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Camp Quixote Supporters To Call Free Radio Tonight (2/8)

by Robert Norse
Homeless activists and their supporters have responded to the anti-homeless Pedestrian Obstruction Law (Olympia Washington's latest version of the Santa Cruz Downtown Ordinances) with civil disobedience. On February 1st they created a homeless-run encampment--Camp Quixote. Ray, an Olympia activist, will call in tonight around 6:15 PM on Free Radio Santa Cruz at 101.1 FM (http://www.freakradio.org) to educate, agitate, and organize.
In the manner of Santa Cruz's Camp Paradise, Portland's Dignity Village, or Seattle's Tent City III, the criminalized homeless are banding together to form their own survival communities.

Olympia sounds like the activist community Santa Cruz used to be. Lots of anti-war activity, new City Council resolutions against the war, direct action against the loading of weapons last year, protests in support of Lt. Watada, etc.

In Santa Cruz, HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) voted yesterday to support the PPU's Camp Quixote with our own challenge to the anti-homeless Sleeping Ban (using the Jones decision precedent) with a Sleepmobile Tent, coming soon to a downtown block near you (stay posted, or call 423-4833 for more info).

Many stories about Camp Quixote can be found at http://olyblog.net/ including:

PPU determined to stay, opposed to city pressure
http://olyblog.net/blog/emmettoconnell/ppu-determined-to-stay-opposed-to-city-pressure &

Police Mobilizing to Break Camp Quixote
http://olyblog.net/blog/unkempttide/police-mobilizing-to-break-camp-quixote

Also check out Portland Indymedia for:
Camp Quixote in Olympia Given Orders to Shut Down
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/02/353608.shtml


Mainstream coverage:

Olympia homeless protest panhandling ordinance
http://www.komotv.com/news/local/5545966.html

Olympia Homeless Set Up Tent City
http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_020407WABolympia_tentcitySW.4fb38974.html

Call in tonight at 427-3772 to ask questions of the Quixotic Olympiads.
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The area code for the radio show / conference call is 
(831)427-3772. Just went to Freak Radio to confirm t
hat and called, too. Left a voice mail.

The following excerpt is from the web page I have
posted with a few years worth of research that I did
while being homeless, myself.

The Criminalization Of Homelessness;

A Problem Becoming A Solution


And as of January 3 2007 many cities are still enforcing laws that criminalize the homeless. While leaving themselves open for a law suit. This need not be when there are other options.

KRON Channel 4 news reported a story about Richmond California where they used a "Tent City" for a five-week period. It reduced violent crime by 90%. The story was titled, In Richmond & Oakland, Prayers & Community Fight Violence Posted November 5, 2006 at 8:10 p.m.http://www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?s=5637200

The story of the tent city in Richmond does show what an organized "tent City" can do. The tent cities comprised of the homeless could do this too, if it a type of Neighborhood Watch Program could be modified into a "Harmony Patrol".

It could be of service in a public emergency because "Tent Cities" are mobile. They could also split funding with Emergency Services and Homeland Security. One such example of this was the "Made With Love Cafe" that served the New Orleans area, after Katrina. From what "Cor" told me in a phone call, they did have a type of "Harmony Patrol", too. What many in the Rainbow Family call "Shanti Sena".

A Harmony Patrol can be a hybrid of and patterned after Neighborhood Watch Program's (HP1, HP6, ,) and the Shanti Sena Council of the Rainbow Family (HP3, HP4 ). The Shanti Sena Council does have specific training. Just Google (www.google.com) "Shanti Sena Council training" and you can acquire a new concept in neighborhood security.

There are reports showing that the decent homeless can get along rather well with a Neighborhood Watch Program (HP8). Though the "Deviant Homeless" do have a problem with it.

There are a number of instances in which Neighborhood Watch Programs have been used to deal with Homeless problems (HP5, HP7). It can help deal with domestic violence(HP10), prevent rape (HP11) and murder (HP12).

Drug dealers hate the neighborhood Watch Program. It is "bad for business". In order to have sex parties with minors as the Michelle Johnson murder had revealed (hrm34) and child prostitution such as the Russian River Times newspaper reported (hrm33), you need drugs to control them with. 

Trust me on one thing. One of the biggest problems with creating any homeless services program are the NIBY people (Not In My Back Yard). It is truly a miracle when INBY's (In My Back Yard) step forward to actually present the facts.

In that regard, please see, Letters of Reference from past neighbors, in support of "Homeless Permits' and such.

What most fail to realize is that the the "Deviant Homeless" (or "Drainbows" as I call them) are a small minority of the homeless population. The majority of the homeless do not like them, either. One example is the Aloha Inn, located in Seattle Washington. It has been a HUD sponsored program for over a decade. Their secret is that the "Intake Committee" is made up of the homeless themselves. And they will not let the Drainbows in. If one should make it past Intake, they can not follow the rules to stay very long. It is just that way and the "Hard Core Homeless" in Seattle hate the Aloha Inn, because they can not get in.

The secret is the "Intake Committee" used by the Aloha Inn, because it "circumvents" the "discrimination laws". The Seattle Times newspaper did a rather good story about it titled, "A Place To Get Back On Your Feet", By Christine Clarridg, Saturday, May 19, 2001 (hrm150). The neighbors love it and property values in the area actually went up, afterwards.

End of excerpt from:

The Criminalization Of Homelessness;
A Problem Becoming A Solution


Blessings,

Blessings,

The Toxic Reverend

Who's a criminal ?
http://people.tribe.net/toxicreverend


No More Red Collar Crime
Homicide Charges For Corporations
Ten convictions
http://www.angelfire.com/nm/redcollarcrime

by Robert Norse
1 1/4 hour interview with three Camp Quixote residents can be heard at: http://www.radiolibre.org/brb/brb070208.mp3

Other recent news stories:

Camp Quixote relocated
http://olyblog.net/blog/janet-b/camp-quixote-relocated

Olympia's tent camp dispersed; homeless move to church property
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_WA_Tent_City.html

I will be hosting a segment of the Homelessness Marathon from Fresno on February 20th, discussing homeless encampments.

The Human Rights Organization and HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) will be supporting a solidarity protest/mini-encampment downtown soon. Contact 423-HUFF for more info.

Watch for the Coffeelovin' Sleepmobile in a parking lot soon, near you. (Perhaps the forbidden Parking Lot #9 on Elm St. where it's illegal to be unless you're with a vehicle!).
by Seattle Times
Redmond is a funny city that isn't so far from Seattle, but used to have a rural heritage before Microsoft moved in. It calls itself the 'bicycle capital', even though it has a lot of traffic. I've never seen a homeless person there.

-----
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003566787_homeless11m0.html
Defying an order from the city of Redmond, St. Jude Catholic Church welcomed Tent City 4, the Eastside's traveling homeless encampment, to its grounds Saturday.

The city — which initially granted, then voided a permit for the encampment — answered the action with a threat to fine the church as much as $500 a day, five times what a senior city official had proposed last week. The church's plan to host the homeless group for 90 days could now cost it more than $37,000.

Yet the mood outside the church was upbeat. Homeless people and church members alike unloaded wooden pallets and plywood from trucks, and set up tents. Campers' belongings arrived in black trash bags labeled with silver duct tape. Volunteers drove Tent City residents to the church from their former site at another Catholic church, St. John Vianney, near Kirkland.

"These folks need a place to stay," said the Rev. David Rogerson of St. Jude. "We're not going to pull the rug out from under them at the last minute."

If the fines are upheld, the church will pay them from donations rather than from parish funds, he said.

An estimated 8,000 people are homeless in King County, and some 2,000 don't have shelter on a given night, according to the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness. Communities in Seattle and on the Eastside have debated whether to allow tent cities. In 2005, Bellevue passed new restrictions on homeless encampments: It won't permit encampments to stay at a site for more than 60 days — other cities allow 90 days — or to return to the same location until 18 months have elapsed.

Last December, when St. Jude and Tent City 4's sponsor, SHARE/WHEEL, filed an application with the city of Redmond to stay up to 110 days, some Redmond residents objected because three schools are within blocks of the church: Redmond Junior High, Horace Mann Elementary and Norman Rockwell Elementary.

The Planning Department issued a temporary permit Dec. 21. The permit required the church to provide sidewalk monitors during the hours children are going to and from school, among other provisions. Ten appeals were filed with the city's hearing examiner.

Last week, days before the encampment was to arrive at St. Jude, the city hearing examiner overturned the temporary permit. The city issued a statement saying it would not seek a temporary restraining order against the encampment because its chances of success in court were slim, and instead would deal with it using fines.

Jay Beavers, 38, a church member involved in the permit application, said the King County Sheriff's Office conducts background checks on all new camp residents.
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Beavers said a letter from the city of Redmond, delivered to the church on Saturday, warned that unless the encampment moves, the city will impose on the church a $350-per-day fine to start in six days. If 30 days go by and the encampment has not moved, the city will increase the fine to $500 a day.

As the encampment moved in Saturday, a Redmond police cruiser stopped by occasionally, but there was no disorder and no neighborhood protest.

Church member Fiona Kinsella, 11, and her friend Danielle Skinner, 11, helped make 1,000 ham, turkey and cheese sandwiches last week for Tent City 4. On Saturday, they assisted in setting up the encampment.

"They shouldn't fine us for helping out and giving families a home," Fiona said.

Bruce Thomas, a Tent City 4 resident who coordinated the move, said the group plans to leave the site in 90 days. Next stop: Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Bellevue.
by from pdx-imc
Memories of Camp Quixote
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/02/354257.shtml

The (abbreviated) story of Olympia's Camp Quixote
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