Ritter’s Days in San Rafael May Be Numbered

After attending the San Rafael City Council meeting this past Monday night on 3/17 it became pretty clear that despite a 34 year history of helping literally thousands of precariously housed and homeless people every year the City is preparing to put the Ritter House on the first SMART train out of town when their lease runs out. And before then they are going to start making operations as difficult as possible on Ritter. The reason for this is a small group of very visible chronically homeless people the City Council consider a nuisance and want out. In order to rid the community of the nuisance they are willing to throw the thousands of other low income, precariously housed and homeless people who are being helped under the wheels of their political bandwagon.  

The Marin Independent Journal has not been doing Ritter any favors either. If you weren’t at the meeting you wouldn’t have any idea of the overwhelming support for Ritter. To every one person that spoke against Ritter ten spoke for it. In a follow up article the IJ simply reported that the City Council wants the County of Marin to take responsibility for Ritter, which leads me to believe the IJ is willing to help pack Ritter’s bags for that first SMART train so they don’t miss it. I suggest the City Council and the IJ do a little investigating to see how many people they personally know who are either currently being assisted by Ritter or have been in the past. Hopefully they’ll think differently after they take a long look around.

I’ve got a problem with all this and I know there is a small subset of people in Marin who are going to take issue with supporting Ritter. My problem is that when I see someone struggling with a door I hold it for them. If there’s someone in my office that needs help I try to give it to them. If I can do something to assist someone out, I generally do it because I believe in doing good things for people who need help. My perception of the American way is that we help people when they are down, we don’t run the institutions trying to help them out of town.

Right now I see people from my own past in the streets. I see them struggling with precarious housing. I see them using the Ritter services to just get by and help them avoid further decline, or to propel their lives forward. I don’t think I need to apologize here for defending the weak, the poor, the hungry and the homeless in our mostly affluent society.

Most of us are truly blessed to live in Marin and have a lot to be grateful for every day. How can the citizens of Marin who are so fortunate in good conscious turn their backs on an institution like Ritter whose mission is, “To be a strategic leader partnering with the community to foster self-sufficiency for low-income families and to end homelessness in Marin County.”

Please support Ritter House before it’s too late. Share this blog if you are like me and believe in helping Ritter and the people who rely on their services.