Political persuasion inside out

By Tom Durkin, Columnist

On an intellectual level, I think and live “outside the box.”

So, it’s ironic that I reside in a box. A trailer is essentially just an aluminum box.

Nevertheless, thanks to an Upstate California Creative Corps grant from the Nevada County Arts Council, my mission as creative director of the Sierra Roots/No Place to Go Project has been to unbox conventional thinking around homelessness and housing.

It’s been an inside out job.

Working as a stakeholder “inside the rooms” of Nevada County supervisors, department heads  and high-level staff, we’ve advocated housing for the people by the people because it is within the shelter of each other that we live.

For the last 12 months, I’ve tried to persuade the authorities that it should be legal for people with property to rent alternative housing (trailers, RVs, tiny homes, yurts, shipping containers) to people who cannot find or afford legal housing.

In January, we achieved our mission-critical objective. On Jan. 18, the Board of Supervisors unanimously directed staff to explore and implement, where possible, the alternative housing ideas we proposed.

In ongoing meetings, I’ve been able to confirm that staff are indeed looking into minimum health & safety standards for alternative housing.

Furthermore, we are discussing safe camps for chronically homeless people. The heartless and misguided decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court and Gov. Gavin Newsom to sweep homeless encampments when there is no place to go has ironically made the argument for safe camps more compelling.

Outside looking in

All this inside work has been a low-profile effort. From the outside, it hasn’t looked like we’ve been doing much. And we may not see the results of our inside effort until the supervisors receive the recommendations of staff later this year.

However, we’re taking it high-profile this Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Miners Foundry with the “Songs from the Heart – Harmony to End Homelessness” dance concert. This free “outside” effort is designed to entertain and inform.

As epitomized by such legendary singer-songwriters as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Utah Phillips, we are continuing the multi-generational tradition of using music to influence public policy and perception.

Led by project musicians Juliet Gobert and Bob Woods and their bands the Heifer Belles and the Bob Woods Trio, the “Songs from the Heart”  concert features new songs about homelessness commissioned by the Sierra Roots/No Place to Go Project.

In between the sets of the Belles  and the Trio (which is actually six all-star musicians), we will be presenting information about homelessness and alternative housing – and more songs written by singer-songwriters from a Sierra Roots/No Place to Go Project workshop and contest.

The free concert starts promptly at 7 p.m. this Sunday at the Miners Foundry.

For more information, see my article today in The Union’s Prospector entertainment magazine.

A Homeless casualty

While the Sierra Roots/No Place to Go Project has experienced inevitable technical complications, it’s the real-life reality of homelessness that brings us to tears.

My oldest and closest homeless friend Vadi Zaitsev died unexpectedly early in July. I blame climate change and the heat.

Vadi had been asked to housesit the remote home of a woman who had died. He was told not to use the air conditioner. He had a heart condition that he had not been taking care of. He had been complaining about how hot it was.

The home was out of cell phone range and only accessible over bad backroads that deterred many people, including me, from visiting him.

Vadi was an exasperating individual. He wouldn’t work. “I’m a gypsy,” he said. A true free spirit, he chose to be homeless.

Classically trained in Russia, he was a brilliant musician. When I first met him in 2010 as a volunteer for the then-nomadic homeless shelter Hospitality House, he was effortlessly playing classical music on the piano at the Sierra Presbyterian Church in Nevada City.

I asked him what composer he was playing. He just laughed and said, “I made it up.”

He was equally at home on the guitar, and we played together on and off over the last 14 years. We entertained folks at the cold weather shelter and at Sierra Roots’ weekly lunches.

A sheriff’s welfare check found him deceased July 25. He’d been dead for more than two weeks. We’re all wracked with guilt that we didn’t check on him sooner. Vadi was only 62 years old.

Hair-razing Experience

I got tired of eating my hair. Unfortunately, I had a failure to communicate with my hairstylist. My hair hasn’t been this short since college.

People are telling me they like the way I look. Problem is: I don’t.  I’m not here to look pretty. I’m here to be a change agent. I’m growing my hair back. My freak flag will fly again.

Tom Durkin is creative director of the Sierra Roots/No Place to Go Project, which is funded by a grant from the Upstate California Creative Corps and administered by the Nevada County Arts Council. He may be contacted at tomdurkin@sierra-roots.org or www.project.sierra-roots.org.