Homeless woman freezes to death

[The Straight Story]

Homeless woman freezes to death

BAKERSFIELD - With local temperatures still below freezing and warming centers closing, this is a tough time for the homeless population of Kern County.

One local woman's body was discovered Wednesday; she froze to death after she went to sleep in the cold and never woke up.

At the camp where the woman named Theresa died, her friends said they did not know they could have received free transportation to a warming center. Local emergency agencies have been faced with the challenge of getting the word out to the homeless population of Kern County.

Theresa's friends mourned her loss as they tried to sift through her possessions.

Theresa's last name is unknown but she had a boyfriend named Charlie who had been camping off 34th Street and Chester Avenue for months, braving the bitter cold. They, along with many other transients in central Bakersfield, never heard there was somewhere to go like a warming center.

....

But how can those who don't have access to media outlets find a place to go when the temperatures plummet?

http://www.kget.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=14f0a848-53fd-41bd-9d14-8ce49ee6c9bc

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Fliers come to mind

why aren't there fliers posted in areas where these people are known to congregate?

[Flirtus]

6. there is So much more to being homeless...

Being alone and a general fear of people and 'the man' leads to not congregating and not listening to advice. It takes a dedicated social work approach, which costs a lot more money than printing fliers.

I'm a burned out social worker, in my very humbled opinion, homelessness starts before a person is found sleeping under the overpass. It's very kin to our problems in the schools, and I see direct links to the enormous and increasing wage gap in this country.

Damn republican policy...

[Cleita]

14. It started in California with the passage of the Jarvis ammendment,

proposition 13 that reduced property taxes to 1%. This had a twofold effect. All the institutions and programs that were in place to take care of the marginally functional and mentally ill lost funding and all those people were thrown out into the street without anywhere to go.

Then property became a very attractive investment in California to speculators because of the low property taxes causing a real estate boom, that greedy landlords and others jumped on to for profit, making most rentals unaffordable to the minimum wage earner and welfare recipient.

That was thirty years ago and nothing has been done to reverse it. A step in the right direction would be to raise property taxes on second homes, vacation homes, homes that are owned by out-of-staters and any home that has more than two bathrooms and three bedrooms. If those people can afford those properties then they can afford an increase property taxes to go back to pre-Jarvis ammendment days to take care of these least among us in society.

[midnight]

24. I agree. There needs to be a wage that is given to each worker

so that they can earn enough to live safely.

[wake.up.america]

2. Sad

[fooj]

3. OMG.

:cry:

[flamingyouth]

4. What a tragedy in this country.

:cry:

[Cleita]

10. What's doubly tragic is that this is happening in the sixth

largest economy in the world. Awhile ago I posted a story about a homeless man dying of cancer in a field in San Luis Obispo County next to Kern County. This is really outrageous.

[demosincebirth]

16. I don't know if this means anything, but Kern County is one of

the most Republican(if not the most)counties in Ca.

[Cleita]

18. I know all too well. I share a Congressman with them that we.

can't seem to replace with a Democrat. They also have a miserable record on polution because of policies that favor industrial farming to the detriment of the community. Probably, many of their homeless are former farm workers who can work anymore because of asthma and other pollutant related diseases.

[AndyA]

5. How sad. I can't imagine how horrible it must be freezing to death.

I also get upset when I think of all the stray cats and dogs that have no where to go. I can only hope they are in a better place, and out of pain.

[Parche]

7. sad

But over $400 billion of our tax dollars have been sent to Iraq...........makes a lot of sense

[Cleita]

8. Outrageous that the homeless are allowed to die in fields here

in one of the richest areas of the world. Contact Bakersfield Congressman Kevin McCarthy and express your disgust:

http://kevinmccarthy.house.gov/

It wouldn't hurt to contact the California senators either:

http://boxer.senate.gov/

http://feinstein.senate.gov/

If a zip code is required to communicate with them use mine 93420 in Arroyo Grande, also in McCarthy's district.

[ronnykmarshall]

17. Also use 93309 or 93304

Both are zip codes for Bakersfield. I think 93304 is the area where the lady died.

[Cleita]

19. Thanks!

We have to let Congressman Kevin McCarthy know that we expect more from him than his predecessor, Bill Thomas, ever did for his constituency

[cboy4]

9. I'm actually shocked more homeless people haven't been dying

because it has been so very unusually cold here in California for at least a week.

[Cleita]

11. I think there probably will be more that we haven't heard of yet.

There are emergency shelters set up in mine and Santa Barbara counties, but if the news doesn't get to the homeless, how will they know?

[cboy4]

12. I actually think the reason the numbers aren't higher is because

there is a good communications network within the homeless community.

However, even one death is obviously too many.

[Rainscents]

13. So sad.

RIP for Theresa. I live in Seattle area, when we had real cold snaps, city of Seattle droved around and picked up all the homeless and brought them into warm place. "WE" suppose to be a Christan country, however, we sure don't care about poor and homeless.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Ah yes, in teh sixth largest economy

by the way, I am sure there have been more... sadly

[Cleita]

20. This needs two more recommendations for the Greatest Page

where it belongs. C'mon DUers.

[KarenS]

21. ...

:cry:

This is so sad, so horrible.

[Cameron27]

22. Given the right circumstances,

this poor woman could be anyone of us. What kind of country are we living in?

How sad, and how shameful.

k&r

[lonestarnot]

23. Poor soul. Survival of the fittest is no way to live in America.