LETTERS from Gazette Readers - August 2017
It would be very nice if you would ask your readers to help me find information and photos of my relatives. I know that
Walter´s mother Martha Schueler, born Brandes, died in 1956 in her home in Los Altos and his aunt Bertha Lippelt, born Brandes, died in New York. I´m looking for an orbituary of Walter (he died on Nov. 12.1987) to find members of his family. I want to contact them because I´m interested in photos of Walter’s, his mother, Martha, and his aunt, Bertha.
If any citizens of Sonoma can give me any information about the life or the family of Walter Otto Schueler, please contact me at :
Dr. Hans-Joerg Fehst Lehnhast 28 31542 Bad Nenndorf/Germany
Safe Parking
My name is Bob and I’m currently a client of the safe parking program and have been asked to tell some aspects of my story for an article you’re writing.
I’ve been homeless since 6-15-2016 and partly because of the help I’ve received from Catholic Charities, will likely be celebrating Christmas in my own place this year. A huge part of the help I’ve received has been the benefits of the safe parking program which apparently are not fully recognized by some of the people at Catholic Charities.
Living in a car is frightening and dangerous. We all have to sleep at night and aren’t welcome anywhere. We can’t sleep on residential streets, are chased out of commercial parking lots, and have the constant fear of violence because of our vulnerability.
As a result simply having the energy to hold a job and do the work required to maintain a life and hopefully regain a home becomes even more difficult.
Living in a car is also a solitary life. There is little socialization and sharing of information important to homeless people such as where to get food, jobs, clothes, or showers. Safe parking solves these problems. We can sleep without fear, we don’t urinate and defecate in public, and we help each other with companionship and the daily issues of being homeless.
It’s ironic that Catholic Charities is adopting a ‘housing first’ strategy for reducing homelessness. Safe parking effectively provides a home for many at a cost much less than putting people in shelters or group homes. We’re also available for the services being offered to residents of the Sam Jones shelter. Residents of Sam Jones are required to meet with case managers and attempt to develop a budget and a plan to become housed.
I’ve never understood why clients of safe parking don’t have similar requirements and there hasn’t been any attempt to help us. We should be required to at least attempt to get back on our feet in exchange for using the safe parking program.
Suddenly cancelling the program for most of us is cruel. The initial 5-day notice to get lost violates the promise from Catholic Charities that we be treated with respect and the subsequent 2+ week notice isn’t much better. Most of us don’t have anywhere else to go and will become public nuisances. We’ll be parking on public streets and in parking lots all over Santa Rosa.
Housing opportunities being offered by Catholic Charities are nominal. With the current effort of empty homeless encampments and get at risk people off the streets, there is already a long waiting list for shelter beds. Those of us in safe parking will likely get no significant assistance once the program is reduced.
This is about all I have to say without repeating the same stories you’ve heard from others.
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SAFE Nights Parking Lost Funding
I completely understand that terror that finding a place to be when you have already lost so much can make you sleepless but there is another group of us out here laboring to find appropriate vehicles that meet our needs disabled and otherwise, laboring yes but also wanting to move upwards towards being able to join this apparently dissolving community for the very considerations expressed quite well in this article. To both be in and out of a society at our choosing should be a freedom all of us are allowed to share. As to what comes next for all of us within and without...I am at a complete loss to say as are so very many across this country. This train of ours once headed for places so sweetly serene for anyone who applied themselves is sadly coming off the rails and there is a madman at the controls.
Marcos Zapatero
Immigration
I am grateful to you for publishing the summaries of the Grand Jury Report - it was an interesting read and concise enough for those who don’t want to wade through the entire printing. Also, the columns “The Family Pet”. “A Guide to the Night Sky” and the yummy recipe and informative article by Ron Skarr. were appealing as usual.