Hands to Help Seniors
Monterey, CA Homeless Issues Are Serious For City And County Officials
by Richard Kuehn on 02/03/14
View From A Non-Profit Serving Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez,
Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas,
Seaside And Soledad California
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The Monterey County Library recently hosted a standing room only forum called "Not a Crime :The
Homeless in Monterey" which explored the myriad problems which the large
homeless population in Monterey brings.
A census in January of last year found 2,590 Monterey County homeless
residents, but the census likely undercounts the number of people that face
this problem and have an average monthly income of only $657 per month. One of the attendees, Attorney Michelle
Welch who is chairwoman of the American Civil Liberties Union's Northern
California section, said that the state forces legal issues on people which
impede solutions to their problems.
"There are laws that regulate homelessness by criminalizing
it," she said. In Monterey, for instance, it is illegal to sleep in cars
in public places while in Pacific Grove, it's illegal to sleep in a car
anywhere. Unfortunately, there are no
easy answers and Monterey city and county officials continue to struggle with
the issue. |
Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands To Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.
Monterey, CA Target Cuts Health Care Insurance For Part Time Employees, But some May Now Qualify For Medi-Cal
by Richard Kuehn on 02/01/14
View From A Non-Profit
Serving Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina,
Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California
Some part-time workers who are having their health insurance
benefits cut on April 1 by Target are actually happy about the
change. "It's probably a good
thing," one employee told a reporter.
"If they kept that in place, I probably wouldn't be able to go to
HealthCare.gov," she said. The
63-year old woman had already done research and found out that she'll pay less
out-of-pocket expenses with an Obamacare plan due to the high co-pays which
came with the Target insurance plan. In
addition, Target is giving employees a $500 subsidy to buy insurance. Some workers may make so little money that
they will qualify for free Medi-Cal insurance now. Target announced that it was making the
change because employees were disqualified from getting a policy through the
HealthCare.gov web site if they had an affordable policy available from their
employee.
Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands to Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.
Monterey, CA Seniors Invited To Lunch To Hear Speaker On Aging And Exercise
by Richard Kuehn on 01/31/14
View From A Non-Profit Serving Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez,
Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas,
Seaside And Soledad California
Just a friendly reminder that the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd continues to host its Double Nickels & Up Lunch Club, ever 2nd Wednesday of the month. The next one will be on February 12th at noon and seniors 55 and older are invited to come. There's a suggested donation of $5, but this is not required. The speaker at the upcoming lunch will be Dr. Kent Adams, who is a professor of Kinesiology at California State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB). He's been doing research in the area of how exercise impacts the aging process. "Exercise physiology—don't make the mistake, it is not about playing with a ball. We are physiologists who look at how exercise impacts health and fitness throughout the lifespan," he said. This sounds like a great speaker this time.
Please note that this blog reflects my
personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands To Help
Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.
Carmel, CA Vitamin D Production Is Critical For Healthy Bones
by Richard Kuehn on 01/26/14
Most people don't have enough Vitamin D production, which is critical to having healthy bones. Doctors say the best source of Vitamin D is sunlight, however, getting too much sun can cause skin cancer. It's often difficult to figure out how much is too much, and I was glad to read that a new cellphone app has come out which helps with this. The dminder, made for the iPhone, tells you based on your location what is the best time of day to go out. When you are outside, you key this in to the app and it will tell you exactly how long to stay out in the sun to have the optimal amount of Vitamin D production. The app was based on scientific studies at the University of Boston and Robyn Lucas, a vitamin D researcher and professor at the Australian National University says he believes the apps methodology is reasonably legitimate, so for $1.99 it might be worth a try.
Monterey, CA Homeless Veterans Being Aided By The Federal Government In Partnership With Cities
by Richard Kuehn on 01/17/14
View From A Non-Profit Serving Carmel,
Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific
Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California
Homelessness
in Monterey County has become a big problem and county officials have been
struggling with how to resolve this issue amidst a tight budget. Homeless veterans have become a very
difficult issue to deal with. They've
served their country but have come back to a recession ravaged United States
where it is very difficult to find a job.
I want to congratulate Phoenix, Arizona which the White House announced
this week is the first county in the
nation to end homelessness among veterans with long or recurrent histories of
living on the streets. There were 222 of
these people (dubbed chronically homeless veterans by the government) in Phoenix
in 2011, most of them men with some type of physical or mental ailment. The city has worked hard to partner with
great nonprofits like the Arizona Coalition to End Homelessness, and I hope
Monterey can look at this program as a great model for solving a very tough
problem. The city can take advantage of
the federal government's plan to end homelessness among veterans by 2015 and
all people by 2020. The program is
ambitious and behind schedule but even if they reach half of that number it
would be a huge transformational program.
Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands To Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.
