http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local-beat/Life-on-Streets-Ends-on-Sidewalk-76522497.html

Homeless Man Dies Across Street From Shelter
Transient dies in sleep within steps of cold weather shelter
By GENE CUBBISON

A 48-year-old man was found dead across the street from San Diego's winter shelter for the homeless Friday morning.

Medical examiner's deputies believe Steven Alan Andrade succumbed to natural causes. The 230-bunk shelter's occupants are both saddened -- and glad they made it inside last night.

Directly across Island Avenue from where Andrade's body lay under a thin blanket, the shelter was into its third day of operation.

While San Diego is envied for its balmy climate, especially in winter, temperatures had dropped below 50 in the Center City area overnight.

Police got a report of Andrade's death at 6:23 a.m.

"We went through three days of total chaos and mayhem standing in line to get in [Wednesday]," said shelter occupant William Yarling. "A lot of us became a little ungrateful, for what we had to do -- until we got a friendly reminder this morning of how hard life is on the streets, when we woke up to a dead man across the street."

Outrage mixed with gloom around the shelter when officers Tasered a man who shelter occupants said was praying over Andrade's body. Police said he repeatedly crossed crime scene tape, interfered with medical examiner's deputies and fought with officers who escorted him away.

Shelter operators say Andrade never tried to access the site's services. It's that way with a lot of the homeless. The shelter has rules against drugs, alcohol, sexual activity and disruptive behavior. For those who can obey them, it beats nights on the street.

"We've been out here for the last two weeks, talking to people, getting them ready to check in," said Bob McElroy, whose Alpha Project administers the shelter under contract with the city of San Diego.

"We were down here at midnight, and that concrete sidewalk is cold," McElroy recalled. "You get a lot of people out here who are sick. So, hopefully, we're going to save some lives."

Lives that for many homeless used to be so much better.

"Three years ago, I had a house,a bank account, two Mercedes-Benzes, toys, tools and antiques from three generations," said Keith Kelly Jennings II as he sat next to a pushcart filled with books and belongings on the corner of 16th street and and Island Avene.

"I trusted the wrong people," Jennings added, by way of explaining his impoverished circumstances. "Some of these people who drive by and look at us like we're trash don't realize how close they are to being right down here with us.

First Published: Nov 27, 2009 3:14 PM PST

A series of my correspondence to the Office of Housing and Homelessness, City of San Diego
abenjamin@sandiego.gov

____________________________________________
Correspondents should assume that all communication to or from this address is recorded and may be reviewed by third parties.

-----Original Message-----
From: John Wright [mailto:JohnWright@pointloma.edu]
Sent: Friday, November 20, 2009 8:15 AM

Dear _________________:

I just received an email telling me that my friends whose homes were the side walks in and around the post office were evicted and "banned" from the area as part of a wider eviction of those residents of downtown who live on the streets by the SDPD. I assume that this story is true. I am confused and bewildered and concerned for my friends and their neighborhood.

Tuesday evening people were cold, more angry, and, honestly, many more than usual intoxicated. It was my hope that they be able to set up tents in protection from the weather -- they take up little more room than blankets for sleeping, but protect. Obviously sleeping directly under the sky raises the incidence of severe illness and hospital/emergency room expenses. I deeply appreciated the fact that when tents were set up, the police gave initial warnings rather than tickets. But it seems inhumane, when people have the tents, not to allow them to sleep under them to protect against 45 degree weather, especially since the city council is blocking the winter tent from a place.

Now I don't know what to say. My stomach is literarly in a knot, and I fight illness due to my concern, as anyone would who heard about the forced movement of friends from where they resided. Was last night a shift in police/city policy? Did the cities attorneys look at the manueuver in light of the federal judges ruling? What is the ultimate purpose of the action?

Those whose homes have been on the streets have bodies that necessarily take up space, that they can't make invisible. I recognize the issues that come for the city as a result of their poverty and their bodies and would love to work creatively with you and the city in addressing such things; in the meantime, many who live there are my friends. I have come to love that neighborhood and those who live within it. It is an insane place where I find great sanity among the people, in the most difficult circumstances. Additionaly, as a Christian, I find our Savior in the bodies of the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God.

I would like very much a prompt reply so that I may be informed, rather than guided by rumor and inuendo.

Please join me in prayer for those whose lives were so disrupted last night, the poorest of the poor in San Diego.

Peace,
Rev. Dr. John Wright

_________________

Rev. Wright,

The City Attorney's office recently informed SDPD that tents are not allowed on the public or private property. The City's winter shelter is on track to open up next Wednesday, November 25th, and will provide respite for up to 220 homeless sleeping on the streets.

You concerns are appreciated as well as your dedication to this issue.

Regards,

Dear _______:

One final thought: I am not dedicated to an "issue" -- I am friends with human beings, some with profound struggles in dealing with life; others with tremendous skill in dealing with the life they've been given. It seems to me that if the displacement and cold of those who do not have material means for shelter is dealt with as an "issue," we lose that the very humanity of those persons is at stake -- and therefore, our own humanity as well. I speak just as you would for your friends and workers who had been forced to move without any prior warning by government officials, pleading to find assistance and information through the bureaucracies that our culture has established to try and keep some semblance of order in a crazy, complex world.

I understand why we want to see my friends as an "issue." It protects us, it protects me, from our/my own fragility, our own/my vulnerability, the contingencies of our own/my lives. I also recognize that "issues" do arise around the bodies of the poor. But these people are not "issues"; they are human beings whose and feet and ears get cold, whose colds develop into bronchitis and pneumonia and sometimes die prematurely because of inhaling cold air at night, who laugh, talk, fight, argue, just like the rest of us, but without walls to obscure them from public view. I would hope that as the person who has the responsibility of your office, that you will not reduce these human beings to "issues" even as we try to work together to deal with issues that arise from the bodies of the weakest and the poorest in San Diego.

Pastor John