OAKLAND CA — We are asking the State, County, and City of Oakland, CA,
to support us, the Oakland Homeless Union chapter of the National
Homeless Union, in getting the homeless senior citizens and mentally
disabled and vets and any homeless person off the street.
When John George mental hospital discharges them they bring them to
downtown Oakland between 2 and 4 o’clock in the morning and let
them out with no shoes or socks on bare feet. They walk down Lake
Shore Avenue. in Oakland, you can smell them one block away and people
are sitting outside eating their food and I can hear them say “Why don’t
the city or somebody do something about this?”
The Oakland Homeless Union and Howie Harp Center for Mental Health Service did but they shut down the Oakland Homeless Union and closed the doors of the Howie Harp Center for Mental Health Services where I, Simuel Ramey,
was on the board for years. They come in and we do intake screening to
find out what services they need and start from there. They can take a
shower and change clothing and what other services they need. We need
the center back or one like it so we can continue to serve the homeless
senior citizens, the mentally ill, and vets.
If our government has the will to help disabled and poor people, then it
must create a climate in which disabled people can get a job, the duties
of which are doable, that pays a living wage, and one hopes is not overly
humiliating. Going back to state hospitals is completely inappropriate.
Acting CEO Angela Kimball for NAMI (National Alliance on Mental
Illness) in a public statement said she believes that community-based
treatment works best for recovery, and strongly disagrees with reopening
state hospitals. The message must be delivered loudly to the Biden/Harris Administration that disabled people are in jeopardy due to leftover Trump policies, and that this must be addressed right away.
Meanwhile, we are not a 100 percent helpless.
“Any government not formed to promote justice is a bunch of thieves” —
St. Augustine.
All POWER TO THE PEOPLE! BY THE PEOPLE FOR THE
PEOPLE!
Simuel Ramey is a long-time fighter, organizer and educator of the poor, especially the homeless.
