Since the existence of tent city gained national attention on the Oprah Winfrey Show, a firestorm of controversy has ensued. A lot has been said in the last few weeks about the ‘homeless problem’ in Sacramento. Government officials have scrambled to free up shelter beds and come up with enough funding flush into alternative housing programs. But, the issue of homelessness does not appear to be going away anytime soon and throwing money at it may not be the answer.

“You can put government money on the table,” say Mark Chaclan, former Loaves and Fishes volunteer, “but there are still going to be people that have to resort to tent city.” Chaclan visited tent city twice last week to join fellow Loaves and Fishes volunteers in the fight to protect the rights of Sacramento’s homeless.

“Loaves and Fishes has taken a stance on the issue,” he says, “and they are ready to go to the trenches.”

In the meantime, as the bulldozers start to roll, hundreds of homeless men and women once again find themselves displaced.

Trevor McClure knows what it is like to be down and out. He was homeless for three years, beginning in 2003 and he wants to dispel the myth that the solution to homelessness is simply ‘getting a job’ as some more callous critics may believe.

“It’s damn near impossible to get a job when you’re homeless,” he says. “you have to be clean and presentable. You have to be able to shower every day. By the time to you get off work, you’ve lost your bed [in the shelter].”

McClure often found himself sleeping at the river. “The Union Gospel Mission doesn’t accept women,” he says, “and I’ll be dammed if I’m gonna sleep in a shelter and my wife’s gonna sleep on the streets.”

John Sherba was also homeless for a four year period starting in 2002. While he was able to make due with the limited resources at hand, he acknowledges that leading a transient existence is neither easy nor preferable.

“I slept on the streets, on the sidewalks, in front of the union Gospel Mission, and at the river,” he says. Sherba slept on the river for three out of the fours years that he was living outdoors and was able to keep the peace with park rangers and other residents.

“We made friends with them because we kept our camp clean. They liked the way we did what we did” he says, “but the bottom line is that camping in Sacramento is still illegal.”

Law breakers will be punished. “We had to keep moving constantly,” says Sherba, “They [Sacramento sheriffs] took everything I owned and threw it in a dump truck. They took the tent and everything in it.”

“When you’re homeless,” adds McClure, “every penny you have goes to surviving. You have to be able to eat and you have to make sure that you will be able to replace your tent and stuff when it gets taken away.”

The instability of the lifestyle and the illegality of camping within the Sacramento city limits are why some homeless advocates believe that places like tent city are necessary.

“They need a place for people to camp that’s legal,” says Sherba, “They can provide as many beds as they want to, but there are people that just can’t live that way for whatever reason.”

Sherba, who was also a volunteer at Loaves and Fishes while he was homeless understands that not everybody can make it indoors.

“There are people that are mentally ill,” he says, “I call them ‘happy campers’. I’ve seen them talk to telephone polls, but in the end, they don’t cause no harm to anybody.”