![\"Giving](\"https:\/\/missionvalleynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Untitled-1.jpg\")
<\/a>Rodriguez is the main character in the locally made \u201cTony \u2014 The Movie,\u201d a documentary about San Diego\u2019s homeless, a true-to-life, day-to-day detailed account of what it is like living on the streets.<\/p>\n
Sullivan admired the way Rodriguez had decorated his tent with leaves that had blown about in the Santa Ana winds.<\/p>\n
\u201cMight as well do something nice with them,\u201d Rodriguez said, good-naturedly. He could have moved inside the Grassroots Oasis building, but he preferred to be outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook what he\u2019s done over here,\u201d Sullivan said, pointing to some exotic succulents, one of them nearly 10 feet tall. \u201cHe has planted a few vegetables, too \u2014 and, look \u2014 just this morning, I discovered some tomatoes growing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rodriguez smiled shyly. \u201cI just love to garden,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In the same way that Rodriguez brings fresh life to plants that might otherwise die on the vine, Sullivan helps bring about a sense of hope and purpose to people who are ignored and beaten down in society.<\/p>\n
Inside Grassroots Oasis, the cool and dark is a refuge from the wind and worries outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what I call this place, a sanctuary,\u201d Sullivan said.<\/p>\n
When she first opened Grassroots Oasis, Sullivan had wanted to provide an affordable space to do political organizing and offer cultural events. The space has indeed accomplished that to the point of great community enrichment.<\/p>\n
Sullivan is a self-confessed activist for people she calls \u201cthe unsheltered\u201d \u2014 they are the ones who do not have shelter of any kind, as opposed to some who have a place to sleep at night, even if on a friend\u2019s couch, she explained. Through several years of working closely with people who have no voice, no way of speaking up for themselves in the political machinery, Sullivan has become their advocate.<\/p>\n Her newfound role as advocate for the unsheltered came about gradually. Sullivan had worked for years for the Public Utilities Commission.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw huge political corruption, and I got really tired of it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In the fall of 2011, Sullivan became involved with Occupy San Diego. She went Downtown nearly every day, helping with logistics, such as transportation, setting up a medical tent and making sure there was food for everyone.<\/p>\n \u201cLori Saldana and I worked a lot together, putting in some pop-up cooling stations with shade and water for all the people,\u201d Sullivan said.<\/p>\n During that time, Sullivan became painfully aware of not just how many people were living in the streets, but how they were treated as non-entities.<\/p>\n \u201cAt first, I think the security aspect drew a lot of people [to Occupy San Diego], and then it was the fact that they could have a voice. That\u2019s what my grassroots organizing is about, helping people use their voice,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Sullivan said she came to know a number of unsheltered people, and Occupy San Diego provided them with a community.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is one of the most difficult things about being unsheltered \u2014 that you\u2019re not part of a community and being apart from safety and security. [It\u2019s important to have] that sense that you belong somewhere and you know you\u2019re part of a bigger purpose,\u201d Sullivan said.<\/p>\n John Brady, one of the people temporarily staying at Grassroots Oasis, knows how important a sense of belonging is. He is a member of the Voices of Our City Choir, a singing group for unsheltered people that Sullivan helped bring about along with professional musicians Steph Johnson and Nina Deering.<\/p>\n But nearly a year ago during heavy rains, Sullivan wanted to provide some of the choir members with shelter at Grassroots Oasis. It was just one year after she had opened its doors. Sullivan admitted that taking in the unsheltered was a daunting task because she did not have the experience, particularly on matters such as how to coordinate with social workers.<\/p>\n When the police ticketed choir members for camping outside of the Living Water Church where the choir rehearses, Sullivan opened the doors of Grassroots Oasis to some of the choir members. Deciding who and how many people could stay within her building was a carefully thought-out process.<\/p>\n \u201cOne big lesson I\u2019ve earned is unsheltered people are a microcosm of our society. They are no worse and no better than us sheltered people. They have the same issues we do, in terms of how to live with one another.<\/p>\n \u201cAnybody who\u2019s ever had a roommate knows it\u2019s not easy to throw people together, even if you love each other. It\u2019s just not easy to put people together in close quarters,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know they are no worse and no better than you or me. We find the same exact range of activities and issues in whatever situation. It\u2019s just that unsheltered people can\u2019t go behind walls and shut the door. They\u2019re out in the open, so when you are talking about these issues, be it addiction or hoarding, the fight for them has to be a just fight,\u201d Sullivan said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s so much judgment by people out there in the political world. For example, the county board of supervisors\u2019 biggest point of pride is that they built up this $2 billion reserve they got from federal and state government. We need to take care of our people, give them permanent housing, food and provide medical attention.<\/p>\n \u201cIn truth, they [the county\u2019s board of supervisors] are the hoarders. They\u2019re hoarding money,\u201d Sullivan said.<\/p>\n Sullivan was instrumental in organizing the Light Brigade on Jan. 11, the evening of Mayor Kevin Faulconer\u2019s State of the City Address. About 20 people held lighted letters of \u201cHOUSING NOT HANDCUFFS\u201d in the hour before the mayor\u2019s speech at the Balboa Theater.<\/p>\n The work of Sullivan, Deering and Johnson have garnered the attention of a wide variety of people, including Susan Polis Shultz, of Blue Mountain Arts fame. Polis has created a film, \u201cThe Homeless Chorus Speaks,\u201d which was shown on Feb. 21 at San Diego Central Public Library. The Voice of the City Choir also performed two songs.<\/p>\n \u201cHomelessness is a devastating epidemic in America, and I hope my film will shed light on the inhumane way that people are treated, in addition to showing how human they are,\u201d Shultz wrote in an email.<\/p>\n In Shultz\u2019s interviews of 14 homeless members of the Voice of the City Choir, the people tell their stories, from those who have been abused and used to those battling addiction, to people who just can\u2019t afford housing and to those who need medical care.<\/p>\n In the meantime, Sullivan is still holding different events for musicians, poets and other performers at her Grassroots Oasis.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got a good vibe here. We\u2019re giving voice to the people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n For more information about Voices of the City Choir, go to voicesofourcity.com<\/a>. For more information about events at Grassroots Oasis, go to grassrootsoasis.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014 Cynthia Robertson is a local freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Por Cynthia Robertson<\/p>","protected":false},"author":749,"featured_media":224689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11557","_seopress_titles_title":"Giving a voice to San Diego\u2019s unsheltered people","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11557,11551,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-mission-valley-news","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/749"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>