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In Reply to: Re: Something to understand posted by susie on March 10, 2005 at 17:51:01:
Shulamite didn't tell us much about what's going on beyond the fact that Mene needs a place to live and money to pay for educational expenses. If Mene is homeless, a name change isn't going to make any difference.
In order to do anything for Mene, we need information from someone who can properly assess her needs right now. Her natural support system--her mother--doesn't appear to be up to the task of communicating much practical information.
It may well be that Mene has burned a lot of her bridges to the people who could help her. It's very possible Mene may not want any help. Unless she is a danger to herself or others, there is absolutely no way to force her to accept help.
The way I understand it, there is a fairly large homeless population of mentally ill folks on the street in southern California. They get by partly because the weather is temperate. When they get help, it's usually because they land in jail on a charge like loitering, begging (solicitation), disturbing the peace, etc.
Mene may not be living on the street, though. She may be bouncing in and out of the shelter system, which means she stays at places like the YWCA and various missions. She may also be involved in the drug culture, in which case, she's staying a crack houses and/or turning tricks and/or living with someone in exchange for sex and/or sleeping in a car.
The fact that she's got educational expenses is hopeful information. She may not be as unstable as "needs a place to live" suggests at first glance. She may be living in a crappy low-income apartment in a high crime neighborhood, and she needs a BETTER place to live.
It is very possible that Mene will show up at Ricky's memorial service. If she does, that will the time and place for responsible people to get information directly from Mene about how she's getting along and how to stay in contact with her. This may be an action item for the folks with Safe Passage Foundation or one of the LaMatterlys.
