Santa Cruz Fireman Causes Homelessness

Some of you may remember the story of Shane Maxfield and myself who have been subjected to a tragedy of misappropriated authority since April 25, 2006 when Shane was slammed against a fence by Officer Brierly in order to charge him with "battery on a police officer." This case has never been resolved. When Shane was taken to jail I wrote an article posted here on Indymedia as a feature story. I left a small candle burning in the other room which caused a "very minor fire" burning only a small patch of paint off the wall. The fireman who came after I and neighbors put the fire out inspected our apartment without my permission because I refused to "ever light a candle again" in the apartment, stating it was essential to my spiritual practice. He wrongly assumed there were "live wires" in the apartment and that we had "tapped into the conduit" because a ceiling light cover was missing and he did not bother to do a proper thorough inspection by looking at it from all angles. He took manager Tess Forsythe aside and told her to give me a 30 day notice which we received May 3. Christine McCormack, Santa Cruz Property Manager and owner of the Riverview Apartments Mark Tashima used this trifle to evict after twelve years of responsible tenancy. They also denied Shane's tenancy of five years. I have been a tenants rights activist for ten years. I wrote a letter to the City Fire Chief and they refused to intervene. I had to fight our eviction without a lawyer and we were evicted on August 9 and have been homeless ever since.
I had to dip into my IRA money to buy a used self-contained RV but we have been unable to find a safe place or reasonable RV park to park it so have been harrassed by police, First Alarm and property owners. It appears there is a crackdown on people living in vehicles in Santa Cruz including the entire parking lot behind LULU's where Shane was subjected to a hate crime for sitting with a bunny and sign requesting computer work.
I broke my hip on October 22 and Shane has been stressed to the max with fear, harrassment and not being able to drive and move the RV himself. In addition Long's has failed to obtain his needed HIV cocktail for five days.
I wrote an email to the County FIre Department today requesting compensation and a formal reprimand of the fireman who overstepped his bounds and caused a cataclysm of hardship. Please write your state and county legislators to change eviction laws and prevent the increasing tide of homelessness. Thank YOU