30 Nights with the Martinez / Pacheco Homeless Outreach — A Lot of Driving Tonight

Day-6

7:45 p.m. — I got a call from a guy camped at Mt. Wanda; he's a young  guy, too young to be homeless. He was scared of shelter so I let him know the things that could happen to a young guy on the streets. He became willing to go into shelter. So as I drove him to Richmond we talked all the way. This guy is in school and volunteers in our community. I can't tell you where, though. I told him that he is starting fresh right now and that things from this point on would be OK.

Back in Martinez, I came across a guy near the VA hospital. He was drinking; all I could do for him was give him some food and supplies.

Now I'm out with another homeless guy on Alhambra Avenue. With this guy I had to keep my guard up; he is a sex offender but he still needed some food and some cold medicine. I know that many of you are saying "sex offender," but I'm not here to judge. I can't; if I judged everyone I contacted I wouldn't be able to help anyone. Unfortunately I can't take sex offenders to services — I'm not allowed. The county won't let them in for the safety of other clients.

Now I am on Howe Road. There is a guy at one of the RVs who wants services so I call and they will take him, so it's back to Richmond for the second time tonight.

Back at the Amtrak Station, the first thing I hear about is an attempted rape on a homeless girl. Whether it really happened or not only she knows, but the police were called. The ironic thing is I offered this girl shelter last night — she was drunk and not willing to go. Sometimes these things happen.

There was not much going on — everyone was pretty mellow tonight . So I headed out to a couple of camps just outside downtown. I got on one camp that was completely dirty, so we had community cleanup. That's where I stand there and everyone cleans the camp and I take the trash away .

In the middle of that I get a call from the shelter that the first guy I put in wants me to come get him — he doesn't like it there. So it's back to Richmond for the third time tonight. When I get to the shelter, this guy is freaking out that he can't handle being there. I settled him down and after 30 minutes of debating, I was able to get him to stay. Sometimes for younger people the shelter can be culture shock. The guys in the shelter have been on the streets for a long time — they come and go at the shelter.

It's been a long night and still have to do Concord .