“America has declared a war against the homeless!” screamed Larry, a man I interviewed while collaborating with Isaiah’s House in providing meals in downtown Santa Ana. Larry, an intellectual man with a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Paralegal Certificate, lost his job when the business he worked for shipped his company to a foreign country for a tax break implemented by the Bush Administration. Gary then slid down the slippery slope of living in a sober house for treatment, losing his car, and eventually ending up on the streets. With a lack of social support, family, and friends, he has been living on the streets since 2006. Despite going to job interviews he has yet to be employed because after all, as Larry stated, "Who wants to employ a homeless man?"
Since Larry has been living on the streets, his most difficult battle is fighting police officers. Citizens of Orange County are so afraid of homelessness that municipal codes in Santa Ana and neighboring cities have been enacted to arrest individuals for camping in the city or having camping paraphernalia. This blogger called the Santa Ana police department in order to record the exact municipal codes Gary was telling me he had been arrested for. Although the supervisor with whom I spoke acknowledged that camping in Santa Ana is illegal, he did not know the exact municipal codes for citing homeless individuals. The only code I was provided was the municipal code for camping in the civic center area, which is S.A. 10-550 D. This made me question, do we even know why we are arresting the homeless? Is arresting the homeless going to solve the problems of these disenfranchised people?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrPdZmPB36U
Please view this video to see how police departments, acting on behalf of its citizens, handle homelessness . . . maybe Larry was right. We have declared a war on the homeless.
Note: Larry is a pseudo name for privacy purposes and the photo was found at the following link: http://www.tommyimages.com/
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