homeless

Bev’s Wisdom and Grace

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Without a Roof: What brought you back to Chico from Grass Valley?”
Bev: “Well I was ousted by the cops.” She laughs, “I was run out of town literally. I called an ambulance on a guy that was having an overdose in Marysville and his buddies and him wanted to beat me up in Marysville. So I decided to catch another ride to Grass Valley thinking I could seek refuge at the Hospitality House. Then I got driven out of town.

Without a Roof: “And you were given a bus pass to Dixon?”
Bev: “That was in Vacaville where the police wanted to arrest me for possession of a shopping cart, after escaping from Palo Alto where the District Attorney dropped my possession of a shopping cart charge. They run out all the street musicians on University Avenue in Palo Alto. For some reason the people driving the Porsche’s,the Tesla’s and the Mercedes Benz don’t like to see people like us.”

“Believe it or not; not every homeless person has a substance abuse problem or severe mental illness. I think I have become mentally ill since I lost my place to live in Tahoe in the middle of December, and lost my car a month later. I just haven’t ever really been able to get on my feet like I should have.”

“I know everything that homeless people go through. I never thought I would become homeless myself. In a way its made me a better person. One time I had a hari Krishna guy in Sacramento come up to me, with some of that delicious hari Krishna bread, and say that I was really blessed leading a true Krishna life living off the blessings of other people and he blessed me. I’m a recovering catholic and he gave me this bread which was kind of like having communion. Ever since then I have changed my thoughts, that it is really a blessing that I can live without all of these material possessions and I’m pretty much off the grid except for my cell phone habit I’ve developed.

Bev had a prescription from a doctor in San Francisco that read… “Beverley’s dog named Leonardo is a service dog for her condition of limited mobility; helps her with maintaining her balance.”

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Find the Cost of Freedom

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Ann Anybody’s poem penned during the Iran Hostage Crisis provides a riveting lead for peace, the kind of peace the Chico Peace Vigil pursues every Saturday on a busy corner in Downtown Chico, California.  The Acappella Group Parallel Fifths, from Danbury Connecticut, nails the title track amidst the painful reminder that we can’t even the score.” Shalom…

Poor People’s Film Festival — THE TRAILER

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Without a Roof owes a debt of gratitude to the tenacity and compassion of two staunch Northern California allies for the poor, Paul Boden from San Francisco and Debra Carey from Southern Humboldt County. This production simply doesn’t exist in its form without them… period.

COMING TO THEATRES AND VENUES THIS SUMMER… THE POOR PEOPLE’S FILM FESTIVAL…

The Poor People’s Film Festival is a collection of 46 Without a Roof YouTube vignettes filmed in twelve different Northern California Communities between 2012 and 2014. These shorts contrast the lives of roofless human beings and the Samaritans that help them against misconstrued societal beliefs, including harassment, beatings and criminalization based solely on ones housing status.

This 112-minute journey touches nearly all aspects of homelessness and spotlights its root cause… the lack of affordable housing and jobs. You’ll meet homeless individuals as young as 6-months and as old as 96-years and hear from educators, children, activists and Samaritans as they lay claim to the right for all human beings to exist in a community as one.

Hey You, Ya It’s Me

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I see Billy, sunburnt and dusty, in the foreground of a liquor store shuffling across a busy intersection, his left hand clenching a brown paper bag. I come alongside him on the sidewalk with a hearty hello and a gentle clench of his shoulder. After a dozen strides I tell him I’m going to bring back whatever he wants to eat.

Billy’s face is flushed, his speech slightly slurred. “Oh,” he pauses, “I don’t care what you bring back.”

I said, “Sure you do Bill Abernathy. Tell me what you would get to eat if you could get anything.”

Billy stammers a bit. “I’ll have a double cheeseburger,” he says.

I smile as he connects with what I thought he would say. “You got it Billy Abernathy. I’m heading over to Big Al’s right now to get you a burger.”

“That’ll go down just fine cause I’m hungry. God bless you.”

I return with a burger, fries and Gatorade and sit with Billy on the bike path curb where he once recited his poem, “Hey you, ya it’s me.[1]” Fittingly Billy says, “Today is Sunday, God’s Day.”

Our casual conversation pauses while Billy chews and swallows. Halfway through his meal Billy nods his head at the burger in hand and exhales a satisfied grunt. Billy is, as always — humble, thoughtful and kind.

I depart for grocery shopping and return 90-minutes later to find Billy nestled and nodding on a blanket in the tall grass. He awakens as I’m fetching him an apple and banana. He reaches out for the fruit with a glint in his eye.

“I’ll take those,” he says. “That’s good food.”

Billy looses has balance easing back onto his blanket. Once resettled he mumbles incoherently, eyelids fluttering. My goodbyes and blessings are soiled by his alcohol daze.

Billy grins and says, “Stay out of trouble.” I reply, “I won’t get caught which is the same thing.” Our eyes lock for a second with mischievous grins.

“God Bless you Billy Abernathy.” “and you as well,” he replies.

[1] Hey you, ya it’s me – by Billy Abernathy

Hey You, ya it’s me
What’ going on with you
For I’m still me
I’m with you everyday
I’m with you when you pray
I’m with you when your happy or sad
And yes, I’m even with you when your mad
So you know that you,
Can always turn to me
For I’ll always be there
For you

Without a Roof: “Billy, what did you think about that listening to yourself?”

Billy: Well it was a wonderful feeling and it teared me up, because… sometimes I make wrong mistakes, do stupid things. But I always turn to the Lord, because he’s there for me.

Hair Loving Life and Making his Way!

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I sat with this young man, with the street name of Hair, on a cold slab of concrete back in the waning days of 2013. He was homeless via poor choices that he was strong enough to admit were his own doing. Nevertheless, he was confused, hurt and wondering where it all was heading.

He began by reconciling with 6th Street Center for Youth and gave it another go, and what a go it has been. He’s housed, expecting a child and exudes the confidence of a man making his own way with the support of the love of his life and mother to be Bailey. When I asked him if he had seen any of the “open mic” at the center he playfully shrugged, “Nah I was working.” Indeed he was as one of the youth assisting with Butte Counties Homeless Point in Time Survey.

Stop, love and listen… it makes all the difference in the world. Power to the youth like Hair and many others who are making a difference in our world each and every day. Shalom.

Love a Homeless Youth Today

JB Epiphany on the streets of Chico…

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I rendezvous with Adam David Kurtz-DuBord at Has Beans just now to walk with him over to the Chico News and Review (CN&R) for an interview about the Poor People’s Film Festival.

Adam was a clear hug candidate nervously puffing a cigarette, sans having done so well in quitting. He said, “I need to be less intense.” I responded, “I get intense as well, it’s because we truly care about people.”

We acknowledged this bond, which was a much better answer than the one I gave 30-minutes prior to the CnR reporter about why I have connected so meaningfully with this always loving kid… he cares and it shows in the most loving way possible, action. He thinks of me as a mentor, on many counts, this one in particular, he is mine… as unconditional as John the Baptist.

A Humanist View of the California Foster Care System

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This piece is poignantly beautiful. It’s been shared by The I Have a Name Project and a half-dozen other people and groups including several in Kentucky.

“I was put into the Foster Care at the age of 15; taken from a home where my mom was an alcoholic whose main form of abuse was neglect. She would just isolate in her room and drink a lot. I learned to take care of myself and to become very self sufficient. I was actually really hopeful at first in Foster Care I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m going to be with people capable of taking care of me and showing me the love and affection I always thought I needed’. Instead Foster Care taught me to depend on a system that’s destructive, unjust, competitive and individualistic.” — Courtnie Burns