June 21, 2011 - Following an unusually freezing night, William "Billy" Kelly was found dead under the Highway 49 freeway "bridge" on February 27, 2011 in Nevada City. He was a 51-year old lifelong resident of Nevada City with a long family lineage in the area, homeless at the time of his death, and was a known alcohol abuser.
Almost immediately rumors began to fly that the Nevada City Police took his blanket and sleeping bag away, which caused his death from the cold. People had to blame someone for the tragedy; they couldn't blame themselves for not helping Billy. That would be too much like admitting guilt for not helping the homeless. So, someone else had to be blamed. Why not the police?
When confronted with the accusations of confiscating Billy's warmth, the police denied it vehemently. Even if the police had actually taken his items, which they didn't, they wouldn't be that mentally incapacitated to admit it. After all, they wouldn't want to be known as being heartless, cruel and evil to do such a malicious thing to a defenseless, homeless man. Besides, it's bad PR. So, the police maintained that he had a blanket and sleeping bag when he was found under the 49 overpass dead, which seems very believable.
But what happened to the blanket and sleeping bag, if the police claimed they were found with Billy‘s body? The Nevada County Grand Jury probably got conjured up to solve the mystery. The Nevada City Police Department had to have Billy's blanket and sleeping bag. Who else would have them? But the Grand Jury found nothing of Billy's at the police department.
Their investigation "revealed a failure to handle property and evidence correctly" at the Nevada City Police Department. So, the Grand Jury had struck gold after all. It was probably such a mess in the evidence room that it would have been next to impossible to find anything at all, let alone any of Billy‘s possessions.
In any event, Billy's tragic plight put a human face and spotlight on the social problem of homelessness. There appears to be more homeless individuals nowadays than since the Great Depression and more public awareness of homelessness.
No one really knows how many homeless people there are in western Nevada County with any certainty, because transients are hard to count since they lack housing, therefore no permanent address.
Also, to complicate matters the figures vary according to who is doing the counting. For example, the government's national homeless figures are considerably less than those of private organizations, who are fighting the problem everyday in the trenches, and who see downtrodden humanity all too clearly everyday. And another thing is the numbers vary since there's actually no generally accepted definition of what constitutes homelessness. Nevertheless, the homeless population ranges anywhere from 700,000 to over 3 million in the U.S. per year.
America has a strong work ethic, which made it the superpower it is today. Working is rewarded. However, Americans are relegated to poverty if they're not productive members of society. There's a causal relationship between poverty and homelessness. In fact, the major causes of homelessness are poverty, joblessness and mental/physical health problems. Those who are at the greatest risk of becoming homeless have no support mechanism in place, no safety net to fall back on.
Certain circumstances can lead to homelessness. (Keep in mind that these combinations are the cards that are commonly dealt to roughly 10 million people in the world annually.)
*Joblessness leads to no income which leads to homelessness.
*Mental health problems lead to no income which leads to homelessness.
*Physical health problems lead to joblessness which leads to no income which leads to homelessness.
*No income leads to homelessness which leads to mental/physical health problems.
How should the problem of homelessness be fixed? More affordable housing is one solution already used. But poverty is the prerequisite for low-income housing. People need to climb out of poverty. What's needed is good-paying jobs with security, benefits and advancement opportunities. By raising income levels, this economic climate would greatly improve and improve the quality of life for the working poor. But more importantly, raising income levels would reduce the numbers of homelessness immensely. After all, having a steady, substantial income would prevent homelessness for many Americans.
But many would still fall through the cracks like Billy did. The homeless need help and organizations designed to help the homeless are to be commended and praised. America desperately needs help for the homeless.
Billy would've agreed.
By submitting a comment you consent to our rules. Please use your real first and last name, not a nickname or alias. Thank you.
