Welcome to our inaugural monthly newsletter. As far as I’m aware, I’m the only homelessness editor at a major US publication. A friend recently told me: “Sadly, you’ll have a lot to write about.” That’s true. But as well as exploring the difficulties faced by those with no permanent home, my goal is also to show how people make the best of their circumstances and the efforts afoot to alleviate homelessness.
This newsletter will bring you up to date with the best and most important stories about homelessness, showcasing both what we’ve been publishing as well as the brilliant journalism being produced by others.
Thoughts or tips? Email me. Know someone who should subscribe to the newsletter? Send them this way. Follow me on Twitter for our latest stories: @alastairgee.
What we wrote
- A mannequin sting led to the capture of a suspected killer of homeless men in Las Vegas.
- “The soul of our city is at stake” over homelessness, says the mayor of Berkeley, California.
- In Hawaii, doctors could soon have the ability to prescribe houses to homeless people.
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Karen Batts was found in a freezing Portland parking garage and died there, months after being evicted from her apartment.
- In Venice, California, people are openly calling homeless people “lepers” and likening the community to Baghdad.
- Is a homelessness surge in Colorado tied to marijuana legalization?
- A Silicon Valley technologist became infamous after calling homeless people “degenerates” – now he wants to buy a cruise ship for them.
- Homeless people have found safety in a San Francisco library, but locals are in favor of “defensive landscaping” to keep them away.
Plus some other stories you might have missed: Los Angeles voters seem willing to tax themselves to tackle homelessness; life along California rivers in the rainy season; the “global waiting room” that is Tijuana; and our launch story on the national homeless count.
Behind the scenes
The star of our intro video was Gretchen, who panhandles outside a San Francisco Bart station. It’s not apparent in the film, but she is often doubled over owing to back pain. When she makes enough money, she rents a room for the night. If not, she’s on the streets. As she pointed out to me, this is all the more terrifying if you’re a woman.
One line did not make it into the film but moved me very much.
Every homeless person, she said, whether it’s “the person you can smell from half a block away, the one ranting and raving and talking to garbage”, or someone like Gretchen herself, “was cradled in their mother’s arms, and every single one of us had a parent that wished us to become the president or Miss America”.
Bookmarked
- Is the City of Angels more pro-homeless than the City by the Bay? Beyond Chon
- In Eugene, Oregon, a politician proposes building a new jail as the city struggles with homelessness. Register-Guard
- After a public outcry, Salt Lake City axes two planned homeless shelters. Salt Lake Tribune
- As many as 350 people are living in RVs and tents in a razed neighborhood under the LAX flightpath – but they may soon be cleared out for a new rental-car center. Los Angeles Times
- A homeless woman in Santa Barbara is reunited with her children after disappearing more than a decade ago. KEYT
- Every week volunteers head out to federal lands near Bend, Oregon, and “estimate there are 150 camps, with as many as 600 people living in the area”. Source Weekly
- “For people dying on LA streets, he offers help, and he won’t take no for an answer.” Los Angeles Times
- Intriguing detail in new survey of Seattle’s homeless population: “Large numbers of them are … former foster children.” Seattle Times
Last but not least
A story caught my eye in mid-February: an Arizona cosmetology student named Juan Carlos Montes De Oca was under investigation by the state cosmetology board for providing free haircuts to homeless people at a local park without possessing a cosmetology license. There was an outcry; the Arizona governor wrote to the board in protest, saying of Montes De Oca, “I find his story moving and inspirational.”
I called Montes De Oca, 26, as all this was ongoing, and he told me about his upbringing in a poor family in the town of Douglas and his violent relationship with an older man, which landed him in prison. While he was there, his mother died of cancer. Once he was out, he was briefly homeless himself, and his criminal record stopped him from becoming a nurse. He reformed himself, and cosmetology was his calling. He began offering cuts to homeless people in October.
“We’re all human, we all deserve that dignity and respect that comes with getting a haircut,” he told me.
While we were on the phone, I received a one-line email from the cosmetology board: they dismissed the complaint. I told Montes De Oca.
His response?
“I slay, honey.”
He added: “My dad and my husband are looking at me, smiling. They’re crying.”
alastair.gee@theguardian.com
