bi-monthly via Zoom.
If you are concerned for yourself or someone else, know you are not alone, suicide is preventable and help is available. If you need someone to talk to, contact any of these 24-hour hotlines:
- Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988, press 1 for Veterans. Ayuda en Español: 988.
- Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741
- Humboldt County DHHS Behavioral Health: 24-hr Behavioral Health Crisis Line 707-445-7715 or toll-free 888-849-5728
Additional support can be found by exploring an expanded list of resources, click here for an English list and here for a Spanish list.
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Drug addiction is the root of that cause
Well then. Libertybiberty has spoken and that settles it.
Science shows us that, actually, poverty and homelessness contribute mightily to drinking and drug use beyond healthy limits…meaning lots of people use for amusement, but then some go beyond into unhealthy territory
That’s not what it means. Nice try.
This comment makes no sense.
Another self-proclaimed authority amongst us.
That’s ridiculous, you can manipulate numbers however you’d like to fit your narrative.
Science also shows us that being raised in a single mother household is the single largest factor leading to poverty and homelessness.
This study says differently, “The authors conclude that a focus on risks does not provide a convincing explanation of poverty, single motherhood may be the least important of the risks, and studies based solely on the United States are constrained by potentially large sample selection biases.” https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321639701_Rethinking_the_Risks_of_Poverty_A_Framework_for_Analyzing_Prevalences_and_Penalties‘
“At 16.3%, relative poverty is much higher in the U.S. than in other industrialized, democratic countries. Low education, unemployment, single motherhood and early household formation put households at greater risk for poverty, but these factors are not substantially more common in the U.S. and do not explain the high poverty rate. Greater penalties associated with these risk factors help explain high U.S. poverty.” https://poverty.ucdavis.edu/policy-brief/penalties-poverty-risks-drive-high-poverty-united-states
Yes it’s not about the mom, it’s the lack of a father figure that does it.
I disagreed, it’s the lack of effort on one’s part, I’f illness or mental health is a contributor that’s another conversation.
I was also 3 months premature with no father after 3 years of age.
Wow “Lack of effort?” Judgement based on grandiose self-image/assessment. Nothing worse than someone who has a bit of hardship and doesn’t fully appreciate other factors that may have contributed to their relative success.
That is equally true for those who fall at hardship as those who get past it.
Sorry you experienced that loss. Are you seriously taking credit for having survived prematurity? You did that alone? Raised by wolves after age 3? Flying a sign at age 3? bad as that was so many people have had far worse.
The mental health that are in the system actually aren’t the issue. Maybe know more about it since clearly the two connections with the premature birthd and mental illness are attached to bigger issues.. serial killers and missing children. Things Humboldt has kept secret over time and loss and pain people become resentful and it’s all over messed up cheap and bad people who control enough money to take people out.. simple
When do we look to the village rather than wack-a-mole about individual responsibility?
Study after study shows that the single biggest facior for juvenile delinquency and the cascade of issues that come from that: jail, drug abuse and poverty, all are heavuly correlated with single motherhood. This holds true across all socio-economic groups. Of course, being a single mother doesn’t doom your kids, but having a father in the household statistically increases the chances of a well adjusted, thriving off-spring.
https://www.google.com/search?q=single+mothers+juvenile+delinqency+studies&oq=single+mother+&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j69i59.5597j0j7&client=tablet-android-samsung-rvo1&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#ip=1
Even if I accept those as quality studies and I haven’t looked into them, a quick glance shows that the vast majority say single-parent, they don’t say single-mother.
But I would guess that single-parent families have less time to spend with children, fewer resources to spend on children, etc. BUT that doesn’t mean single parenthood is the cause of crime, etc.
I’d argue that a bigger safety net that provided more resources (education, enrichment beyond just food, clothes, and shelter) to children from impoverished families no matter what the cause of their poverty would be the most likely to reduce generational poverty and reduce crime. Also, higher wages for women (who are more often the ones left by men to support children) and support like Head Start to make working possible would improve the chances that children could escape and achieve financial stability and be less likely to be sucked into the prison/crime cycle.
Single mother is the preponderance of single parent households.
It’s funny, there is clear evidence of delinquency and the problems associated with it, to a fractured family unit which put responsibility on individuals to take care of it. Instead, that is rejected in order find a bigger social problem and abstraction to put the blame on.
The fact is, individuals can improve their lives and the lives of their offspring with personal responsibility.
Yes, people can improve their own lives. But telling single moms that are struggling to put food on the table that the vast majority of juvenile crime is their responsibility is just false. Society can and should provide support.
I didn’t say that. That sounds like a defensive response. People need to take responsibility before they become single parents. Each parent is responsible for their kid; not for all the kids.
If you want effective support from “Society” then a push to retain a family unit is what would help not just trying to scrape up the pieces post facto.
“He ain’t heavy…he’s my brother” ring a bell? You are right that I can’t bring every kid that needs a mentor into my life. (But I can help where I can.) However, society can take a portion of tax dollars and provide Head Start. It can provide food stamps and internet (yes, doing schoolwork is very difficult now without internet) to low income families. It can provide nutrition counseling and after school programs. It can stop basing the money given to schools on local properties so that a school that is in the middle of a number of state parks or in the middle of urban decay gets less money than a school in Beverly Hills.
And that’s all fine. A lot of money has been thrown at the problem and perhaps a little more will get over the threshold and solve the problem. In the meantime, a cultural shift towards the family costs nothing and will undoubtedly help a lot of people.
“Cultural shift”? What do you suggest for orphans? Let them starve, physically and/or socially? Kill ‘em young? You adopting? Volunteering with those who haven’t family? Also, family has been the focus since the beginning of time AND with the increased mobility of the wheel and subsequent trains, planes and automobiles people mostly fled the restrictions caused by being trapped in one place with family.
Real men take care of their family
Even the ones who are not inside the family can help with that. You know what the pattern commonly is? Men escape the burdens of a bad relationship by leaving the family. Sometimes they will continue financial support but way too often think of it as giving money to the woman and not the children. They just go away. Then around age 50 or so, when motality comes knocking on their door
and when the child has reached enough independence and they are no longer an obligation, so many of these fathers decide to “reconnect.” And their emotionally deprived child, who has lived with the idea that someone didn’t want them, often cooperates.
And “unreal” ones dont’ just disappear, nor do their children so what are WE gonna do about it?
The real catch is that the help needs to be from individuals giving willingly and even gladly, not some nameless, faceless bureaucracy funded by taxes extorted from people who let the homeless die in doorways “because government ought to do something…”.
Individuals are overwhelmed. Think of anything..even individual success is enabled by family and community options. WHat is government if not “The Village”. I think it was Thomas Jefferson that said “Democracy is the worst system besides any other”…better said than that. FOr government to work sell with the economy of scale etc that we allow large corporations to work wonders with we must be all up in government’s business. We can’t expect to pay taxes and go to a few meetings and government to go on working like a benevolent uncle or vending machine.
A real problem is that fathers who do participate and sacrifice their own wants to their family are nowhere as appreciated by the social fixers as they should be. No, instead they choose to make heroes out of government programs, which while a necessarily useful compensation for the lack of parenting, are not anywhere as good as it.
Takes a village, including for someone like you to have so much time and vested energy to argue about something you are judging with insufficient information (and empathy)…you could instead be actively helping through volunteering or whatever.
I raised my kids. Thanks.
Not it doesn’t take a village. That is just a trivialized and trite piece of propaganda. It takes a society to make life easier for everyone than it is for the individual on their own. Easier, not possible. And a society requires effort from all it’s participants to take care of themselves lest it flounder trying to carry the unproductive. If you think volunteering is a solution to an irresponsible society, volunteers are only useful if they are still taking care of themselves first. Otherwise they are just more burden.
ACES scores are one of the best data sets showing adverse childhood effects are actually the leading cause of addiction and poverty. Fun fact humco has second highest aces scores in Cali second to mendo
Great point. And it was studied as a way to decrease health care costs and improve public health … addressing ACE scores and their causes will save us so much in the long run. And that is just the beginning: merely a 10 or fewer questionaire which doesn’t cover so many things that can happen nor does it factor in protective factors and compensatory experiences.
By “single mother” I think you mean “absent father”.
That’s a pretty nasty cycle but I’d take it a few steps back and educate young adults on contraceptive options which may help them not have kids with dirtbag partners.
Sex education is one of the important pieces that need to be added into any plan.
What do you say about single fathers raising kids, hmm?
Statistics show they do better
really which statistics? Please share.
It appears to be less of a factor, but it is also uncommon by comparison. The data set isn’t available. Kids might do ok if raised by wolves but that study is still under review.
Ya, introspection is better left for the females huh.
In 2022, there were about 15.78 million children living with a single mother in the United States, and about 3.44 million children living with a single father.
I guess the question is why are men having such a hard time keeping pace with women when it comes to raising their offspring?
Good job ladies!
Okay Mr.Whiteknight the courts default to the mother unless her situation is unsafe. I wonder why Jesse Lee Peterson BOND counseling has helped so many young black men raised by their mother only by teaching them to man up
Father’s certainly bear the burden as well… or they should.
LBJ’s war on poverty has been a disaster.
It has not. When was the last time you saw kids running around barefoot and freezing? Because that simple thing was what those programs addressed. That it left kids to survive deadly selfish and incompetent parents is a victory. Yet you seem to consider it a loss.
Fathers bear far less than 1/4 the burden post birth in single parenthood.
Pathetic.
Want to bring in some domestic violence stats with it?
We still have a long way to go..many children still suffering and yes an improvement vs a loss.
Oh really? How so? Many more seniors were living in abject poverty and orphanages horrendous etc. and people relied on religious tithes that had far fewer checks balances etc. than taxes do.
I would say the grandma probably shoulders the load of responsibility.
Unfairly, they do. Especially when drugs incapacitate the parents.
I would like to challenge that statement.
My dad died when I was 3 my mom was a frequent flyer at the local taverns after that. She did the best she could for the times. I moved out at 16.5 had two jobs a car and a motorcycle. I worked hard to have the things I couldn’t as a child, I dove in head first into alcohol coke,then meth when I was 18. After a long hard road I decided to move away and get my act together at the age of 35. I quit all alcohol and powdered drugs. The next year I met my wife of 18 years now. I now have a house 4 vehicles a Harley Davidson and own my own company.
Moral of the story is; it’s your life nobody will make it for you. If you want something bad enough you must work hard for it and compromise when it’s needed. Happy Friday to everyone. Stay safe and hug your loved ones. ???
I think that’s great. I am also the product if a single mother household. It’s not a rule it’s just statistics.
Thanks for that, Ullr. Sometimes folks need to hear one’s personal history to understand the statistics they give.
Because of my Mom, I will always stand up for a Mom deciding to take her children into a single parent family. It worked for my Brother and I as well as for my half-Brother from the same “Dad”. Apparently we’re the exception. Personally, I believe it made me a better man, husband, and step-father.
You’re welcome. I agree, for some the situation works out and maybe even for the better. But when you take millions of iterations across generations it can have a massive effect. It may only effect 1:100 kids, but if that’s an increase from, say, 1:1000, then it’s an order of magnitude more problems within a society.
You, gazoo and myself all did fine and I’ll take 1:100 odds all day long, but it stacks up for the worse over time.
Gazoo, thank you for sharing your story. Perhaps it will give other people an incentive to do better for themselves.
Thank you for the kind words.
Most people have “incentive”…only damaged people aim to do worse..often because they haven’t experienced better. So many here not seeing how lucky they are and all those that contributed and in fact determined their ability to “Do better”. Sad.
Luck? You consider it luck to have parents determined to do well? For their children and themselves? Bless those parents who try, even if they fail. It’s not luck. It’s the opposite of luck. It’s intent.
You aren’t considering nor listing all the factors in your favor …everyone has hardship AND they have it to varying degrees and have other protective factors and compensatory experiences to varying degrees also. Besides your list of what qualifies as “Success” and more can be also listed by people who do terrible things. Nothing worse than someone with a bit of hardship who credits themselves only for it.
Please explain the factors in my favor, I was premature by 3 months. My father died at age 3. My mom was a drunk and never at home. I had to take care of myself and my brother who was born after my dad passed. We ate the food we could find in the cupboards and whatever we could get from our neibor. I started smoking weed at age 5 to get out of the pain I was in. I started doing coke at age 12. Meth soon after. With zero guidance I got myself in a lot of trouble. I had zero support and zero parenting. I chose myself to make a better life. I move away to get away from my friends and cohorts. Never once had any help from family. I have a huge rich family in the wine country area.
I did everything that is positive in my life by myself for myself. Period.
Today at age 56. I have been married 18 years. I am rich with friends and a family I built with my wife. I own lots of items in which I never had growing up. I work my own company and plan on leaving it to my grandchildren.
Life is what you make it. After all I been through I am truly happy for once in my life and my wife and I have done it together. Have a wonderful day and make this a better life for future people.
You asked so: You were born into a health care system your family had access to. In the good old days your premature self would have perished or lived with severe disabilities requiring even more vast resources than it did for you to survive prematurity. You had helpful neighbors. Food didn’t magically appear in your cubbard. You were full-time supporting your brother by working rather than attending school as so many children still in the world do? You didn’t have malnutrition? Were you raped? Repeatedly? Beaten? Starved? Sorry about your losses and a family that didn’t help or so you say didn’t and maybe you’re lack of recognition, as evidenced by you not seeing the list you have, is a factor too? Sad someone does so much good as you have and lives to the age you have without being able to at least advocate that others be so lucky in addition to your hard work. Being homeless is hard work too as are many things. If you liked the drugs so much relative to other options you had you’d still be on them or dead.
I truly hope you get the help you need, you sound agry and nothing anyone says is good enough for you and your situation. Try to have a better day. Only you can make that happen
Angry? LOL. You asked for a list and you don’t respond to any of it.
(Standing applause.)
Thank you very much. Very kind of you
Homelessness is women’s fault. Women get blamed for everything. Literally every fucking thing.
Thank you! I eat healthier, exercise and almost never drink when I have a home. Only extreme narcissist can’t comprehend that excruciating experiences might encourage a little more mental escape. There’s no cozy couch after a day of hard work, so I reach to alcohol to unwind 5 times more often when I’m houseless. I actually was 5 years sober before my longest stint without a home, it broke me.
But there’s the real issue. Comfort doesn’t endure unless it is a reward for success. Not the other way around as in taking any comfort in reach as a compensation for lack of success. And don’t tell me that I’ve never been in those shoes. It also doesn’t work that choosing the wrong shoes means better understanding than the person who chooses the right shoes.
So arrogant and/or trite to try and compare when you have no idea how yours and other person’s situation really compares.
Kelley, I thought the Mateel Community Center was a public benefit and charitable organization, i.e. “Mateel Meal” and that awesome fireplace, along with Southern Humboldt Working Together (in collaboration with RRHC) and Southern Humboldt Family Resource Center, (which is funded by SHCHD). All three are right their in Redway and no one is working together to help with this?
What amazes me, is the Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District employees 133 people, pays out $6,967,790 in wages and $1,114,485 in benefits yearly (2021), along with a proxy tax exempt and charitable organization collecting over $1.4M in donations and grants since 2019 and then gives the Southern Humboldt Community Park $33,000 in outdoor exercise equipment, only to give a blind eye to protect, feed and shelter the homeless during a harsh winter and snow?
https://publicpay.ca.gov/Reports/SpecialDistricts/SpecialDistrict.aspx?entityid=1533&year=2021
Ed Voice, I don’t want to sound harsh but the truth is! The mateel community board members decided that they no longer wanted the free meal so they destroyed it! They forgot that they were a community center that helped people with a free meal, and then the Mateel used the people to volunteer for their big events like summer arts, music festivals, etc.
Then they wondered why they didn’t have the volunteers to pull it off in the following years, duh! I know I was there fighting to keep it a community center, and the free meal. They cut off the only free food in southern humboldt. They wanted to stop feeding the “homeless “ so they could concentrate on being the Mateel Music center!. They were so stupid because they didn’t realize they were feeding the whole community. They fed everyone including the elderly that live inside but didn’t have enough funds to feed themselves at the end of the month. They received a big push from Mr. Sweet, and others with dirty money to “stop feeding the bears.” The plan was to starve people like the rest of the fascist pigs in hopes the people would go away! They were so determinately wrong.
I warned them if you starve people out, desperate people do desperate things! Shortly after that people were stealing food in every way to stay alive.
Let’s remember that SHO is Sweets cofounders girlfriends mother.?♀️
Then SHO with all their money they got, they delivered at the trail heads once a week peanut butter sandwiches. Some days the sandwiches would be rained on or sit there for days. Varmints would get into them. Nobody ever delivered into the camps. Who can live on 2 sandwiches a week? I guess they were too afraid to really deliver them. What a joke! The peanut butter they got from the local food bank! They paid themselves well though! SHO believes that “if they make a camp, and people refuse to go then they can go to jail, that’s fair.” That’s straight out of the president mouth, and I believe it’s on video. Then they wonder why people don’t trust? Now they are opening a 4 hour warming center on a Tuesday from 12:00 pm -4:00pm ? More money received that is not being used correctly to save lives. SHO was funded to put people in motels during Covid. Did they do any casework to transition these folks into housing during those years? No! They didn’t have the slightest idea on how to do casework. Nobody went into permanent shelter when they were in charge during that time.
When they ran out of funds they threw them right back to the streets in the middle of December’s winter.? We actually lost someone right after they were thrown out.
What a farce!$!$!$!
All the while our supervisor was leading the way on this monumental waste of government money. Embedding herself with the police, and the dirty money mongers like Sweet.
Everyone gets paid but the problem continues to get worst!
How do you $top real help, and progre$$ion? JU$T FUND IT!!
Actually the dogs and the fighting and the constant lack of respect for the place that helps them coupled with the downturn of the economy while the mateel is struggling to survive itself all contributed to the decision to discontinue the meal. If people could just behave themselves, not fight on property, not bring and enormous amount of animals that also fight and more people in the community that were housed were willing to help, it’d still be happening. I think you’re barking up the wrong tree blaming the mateel that worked selflessly for years to try and help the houseless community and got nothing in return but graffiti, broken toilets, human fights, dog fights and generally super disrespectful behavior as a thank you.
Wow. I didn’t have an opinion on who to believe and if I just take your comment and “Line your pocket”’s and Ed Voice I’d guess theirs are more accurate. You address none of the particulars and write as if all those assisted were bad behaving and also as if bad behavior by people, housed more than not, has not been around since the beginning of time. Not very credible.
Thank you for the info. That must mean, the MCC also stopped receiving funding from DHHS through Calfresh that supported the MCC meal, right? I know the MCC used alot of Calfresh funding to upgrade and get new equipment for the kitchen at the MCC, because of the MCC Meal.
I know the Southern Humboldt Community Park still gets funding for food and feeding people thru DHHS and Calfresh, but I never hear about them doing it, they receive about $48k a year for providing that service. you can read about it here, who exactly are they feeding with that public funding?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VqEJdPh8X1S30W2CJyDR_TjlEmMubGKH/view?usp=share_link
What new equipment at the MCC? I don’t see any new equipment. They have had the same sink, steel tables and ovens for the past 20 years. The dishwashing faucet still attacks anyone trying to use it. The utensils and bowls etc are also old. The dishwasher is small. Did they get a new janitor’s bucket? A few more plastic tables?
I don’t know if what you say is accurate and the potentially real info being put out here is important so am glad you did so.
Or be like you and live in denial and continue to enable people to live like this…. Accountability needs to be a thing, and if people don’t want to fly right then they can and should be institutionalized until they are ready to act right. Allowing people to live in tents and be drug addicts isn’t humane.
Problem is it is the same in the cities with whole sidewalks taken up with tents and shanties. The problem is not isolated to Humboldt. Right now, if you are housing insecure, a renter, without savings, income, and good health, you might end up homeless unless you are very lucky or have family that will take you in.
It certainly is easier for those who have congenial resources to fall back on. But if you don’t, there are other options. Even poor health is not as common a reason as is supposed. There are a few people not so physically damaged as to have social services available yet still unable to cope but that’s no where near as common as screwing up out of sheer perverse self determination.
Yes, some just can not function. Those people actually need intensive help and will be unlikely to get it because they are difficult cases.
How on earth would you, personally, know?
Sometimes people just break. So many people have the worst stuff happen to them as children, before their brains can process what has happened to them, and they shatter into so many pieces that they can’t be put back together again. Then that brokenness comes out in a myriad of ways, drug abuse being one of them. I just hope this person has found the peace they weren’t able to find in this life.
I’ve been thinking about the folks at Creekside who had the rug pulled out from under them.
Yeah, I have, too. I wonder how they’re doing.
There must be more to the Creekside story than meets the eye. We drove by there yesterday and the culvert has been removed and the creeks banks restored. It looks like they spent more time and money than they would have if they had just installed a new culvert.
Thanks perhaps to publicity…amazing how that can work miracles..and takes work. Thanks to Kim (and her team.. my guess is compared to other sites she is doing mostly on her own) for reporting on this and whomever else.
There are about 7 or 8 others. But over half who covered it just printed the county’s press release verbatim rather than reporting on both sides. The county’s press release really tried to dehumanize the residents.
Me too. What happened there was awful.
I suspect they mostly moved to a different rug. I can remember a time when my parents rented a house with all the accompanying expense then within a month the landlord sold it and they had to move. Having almost no funds left, they had a party where their supply of alcohol (a necessity in the time of cocktail parties) was drunk up and they smashed my mother’s collection of pottery among other things to get rid of the need to move them. The next day they loaded what remained in a Uhaul and we moved to a camp ground until a new place was found. It’s amazing how what seems miserable at the time becomes a good memory of coping. I still remember being in bed hearing one toast after another followed by a smash of glass. And left a life long wariness of life’s uncertainty. And not a necessarily permanent evil.
What happened to them is criminal. Loosing one’s housing in any way has been a very dangerous thing for at least a decade.
THANK YOU! Someone less ignorant and excessively self-absorbed and more empathetic. Refreshingly reassuring as are the upvotes.
Everyone likes the story of ill fortune but is less fond of the story of ill fortune avoided. Yet the latter is more useful.
Actually in our culture and likely species wide people prefer happiness. In US especially the Disney and “Fast” “Food” version of most things is ardently pushed. Part of the reason suicide is rarely reported on and mental health poorly funded.
Mostly people do not break. At least into non function. So what’s your fix for those who do and don’t adapt? That kind of rhetorical because I think the answer is that it can’t be fixed but only placed to minimize the fall out to everyone else. But I’d like to hear different if it’s realistic.
Libertybiberty, you’re so wrong! There’s many ways to homelessness. Domestic violence, workman’s compensation injury, death of a spouse, death of a parent, earthquake, loss of job, loss of home. Believe me when I tell you nobody wants to be sleeping in the freezing cold outside. Homeless or not, many people that live inside & outside are affected by addiction. The housed can only hide their problems behind a door. We have many drug addicted people in our community living inside. If you all think that there is some form of HELP, you’re wrong again! We lack mental health help in this community. We also lack help for addictions. The opioid crisis was not a homeless issue because if it were it would’ve even been in the news. This was a housed person’s epidemic. Where’s the shade being thrown on those folks? We have lots of problems in society today but little help. Lots of blame, and shame as I read this thread. Housed or unhoused we suffer all the same because we are human beings living in a broken capitalist system. It’s no secret people can’t find a house let alone one they can afford now days. We had rich farmers living in our hills that are headed to our streets next due to a collapsing economy. Just look downtown all those greed growers that bought up town, are about to eat it themselves. We promise not to hose you down Mr. sweet when you fall out on our streets. My thoughts are with the person that felt they had no other option. I know what it feels like to be out of options. It’s not a good feeling folks! Imagine living outside in the harshest weather conditions, no community support, no family to help, no shelter. Can you just stop for a minute, and think what would that feel like? All you have to do is experience it one time in your life to know nobody deserves to be blamed for it. The word that came to my mind immediately after finding myself on those streets was hopelessness…
So do something besides pecking on here, and throwing shade, and bring some hope to your community!! Every life is precious.
The change starts with the man in the mirror.
Yes, that’s YOU!!!!!
Well said !!
No it’s not. In any way even to the idea that every life is precious. Some lives are precious only to themselves. And a few are a serious liability to those around them.
A little more honesty and a whole lot less theater is needed. Of course no one “wants” to be shivering in the freezing rain. Duh. But a whole lot of people don’t want to do the things that prevent that from happening. Can empathy fix the misery of mental illness or drug addiction? Or is it the hard headed but clear sighted who will see that empathy is of little use when it comes down to preventing those things from becoming worse than they are naturally by compounding a lack of competence with wanting people to feel good about being incompetent?
So, you know this person well eh?
Hope this is not my husband’s comment
This young person was a sweet and gentle soul. I am so sorry we couldn’t help him get the support he needed. I am comforted knowing he is at peace now. May we find compassion for those less fortunate than ourselves, and be grateful for what and who we have.
I agree . Life is so short. Im scared to know who it was ?? May they be at peace
Me too. I’ve bonded with a lot of them over the years. I’m scared to find out who. I’m so sorry. They are mostly harmless and I always give when I can. I’m very proud of my daughter who bought warm corn dogs for a few who where looking hungry out in front of rays??
Well said
Yes he was.
After hearing the KMUD report, I think the state keeps mandating requirements for stuff counties have no financial resources to afford. It’s pointless. This has to be a community-wide effort: individuals, organizations, churches, etc. Expecting the government to take care of us up here seems futile. When working people cannot afford housing, it impacts the entire community. Drug-addled unhoused people make it easy for a lot of us to look the other way and write them off as losers getting what they deserve. But whole families trying to lift themselves out of poverty so they can afford the basic necessities is a result of our shameless society. More stories on the working poor — those without drug and alcohol problems, might help stir more compassion among individuals who could help. We seem to have enough money to gamble more than a billion dollars on the Super Bowl, waste money on gambling at casinos, and spend billions on war, while spending the minimum on our communities. I’m ashamed I have done very little — other than some donations — to help those who need it most. This is a call to action. We all need to do more, to extend compassion, and stop assuming those in great need are victims of their own bad choices.
We can’t heal the homeless situation with money plans, tough love or Mr T. We need to address the socioeconomic issues that is causing this rapid spiking of the unhoused. But sometimes it’s just easier to blame it on stuff that’s not in any way related to me and my doings. It’s drugs, single mothers, video games, legal pot, and that goldarn Rock n:Roll music. It’s so comfy up on this very tall horse. I can see it all so clearly from up here and I don’t have to feel shit. Perfect.
Absolutely! So many reasons, and there really isn’t a simple answer to any of it. I also think that sometimes people get compassion fatigue, and that is dangerous as well. Thank you for your articulate, well thought out response.
ca. spent 10 billion on the problem to help 571,00 people. that’s not a small amount, it’s poorly spent, literally.
Agree. Some stories on the working homeless and families would help. Or those who are sick and can’t get the help they need. I’ve seen people with cancer or very sick dying of AIDs on the street living in their vehicles who did not have addiction problems. No one even knows about them, they hide. They have to be sought out- they don’t like to advertise the fact they are homeless.
We need more housing built. Nothing is going to change homelessness except the availability of housing.
We need heavy heavy taxes on vacant buildings and homes kept off the market by “investors” who are just parking money all over the country.
We need the prices of real estate to crash. Hard.
We need cities and counties to back the F off on high cost permitting fees and more and more regulations.
I feel for anybody that’s homeless having to live in this weather.
it’s cold at night, it’s cold in the day, the wind is freezing.
not all homeless people are addicted or have mental problems, it could be any one of us with a run of bad luck that puts us in a similar situation.
The people you speak of aren’t even 0.1 percent of homeless people.
Burned bridges , a life of crime, instant gratification , get drunk worry about it later….. that’s the real reason people are homeless
Like you’ve ever known a homeless person to know. If ya did you’d eat those words!
Really, I knew a completely normal young man. I have watched him go from a strong hard working young man to a completely useless drunk and meth head. It was the drugs and alcohol and nothing more period! He gave up everything and now can’t even care for himself and is locked away in a hospital. Everyone tried to help. He chose to live on the streets. Only a few are down on their luck or have mental problems the rest chose to be where they are. Now years later they do have mental problems but most are self-inflected.
You watched. I communicate, offer advice of places they can seek help. I let them know they can overcome their struggles and it’s important they take that first step in the process. I currently provide shelter for two individuals that have succeeded in recovering from a heroin addiction. They now are productive hard working souls. I am not suggesting you attempt what I have done. Just merly pointing out the strength of humans when supported by a positive community.
Thank you for your service!! It isn’t easy and not for most people. It takes a certain individual to do that. Great work.
I am not the only one but thank you. I see others who take a walk through homeless camps. A few years ago an elderly lady would bring bread, cheese, nuts and fruits and lay it down next to sleeping areas. We have many great souls amongst us.
An assumption as usual but not correct. Only those who want help can be helped. It’s great your helping those who need and want it, but don’t think it will work on everyone. We tried everything to help him to want to be clean to no avail. Don’t think you’re the only one out trying. Some have tried but most don’t succeed or we won’t have this problem to begin with.
Sometimes those closest to someone suffering are the last people the sufferer will communicate their troubles to. DOn’t let a misplaced sense of guilt cause you to blame the sufferers. Takes a village to help or not and as a society we offer so little. Someone can eat a ton of bad food and get great medical care for their bad heart etc. and we don’t call them addicted and make them die in the street.
I have been in foster care Adopted by people for money, forgotten by the system. divorced, Back surgery at 29, house burned by wildfire, and more than I can list here. But I chose not to be an addict and because of that choice, always had a place to live. because people were always willing to extend a hand when I needed it. I tell this part of my story to insure all out there that it is personal choice that has put people where they are today. I have hung out on the streets and offered help to those who need it. One consistency is the continued use of depressants and other drugs/ alcohol. If that is ones path in life then the results are always the same, burned bridges A life of crime, and instant gratification. I am not eating these words, they are truth and the truth will set you free….
No one ever has dreamed to be a homeless drug addict growing up. I am proud to read you overcame your struggles and chose a different path. Others do not possess your willpower and one thing is consistent with all drug users is they will wake up sober at some point. I remind them It could be the first step in recovering from their addiction.
A lack of compassion for other humans makes you use words like //If that is ones path in life then the results are always the same, burned bridges A life of crime, and instant gratification.// I choose to use other words when speaking with those who struggle with addiction. Each person is a unique individual with their own history of plight.
Right on LL
Apparently you walk away from hardship with arrogance instead of wisdom. I too lived in the system and worked in it and had you really lived in the system for any length of time and multiple placements or even worked in the system you’d have far more humility and awareness how many had it worse than you. I witnessed as a child many who had it worse (and I had it bad I see now more with hindsight the toll it even took on me).
In July I broke four bones. In a wheelchair for six months. Needed help 24/7 while having a fixator on my leg. If we did not have savings we may have ended up on the streets too. I am blessed to be back to work and productive. Your comment feels like an insult to me…
Yes and homelessness…and “even” the chronic threat of it can cause mental illness and substance abuse. This terrible weather would drive many to drink or worse.
Could this be my missing son? 36 white male 6’1”, very thin. Can anyone give a description?
Charlene, reach out tomorrow after 8 to the Humboldt County Coroner’s office. (707) 445-7242 But I do not believe that fits the deceased’s description.
Thank you Kym. I will do that.
When was the last time you saw your son?
March 17, 2022
So sorry you have a loved one missing.
My sincerest sympathies for the friends and family of the deceased. Suicide, which this appears to be, is a permanent solution to temporary problems. There is help available. If you feel like you’re in that deep, dark scary place where you think death is preferable to life, reach out to someone close and tell them you need help and support. Above all, don’t give up.
Suicide is both the most tragic and most selfish act. It robs the world of possibilities and instead provides family, friends, or strangers a corpse to clean up.
If you know folks who might be suicidal, please see they get help!!!
Each person’s life is their own.
No one has the right to tell another person they should survive through extreme mental and/or physical anguish.
The stance that suicide is selfish IS SELFISHNESS.
Thank you. It’s very laughable when you hear suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Only privileged people have problems that are temporary, other people have problems they did not cause that will never go away.
Everyone has problems regardless of economic circumstances. They are just different kind of problems.
I believe having a food & shelter problem just makes every other problem much harder to deal with.
Oh? Homelessness is permanent? Addiction is permanent? Hunger is permanent? Depression is permanent?
None of those things are permanent. I myself have endured all of the above and more. There IS help for those who reach out, whatever your situation may be. It takes time, yes and yes, it can be extremely difficult and exhausting. But it CAN be done. You just have to want it.
Edit – sorry, I clicked the wrong reply button.
I was just writing up a comment along those lines and waiting for the inevitable backlash and feeling like an outsider. Your comment likely helps many in need who have lost hope than comments shaming or even just saying there is help and judging (without asking and helping) someone who is facing permanent problems, sometimes avoidable if only we were a better community. I’m glad there are others here who have the empathy, wisdom etc. to see the reality, the one we can’t begin to do better with if we deny it so ardently and consistently.
As a surviving child of a parent that left this world due to suicide I’ve had a lot of years to think about this . 40 actually and after all this time the conclusion that I’ve come to is it was a selfish decision. A selfish moment that forced a child to grow up without that parent always asking why wasn’t I good enough, why wasn’t I important enough, why wasn’t I enough! Suicide is a selfish decision, mostly made in the moment and it can’t be taken back. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem!
Thank you for your voiced thoughts.
Mad respect for your journey.
I am very sorry that happened and like what real Brian said. As survivors though too our words might carry more weight so I urge care. I can’t judge them well even in hindsight and I had two parents that attempted suicide when i was a child and one who completed it. And also we have to do more as a community (and not so much pressure on individuals) to ensure there is communal help. My remaining parent directly blamed me for her wanting to commit suicide (abortion wasn’t legal when I was born) and also for finding her and her being recessitated and she remained generally cruel and miserable throughout her life. I ended up in the foster system and it was bad though I was so grateful for every little thing. Now older (my parents were young when they exited or tried to) and a few more hardships under my belt I understand there needs to be more help, more options no matter if my parents were merely selfish. Many people exit because they have tried so very hard only to end up with same or worse problems. I worry that calling it selfish denies the real and trapped pain so many are in
Meet at Dazeys asap with hot soup. Go to the trails that enter the homeless camps up or down Redwood Drive. NOW..
I feel so very sorry for the person that hung themselves. Obviously, they had reached the end of wanting to live in that situation. We all have a breaking point. My condolences to their family and friends. May they now RIP. God bless. Thank you to all the first responders for their sad work.
Very kind of you to care for all involved! (Not Sarcastic)
If I finally tap out, I plan on doing it where no one will find me. I have thought about the first responders, I’ll keep them from seeing more tragedy.
If you feel like it is time to tap out, please ask someone for some help. Suicide only brings grief and sadness to those that know and love you. By taking your life it is as though you are punishing them for lack of care, help, love and so on. Please don’t ever do it friend.
Ok and pleeease keep in mind some have no family or have brutal family through zero fault of their own. Also many overwhelmed families (thanks in large part to little help and even damaging so called “help” in community) are absolutely exhausted by trying as individuals to help their family member alone. We need to see suicide for what it is if we are going to get better at preventing it and calling it selfish and punishing can do more harm than good…caused more feeling of being trapped and/or being alienated because so many forget how many (especially homeless) lived in the foster system and have no family or have damaging families. Easy to take for granted if that is not the cause.
Agreed 100%
That seems like a sad lonely way to go. We need more kind people like yourself in this ever crowded world. Our country is a bit cruel in that regard. Denmark, Netherlands and now Canada have assistance (applied with much care and reserve at least in the first two countries) whereas we deny it even for the terminally ill and in obvious blatant pain.
Looks like the know it all human garbage got what they wanted, and just a few days after Kym allowed all the death wishes against the houseless on her hate-filled platform she claims is a useful comment section.
The first and ninth amendments to the U.S. constitution are pretty clear and well established. Have you thought about moving to Russia they have a similar perspective of your viewpoint.
Ironic though using freedom of speech to make a comment insisting restricting freedoms of speech.
My favorite quote from the US Constitution:
Which simply means; if there’s something wrong, those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action.
??
Ok and if you look at K11111’s other comments they are quite compassionate and needed though not necessarily main stream so how about we stick to the behavior and not the person (moving to another country or whatever)? I don’t know Kym nor K11111 AND maybe K11111 is feeling the hate more from having been subjected to it? We shouldn’t censor, I agree, and how about we add protections and salves rather than ban hate or hurt?
You’re comment have been so vital here K11111 (at least to little old me) AND if the hate isn’t brought out in the light it can’t be changed. Kym sometimes even adds useful stats etc. on the side of balance. She isn’t tasked with policing our species’ conscious, that’s a group task and I am glad you are contributing..no need to bash her in the process though.
I honestly don’t know how someone could deal with living outside in Humboldt. You would have to be half polar bear and half duck. Maybe this guy wasn’t a chimera.
It would drive many to drink and drugs if they hadn’t already.
I was homeless for 9 months (not due to drugs or alcohol). I would think of new clever ways to kill myself every day. When you have nowhere to go your mind wanders down some very dark roads. Luckily I thought my way out of it, but for some it’s a lot harder.
One thing (and I think this is important) I never drank or did drugs, I didn’t even smoke weed. I think that helped me, everyone has their breaking point, I think if I wasn’t sober I would have found mine.
No Dummy! Very wise and kind. Lovely when someone who has survived it attests to what they witnessed which is a services rather than a disservice to those who not only reached their breaking point but need more community help to do so.
There is someone in my family who is, mmmm, I’ll say depressed. I’ll refer to them as “Doe” to save identity and make writing easier. For context, Doe is mid-30ish. Doe has been in and out of hospitals, both mental and ERs, both willingly and forced. Doe has never used street drugs, shy of a puff or two some 20 years ago, and has been alcohol free for the last 15 years. Doe has been prescribed, and taken, a wide array of psychological drugs (pardon my ignorance on the correct terminology) and continues to get prescribed and try new ones. Doe has never stopped feeling “depressed”, which is a very mild word to describe how I’ve heard Doe describe it sometimes. Doe is extremely smart, very well educated, holds a decent paying job/career and a nice place to live in an ok city. Doe is in a long term (for a 30+ year old) relationship. Doe gets love, understanding, and help when needed from, most of, the family. Doe also understands how loss can greatly affect family. However, Doe still feels, um, maybe I’m being selfish, but, I hope, pray (which is hard for me to do), that Doe is still alive after the next attempt. I also hate to see Doe suffer.
I’m not a huge believer in miracles, but, with the millions of things that need to go absolutely correct just for a human life to form, and then the millions more for the human to be “normal” when it’s born, it’s far more than just ten toes and fingers, Life is a Miracle. We often accept a child, or adult if they live long enough, with deformations, disabilities or abnormalities, though, we are sad for that person. We even accept those with mental disabilities, something that usually happens, or doesn’t happen, during the fetus stage. So, why are we so quick to believe that the one or two connections within the brain that make us feel good about ourselves didn’t get connected? Sometimes, NO drug will fix that, legal, experimental, or otherwise. Surgery is not there yet. Sometimes, the brain just can’t, or doesn’t know how to, make self-affirming thoughts. Sometimes, even though the thoughts may be formed, the connections don’t exist to access them. A powerplant can produce all the power it wants, but without the transmission lines in the right places, some homes won’t be able to turn on their lights. Perhaps those in Humboldt can appreciate that analogy.
People, step outside your comfort zone. Try to feel and understand something you couldn’t possibly feel or understand.
There are good therapists these days and a lot of new science about trauma and pain that can cause long term depression like that. Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy is now available in Eureka, though not covered by insurance. Psychedelic mushrooms are also proven to help depression, even in tiny subperceptible doses, people can research for themselves to see how great the results are. I hope Doe finds peace and even awe for this world. Exercise, diet, acupuncture, EMDR & EFT are other complimentary medicines to mainstream pharmacology that are super helpful!
Self-medication is often what gets folks into these situations. 🙁
I’ve lost at least four cousins and a dozen classmates to a variety of mental illness and drug issues in Humboldt County. Some folks can’t take the gray weather. The unemployment, easy access to drugs and alcohol, and crime levels are other issues.
We all of us make choices. Some are bad. If we still have family and friends, they can often help us pull our head out of our arse. If not, we end up making worse choices. At an accelerating pace.
I was blessed with family and friends who did not give up on me even when I was making a long series of bad choices. In effect, they repared my lifeline every time I tried to cut it.
We need to stick by our family and friends as much as possible to guide them; but even if we love them dearly, we cannot let them destroy themselves and us. We need to be wise enough to see that point before it arrives. It requires medical, psychological, and religious support.
May the Lord bless all of us to make better choices and help those around us.
The real blessing in family is the one that teaches a member at age five what good choices look like. Hopefully by example, even when it seems unfair. Wait until children reach adolescence and good luck.
I know you mean well with your suggestions, but most people do not have means to access the help you are suggesting.
Wow. So well said!
So sad. Sorry for the loss of this person. Unfortunately winter in so hum is especially unforgiving when you’re houseless. Loves goes out to the friends and family of this individual
Since when do we refer to the homeless drug addicted thieving bums as houseless?? Is that even a word?
So horrendously sad this person had to end their life (they gave their only definite life here=they apparently had to in their experience). And to end it in such a horrible way. So sorry for any loved ones, friends who knew this person directly as their pain is still here and now
Thank you for reporting on this. We hear and read about the same homicides over and over and over and over again yet silence regarding suicide yet “Americans kill themselves far more often than they kill each other.” And suicide is vastly underreported. As are the disfigurements and disabilities resulting from incompleted attempts. Addictions are often an attempt at slow suicide.
https://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/usa-homicide-vs-suicide
SUICIDE and HOUSING (even “just” the pending threat of it…drives people to complete suicide so just think of all the attempts and the children who witness the pain leading up to those attempts and all the other ripple effects. )
https://www.hillsboronewstimes.com/news/county-epidemiologist-links-evictions-to-suicide/article_486dcf2a-1fa6-5cbe-ac66-5d2c90abddc7.html
https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/2019-09-23/to-reduce-suicides-follow-the-data-to-motels-animal-shelters
The findings above are an improvement ..at least someone is asking questions and still once they find people at risk there is still a great need for providing more consistent, comprehensive, person-centered assistance. The list and links below are and are just a small example of what we can do that we have not yet done. We can’t do better unless/until we ask what people need rather than telling them or telling them it exists when perhaps it does not. Seeing the results of the coroner files in links above and that “Just “ the threat of homelessness leads to suicide it is far easier to understand that homelessness, especially for those with a few more hard knocks of one variety or another AND/OR fewer protective factors, is a primary cause of mental health problems and addiction in addition to outright suicides we rarely are told about in the news. Add to that all the attempts that leave people permantly disabled and disfigured. We can do so very much more to prevent not only suicide but the unnecessary suffering that leads to attempts and leads to slow suicides via drugs, alcohol and other addictions.
SUICIDE and HOUSING (even “just” the pending threat of it…)
https://www.hillsboronewstimes.com/news/county-epidemiologist-links-evictions-to-suicide/article_486dcf2a-1fa6-5cbe-ac66-5d2c90abddc7.html
https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/2019-09-23/to-reduce-suicides-follow-the-data-to-motels-animal-shelters
FOSTER SYSTEM
https://calmatters.org/commentary/2023/01/foster-care-welfare-child-youth/
https://www.chapinhall.org/project/building-the-evidence-on-preventing-homelessness-among-former-foster-youth/
A Casey Foundation and Harvard study done over a decade ago found that adults who had lived in the FOster System are more likely than combat veterans to experience PTSD and moreover the repercussions of homelessness and suicide. Shocking as that is, think about it (I had to and I lived and worked in the system)…formative years, traumas that are personal in nature without uniforms, national pride/defense etc. and may occur in many settings by many perpetrators (some just heinously neglectful not necessarily predators).
MENTAL HEALTH
Sempervirons and police should be far more transparent and have relatively independent oversight rather than reporting mostly on themselves. Police suicide is rather high too and here is something being done for a better potential outcome for all:
https://www.cityofithaca.org/688/Reimagining-Public-Safety
He was a very sweet man, drugs or not he was such a sweet person.
Do you know his name?
I sincerely wish that this article would be dropped. I don’t think the family appreciates seeing this about their loved one day after day. It was news but needs to be laid to rest. What happened just makes me real sad. God bless them.
My little brother is homeless, he’s from Chicago and was missing and I went out to Garberville to find him and I did, I been out there twice, I was trying to make him come home with me but he said he didn’t want to burden me and he wanted to try to make it so i can be proud,i told him your my brother, your not heavy and I was already proud of him,he showed me his camp sites and stays in this location, I can’t reach him because his phones dead, has this person been identified, our sister passed 6 years ago this same way.
I love my brother with everything I have, some homeless are just trying to find themselves, when you grow up in a abusive home and I’m not talking a regular spanking or yelling, I’m talking about if your mom and step dad didn’t have a way to get high so they dragged you out of bed placed your hand on a table and begin hitting the table around your hands with a hammer kind of abuse, we were scared until we were on our own, then life is a different scary, I have a son now who reminds me of him, I give my baby everything he deserved. I hope the closed minded never see someone they love homeless. It’s heartbreaking.
My brother is 6″3 130 lbs has dark brown hair and eyes has tattoo of elvis on his wrist, has a dog
Reach out to the Humboldt County Coroner’s office. (707) 445-7242
Okay thank you Kym
Not him, thank you Kym, and thank you for always reporting what is happening over there, it puts an ease to a loving sister all the way out in Chicago.
Tommy,
I spoke with Angel today, 4/18/2023.
I asked him about the tattoo of Elvis he had on his wrist, which he showed me, and he confirmed that your name was Tommy.
I know most of the local homeless, and help them out when I can.
From your description, I thought it might have been Angel, who I see around occasionally, but I couldn’t be sure, so I didn’t mention it when you posted the comment, hoping to see him first, to confirm he was your brother…
I had vaguely recalled that I had noticed, or he had shown me the Elvis tattoo on his wrist the day that I met him, a year or two ago, and I was going to mention to you that I would keep an eye out for him, and let him know that he should give you a call to ease your worries about him…
He seemed to be doing OK, and said he had spoken to you recently when I mentioned you were worried about him, and that he should give you a call.
I’ll keep an eye out for your comments in the future, now that I know who your brother is, and will let you know if I have recently seen or talked to him, or give him a message the next time after that, that I see him…
Take Care out there in Chicago…
Sincerely,
Guest.
PS… He said he was about 170 lbs…??
Kym, not sure if Tommy will get this, is there a way to pass along a link to this comment…???
Any followup on the ID of this unsub? Male or female? Age?
Information about suicide victims is rarely released.
He was a good kid
He was a good friend of mine and he would never o.mit suicide how many African Americans hang themselves he would never hang himself he was in a great mood he made money that day and was singing and dancing around he was murdered and hung right in the middle of our town the killer has bragged and boasted and there was witnesses and because he’s homeless nobody gives a fuck multiple people have gone to authorities nothing has been done
He’s been homeless for many years and loved his environment he’s had mental illness which is another reason why it’s so easy for the system to sweep this murder right under the rug that good have been anyone’s brother father son I hope his family one day will get justice but I promise this was not a suicide and I hope his family know how much he meant to me and a lot of other locale.