Civil rights of the homeless to be addressed at forum in Carmel

The civil rights of homeless individuals and how to defend them will be the focus of a homeless advocacy forum on Tuesday, Sept. 6 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Monterey Peninsula sanctuary in Carmel.

Author Mike Rhodes of “Dispatches from the War Zone” will speak prior to a presentation, question and answer period and panel discussion featuring Dr. Tia Sukin, the director of the One Starfish Safe Parking Program, and the Rev. Michael Reid, leader of the fund for Homeless Women and former associate minister at St. Mary's by the Sea Episcopal Church in Pacific Grove.

Presented by the ACLU of the Monterey Peninsula and the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Monterey Bay Social Justice Committee, the event is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact mibsmccarthy@comcast.net or call 831-659-1115.

One Starfish program in Monterey now official

It's official. The ink is now dry on the agreement between the city of Monterey and the One Starfish safe parking program.

Monterey's program joins Pacific Grove's, Seaside's and three Carmel Valley locations that already provide homeless women a safe place to park and sleep overnight. It's only fitting that Monterey join in since the city helped fund the program back in 2014.

The city even went so far as to use one of their own city parking lots since the original location of the
United Methodist Church at 1 Soledad Drive was ultimately struck down. Typically, the sites are located in church parking lots. Two churches in Monterey – Shoreline and St. John's Chapel – have expressed interest in providing future safe parking for homeless women.

Now, the city will look toward further solutions for the problem of homelessness, but not without gratitude from those who work regularly on behalf of the homeless population.

As Pastor Jim Nelson said in a recent City Council meeting, “I know that the One Starfish Program wouldn’t even exist if it hadn’t been for the city of Monterey,” he said. “All you officials doing all this leg work, we appreciate what you’re doing for us.”

Elderly female population becoming a larger part of the homeless demographic

While the Monterey City Council on Tuesday finally determined that one of the city's parking lots would make an appropriate location for the One Starfish safe parking program, one resident who has worked with the homeless women who will benefit from such a program also made a salient point during the meeting's public comment period.

“Thank you, council members and mayor, for putting time and attention and real effort into this,” said Linda Frederiksen, a volunteer at The Gathering Place, a refuge in Monterey for unsheltered women. “Having worked in The Gathering Place and having met hundreds of homeless women I just wanted to represent them and say 'Thank you.'”

Frederiksen went on to emphasize that these women do not meet the all too often stereotype of homeless people having problems with drugs and mental illness. Instead she pointed to the increasing population of elderly women living at the poverty level and lower in the city and surrounding area.

“Twenty-five percent of homeless women in this community are 65 years and older,” Frederiksen continued. “These are not transient women who all of a sudden are here. They have paid their taxes and have raised children here.”