Guillotined Guilicos
The transitional housing community Los Guilicos Village, 2 km east of Oakmont, housing 60 homeless people in 60 tiny homes, will be torn down soon.
This facility is operated by the County of Sonoma. I read a bulletin stating that St. Vincent de Paul is the new entity taking over the “dilapidated” buildings and moving all residents who have not found housing into dormitories just behind Los Guilicos. The reason given for demolishing these perfectly adequate dwellings is that they are temporary, and “Eliza’s Village” is a group of permanent buildings.
And, the County of Sonoma is going to turn the cleared area into a parking lot!
Why pave paradise to put up a parking lot?
At Eliza’s, all residents’ bags will be searched coming and going, as well as their pockets! The gates will be locked at midnight. One worker I spoke with compared the dorms to a prison or a concentration camp.
Since the uncompassionate, extreme right wing Supreme Corpse ruled June 28 on Grants Pass v. Johnson that cities can punish unhoused people for sleeping in public, even if they have nowhere else to go, “our” Gov. Nab’em Gruesome, I mean Gavin Newsom, has directed California cities to deal with the homeless in the most heartless ways.
The ACLU and activists across the nation are organizing and mobilizing to resist and overturn Grants Pass v. Johnson, to succor the homeless, and to petition cities in California and other states not to throw out unhoused poor people from their sleeping spots and encampments. You can find numerous organizations online to organize with.
Barry Barnett
Santa Rosa
