30 Nights with the Martinez / Pacheco Homeless Outreach - A Slow Night

Day 4

7:15 p.m. I got an email today from the director of Contra Costa County Homeless Services -- there was a man staying outside of his office at 651 Pine St. (County Administration Building) and they wanted me to go get him into shelter. At 8 p.m. I got him and fed him and put him in the shelter. He was an older man who just had stomach surgery for a hernia. These are the things that upset me; this man had surgery and by all rights the hospital should have never released him until they could put him in shelter or respite care.

So I'm back from the shelter, made my rounds downtown and found some people drinking behind Bulldog BBQ. I asked them to move along so they wouldn't get in trouble. I drove through the Amtrak Station and did a count of people in the parking lot tonight; there was only nine homeless hanging out. I stopped and spoke to a couple, gave out a little food and was on my way to the Marina park.

At the softball fields I found a guy and a girl out by the concession stand. I gave them some supplies and asked them to clean up their things in the morning. But they weren't interested in shelter or any other services. I got a call from then police to go to the Park 'n Ride at Mt. Wanda on Alhambra Avenue. There was supposed to be a guy waiting in his car for me but he bailed knowing I was coming so I left my card on his window. I took a little time and walked under the train trestle and found no one but I can see this is an area I will have to come back to more than I do -- I saw a lot of signs of people staying there.

I'm grateful tonight was slow -- I'm getting tired. It's toward the end of the week with the weekend a couple days away it's nice to rest . It's on the weekends when things go crazy for me -- you'll see . Even on a slow night I still feel good about what I did.