Redding California

Due to record-breaking temperatures that reached in excess of 114 degress, Shasta County officials were ordered by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to open a cooling center for the nearly three thousand Shasta County residents who were determined to be homeless in a 2006 survey. This figure includes nearly one-thousand children, which was an increase of 45 percent over the previous year, making the most vulnerable and defenseless members of our community the fastest growing segment of that group. Unfortunately, local officials chose to locate this cooling center in a small town 10 miles from Redding, which is the major population center of the county. In addition, the primary agencies serving the homeless in Shasta County refused to either provide homeless families with bus fare to reach this center, or to even publicize the fact that this refuge from the intense heat was available to a clientele which typically doesn't have access to a televison or newspaper. The "cooling center" itself provided no bottled water or other services. However, bottled water was being sold by fairgrounds personnel for a dollar a bottle! More than thirty individuals were taken to hospitals in Redding due to heat-related emergencies. Thank you, Governor Schwarzenegger, for your gestures of compassion, which regretably was wasted in an area where local administrators are anything but compassionate toward the poor in general and the homeless in particular


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