Tracy

Tracy was homeless for nearly 12 years until, as she puts it, "Was helped out of homelessness by the kindness of the people at Loaves."  She was lucky enough to get one of the 26 beds designated for single homeless women in Sacramento and get the help she needed to get out of the cycle that surrounds homeless individuals.

In her 12 years of being homeless she only ever slept outside two or three times.  For the most part she slept in abandoned buildings and various shelters.

"I didn't like to sleep outside," Tracy said.  "It could be dangerous and I always liked having a roof over my head, it felt safer."

Now that she's no longer homeless Tracy has devoted her free time to advocacy for the homeless.  When asked what the biggest problem surrounding homelessness is her response is strong and unwavering.

Tracy, pictured on the right in the rainbow dress, participates in the Homeward Stakedown event.

"We need affordable housing."

Although there are enough houses in Sacramento city and county to house every person comfortably one of the biggest issues surrounding homelessness is the fact that people have to spend all the money they receive in order to have a roof over their head.

According to Tracy if there was more affordable housing the issue of homelessness would be drastically reduced.

SHOC/Sacramento Safeground Homeward Stakedown

This weekend Sacramento saw the annual Homeward Stakedown event put on by the Sacramento Housing Organizing Committee (SHOC).  This is the second year that SHOC has put on an event, this year the focus is to try and help SafeGround Sacramento.

Present on Friday were a number of the organizers for Safeground Sacramento, members of Loaves and Fishes, as well as various homeless advocates from the area.  The site hosted several campsites and the largest estimated crowd expected was roughly 40 people according to Paula, a SHOC organizer.

Although the turn out wasn't staggering the event's organizers stated that they acheived what they wanted to achieve with the event.  Their main goal was to raise awareness and activate as many people as they could on the issue of homelessness and the "anti-homeless" camping ordinances that Sacramento has in place.