The 100% Summit – A Tale of Two Counties
"Bridging the Widening Gaps in Ventura County"
Symposium and Workshop, January 27, 2012
The Social Justice Fund for Ventura County, Co-sponsor
Four speakers were slated along with Emcee and Steering Committee Chairman Doug Green who got the ball rolling by elaborating on the title selection, “The 100% Solution – A Tale of Two Counties*.”
Keynote Speaker: Maricela Morales, CAUSE ~ Panelists: Dr. Jamshid Damooei, California Lutheran University ~ Cathy Brudnicki, VC Homeless & Housing Coalition ~ Dr. Jose Alamillo, California State University, Channel Islands (See endnotes for speakers' bios)
The 100% Summit ~ A Tale of Two Counties
So we didn't. The wife and I simply went ahead and signed up for the Social Justice Fund's day-long workshop held on January 27 at the United Methodist Church in Camarillo. Twenty bucks apiece. That's not terribly steep for social justice, considering that it also includes continental breakfast and lunch, so what the hell …
Nice crowd too, including a host elected officials and local dignitaries. NPR was there as KCLU did sound outtakes and spot interviews. Camera flashes were going off, and like – who except the media uses flash anymore? But whoever it was you could tell they weren't there just for the food.
We took the RV – why not? A beautiful day … maybe stop off at the beach and catch a nice sunset. But the RV – it's big, and in the morning as we tried to park we took up three spaces … the wrong three as it turned out. So in the middle of coffee and bagels the announcement was made notifying the owners of an RV that it was blocking something or other and would they please move.
Okay, I'm no vaudevillian but after getting back to our group I said, “Y'know I've been thrown out of fancier places than this.” My wife is accustomed to my offhanded manner, but the others in the group – all very nice people – stared back with what looked like shock and awe. “Nothing like a good joke,” I found myself saying, and of course it was nothing like a good joke.
Sadly, the symposium wasn't much better.
The Watchdog is Watching
It's our job to assist the public in guarding against government misappropriation and official misstatement. Yet it doesn't end there. People who like to partner with government are sometimes infected with a few of the same diseases.
Keynote Address
We pick no fight with CAUSE. It's a fine organization and doing a great job in helping to secure recreational facilities on the Westside and improve public transportation throughout the city. Very influential in its message, there needs to be an extra layer of protection in ensuring that the information disseminated from the group's leadership is solidly accurate.
“The United States is hostile toward immigration.”
The fact is that "Today, the United States accepts more legal immigrants as permanent residents than the rest of the world combined." [http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-10/17/content_5215770.htm] also cited by Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_the_United_States] So why, then, in a symposium of this caliber should we be subjected to a misrepresentation of the facts? Let's take farmworker housing as an issue since that was also brought up.
“Section 516 grants are aUSDA farm labor housing program authorized by Section 516 of the Housing Act of 1949 (42 U.S.C. 1441 et seq.). Qualified nonprofit organizations, Indian tribes, or public bodies obtain grants for the development cost of farm labor housing. Grants may be used simultaneously with Section 514 loans if the housing, for which there is a “pressing need,” will not be built without assistance from the Rural Housing Service (RHS). Grants may be made for up to 90% of the development cost of the housing. In a given fiscal year, up to 10% of the Section 516 funds shall be for domestic and migrant farm worker housing. Applicants must contribute at least 10% of the total development costs from their own resources or from other sources including Section 514 loans. Funds may be used to buy, build, or improve housing and related facilities for farm workers, and to purchase and improve the land where the housing will be located, including installation of streets, water supply and waste disposal systems, parking areas, and driveways as well as for the purchase and installation of appliances such as ranges, refrigerators, and clothes washers and dryers. Related facilities may include the maintenance workshop, recreation center, small infirmary, laundry room, day care center, and office and living quarters for the resident manager. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farm_labor_housing_grants]
To be perfectly fair and frank, this does not sound as though the United States is overtly hostile to immigrants. Furthermore, the phase “migrant farm worker” can be found, leaving an open question as to whether this references legal or illegal migrant residents. Depending upon the search parameters used (we chose “farm worker housing”) 2,474 related articles were found. So no, Mme. Keynote Speaker. We're very sorry, but this is not what constitutes “hostility” toward immigration in the United States.
Citizens' tax dollars from all over the country pay for and extend benefits like these to people who are sometimes referred to as “guests” in this country. What, then, would cause a qualified speaker and a former mayor of Port Hueneme to stand in front of a crowd and essentially bite the hand as it were? We would be flummoxed over this if we didn't stop to realize that it's all based in human nature, which is not going to change within the lifetimes of most of us.
Round Table
Breakout sessions following the keynote address and panelist segment stood out as possibly the most useful and informative part of the conference. Our group was about evenly split between eastern and western county areas – four from the Conejo Valley and five distributed all the way from Fillmore to Oxnard.
"Homeless Count Remained Flat for Five Years"
We discussed at some length Ms. Brudnicki's presentation on homelessness in Ventura County, which in our view is the most pressing and at the same time the least well understood issue of our time – nationally and locally. More than one group member also found that some of the homelessness facts and figures that had been dispensed from the podium were a bit hard to swallow.
We wondered about the source of this data. We see from VCHHC's own data LINK that the actual reported number of year-round shelter beds (in-county) is shown as 115 – not 135. However, of all those we contacted, none was aware of any year-round shelter beds in any unincorporated areas of the county. If this stands true it will be necessary to identify 55 additional beds (80 + 55 = 135) which correlates surprisingly well to the recent opening of Ventura's Kingdom Center – a transitional living facility … not a year-round shelter.
We contacted the County of Ventura Human Services Agency for corroboration, only to be assured that the number of permanent shelter beds within the county still stands at 69 as shown on their website – 11 short of reaching 135 even considering the apparent “ghost” numbers. So again we're forced to speculate over the veracity of the information being presented and/or the degree of objectivity on the part of a presenter.
We also know that all but 10 of those 69 beds are in Oxnard. The State of California believes that there needs to be a substantial increase as well while our representatives grapple with continual foot-dragging on the part of communities like Ventura … those which play host to the largest demographics.
Q & A
Participants were given the opportunity to ask question of the speakers by submitting their questions on a 3x5 index card at the conclustion of the presentation segment. We submitted three questions. The first two were either ignored or discarded, as expected, since we purposely constructed the questions in such a way as to imply that there really are no clear-cut answers. An answer to the third, however, was attempted and handled as … well, you be the judge.
Q1. What evidence is there for the idea that the homeless fall prey to addiction in any greater percentage than those in the population at large?
A1. [None]
Q2. What justification can be conjured up for instituting a campaign against panhandling while at the same time decreasing the availability of homelessness services as was done with the closure of Project Understanding's Sarah Center? Wouldn't it be logical to increase services, thereby giving would-be panhandlers a broader range of options for a bite of food and an occasional shower?
A2. [None]
Q3. Why would it be necessary to invent the term, high-functioning homeless** if not to make the subliminal correlation between that and the “high-functioning alcoholic?" Alcoholism is a recognized disease, medically speaking, which lays down a foundation for the condition known as high-functioning alcoholism. So is it not the intent, then, to imply guilt through association? In other words, isn't this the clear attempt to equate homelessness with a disease?
A3. “There are high-functioning homeless people just as there are low-functioning home people.”
The answer given by the speaker drew a huge round of applause from the audience, which begets yet another question. Does this not suggest that our disdain for the homeless has more latency than we might like to acknowledge? Clearly, by this speaker's answer and the crowd's reaction, the implication is inescapable. This says that indeed – by simple inversion – there are, percentage wise, as many low-functioning homeless people as there are high-functioning home people. Suddenly the strength and power of the name game is on our side, because if we can name it, we can own it, thereby further internalizing long-standing notions of bias – this one being that these "low-functioning homeless" types make up the vast majority of the homeless population “just as we'd always thought.”
This was the unspoken applause line. Would not ordinary people feel a twinge of guilt over applauding a joke delivered at the expense of the residentially challenged? We need to be reminded that there are people who do this, and do it quite well – for a living, in fact. When confronted they will call it distortion and dialogue “taken out of context” … perfectly safe stuff knowing that we can probably prove they said it but we can never prove they meant it. This leaves behind the one failing that can't be negated – thoughtlessness – which when applied to an ideologically motivated public is just as bad (or worse) than the sin originally. Thoughtlessness is hurtfulness. Furthermore, we have the right to expect far better from those who would seek a seat at the table within the halls of power.Which is why we do what we do.
NOTES
* “A Tale of Two Counties” (1) Ventura County could be divided into two halves; East and West, separated by the Conejo Grade – (2) Camarillo as the single exception is considered East and is predominantly white – (3) West is 81% minority; 68% under age 18; ¾ of registered voters are white over age 65 – (4) Older voters don't obsess over education issues – (5) Examples of wealth – (5.1) Moorpark's yearly median income is $96,000 – (5.2) Oxnard's yearly median income is $66,000 – (5.2,1) 7.8% of seniors below the poverty line – (5.2.2) 67% in poverty are children and youth – (5.3) Women earn 20% less than men – (6) Examples of education – (6.1) East – (6.1.1) 3-10% have H.S. or less – (6.1.2) 31% have B.S. Or higher – (6.2) El Rio has lowest percentage of higher education
** Attributable to Peter Brown at the the July 25th City Council Meeting, City Hall, 501 Poli Street, Ventura, California
Maricela Morales is Executive Director Pro-Tem of the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE). She attended Fillmore public schools and earned a B.A. in Human Biology at Stanford and an M.A. in Counseling (Depth) Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute.
Dr. Jamshid Damooei is Professor of Economics and Chair of the Department of Economics, Finance and Accounting at California Lutheran University. His other work includes serving as Senior Economist for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Dr. Damooei also co-directs the Center for Leadership and Values, California Lutheran University.
Cathy Brudnicki is Executive Director of the Ventura County Homeless and Housing Coalition. She is a graduate of Fordham University.
José M. Alamillo is Associate Professor and Coordinator of a Chicano Studies program at California State University, Channel Islands. He is the author of Making Lemonade Out of Lemons – Mexican-American Labor and Leisure in a California Town, 1900-1960 [2006]