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Rick: Feast or Famine at First and A

Rick Severns brought something home to me.

Not food or money, but the facts of San Diego life.

He’s homeless, after living 27 years in San Diego.

I came across Rick as he was dumpster diving near the financial district. Looking for food, anything, but finding mainly bottles and cans. I ask him how much he can make collecting.

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/may/23/24900/

“Oh, $8, maybe $10 a day,” he says. “But you have to stick with it. There’s a lot of us out here.”

He came to San Diego when he was five. I don’t even ask what went wrong. Why should he tell me anyway?

Turns out he’s one of nearly 10,000 people in the county who don’t have a home, one in six of them military vets. One in four are like I suspect Rick is: chronically homeless.

Easy to ask from the sidelines, but can’t we do better than this?

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A poem for March by Joseph O’Brien

“March’s Lovely Asymptotes”

Rick Severns brought something home to me.

Not food or money, but the facts of San Diego life.

He’s homeless, after living 27 years in San Diego.

I came across Rick as he was dumpster diving near the financial district. Looking for food, anything, but finding mainly bottles and cans. I ask him how much he can make collecting.

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/may/23/24900/

“Oh, $8, maybe $10 a day,” he says. “But you have to stick with it. There’s a lot of us out here.”

He came to San Diego when he was five. I don’t even ask what went wrong. Why should he tell me anyway?

Turns out he’s one of nearly 10,000 people in the county who don’t have a home, one in six of them military vets. One in four are like I suspect Rick is: chronically homeless.

Easy to ask from the sidelines, but can’t we do better than this?

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4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
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