Thank you for reblogging this story. Yesterday Clara and I were in downtown Sacramento walking down an alley looking for a mural. It smelled like urine. We could tell people had been camping there. Later we were about a mile away in another alley in a residential area full of old houses built in the 1800’s. Someone painted blue birds along an old metal fence, among the homeless camps and old buildings. There has been a nasty homeless problem in this area, and in the Sacramento area. We’re near two major rivers, four major interstate highways going north and south, east and west. There are a lot of lost souls dealing with addiction and mental illness. It is sad, and disgusting. We’ve all known a Nikki or two. After I wrote this I was so sad. That surprised me. It touched something I didn’t know I had in me.