30 Nights with the Martinez / Pacheco Homeless outreach

Day 1 -   At 8:35pm I rolled into the Amtrak station. I noticed a group of homeless at the bus stop and a few homeless by the bike lockers; all total there were 13 homeless people just in the Amtrak parking lot and four inside.

I went over to the first group at the bus stop; there was one man just out of jail who missed the last bus. This is very common. I looked at his release papers and told him to wait for about a hour. I also handed out some supplies to that group and asked them to clean up. I then went to the bike lockers - there was a man there I had put in the hospital and then I had him a bed in alcohol treatment. He left so no treatment. I was bummed -- this also is common.  

I spoke with some of the folks about them sleeping in cars. They were worried about being citied. Then an older woman was asking for police in front of Amtrak turns out she was stranded and needed shelter or a ride to BART so she could get to Santa Rosa . So at that time I went and got the guy from jail and ran them to BART. I got back from BART and strolled through the Marina park. Nothing major, just asked a couple of people to keep their spot clean and gave some supplies out.

I then did downtown. I found a few people here and there but the big issue I had was behind the old Friends Outside house. I found a mentally ill woman there that had been diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and just over the last few nights had made a large pile of trash and other items. Then about that time I got a call from police department at Hidden Lakes Park . I got to the call -- it was a 65 year old male with major health issues. I ended up making a call and getting him services.

All and all a pretty slow night in Martinez.