San Diego police chasing homeless to AZ

On behalf of nine San Diego homeless and a relief-providing church, ACLU Foundation of San Diego and Imperial Counties has filed for injunctive relief and damages against the City of San Diego.

The city would wait until homeless left their belongings to seek services in a church, then confiscate them and load them in a garbage truck. Seized items included medical devices, medications, bedding, winter clothes, identifying papers, and personal effects such as family photos. Victims of this practice were advised to head to Arizona.

The San Diego Union-Tribune and Courthouse News have more.

HT: Nick Martin

Homeless in Arizona

A Tempe-area homeless man maintains a set of Tripod webpages (what a throwback!) in a 'bloglike fashion, that are very much worth reading. From 2003 until 2008, he documented his experiences on Homeless in Arizona, and for unknown reasons switched in 2009 to a different URL. There's much to learn, both about the homeless way of life per se and the many little ways in which local governments "kick" the down-and-out.

I know the author, a probable schizophrenic and beneath the paranoia, erraticness, and abnormal affect a Nice Guy, but did not realize until recently that he's homeless. As he seems very uncomfortable letting people know this--and won't acknowledge the matter when I bring it up--and as he's somewhat of a public figure, I won't name him here. He is a highly skilled programmer, so if anyone would like to offer him a computer "gig" of sorts I'll do my best to put him in touch.

If he takes my advice and migrates to Blogger or Wordpress, I'll add him to the 'blogroll. Until then, just follow the links above.