I received this email several weeks ago:
Subject: Re: We want to be found. We need a room. We have a dog and up to 600. A month. No one is listening. We are disable. Fighting a S.S.I. Case almost 3 years. Help the homeless.
We have been homeless 5 years. A fall from grace and now we cant find a room because we have a dog! We are good people. The homeless situation has become downright scary. We could tell you indepth show you our camp, our tent in the wash at easy and madera. We are about 20 in numbers now. How we have lived and how people just are not giving enough in simi. Food bank at Sonrise is so bad we dont even go anymore. Tired of rotten food and so little for the trip. What is going on in this town. We can afford 600. For us and our Rotti. You can find me at costco with a sign trying to get someone to listen.
I would love to get someone’s feedback on this. I was very moved by this email. However, though admittedly I have been very detached, I’ve always been under the impression that Simi Valley has resources that go beyond normal expectations for the homeless. Am I wrong?
I know Simi Valley has the Samaritan Center, the drop-in facility for the homeless where people can go to shower, get clean clothes and something to eat. I’m also familiar with the local food bank, which the writer makes an unpleasant reference to in her letter.
During the course of the next several months, I plan to educate myself more on the homeless situation in Simi Valley, and the response. I suspect that I will be pleasantly surprised. If anyone has any news, info or guidance to offer me that might assist me, please do let me know!
Well I would say that if the only thing keeping them from being able to rent a room is the dog, then get rid of the dog. We all have to accept responsibility for ourselves. Give the dog to someone who can keep it or give it to the animal shelter to find a home and get yourself a room. No brainer.
The Samaritan Center was just rebuilt, they have food and get donations daily, Care and Share offers food as does the Sonrise center, and several other churches every night offering to feed those who are hungry. Samaritan offers housing programs, and have been very successful in getting places for other to live. The Dog isn’t the real problem. The problem is you have to keep asking and looking for help and putting your needs all over the place till someone sees you need help. When you are willing to work and you are out they trying to better yourself, people will help you. Register at the Free clinic homeless center, Samaritan center, Albertsons, laundromats, there are people renting rooms out there every day, I was one of them, and I have taken in several homeless people. Not always a happy situation but I have not given up or judged all because of a few bad apples. keep trying, go to church, you will become involved with people who are willing to help those they know. Trust is a hard thing now when so many people out there because of drugs or mental illnesses.
Well, excuse me. I never thought my autistic son and I would EVER become homeless; I always had a decent job as an Admin or Bookkeeper. After a bad refi, losing my home to foreclosure, being turned out by a fiancee who couldn’t understand that I didn’t ask to get laid off 11 months ago–here we are. At least, we have a friend in Granada Hills who is willing to let us give them $350 of my $600 UI check every two weeks. There is no affordable housing because of all the illegal immigrants who know they have it nice and cushy right now; what motivation do they have to move on and let someone more needy have a home? Welfare disqualified me for cash aid because of the whopping $1200 UI gives me each month, and they seem to think I can feed a family of two on $124 a month. A MONTH! Who spends less than $100 a WEEK on a family of two? (Let me know…) Also, I do not qualify for any SSI assistance, since my son is “not autistic enough” to receive aid. See, people are getting screwed because of the slackers out there. I have had only two interviews in 11 months! Don’t tell me nobody’s hiring, if they’re placing ads in the paper and online for weeks after I’ve sent my resume. I think 15 years of experience should at least get a return “thanks, but no thanks” phone call or e-mail. If people are sitting pretty in their situation, they are not going to reach out to us less fortunate souls. There are a few out there who are willing to help; I just haven’t found them yet. I wouldn’t care, if I didn’t have a child to raise and support. I have put out ads stating our plight, yet people still seem to think the unemployed homeless can afford a freaking deposit on top of their ridiculous rental amounts. Change your attitude, and you change the world…