SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Thousands of people spent the last few weeks living outside in the severe wind, rain and cold temperatures. Advocates for the unhoused community tell ABC10 that some homeless encampments were flattened and belongings got soaked or blown away.
Two unhoused people died in the storm, after tree limbs fell on their tents.
ABC10 went to talk with people about the needs of those experiencing homelessness, as they recover from storms. We visited Maryhouse, a program for women, children and families through Loaves & Fishes in Sacramento.
Dorothy Richards and her dogs have been living outside for five years.
“The storm really did a lot of damage here,” she said. “If your home is torn apart and there's nothing left and you have to rebuild… we have to start all over again.”
Shannon Dominguez-Stevens is the program director at Maryhouse, which she describes as “a safe space for anyone identifying as a woman, for families. Whatever family looks like, if there are children involved, we're here to serve.”
She and the staff at Maryhouse have seen firsthand the impacts of the storms on the people they serve.
“Extreme weather is really rough for unhoused folks, because there's so much that is uncertain,” said Dominguez-Stevens. “They're struggling for survival when the weather is as nice as it is right now…And so you add those additional things and there's more stress, there's more trauma, there's more fear. Fear of loss-of-life, even, and illness and injury. And we get to see that here as our guests come in to sort of, like, scrambling for what's next.”
Mary Osborne runs the dispensary at Maryhouse. (Note: It has nothing to do with cannabis; this dispensary supplies people with clothing, personal hygiene products and other essential items.)
“We've been having a big storm here lately. We're in big demand of coats, jackets, underwear — everything that will supply them for their needs during this winter storm,” said Osborne. “Get them a shirt, something warm so they won't be cold.”
Richards is grateful for the services at Maryhouse.
“If it wasn’t for these ladies here and the churches and that, we wouldn't get any help,” she said. “The women are used out here. They’re attacked. And there's nothing done about it because we don't matter. If we had a job, we’d matter. If we had a roof, we'd matter. But we don't. And that's not right. And it makes me angry.”
Maryhouse is not an overnight shelter, though they can refer people to other places.
However, Dominguez-Stevens said, “there's not a lot of shelter in this community, so really, Maryhouse is also a space where our staff — that is so tuned in to our guests and have built so much rapport with our guests — do have to deliver that really hard-to-hear news, which is, ‘Tonight, you will probably be sleeping outside’ or ‘Tonight, you will, in fact, be sleeping outside.’”
She said news that shelter is not available can hit someone hard.
“Just creating that sort of safe space for people to unpack the heaviness of living in a community that does not provide enough shelter for them,” said Dominguez-Stevens.
This isn’t a situation that’s unique to a certain group, Richards pointed out.
“You could be out here, just like I am, because you’re two paychecks [away from] being out here,” she said. “If people would just wake up and start caring instead of pushing us aside.”
Dominguez-Stevens said she calls the buzz of Maryhouse “a sacred chaos. Like, those walls have heard so many stories and seen so many things. It's really an incredible place that the community allows us to keep doing because they keep supporting us.”
2023 marks Loaves and Fishes' 40th year serving Sacramento's unhoused community. On its website, there's a list of different needs they're updating regularly, from items for pets and children to hygiene and camping supplies. See more HERE.
Loaves & Fishes is on a 5-acre campus and overs more than a dozen different programs that serve people – and their animals – who are experiencing homelessness. It was established in 1983 and the Maryhouse program started in 1986, Dominguez-Stevens said.
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