Safe Park Dream Center, a place for the homeless and disfranchised to rest and call their own. That's where I now find myself. a back yard of a church offering help with no strings attached. Nestled as a pilot program finely settled among trees, a wall, a park, and an army of mosquitoes

and ants. Not much to appeal to the eye, but just what the doctor ordered, for someone without storage, a safe place to be , a place to do basic human needs. The wooden structures, sturdy, solid, and dust still settling.  I guess that's how I was feeling. A year ago I had lost my job at Sears, joined an activism group and co founded Safe Park. We had offered a safe legal place to sleep by starting a protest in the heart of the Tucson Downtown Business and Government District, in a park with a rich history of occupation. In the middle of the park you see General Poncho Villa turning his back to Superior court, making sure he faced the Mexican Consulate and had his horse mooning the government that we know sought to speak out to over its lack of representation of the poorest of the poor, offering handcuffs rather than a place to exist. We had fought against eviction, we had fought against business who spoke to criminalize us, we had filmed police, taking water, blankets, and more from the homeless in our camp to let them know if they choose to stay it would be an unforgettable experience. We had lived on a hard brick sidewalk, faced the heat the cold, the rain, even a dying hurricane named norbett. We had been ppubliclyridiculed by the status quo, those who wouldn't know propaganda if it admitted to be so. Still the government was silenced by the community supported us and key leaders reached out from different groups.

So here I stand, in our new home, a place we can take ownership of, a place we can create to be our own world, an opportunity to set things right. No longer on borrowed time, but a place to grow sustainable independence. Before we stuff we had acquired but had stored in many places across town. A heavy coat, from when it was 29 degrees, raining and no place to sleep. A banner from time of the gem show, when they wanted us to hide. A flyer from a feeding, a flyer from our Homeless Forum. Meanwhile, with windows not yet installed mosquitoes , enjoy my legs and arms. Ants march, growing their own camp within ours. Keys in my pocket, no bag wearing me down, or police to confront, a porta-pottie waiting to be used. A shower. Water, that is an eye opener, a place for the homeless to wash up, clean up, and be aided with in the dry hot  desert .A place to regain the human that had been lost years before, a place where we could start ways to help people up, so they can do the same for the next, a place to learn job skills, how to start a business.

So like the hut I now reside, settled, but unfinished, we need to get a staff, we need to get those we have fought for to own the project as their own. We have a name, we have a right to exist, we dream. Join us!