Dedicated Activist Keeps Alive the Dream of Justice
by Janny Castillo
Bob Mills has been a dedicated homeless activist in the East Bay for many years. Janny Castillo photo
"Our elderly, our handicapped, our mentally ill are literally dying on the streets, and our system has become so callous that it cannot care for them and has absolutely no respect for the human person."
In 1971, when Bob Mills saw 80-year-old Felix being dragged out of his home by a San Francisco sheriff, he became determined to make it his life's work to speak for and fight for homeless rights.
He helped organize the demonstration for the International Hotel struggle in San Francisco where the residents, mostly elderly, retired Filipinos, were being evicted to turn their building into a parking lot. Thirty thousand people were present and still the San Francisco Police Department took a sledge hammer to the door of the building and hauled off the residents one by one.
By 1980, Bob Mills was in college and working as a tutor of philosophy and political science. His work with the homeless had deepened to a new level. He decided to sleep on the streets to better understand homelessness.
"I committed myself to being voluntarily homeless because of my dissatisfaction with the entire system and my belief that if I was going to be in solidarity with the people I was trying to help, I had to be with them," Mills said.
Over the years, he has slept on the streets in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland. "At that time there were no shelters like we have today," Mills recalled. "Occasionally you could find a mission or someone who could put you up in their house for a while; if not, you had to sleep on the streets."
His experience has given him a clear understanding of what needs to be done to eradicate homelessness. "Sleeping on the streets turned a theoretical understanding into a direct experience," Mills said. "We need a real serious economic overhaul. Our system is too much based on profit and the profit margin and not on human life. If you are an individual who cannot contribute to a company's profit, you are valueless. The day of the laborer is gone. Most labor can now be outsourced."
Due to a series of mishaps and his inability to obtain his birth certificate, Bob is now living on the streets and couch surfing whenever he can. "I am totally dependant on the generosity of others for my daily survival. I am unable to get identification, unable to open a bank account, unable to cash checks, because it requires identification. I am unable to get any kind of assistance like GA, SSI, and public housing."
Mills describes himself as a libertarian anarchist. His passion to advocate for his people has only deepened. "I am working to organize the homeless union. I am developing a radio show through Berkeley Liberation Radio called 'Voices from the Streets' and I am continuing to work towards creating an organization that will provide technology to the extremely poor."
Mills shared two stories about the plight of homeless persons he knows well. "I am working with a 73-year-old homeless man who has been on the streets a long time. In the warm months he lives in the Sierra Mountains and comes down to sleep in the streets in the wintertime. He has now come to the realization that because of his age, he can no longer risk sleeping outside. Even with his SSI income, he is having a difficult time locating housing he can afford."
Mills said that the man's spirit to live is gone. He sent him to the North Berkeley Senior Center and then to St. Mary's Center, who sent him to the Oakland Housing Authority. He is now experiencing what Mills calls the homeless shuffle, going from one agency to another until he gets right back to where he started with nothing. "He has been told that it could be five years before he gets housing," Mills said. "He is 73 years old; he may not even be alive in five years."
Another person Mills met on the streets shows the catastrophic effects of accidents and injuries on a person's life. Henry, age 64, has been on the streets for two years. He is seriously ill; he stayed at a shelter in San Diego and contracted pneumonia and a serious case of bronchitis. For most of his life, Henry worked as a carpenter until a roof injury left him unable to work. Right now, he is stuck in a homeless shelter with few opportunities for permanent housing.
These stories are repeated everywhere. According to Mills, people are thinking, "I might as well continue living on the streets. I may as well die on the streets."
Mills described the system that we have today. "When a computer becomes too full it shuts down. In our society, we have tons of laws that are the equivalent to hundreds of thousands of lines of computer programming which had been running on an obsolete operating system. We are trying to keep this obsolete system going and our society has become too complex to handle, so essentially we have to throw it out and create a whole new system."
Mills then gave an urgent call for compassion and justice. He said, "Our elderly, our handicapped, our mentally ill are literally dying on the streets, and our system has become so callous that it cannot care for them and has absolutely no respect for the human person. We have work to do. We really need to mobilize and organize."
To contact Bob Mills, write to homelessunion@yahoo.com
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