Homeless Carry Their Cross

Daniel Newburn prayed to God Thursday night that it wouldn’t rain, but it did. He and his girlfriend and her four young children, all homeless, found refuge under a tarp in the backyard of the Catholic Worker house in Santa Ana.

Friday--Good Friday--was another day, and maybe it would bring promise and opportunity. It began with an offer from Dwight Smith, who runs the Catholic Worker house, where 100 homeless people spent the last two nights. “For carrying the cross, he gave me $10,” Newburn said. “That’s a blessing in itself.”

Newburn was among about 100 people who followed the heavy, weathered wooden cross through downtown Santa Ana on Friday to call attention to Orange County’s estimated 20,000 homeless.

The protesters reenacted Christ’s suffering on his way to crucifixion--stopping 14 times to pray and sing, mostly in front of government agencies they say have failed the county’s homeless, leaving them with one-tenth the number of shelter beds needed and inadequate medical and mental health care.

“It brings to mind all of the hurtful things that are being done to the poor,” said Robert Brophy, 73, a retired university professor who joined the march. “The least powerful suffer in the world because they are the least powerful and don’t have a say.”

Newburn, 36, and Christian Walker, 26, came not for the $10, but in gratitude to Smith and his wife Leia, who took them in three days ago when they had no other place to go.

There’s a story behind how Newburn, Walker and her kids ended up on the street. It is unique to them, but it contains elements that are shared with others--stories with long-forgotten beginnings, complicated middles and no sure end in sight.

“We came here from Arkansas three months ago. I was having family problems,” said Walker, who declined to elaborate.

They came to California with $300. They stayed with relatives for a month. They moved into a series of transient hotels. The money’s gone now, and Newburn said he can’t find a job. For now, the six of them live on the $900 a month Walker gets in welfare.

“Hopefully, God will bless us with a house or something,” Newburn said.

Behind them walked Deena Snow. She carried a blanket, a backpack and a Bible. Her story is complicated too, full of details that, like her age, she is hesitant to divulge. This much she would say: “My house of 40 years was stolen from me.” She worked at a Kmart during the Christmas season, but that was a temporary job and she hasn’t been able to find another.

“I stay in different places. Where I can. Sometimes underneath a cement bench. Sometimes at the Armory [shelter],” she said. “I haven’t given up. In the meantime, I do a lot of praying.”

So does David Michels. He used to work at the National Guard Armory, earning $8 an hour helping the homeless. Now, he’s struggling on the other side. His wife, Candy, is in a nursing home, being treated for a number of ailments, including a chronic intestinal disorder.

Their 3-year-old daughter Sarah was riding Michels’ shoulders. She’s autistic.

“I got my hands full,” Michels, 34, said. “Between taking care of my wife and taking care of my baby, I couldn’t work.

“A lot of people on the streets have health problems and mental illness,” he added. “I didn’t understand how much mental illness was out there until I saw it for myself.

“I just need a place to plant the family so I can get things rolling again.”

Bill Mowery hasn’t seen his family, four kids ages 19 to 16, in a while. How long, he can’t say. They’re living with their half-sister in upstate New York. It is there that Mowery said his wife, addicted to crack cocaine and heroin, died a few years ago.

On Friday, Mowery, who wore sturdy shoes and a torn wool jacket, nursed a cold as he followed the cross through Santa Ana to the steps of the city jail, where each person kissed the raw wood.

“It’s a good cause that highlights a national tragedy,” he said, shaking his head. “You’ve got to believe that God is not pleased.”