One of the disgraceful parts of America’s history that my generation didn’t learn about in school was the POW camps established during the Civil War–Andersonville being the most infamous–that inspired the Nazis […]
Opinion: AT HOME WITH THE HOMELESS: The War on Dissent is also a war on education, literacy and reality
Librarians are the custodians and the guardians of the word. A literate, educated populace is one that can think for itself, draw its own conclusions about local, national and world events from […]
Opinion: AT HOME WITH THE HOMELESS: They call me MR. Grinch! Or, Give Me Housing or Give Me Death
Holidays just don’t mean the same as you get older. All the beauty and pageantry of the decked halls, the holly and the ivy, the legion of Christmas specials, even the Yule […]
AT HOME WITH THE HOMELESS: Another Thanksgiving. Another Meal.
And now we have had Thanksgiving, the least commercial of all the winter festivities. Can you name ten Christmas songs? Easy-peasy. But try naming even one Thanksgiving song. The only one you’ll […]
Opinion: AT HOME WITH THE HOMELESS: Is Katrina Foley out of her mind?
Of all the people I ever thought to ask that rhetorical question about, Katrina Foley wasn’t even on the long list. Since her election to the Orange County Board of Supervisors (OC […]
opinion: At Home with the Homeless: A sort of homecoming
This issue marks the third anniversary of this column. To be frank, it started as my best attempt to make lemonade out of the lemons life started throwing at me in May […]
Opinion: AT HOME WITH THE HOMELESS: We need to talk about shelters again
“Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again.”–Andre Gide In the mid-September letters column for the Observer, John H. […]
Opinion: At Home with the Homeless: A Reflection on Newsom’s Approach and the Broader Political Landscape
Newsom’s redistricting plan is a necessary evil. His plan to clear California’s streets of homeless encampments is not. What are the biggest stereotypes about homeless people? That they are drug addicts, mentally […]
At Home with the Homeless: Housing First. Housing First. Housing First.
Also, from “s–thole countries” to “s–thole cities.” Now that my Google feed has been trained to fetch stories about the unhoused in cities around the world, two themes are emerging: first, despite […]
At Home with the Homeless: Fritz Lang’s “M” and Its Resonance Today
“M” was one of the first (1931) sound films made in Germany, and the first sound film directed by legendary director Fritz Lang, who had already had critical success with “Metropolis” and […]
Opinion: AT HOME WITH THE HOMELESS: Loving America with a Broken Heart
We’re at war with Iran. Donald Trump, unsurprisingly, has broken yet another promise – to not involve our country in foreign conflicts. As I write this, there is majority disapproval of the […]
At Home with the Homeless: Hypernormalisation is a thing we must not give in to
It’s tempting to say chaos is the new normal. Even those of us viewing with alarm the destruction wrought by the Trump badministration find ourselves, at times, so overwhelmed by the incursions […]
Opinion: AT HOME WITH THE HOMELESS: It is past time to fight, because it is later than you think
“The conspiracy is open now. It comes down from the top. And because of its blatancy, men who were middle of the road have been pushed to the left, have become liberals. […]
AT HOME WITH THE HOMELESS: Yes, shelters beat sleeping rough, but they need work
The morning began yesterday (as I write this) with your correspondent perusing the local online publications when my eyes landed on this editorial at calmatters.org by P.W. Robinson: “California’s homeless shelters aren’t […]
Opinion: AT HOME WITH THE HOMELESS Early April, 2025
“See my fists? They are getting ready to f— you up.” – Officer Manuel Ramos Since the Observer’s publication date is so close to what would have been Kelly Thomas’ 51st birthday […]
Opinion: AT HOME WITH THE HOMELESS: Shelters are “a bridge to nowhere” and new horrors from DC
I’m beating a dead horse here, but until the state of California can bring about some real reform in addressing homelessness, that deceased equine will continue to get whipped. The trigger (pun […]
Opinion: AT HOME WITH THE HOMELESS: Fullerton is going along to get along
I love college towns. There’s always a positive vibe there, one that you feel just walking through town or on campus, that is inclusive and flowing with experimentation and innovation, an atmosphere […]
Opinion: AT HOME WITH THE HOMELESS: Why not just give up?
I thought about giving up today. I try not to make this column about me, but this week I am going to indulge myself because I can, and because I know many […]
Opinion: AT HOME WITH THE HOMELESS: MAGAs aren’t the only ones who don’t understand homelessness
To any aliens trapped on this particular Earth in this timeline: We’re really sorry. We’re really sorry that law and sanity didn’t prevail. We really thought that unity and diversity would have […]
At Home with the Homeless: Needle Exchanges Work, Anyone who says otherwise is ignorant of facts
When I saw this headline on the Voice of OC website, “Orange County’s Needle Exchange Program is Finished,” my mind jumped back in time to the fall of 1991. That’s when some brave […]
Opinion: At Home with the Homeless: “Better the Devil you know than the Devil you don’t know.”
What a Hell of a way to mark the second anniversary of this column, with the re-election of Donald Trump by 51 percent of American citizens who voted. That is not reflective […]
At Home with the Homeless: Interim and stabilization housing –new ideas, new potentials
“Like most West Coast cities, San Francisco has shunned investing in ‘shelter’ because shelter doesn’t work. Sure, it protects you from the elements, but it rarely leads to anything more constructive. Hunkering […]
At Home with the Homeless: What Drives Trump’s Campaigns against the Unhoused and Immigrants?
One of the great moral, ethical and philosophical conundrums we face is the concept of ‘the Other.’ The Other is someone in your environment, either intellectually or physically, whose thoughts, opinions, religion, […]
At Home with the Homeless
Harris’ Plans for the Unhoused—or the Lack Thereof A few months ago, I wrote a column about Donald Trump’s plan to deal with the issue of homelessness, which can be summed up […]
Gavin Newsom’s Miscalculation on the Unhoused Issue
When the Supreme Court handed down its decision in the Grants Pass case earlier this year, governors in red and blue states heaved a sigh of relief. Why? Because the Court had […]
AT HOME WITH THE HOMELESS: What would housing do for the unhoused, and what are the barriers to it?
Thirty-two percent. When rent prices are thirty-two percent higher than the average neighborhood income, homelessness increases exponentially. That’s when housing prices exceed the median income by more than three times. If you remember […]
At Home with the Homeless: The largest roadblocks to housing for the unhoused
“Here in Casablanca, the fortunate ones, through money, influence, or luck, obtain exit visas and scurry to Lisbon and from Lisbon to the Americas. But the others wait in Casablanca…and wait…and wait…” […]
An open letter to Father Jerome Karcher, founder of Mercy House
Father Jerome Karcher ℅ Mercy House, Santa Ana, CA 92701 Dear Father Karcher: Why are we being punished? I’m not being facetious, although it sounds like it. And this is not a general query […]
At Home with the Homeless: Shelter Woes, Part II: Electric Boogaloo
Ending the cycle of homelessness will require a multidisciplinary effort from government, religious, and mental health organizations. But part of the problem may be that some of these organizations have spread themselves […]
At Home with the Homeless: “If you don’t like it here, you can leave.”
“Please take me away Far from this place Leaving me here Take me away To the furthest star in the sky Take me away To the deepest cave in the night Take […]
At Home with the Homeless: Change your perceptions, change your reality
“Under the present brutal and primitive conditions on this planet, every person you meet should be regarded as one of the walking wounded. We have never seen a man or woman not […]
AT HOME WITH THE HOMELESS: Mental Health and Mental Illness
“If everybody had good mental health, then all the other problems could be solved. Because in order to take care of mechanical and practical problems, you have to have good mental health […]
At Home with the Homeless: Part V: The War on Opioid Users Continues
“The essence of fanaticism lies in the desire to force other people to change: the common inclination to improve your neighbor, mend your spouse, engineer your child, or straighten up your brother, […]
At Home with the Homeless: The State of the Homeless Address
For the past month, our shelter has been undergoing an epidemic of “shelter cough:” no fever, nausea, or symptoms other than nasal congestion and loud coughing with the expulsion of phlegm. When […]
At Home with the Homeless: What would the ideal homeless shelter look like?
“Humans are allergic to change. They love to say, ‘We’ve always done it this way.’ I try to fight that. That’s why I have a clock on my wall that runs counterclockwise.” […]
