Few turn out to protest treatment of homeless

Similar stories:

• Safe parking programs would benefit homeless

  Safe parking programs would benefit homeless

  Pinning down the number of homeless people in our county is a near-impossible task; experts point out that the best we can do is provide a “snapshot in time.” The most recent “snapshot” was taken Jan. 26, 2011, when 3,774 homeless individuals were counted in San Luis Obispo County — nearly half of them children.

  Given the economy, that number has almost certainly increased. Yet we have not been able to keep pace by providing more services and facilities — at least not yet. Major efforts are under way to build new facilities in two communities: a homeless campus on Prado Road in San Luis Obispo and a day shelter in the Five Cities area.

  Both projects are years away, and in the meantime, there’s an immediate need to provide at least some form of rudimentary shelter, especially in these cold and wet winter months. Opening “warming stations” on the bitterest nights is a start, but we can do more. One of the easiest and least expensive alternatives is to offer safe, secure parking lots for people living out

• An example for homeless thriving in Portland

  An example for homeless thriving in Portland

  One thing most folks can agree on, Mark Lakeman says, is that the homeless need an opportunity to improve their situation in life.

  “When you’re talking about people who have nothing, you have to give them a chance to get up and running,” Lakeman told a gathering of 40 people at the Madonna Inn on Friday morning.

  Having a roof over their heads helps.

• SLO day center for homeless people hopes to open when weather turns bad

  SLO day center for homeless people hopes to open when weather turns bad

  With temperatures plummeting and the rainy season approaching, the Prado Day Center in San Luis Obispo is making plans to give homeless people extra shelter by staying stay open at night when the weather gets nasty.

  The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday agreed to spend $5,000 – half of what the center needs – to keep it open as needed through the winter. Dee Torres, director of homeless services, said she hops the city of San Luis Obispo and others can chip in.

  “We’re kind of scrambling,” Torres said. “I can’t promise (it will be open) tonight.”

• Prado center in SLO to open tonight as warming center for homeless people

  Prado center in SLO to open tonight as warming center for homeless people

  UPDATE AT 3:45 P.M.: Two local businessmen, Paul Hodgson of California Cooperage and John Villa of Villa Automotive, have contributed $1,000 each and have put out a challenge to other local businesses to contribute, Torres said, not only this year but on an annual basis.

  Torres said in the past the warming shelter has housed an average of 40 to 60 people, and “we’ve never had to turn anybody away.”

  ORIGINAL: The Prado Day Center will open as a warming shelter tonight and Friday night to provide shelter for the homeless from the overnight cold.

• Viewpoint: Be proactive to meet needs of homeless

  Viewpoint: Be proactive to meet needs of homeless

  It has come to my attention in the last few months — as I attempted, with mixed results, to aid Dan DeVaul and Sunny Acres in becoming a sober living center for the homeless and indigent — that there were other organizations, more established, not completely serving these clients.

  At first I thought, well, how can this be? Surely the county and various private organizations such as churches were meeting the needs of itinerant and not-so-itinerant homeless. (A large percentage of local homeless, I’ve found out, are long-term local residents who have fallen on hard times.) People like Becky Jorgeson, also a long-time resident and former Sunny Acres volunteer, were making what appeared to be “wild” statements about the unwillingness of the Prado Day Center and Maxine Lewis Shelter to assist “her” clients (she has become a self-styled independent advocate) when they were, for whatever reasons, expelled from the one shelter or refused services at the dropin center. Jorgeson kept meeting these people on the streets