I live in midtown. I love it here even though it is a little run down because I can walk to everything I need. In the evenings my son and I will sit on the porch and watch the neighborhood kitties face off while people walk home from the light rail exit about two blocks from our house. I also met a woman tonight.
Her name is Georgina. She was in the military until very recently. She has never lived in California, much less Sacramento. She was sent here after having a medical discharge so that she could see a doctor her at Mather Airforce Base. She has been in the military for well over a decade but her "brain bruise" has made her unfit for duty.
I met Georgina when she asked for directions to somewhere that you cannot get to from here. Not easily. Not without a car. After breaking the news she sat on the porch, tired, dejected, frustrated and dispirited. She says that she is in culture shock. No one is looking out for her. There are not social services and she has nowhere to turn. She has been to all the midtown shelters, the churches, every place she could think of that would put her and her teenage daughter up for the night.
We talked about how the military takes care of your needs. You get housing, uniforms, food. All you have to do is show up and do your job, everything else is handled. She already misses the military. She talks about base housing and how she has been in a hotel for five weeks. She talks about how the churches will only help people from their own congregation, even after they called the VA to verify her story.
Read More
