On Monday June 29th, the City of Grand Junction tried to pass two emergency ordinances outlawing "soliciting," also known as flying a sign or spanging. What stopped the city from moving forward with these laws was a strong, large, and loud group of homeless people and younger radicals.
No one came to support the law, and over a hundred people came to oppose it. Solidarity Not Charity (our FNB out here in GJ) provided food and water serving on the city halls lawn. Live tunes were provided by, local band Fast Food Kings, and out-of-towners Chicken Little, who were hell a cool about relocating from the infoshop to city hall to play.
The city voted unanimously against one statue and 5-to-2 in favor of the other one, but since they were trying to pass these laws without the usual democratic process they need to pass unanimously. The city will now begin the process of bringing these ordinances through the proper process.
While people ate food and listened to the music outside of city hall, and others were speaking to the council a banner appeared on an adjacent building that read "We are Everywhere."
Those in opposition held signs during the meeting saying things like "Homelessness is not illegal. God Bless." and "Will Work For Free Speech." and "Asking For Help is Free Speech." They also booed and cheered and were according to the GJPD Sergent 'relatively civil.'
While stopping the emergency ordinances is a small victory, and the fight will continue. The big victory was that many people starting to feel empowered and starting to see some hope. It showed a lot of people on the street what is really possible if we stand together.
Little did the city know was that a coalition of radicals and homeless people had been forming quietly for months and were about to start publicly organizing and agitating for necessary reforms. Basically the city threw gasoline right where we were going start a fire. Next week Housing First! No More Deaths! will have its first mass meeting. Grand Junction Rising.
Housing First!
No More Deaths!
A Call to Action
The situation is critical in Grand Junction for those of us on the streets. Between constant police harassment, and unconcerned and uncaring city hall, more and more people on the streets, a severe shortage of shelter beds and transitional housing, a lack of quality healthcare, and the tightest job market in generations, there is very little hope for those of us without housing. Something needs to change, and nobody is going to do it for us. We must act on our own. We must act together - shoulder to shoulder - to demand our rights as citizens and humans.
This last winter we lost a lot of friends on the streets. This upcoming winter we will lose even more of our friends, unless we do something about it. To save our friends' lives and our own we must be willing to act. We must organize. We must take risks. We must put unused buildings to good use, keeping our friends and family warm. We must be able to stand together and demand, "No More Deaths on the Streets of Grand Junction," and we must mean it.
The city and the police have essentially made being homeless illegal. It's illegal to sleep anywhere if you're not lucky enough to get into the shelter. It's illegal to camp. It's illegal to smoke in the park. When the public bathrooms are closed there is nowhere to legally go to the restroom, and not to mention selective enforcement of petty laws against us. How are any of us going to get off the streets with piles of petty tickets and fines to pay off? Haw are "Smoking in the Park" tickets serving the community? One or two of us on our own could never hope to confront this unjust 'justice system,' but all of us together can. We can picket the city or PD and put them on notice and back them off from being overly aggressive. We must demand a legal place for us to camp, without fear of a trespassing ticket or the city taking our stuff. The current situation must change, and only all of us standing together as one and speaking with one vice will ever hope to change the situation.
We are pretty used to getting the short end of the stick from employers, the media, police, banks, hospitals, judges, and government etc. But it doesn't have to be this way. There are times when 'we the people' have taken just about enough crap from the powers that be, where we can start to organize and stand up. If we work together with courage, strength and love in our hearts we can begin to push back against a system that has for a long time been waging war against us. Is it going to be easy? no, but it's not impossible. And right now those seem to be pretty good odds. No more deaths!
General Meeting
everyone welcome
Whitman Park
Tuesday, July 7th
10:00am
Housing First!
No More Deaths!
Our Demands:
* No More Deaths!
* Housing First! Housing Now!
* Homelessness is not Illegal
* Food, Water, Healthcare, and Housing are basic human rights
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Comments
housing-
July 1, 2009 by Anonymous, 18 weeks 2 days ago
Comment id: 3616
my girlfriend and i were considering purchasing land in or around durango, hopefully closer to durango than pagosa. however, we would like to maybe get a DIY venue going and open up the surrounding space for free camping. more info soon but let me know what everyone thinks. obviously its going to take some time and consideration and possibly more funds but hopefully itll work out alright and we could set up some free living spaces.
liqour store whore wanting more malt liquor
July 3, 2009 by Anonymous, 18 weeks 14 hours ago
Comment id: 3620
funny how they rise up to gurantee getting in peoples faces yet most dont riseup against exploitated corruption...stop helping the drunks gurantee the right to get drunk shaking others down for hard earned money.....
article is not about drunks or drunkenness
July 4, 2009 by tina braxton, 17 weeks 6 days ago
Comment id: 3623
There are plenty of drunks who have a roof over their heads, because they have the money to pay for it, and plenty of homeless who don't get drunk. These are two different issues.
There was nothing in the article about any "right to get drunk."
homeless issue
July 8, 2009 by Anonymous, 17 weeks 2 days ago
Comment id: 3636
Not about drinking? They were actually drinking during the public hearing. They were passing the bottle around during the meeting. And one woman passed out twice, and each time she came to, she got up and spoke again...repeating herself. Many of the people who solicit money are able bodied and some are not even homeless. The people protesting were not the hardworking people with families who are down on their luck and staying at the shelter while working and trying to find a place to live.
But The Issue Is
July 5, 2009 by Anonymous, 17 weeks 5 days ago
Comment id: 3626
90 % of the bums out there are drunks. I deal with them nearly daily. Although it is not PC to talk about it, all the liberal pukes who give them money are doing is supporting habits. They think they are buying their way into heaven by "giving to the poor". If they wouldn't try to wash away their sins by giving these people money, the people would stop begging.
Actually, the article isn't about bums; it's about homeless
July 6, 2009 by tina braxton, 17 weeks 4 days ago
Comment id: 3633
I know a lot of people who don't believe in Heaven and Hell, but they give money away, when they can. Their motivation must be something else--perhaps compassion?
You claim to deal with bums and drunks "almost daily," and you claim there is a 90% overlap between the two groups. I'm led to wonder what sort of life you live that brings you into contact with 90% of drunks and/or bums.
Bums and the homeless are not all there by choice
July 7, 2009 by phil, 17 weeks 3 days ago
Comment id: 3635
You sir lack more then just compassion. I do not know you but I know this; it is for the grace of god and dumb luck that you are not one of them ! I know several so called bums--people who while they had health insurance and a job got sick and watched a family member die only to loose it all. Others who had both bad luck and made poor choices. You think it could never be you. Don't be so sure and don't be so quick to judge. You are WRONG!! Not all are drug addicts or drunks and even those that are have a disease that is treatable. Yet we as a society in our puritan piety seem to feel they should suffer rather then get help. I loath the kind of christian that thinks like that!
Greek translation
July 5, 2009 by Anonymous, 17 weeks 5 days ago
Comment id: 3627
The above article was translated to Greek by a comrade: httpx://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1054034
congratulations
July 6, 2009 by Anonymous, 17 weeks 4 days ago
Comment id: 3630
from greece
RE: Tuesdays Meeting
July 8, 2009 by TheRedPill, 17 weeks 2 days ago
Comment id: 3640
First off nobody was drinking at the city hearing. Thats BS. Secondly there are a lot of people on the streets with addiction issues, but its more of a chicken and the egg scenario. Being evicted/fired and then after hundreds of apps with out a call back (how do they call the homeless?) can lead to increased drug and alcohol use. Secondly should people that are suffering from alcoholism or addiction be left to freeze on the streets of our cities and towns?
Lastly this group is not about handouts but organizing our own solutions to the problems with homelessness, and its been amaing how far a little hope and empowerment can go.
Tuesdays mass meeting had more than eighty people there housed and non-housed, right and left, young and old. we got really decent coverage from the mainstream, and have a lot of people ready to work together to better their lot.
Homeless means just that and nothing else
July 8, 2009 by tina braxton, 17 weeks 2 days ago
Comment id: 3641
I think there is too much emphasis on substance abuse among homeless people. Substance abuse is a health issue that affects all kinds of people--including people who live in mansions and people who live in tents. Homelessness is a separate issue.
I have been homeless on and off for several years. From what I've seen, there is an expectation that homeless people must all have addiction problems, and that if the addiction problem is overcome, a house will magically materialize around the person. This is just as ridiculous as it sounds.
Homeless people are actually quite diverse, in terms of race, ethnicity, age, religion, politics, level of education, and lifestyle. There are plenty of us who do not drink or use drugs and some who do. The same is true of people with housing. As homeless people, we have exactly one thing in common--insufficient income to pay for housing.
It is a simple issue. When you attempt to rent an apartment or buy a house, what kind of questions will you be asked? Does anyone ask whether you drink? No. They want to know if you have sufficient income to pay the rent or mortgage payment. It is strictly an economic matter.
The ridiculous 1920's-vintage notion that poverty is caused by moral failure has morphed into this idea that homelessness is caused by addiction. It distracts from the real issues, which are economic. Jobs need to pay enough for a person to live on--an average person, presumably an adult with a family. Businesses and industry need to create jobs--not eliminate them through automation or offshoring. Housing needs to be affordable and plentiful.
You are exactly on Point Tina
July 9, 2009 by phil, 17 weeks 1 day ago
Comment id: 3642
Tina
You, as usual, are exactly on point with this comment.
research and observations on housing
July 9, 2009 by tina braxton, 17 weeks 1 day ago
Comment id: 3643
This discussion made me curious about historical trends in housing size. Here is what I found.
According to the 1950 census, the average single family home in the U.S. was 983 square feet. By 2000, the average new house size had increased to over 2000 square feet. Yet, during this time, family size has substantially decreased. And since 1970, real wages have been stagnant, though, with the average worker now older and more experienced, the expectation would normally have been higher wages.
Meanwhile, housing for poor people has been largely eliminated from the market. Marginal housing, such as single occupancy hotel rooms, used to be plentiful. When I was young, I usually lived in small rooms, with just a bed and dresser. The bathroom was down the hall. Utilities were included in the rent and clean linens were furnished weekly. A lot of these places were really substandard, but some, for about the same rents, were at least clean and pest-free. In those days, almost nobody in the U.S. was homeless, no matter how poor.
These small housing units have largely disappeared. They have been consolidated into larger apartments and condos. The trend used to be the opposite-- larger apartments in declining neighborhoods were subdivided into small sleeping rooms.
So the trend has been a decrease in small, affordable living spaces, and an increase in large, expensive homes, at a time when household size and income have decreased. This has to be an important factor in the rise of homelessness.
fuckn (A)
July 9, 2009 by Anonymous, 17 weeks 1 day ago
Comment id: 3645
u guys fuckn rock my sox
glad the meeting went well
wish i could have been there
lottsa love from eugene
Housing is a right?! WTF?
July 12, 2009 by Anonymous, 16 weeks 5 days ago
Comment id: 3656
Whoa, Communist garbage on the IMC site? You don't say... When you say they have a "right" to food, housing, etc., what you're saying is that you want others to fulfill this "right." Put your money where your mouth is and house them yourself.
Did you not read the call to action
July 14, 2009 by Anonymous, 16 weeks 3 days ago
Comment id: 3664
Thats whats being planned.
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