Accident leaves homeless man in critical condition

By Megan O'Connor

A homeless man remains in critical condition after being hit by a car across the street from campus on May 10.

Police identified the victim as 46-year-old homeless man Robert Willman, who was hit at 4:52 p.m. outside of Stuft Pizza at the three-street intersection of Bellomy Street, Park Avenue and The Alameda.

Multiple witnesses said Willman appeared to have been arguing with another man just before he was hit.

According to witnesses Gabe Pattee and Josh Early, a freelance photographer with The Santa Clara, Willman yelled, "get out of my country," to a passing man, telling him he was "stealing all of the jobs."

Witnesses said when the man responded, Willman ran into the street -- and into the path of a maroon truck turning right onto Park Avenue from Bellomy Street.

The truck first hit Willman's hip, flinging him into the street, Pattee said.

"He looked like a rag doll," said Early.

Police responded soon after, taping off the entire intersection and parts of Park Avenue. As officers and investigators inspected the area, a Santa Clara Crime Scene Investigation van arrived, and a crime scene investigator took pictures of the accident scene.

Coincidentally, students, faculty and local homelessness activists participated in a previously planned panel discussion the day following the incident as part of Human Dignity Week regarding the issue of growing homelessness in the Bay Area.

Forty people attended the panel, which was co-sponsored by Santa Clara Community Action Program and Santa Clarans for Social Justice.

Monika Kessling and Susanna Beouchan, both residents of the shelter provided by the Community Homeless Alliance Ministry, discussed their experiences of becoming homeless in Silicon Valley.

Because she has no home, Kessling lives at CHAM so her five-year-old son won't be taken away.

Willman is one of the 7,000 homeless people in Santa Clara county, as of 2005. Approximately 3.5 million Americans are homeless. Of that number, about 1.35 million are children, and 250,000 homeless people are over the age of 60.

Literature at the event stated there are four times as many shelters for animals as there are for people in the United States.

Senior Tim Morris attended the panel because he said students need to "break down the bubble and realize there is a really, really high homeless population in the area."

Of the employed homeless population, 75 percent do not make enough money to afford a place to live, according to panelist Elsa Chen, a professor in the political science department. In the Bay Area, a four-person family needs an income of $40,000 a year to survive.

After the panel, a movie played and a sleep out was held in which students camped outside for the night in solidarity with homeless people across the nation. Approximately 15 to 16 students slept out.

"The purpose is not to pretend that we're homeless, because there's no way that Santa Clara students in such a secure environment are going to be able to experience any of the problems that a homeless person would have to," said Cristina Sanidad, a CHAM program coordinator for SCCAP.

Sanidad said that sleeping outside helped students gain perspective about life without shelter because they experienced the same lack of privacy and discomforts that a homeless person might also suffer.

"It was realizing that it's not a comfortable position to be in," Sanidad said. "I think a lot of people are ignorant about it."

Chen is currently teaching a class about housing development and homelessness. She said the homeless face a lack of health care facilities and places to store belongings or food, and most have no way to contact organizations that could help them.

Susanna Beouchan emphasized that homelessness can happen to anyone. "It is amazing how easy and fast it can happen that you are homeless," he said.

Beouchan, a native of Germany, became homeless recently, after moving to America and having problems with her bank account in Germany.

In Europe, there are policies that act as safety nets for the homeless, and the government helps homeless get back into housing as soon as possible, Beouchan said.

Chen blames U.S. policy makers for often keeping homelessness "out of sight, out of mind."

Contact Megan O'Connor at (408) 554-4546 or moconnor@scu.edu.