How does it feel, how does it feel, to be without a home, like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone? —Bob Dylan

Not too good, Bob, especially in the rainy season, and if it’s cold and rainy in your personal life too, well, there’s just no getting out of the weather.

Three winters ago, the County of Mendocino put up a big tent next door to the Fort Bragg Police Department. The idea was to get the homeless out of the rain because the town’s sole shelter, Hospitality House, was full up, and tends to stay full up, winter and summer, because it’s the only one the length of Mendocino’s very long coast. Even in the best of times the occasionally hospitable Hospitality House doesn’t have enough beds for all the people who need them.

• 

 Print this Article