For Homeless, Just Another Night

At the Salvation Army’s austere overnight winter shelter on the state fairgrounds, entry into the new century was celebrated in a decidedly understated manner: Lights out was postponed two hours, to midnight.

For some at the 133-bed shelter there was nothing special about this New Year’s. All they wanted was a warm bed on a cold night.

“I don’t think it’s that big a deal. It’s just another day to me,” said Roxanna Jeppson, 34, who used to work in a hotel laundry but has been on the streets off and on for several months.

A year ago, Jeppson spent her New Year’s Eve doing laundry for a hotel in San Francisco. “It was my job . . . and now I’m sleeping in the bushes,” she said.

The shelter in Sacramento--an overflow facility to keep people from suffering through the Central Valley’s bitterly cold nights--is open from Dec. 1 until the end of March. Officially known as the Winter Overflow Shelter Program, it was established in 1988 and is operated by the Salvation Army in partnership with Sacramento County.

This night, about 80 people were accommodated--mostly men, but also several women, some with children.

Tammy Evans, 34, an unemployed mother of four children, was one. A licensed vocational nurse, she used to care for schizophrenics and disabled people, she said. Now, though, she was staying at the shelter with her youngest--a 5-year-old boy. She had been living with a friend since losing her last job, but the friend recently was evicted, and she has been searching for a home since Dec. 7.

“I’m looking forward to a better life for me and my kids. I’m happy I have a place to stay tonight,” she said.

Last New Year’s Eve, Levi Cummins, a 29-year-old unemployed carpenter from Manteca, had just been released from Folsom State Prison. As 1999 wore on, he got divorced, was laid off from a cabinet shop and then made his way to Sacramento.

“I’m working to try and save some money,” he said. “I’m ready for the year 2000. I’ll be 30, and I’m ready to get my life in order. I hope to have a good life.”

Robert Towney, 44, an out-of-work musician who until a few days ago had spent his nights outside in a sleeping bag, saw the dawning of 2000 as an opportunity to take stock of his life.

“I look forward to the new century with happiness and the hope of getting on the right track,” he said. “This is a perfect opportunity to start the new millennium.”

At 6 a.m. today the shelter’s residents will be put on buses, taken to the Salvation Army’s central facility, fed breakfast and turned back out into the street.