Newsletters
Early May, 2025
Recently, two volunteers went on a scouting mission to find the “hard to find” unhoused residents of Contra Costa County, and give out bags of free groceries. These are folks who are living in vehicles and parking wherever they can to avoid authorities. They move when they must. Most of these people took up the nomadic life when they could no longer afford to pay rent.
Our intrepid volunteers found a few run down RV’s parked in an “out of the way” place, between a freeway and an open field. Although no people were in sight, when we knocked on doors, most were occupied, and the residents were very glad to receive the full grocery bags of free food that we brought.
At one trailer, the door was dead bolted from the outside, so we wondered if anyone could possibly be inside. Then a hand appeared through a hole in the door, to unbolt the door so they could accept a bag of groceries.
Some of these folks have cooking facilities in their vehicles, some do not. But they were all polite, and very grateful for the food.
Late May, 2025
Private Sector volunteers continued the hunt to find the hard-to-reach unhoused people living in Concord. They took with them, boxes and bags of fresh nutritious food. to give away. Here is what happened:
At one site that we visited 2 weeks ago, where there had been 7 or 8 parked vehicles, this time there was only one battered RV remaining. The owner said proudly, “the cops came and moved everybody out, but I came back!” He was grateful for the food we offered.
At other locations, we found folks living in RV’s, cars and tents, on the edge of parking lots, under bridges and along walking trails, hidden from view. A man and dog were sleeping in a car in the hot sun. When we woke him to give him food, he asked first for water, which we were able to give him. Unfortunately, we did not bring dogfood on this trip. The unhoused boy on his bike told us where to find more folks living outside. He took 2 bags on his handlebars, and returned to his makeshift home under a bridge. He told us he lost his job at the start of Covid, and hasn’t worked since. We finished the tour at Riley Court where we dispersed the last of our food.
