Tag: Homelessness

    Homeless and Hungry: Shame on us

    Homeless and Hungry: Shame on us

    February 17, 2018 by Omar Passons in /

    At the invitation of a very kind man named David Mulvaney, I joined a group of volunteers to prepare food for San Diegans who do not have enough food to eat. We met at Father Joe’s Villages in San Diego, which is at 15th and Imperial, not too far from a major transit stop and across from the Metropolitan Transit System bus yard. I had been down there before, most recently on two tours of the property by the CEO Deacon Jim Vargas while I was deepening my understanding before releasing our Hope4Homeless plan (link below). Deacon Jim is the kind of compassionate, driven person necessary for this work, as the people in need have a range of very severe issues and the politics of truly helping can get messy.

    I walked up the main courtyard and saw dozens of people. The men and women I saw were someone’s brother or sister or mother or father…and they were all struggling to make it. One good reason to spend time here is that it is an important reminder that the “homeless crisis” is about actual, flesh and blood human beings living in often awful conditions and in desperate need. It is a direct, specific reminder of the human difficulties involved – the disability, the varied hygiene, the mental health struggles…and the hunger.

    We were assigned to the kitchen to help prep 900 hamburger patties from big tubs of seasoned raw meat.  Four of us were ‘team hamburger’ and with the help of the chef we quickly formed an assembly line to push through our task.  As the four of us stood and scooped and patted and shaped hamburger, we talked about our lives. I talked about running for the County Board of Supervisors and the elements of our Hope4Homeless plan, and about my biological mother’s own struggle with mental illness and homelessness.  More importantly, I listened to the three men volunteering with me from three very different life circumstances share about their companies, their life journeys, and their commitment to making a difference.

    In the end, as I left and reflected on my own experience I felt the anger well up inside me.  I think when we allow ourselves to face homelessness and hunger up close it can light a more consistent fire to drive change.  What we are doing now as a community is unacceptable and you can really feel how intolerable it is when standing among hundreds of hungry people who are trying to survive.  I am grateful to have the opportunity to serve them, grateful to have volunteered with a few very decent people, and also grateful for the very direct reminder of why I wake up every morning fighting to represent the 4th Supervisor’s District.  It is not to hold down some political post or build some stepping stone to the future. It is about fundamentally changing our system in this community to improve the lives – and opportunities – of the people across San Diego County.

    You can read our whole Hope4Homeless plan here.

    Episode 5: Homelessness and Band-Aids – Getting to real, long-term action

    Episode 5: Homelessness and Band-Aids – Getting to real, long-term action

    February 13, 2018 by Omar Passons in

    (Click the play button below to listen to Episode 5 – 14:06 minutes)

    Click to view in iTunes

    In 2016, over 5,600 people slept on the streets every night in San Diego County. Nearly 4,000 more were homeless and cared for in some form of temporary housing such as a shelter.  The trend over the last several years in San Diego County is an increase in senior homelessness and an increase in chronically homeless individuals – those who remain on the streets for more than one year and have some further disability. Our Hope4Homeless plan pushes to address these and other critical need areas.

    My commitment to addressing homelessness grew from a letter I received from my biological mother when I was in my 20s.    In the letter, she asked me to go and thank her friends at the Neil Good Day Center, which provided her with help and support when she herself was homeless in San Diego many years prior. I knew my mother had mental illness and was disabled, but I didn’t know the extent of her experience, and as I walked from my car at 17th and Island past the discarded needles, trash, and sadness on the faces of the homeless men and women around me, I felt strongly I had to do more. I joined the board of Rachel’s Women’s Center and began to look for ways to better address homelessness.

    This episode details the specific challenges San Diego faces and explains the types of shifts in approach necessary to decrease the number of San Diegans who are experiencing homelessness. Critically, this episode also covers the long-term thinking necessary to reduce the number of people who ever enter the homeless system in the first place. Thanks for listening!

    Hope4Homeless: My personal connection to this crisis

    Hope4Homeless: My personal connection to this crisis

    February 7, 2018 by Omar Passons in

    In my early 30s I received a letter from my biological mother. I grew up in San Diego’s foster care system so I did not know my mother for most of my life. In the letter, she asked me to go and thank her friends at the Neil Good Day Center for their help when she was homeless in San Diego.  She was asking me to thank people who almost certainly were no longer there 25+ years later. I knew she had mental illness and was disabled, but I didn’t know the extent until I read that letter.

    I did as she asked and as I walked from my car near 17th and Island past the discarded needles, trash, and sadness on the faces of the homeless men and women around me, the experience really impacted me. I didn’t find anyone who remembered my mother, but the experience stayed with me. It motivated me to do more.

    I joined the board of Rachel’s Women’s Center and began to look for ways to better address homelessness. I joined the Board of United Way of San Diego County, who had been responsible for Project 25 – a wildly successful effort to house the most needy homeless San Diegans who were the highest users of health and law enforcement services.  My biological mother’s life experiences shaped the contours of my life in ways I did not expect. I am grateful for the support I received, largely from the County of San Diego, and feel deeply that I have a debt to be repaid to help more San Diegans lead a life of dignity and opportunity.

    We released our Hope4Homeless plan as a recognition that the County can and must do more to focus on systems for reducing homelessness and must take on a bigger leadership role. It is a big part of why I am running for the Board of Supervisors and I intend to drive that leadership if elected.

    Episode 4: Your child, OUR future – Why the economy, homelessness & health all depend on a strong early start

    Episode 4: Your child, OUR future – Why the economy, homelessness & health all depend on a strong early start

    February 7, 2018 by Omar Passons in

    (Click the play button below to listen to Episode 4 – 15:17 min)


     
    Click to view in iTunes
     
    The County of San Diego supported me from birth – literally.  I was born 10 weeks premature and the County’s emergency care for the poor kept me alive. When my biological mother couldn’t care for me, the County placed me in foster care, where I got nutrition, a speech pathologist, a child psychologist, and quality support. Now, I am a successful lawyer with a professional background in public health and I am able to give back to this community.

    I am living proof that early investment in young people works.  Most foster children end up struggling, failing to graduate from high school, homeless or incarcerated. This is a cycle – for all children not just those in foster care – that the County of San Diego can break.

    Our StrongStarts4All plan envisions a broad system change that starts with parental education through expanded home visits for expectant parents and goes all the way through mental health and nutrition support, subsidized transportation for internships and education and focus on helping young people move into the world of work.  The plan recognizes that the path to a strong workforce requires greater investment in our young people. We make the bold assertion that the County must set an example by providing its employees with 4 months of paid family leave, because parents are a child’s first teacher and those early bonds are critical. What is more, paid family leave better enables gender equality so that women can more easily ascend to leadership roles in the workforce and any parent can elect to care for their children.

    While my life experiences shape my values and my belief that every child has a right to strong start and support, the scholar in me also appreciates that the economics research supports that this is the smartest investment we can make as a region.

    The unspoken homeless crisis: Supporting our seniors

    The unspoken homeless crisis: Supporting our seniors

    February 2, 2018 by Omar Passons in

    San Diego County has seen a spike in homelessness among our senior citizens and we have not done enough to raise the priority and visibility of this critical need.  By some research accounts, senior citizens make up the fastest growing proportion of San Diego’s homeless individuals in recent years.  This Voice of San Diego article helps highlight some of the challenges. The data for our region makes clear that the County must act.

    In this article by long-time senior activist Bill Kelly, he sounds an important alarm that we as County residents have not been heeding with nearly enough urgency. A few key statistics help highlight the challenges:

    • Approximately 240,000 seniors in San Diego County cannot afford the basic combination of food, housing, healthcare and transportation
    • Social Security payment average around $1,360 despite basic expenses exceeding $1,900
    • Ratio of working age individuals to seniors is shifting from 3-to-1 to 1-to-1 over coming decades

    The truth about our existing – and growing – crisis among seniors for healthcare, housing, transportation, and even basic food security is that this is a serious problem for all of us, regardless of income.  Seniors in failing health are disproportionately cared for by their female children – compounding the challenges women face while trying to close a persistent wage gap and, often, maintain primary responsibilities for children.  The issue is also especially acute for members of the LGBTQ community, as our government policies long made it illegal to even have children – which places greater strain on individuals and peer networks.

    The challenges are significant but help exists. St. Paul’s Senior Services runs the Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) is exactly the type of comprehensive senior support that makes a huge difference.  The challenge is that we have not sounded the alarm regarding scaling our support for such programs. PACE is funded by state MediCal coverage – which is health coverage for poor residents.  I took a tour of St. Paul’s to make sure I had a firsthand appreciation of the issues.

    As San Diegans look to shoring up our fraying and unstable safety net in the county, elevating system supports like this one will become critical. An important step in the process is making sure more people understand the crisis we are in so we can build the will now to address it. That’s exactly what I am pushing to do. Thanks for reading.