Director’s Note, by Mark Dyken Homelessness has become one of the defining issues of our time. We can all see what the data confirm – more and more people are living without shelter. California, with at least 161,000 unsheltered people leads the nation in people experiencing homelessness. The tent cities and clusters of cars are visible all along our highways, city streets, vacant lots, campgrounds, and other accessible places. Even our sleepy rural towns are seeing the rise in tents on the streets. According to a recent Sacramento Bee article, about a quarter of […]
Meet a Villager: Chris S.
There are many ways people come to live without a home of their own. Some literally grow into it and have few options to find an off-ramp on the road to homelessness. Chris Smith moved to Tuolumne County with his family when he was three years old. His childhood home was never safe. Drugs, alcohol, violence, and abuse were a part of daily life for him and his three siblings. “I was the youngest and it seemed like it came down on me the hardest.” Chris says “At 11 years […]
Meet a Villager: Steven S.
“My name is Steven Smith, and I’ve had four strokes.” This is how one long-time Resiliency Village resident often introduces himself. Steven’s story is one of great loss, resilience, and ultimately redemption. For five years before he came into shelter with the RoomKey program, and then moved to Resiliency Village, Steven lived in a series of vehicles while dealing with intense health concerns, and complicated legal struggles. “You can’t understand it” he explains “Unless you’ve lived it.” “I went through many vehicles,” Steven says “I’d do everything the cops would […]
Another Day in Paradise
“She calls out to the man on the street He can see she’s been crying She’s got blisters on the soles of her feet She can’t walk, but she’s trying…” — Phil Collins, Another Day in Paradise (1989) The concept for Resiliency Village started in a small room at the Jamestown Family Resource Center. Charts covered the walls, and on them, we scribbled our first conceptual drawings. Mark Dyken, Brenda Chapman, and I spent hours discussing how the “village” might look, how we might serve our unsheltered friends and neighbors, […]