The Alameda Point Collaborative, a non-profit in Alameda California, has converted former Navy housing into 200 affordable units for homeless families.
Doug Biggs is the executive director of A.P.C. “We’re an entire community out here. It’s not just like other housing programs. Other homeless programs are a facility, but we’re a real neighborhood,” said Biggs.
A.P.C. serves about 500 homeless people, more than half of which are children. The adults – often single mothers – work in job training programs for at least six months. After they graduate, A.P.C. helps them find new jobs outside the community.
Biggs says it’s true that many residents of Alameda Point live in poverty. “Poverty kind of denotes a long number of social conditions – not just a lack of income, but lack of services, lack of community, lack of safety, lack of amenities, lack of joy in many cases. I don’t think that’s really the case out here.” He also says they’re lucky because they’re in a place where they can live well on very little cash.
Monterey, Alameda counties have highest youth homicide rates
Monterey County had the highest youth homicide rate in California in 2010, followed by Alameda County, according to an analysis conducted by the Violence Policy Center, a nonprofit group focused on curbing firearms violence.
The homicide rate for 10- to 24-year-olds in Monterey County, which includes Salinas, was 24.36 per 100,000, nearly triple the statewide rate. Alameda County, which includes Oakland, had a rate of 18.41 per 100,000. El Dorado, Humboldt, Napa, Placer and Sonoma counties had no youth killings in 2010.
The study [PDF] analyzed 35 California counties with at least 25,000 people between the ages of 10 and 24. Statewide, the vast majority of the slayings involved firearms.
Salinas has long struggled with violence.
“Our neighborhoods – especially on the east side – have experienced so much death and violence over the last 20 to 30 years that a lot of these people have started to display symptoms of PTSD,” said Brian Contreras, who co-founded the Second Chance youth program, which works to prevent gang violence in Monterey County. “Our kids don’t want to go out at night.”
The high youth homicide rate in Monterey County may be due in part to an entrenched gang culture and a lack of activities, he said. “There’s really nothing to do, not stuff for young people.”
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