Ethiopian Review

Near the corner of 13th and C streets lives a 71-year-old man without the money or political influence to uphold his rights – or the law.

A retired auto mechanic who lives on a fixed income with his wife, Pedro Hernandez is collateral damage in a struggle between homeless advocates and the city of Sacramento.

He can do nothing about it, so homeless people have set up 35 tents and are camping out right behind the Victorian where Hernandez has lived for 38 years, the home where he raised six kids.

It’s against the law to camp in the city of Sacramento, and yet homeless people have been camping on the property since late last week. That’s the way it is here.

The homeless would never be allowed to camp in the Fabulous 40s, Land Park, east Sacramento or any other Sacramento neighborhood where residents have a voice. So the injustice of homelessness is remedied with another injustice: forcing a homeless camp on a person of modest means who can do nothing about it.

And this issue gets even more complicated.

The homeless people living behind Hernandez are doing so with the permission of Mark Merin, who controls the property and is one of the most formidable lawyers in Sacramento.

Merin has been helping homeless advocates in their push to secure a legal campsite for the homeless – a “safe ground” – by winter.

Interestingly enough, Merin also sued Hernandez in 2007 in a property line dispute.

When I asked Hernandez about that suit, he started to cry, but declined to say anything about it for fear of being sued by Merin again.

A big giver to homeless charities, Merin has built a career representing the disenfranchised. He is a Goliath who usually represents Davids.

“Mr. Merin is a civil rights attorney, but what about our rights?” asked Patricia Hernandez, Pedro’s oldest daughter. “He has trampled all over our rights.”

Merin said he has no “animus” toward Hernandez. He called it a coincidence that he had filed the prior suit against Hernandez and now has sited a homeless camp behind his home.

That’s small comfort for Hernandez.

A courtly and soft-spoken man, Hernandez said he moved to the United States legally in the early 1970s from Mexico and has paid his taxes and worked hard despite having diabetes and heart disease.

His English isn’t great, so he is not good media fodder. TV cameras whisk past him for the greater visual of an urban homeless camp.

“All I want is to be heard – for people to abide by the law,” he said.

So far, police have taken no action. A steady stream of donors drop off food and supplies to the homeless. City leaders are trying to figure out what to do that won’t get them sued.

And Hernandez? He’s peering through tear-filled eyes, hoping someone will hear him.

(By Marcos Breton | sacbee)