HOMELESS
Homeless schoolkids to learn in safe school When
construction of a school for homeless children in Tempe is completed next year, architect Jeffrey G. Landtiser knows the students spending time inside the walls he designed will be safe. There was one thing on Landtiser's mind when he began sketching the new Thomas J. Pappas campus for transient youths: security. Under his state-of-the-art design, no one trying to harm the children can get inside, and teachers will be able to monitor every inch of the campus through special windows. "The safest eight hours of their day is when they're in school," said Landtiser, project manager for ART Architects Inc. "This school is designed as a secure campus to protect the children from the outside world, a world in which they live in the streets." The campus, 1934 E. Apache Blvd., will serve 250 kindergartners through sixth-graders. The existing Tempe campus fits 80 children, administrators said. Design work will be finished in October, and the school is expected to open next summer. It will be the first of the Valley's Pappas campuses built from scratch, Landtiser said. Along with the security benefits, school administrators are excited (Continued on page 5)
How’s My Vending? Call (954)
925-6466 X101
H
omeless people in San Francisco are dying at a rate of nearly one every other day, according to figures released by the city's medical examiner. The report counted 169 homeless deaths during the fiscal year that ended July 2003, matching the record annual high since the city first started compiling the data in 1987. Though the report provided no causes of death, past studies by the Department of Public Health have attributed more than 60 percent to drug and alcohol abuse. Supervisor Gavin Newsom, who requested the report and has largely built his campaign for mayor on a package of changes in homeless policy, seized on the figures as an indictment of the status quo. "It's time for change," he said Thursday at a Financial District fund-raiser for his antipanhandling measure on the Nov. 4 ballot. "How can we de-
fend what's going on on our streets? How can we defend what's going on in our emergency rooms?" But homeless advocates who consider Newsom's proposals mean-spirited and two competitors in the mayor's race, City Treasurer Susan Leal and Supervisor Tom Ammiano, accused Newsom of exploiting human tragedy for political gain. Leal called Newsom's use of the medical examiner's report shameful grandstanding. "This calls for hands-on leadership and not making this issue and the very tragic deaths of these people a political football," she said. Though the city's methodology has varied, each time the city has attempted more than a cursory count of homeless deaths the annual number has exceeded 100 since 1988 and reached 169 for the first time in calendar year 1999. NO UNIFORM SYSTEM
SONORA, Calif. Northern California student is proving that perfection is possible after taking the tough SAT exam and recording two perfect scores. Trevor Loflin should feel good. The 17-year-old scored a perfect 800 on the verbal section and 800 on the math section of the Scholastic Aptitude Test. The task is even more amazing considering that Loflin's family was homeless. "We went back and forth. Sometimes we were homeless. Sometimes we had an apartment. And then basically we just lived wherever we could find," Loflin said. Loflin not only got the
score without the benefit of a home, he got it without a school, because he is home-schooled. He said that his mom has been a great teacher. "I'm a lot more motivated now and more capable. The challenge of it has strengthened me," Loflin said. The family thanks their Baptist faith for seeing them through the tough times. They just moved in to their first real house in Sonora a few weeks ago. Loflin's next Let us not be satisfied with just giving challenge will be finding a college money. Money is not enough, money can and a way to pay for be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere it. -Wyoming Winds you go.
A
(Continued on page 6)
Homeless Deaths in San Francisco '87 69 '88 116 '89 110 '90 102 '91 118 '92 138 '93 112 '94 117 '95 157 '96 154 '97 110 '98 157 '99 169 '00 138 '01(x) 77 '02(y) No survey conducted '03(z) 169