30 Nights with the Martinez / Pacheco Homeless Outreach - A Big Mess

Day 15

10:30 p.m.: My night started out late in Martinez -- I got a call from another city I had to do. The first stop I made was at the end of Marina Vista at a boarded up house; there was supposed to be a guy camping on the patio but there wasn't tonight.

I wandered through Rankin Park. I found two people; they were happy to see me for supplies but their camp was a little messy so I asked them if I supplied the thrash bags if we could clean up and they said yeah, so we cleaned up.

Now I'm at Amtrak where there were seven homeless hanging out. Right away I saw a couple of guys with cans of beer out in the open so I spoke to them about being less visible  so that people getting off the train didn't see people drinking in Martinez before they even had a chance to see anything else. But I did hand out supplies to a few people also. Then I walked down to another vacant house (see pictures) that is being ruined by the homeless people that are camping there. It smells like urine and feces -- there is thrash and old clothes everywhere, even the front. I would clean it up but the biohazard is too much at this camp . So I left another message to the owner that there is a huge mess and it needs to be taken care of.

Then I went to the Marina; I caught a guy in the dumpster going through everything so we talked but he was not into me, you could tell he wanted to get back to the dig, so I left.

I decided to head out on the train tracks and check to see if any one was out on the tracks -- only one person. He was a nice guy, he was just reading a book and having a beer. I gave him some supplies and asked if he needed shelter or anything. He said he was fine.

Now I'm downtown walking on Main Street when I found a purse, so I found a name and an address and gave it back; luckily it was close. She was thrilled to get the purse back.

Now I'm on my way to another city when I see a guy walking on Pine Street so I decided to stop and ask if he was ok; he just had that look. So when I stop and ask how he was and his name he replied with "I own Amtrak and Ceasar's Palace and I'm taking the train to Washington DC in the morning." Then he tells me he was elected President in January. I just stood there -- at first I thought he was messing with me but he was serious. So I asked the President what every citizen would ask: "When are gas prices coming down?" He said he cut them last week but he couldn't tell gas stations what to charge. At this point I started asking normal mental health questions like his birthday, what city we were in, the year, things like that. There wasn't much I could do -- he did not meet the criteria for a 5150 .What people don't remember when dealing a mentally ill person is it is not against the law to be mentally ill. I can't just take someone to the hospital no matter how whacky they sound. He wasn't a danger to himself or others and besides that he really had a train ticket to DC. Maybe he is the president. When it comes to people like that I often wonder how they would be if they got on meds. Would it make a difference? It does for a lot of people. So I gave him a blanket and told him Amtrak opens in about three and half  hours.

Tomorrow should be fun -- I get to watch the homeless dance at the car show. I hope there are no problems -- I know people hate to see all the homeless out at the car shows but there's not much I can do about it. I let the ones I contacted today know to be on good behavior  -- no drinking and no being loud and rowdy. Nothing we can do about the dancing. I love going to the events for Main Street Martinez.

I'm half way to thirty days -- it has gone by really fast.