I hope I am not boring or upsetting folks with my frequent thoughts on the homeless in Morro Bay. Don't blame me! Over a year ago I was assigned as the Morro Bay Police Homeless Liaison Officer. Up until then, I was aware of the homeless presence, but I never gave it much thought. It was always someone else's problem.
However, once I got to know them on a personal level, and became privy to their individual, personal stories, I became convinced that, "There but for fortune go I." Especially, when I heard the story of one man who came home from work and learned his wife and two daughters had been killed that day in a traffic accident. He told me he walked away from his home and has been walking ever since. He told me that had happened over twenty years ago. So please bear with me in my reporting, and consider my words.
Not too long ago I came on duty following a heavy rain. I was concerned about 63-year-old Carl, a homeless man living in a creek side camp along Quintana Road. Carl's camp is very clean and orderly and even has a little makeshift entry gate. I became concerned when I learned that Carl awoke in the middle of the night, laying in six-inches of water. He always thought his camp was immune from normal rainfall. However, either an upstream natural dam broke or a downstream blockage developed. Carl told me all he could do was grab his driest clothes and scurry in the darkness up a muddy embankment to Quintana Road. Carl received some comfort from a steaming cup of McDonald's coffee while he waited in his cold, soggy clothes for the shelter of the library to open. Carl takes responsibility for his hygiene, and is usually welcome at the Senior Center. However, this was Saturday and the Senior Center was closed, so he had to wait. I cannot imagine myself having the strength or determination to deal with these circumstances. This is just one story of many.
Bill the Creekside Poet
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The outpouring of concern, donations, and involvement with our homeless citizens is increasing. Dinners continue to be served every Tuesday and Friday and sometimes on Wednesdays at Lila Keiser Park, where clothing donations are given out. This is presently a grassroots effort by individuals, the kind members of Rock Harbor Christian Fellowship, and Carla's Country Kitchen restaurant who do the cooking and deliver food to the park. On a recent Tuesday, Elaine Giannini, her husband John Gajdos, friend Cindy Hankins, and Morro Bay City Council Member Nancy Johnson, arrived in the rain with hot soup, taquitos, bread, hot chocolate, and desert. About twenty wet and hungry souls were fed in the relative dryness of the park's picnic area roof. Often Morro Bay resident, Christine Hewitt, provides new and near-new sleeping bags and outer clothing she has collected from various sources.
When I was a police officer, I would often mingle with the homeless group, who were, and continue to be, more of a blessing to me than I am to them. During these times, my police uniform and gun on my hip were invisible to them. To them, at that moment, I was just "Richard," and I was honored by this intimacy.
In addition to the Lila Keiser group, other homeless citizens are sought out every Friday with offerings of food and other necessities of life. Some live in the dunes, one lives in a dumpster, and a couple live in dilapidated motor homes, trying to evade Morro Bay's "No Camping" ordinance. Regardless of where they live, the grassroots efforts of a few, caring citizens are providing a semblance of dignity and respect. They are "keeping the patient alive until a cure can be found."
