NEW HAMPSHIREGroups launch bid to end homeless on SeacoastBy Jeanné McCartin
September 29, 2009
PORTSMOUTH — The United Way of the Greater Seacoast has launched Ending Homelessness Work Group, a new effort aimed at ending homelessness in the region. "We currently have eight partners at the tables," said Edward Tirrell, senior director of Community Impact at the United Way of the Greater Seacoast.
......
Tirrell said at a recent meeting he was told 72 percent of the area's residents were in a relatively high-income bracket.
"But on the other hand, that's 28 percent that aren't," he said. —¦ And in Strafford County, it's twice what it is in Rockingham; for children under 16, it's three times as high."
MASSACHUSETTSHomeless kids to get attentionBy Jeanette DeForge
October 04, 2009
HOLYOKE - The School Committee has agreed to create a new position of homeless education coordinator, despite concerns the money may be better spent directly in the classroom.
The 7-1 approval came after school administrators advocated for the creation of the position, saying it is vital to help stabilize the families of children who have no permanent housing.
Many of the students in the system of about 6,100 students are homeless and many others are considered transient, moving in and out of the city and changing schools frequently. School officials did not provide a specific number of homeless students.
The Cancer-Surviving, Formerly-Homeless, Elderly Man Who Won't Stop PaintingSeptember 30, 2009
by Shannon Moriarty
Surviving cancer is usually a cause for celebration. But for Peter Phelps, it meant one thing: homelessness. Today, at 82 years old, Peter Phelps' life looks dramatically different than it did two years ago. Rather than staying on the streets, he spends 40 hours each day in his single bedroom apartment in Boston pursuing his passion - painting.
At 79 years old, Peter was diagnosed with lung cancer. According to the VOA Newsroom, he was told he was terminal, so he quietly prepared for the end of his life by giving away his belongings. "Since I was going to die, I didn't need all of the clothes and the car, whatever. I gave everything away. Somebody could use it, I passed it on." He was also undergoing experimental treatments at Dana Farber Cancer Institute where he thought he'd be hospitalized; he wasn't. He ended up in a homeless shelter.
NEW YORKIn Stores Now: "Derelict" Homeless-Inspired FashionOctober 1, 2009
by Shannon Moriarty
Shoppers aren't the only ones trying to mimick the latest trends from the pages of fashion magazines. The high-end department store Barneys New York has jumped on the "homeless as high fashion" bandwagon by featuring homeless manikin displays - complete with park benches, trash cans, and newspaper blankets.
PENNSYLVANIA(video)
Homeless man sings the National Anthem while the streets of Pittsburgh are on fire during the G20 protests and riots."Maybe if I sing the National Anthem, everybody will calm down."
WASHINGTON, DCRevised Winter Shelter Plan Still Iffy For Homeless DC FamiliesOctober 3, 2009
The Interagency Council on Homelessness met last month to consider the District’s plan for sheltering homeless individuals and families during the winter months ahead. The plan before the Council indicated considerably more shelter capacity for families than the draft I wrote about awhile ago.
What we see now proposes a total of 228 family shelter units, plus 73 new units of permanent supportive housing. Of the shelter units, 128 are open year round. (These weren’t reflected in the prior draft.) An additional 75 units are designated as winter-only, and up to 25 more would open if these were full.
Nye’s Bill to Prevent Veterans Homelessness Gains Momentum in the HouseOctober 3, 2009
by Virginia RealEstateRama
Washington, DC - October 1, 2009 - (RealEstateRama) — As a member of the Health Subcommittee of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Congressman Glenn Nye (VA-02) is usually the one asking the questions – but today, he appeared as a witness in front of the subcommittee, testifying in support of his bill to help prevent veterans from becoming homeless.
Today’s subcommittee hearing is an important step forward for the Nye-Hunter Veterans Homelessness Prevention Act (H.R. 3073), which was introduced in June by Congressman Glenn Nye and Congressman Duncan Hunter (CA-52) to provide emergency support to veterans in danger of losing their homes. The bill would allow the Department of Veterans Affairs to assist veterans with mortgage, rent, or utility payments during times of hardship.
NORTH CAROLINA
Sleep Out for the Homeless: Worst Fundraiser Ever?October 4, 2009
ChosenFast
Mapstone’s post caught my eye because I’m not a fan of sleep outs, either. They don’t simulate homelessness. They simulate going camping in your backyard. You have access to food, electricity and bathrooms, and if the weather gets bad, you can go outside. That’s not an authentic experience of homelessness. It’s not even an authentic experience of camping. Honestly? To me, sleep outs feel disrespectful toward people who are actually homeless and living outside.
VIRGINIAFederal stimulus to help Danville area homelessBy Tara Bozick
October 3, 2009
Danville and Pittsylvania County will get extra help in fighting homelessness this year.
Support To Eliminate Poverty Inc. received an allocation of more than $545,000 in grant funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to a news release from Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s office.
The community action agency was one of 23 state organizations to receive stimulus money, which was provided through the Homelessness and Rapid Re-Housing Program through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the release stated.
GEORGIANew mattresses for homeless women and childrenOctober 2, 2009
by Christine O'Donnell
AUGUSTA, Ga. - Women and children at the Salvation Army's
homeless shelter in Augusta have a better bed to sleep in Friday night.
Homeless mother of three, Shanna Rhodes, and her three children are excited to sleep on new mattresses after spending three nights in the emergency center at the Salvation Army.
"I hope they don't jump up and down [on it] you know,” Rhodes said.
Staying in college has made me homelessby Max Marceau
October 2, 2009
I sleep in my car at night. The Publix parking lot is my neighborhood. A large suitcase is my closet, the back seat is my bed.
Like many students at the University of Georgia, even higher tuition and today's lousy economy have altered my lifestyle. I make enormous sacrifices to attend this fine school, but I wonder if this uncomfortable living situation - this sleeping in parking lots and on the couches of friends - is necessary.
After being sent to the woods, homeless Ga. sex offenders must now find a new place to liveSeptember 30, 2009
by Greg Bluestein
MARIETTA, Ga. — Nine homeless sex offenders scrambled to find housing Tuesday after they were kicked out of a makeshift tent city behind a suburban Atlanta office park where state officials had told them to live.
Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren said state officials ordered the offenders to leave Monday night after The Associated Press reported details of the unique arrangement.
Homeless Georgia Sex Offenders Ordered Into, Then Out of the WoodsSeptember 30, 2009
by Radley Balko
Several convicted sex offenders in Georgia, home to some of the toughest laws in the country, were told by their probation officers to take up camp in a woods because all but one of the state's homeless shelters don't meet state requirements to be 1,000 feet from any place where children may gather.
One of the offenders, 34-year-old William Hawkins, is on the sex offender for an offense committed against a 12-year-old when he was 15 (the crime was "sexual battery," though it isn't clear if the sex was coerced).
After the A.P. broke the story of the enclave in the woods over the weekend, the offenders were told yesterday to pack up and move again, though it isn't exactly clear where they'll go. They can also be re-arrested for failing to notify state authorities of their new residence after moving. Not having a residence to report apparently isn't an excuse.
MONTANAGazette opinion: No one should have to be homeless in BillingsOctober 4, 2009
Homelessness in Billings is much more than the people we see on the streets.
It's 417 Billings Public Schools students - elementary through high school - who received school supplies, backpacks, gym clothes or after-school tutoring during the 2008-09 academic year. Last week, the city's homeless included 175 children enrolled in Billings Public Schools. Twenty-three were staying with their parents at the Montana Rescue Mission Women and Families Shelter. Even more children live with their families in "cheap" motels because they can't get an apartment.
Billings raises awareness about homelessnessOct 3, 2009
It's hard to believe, but according to the Interfaith Hospitality Network, nearly 2,000 people are homeless in Billings, and 50% of them are families.
Saturday night, the Interfaith group kicked off the second annual Cardboard Box City at ZooMontana. Hundreds of people are participating in the event, to help raise awareness about homelessness. Participants will spend the night in their own cardboard boxes to get a first-hand experience of what it's like to be homeless.
KANSASHomeless or Not??September 29, 2009
by Dymphna (Gates of Vienna)
by Dymphna
(This starts out as a discussion of the news story about the couple who were robbed while having sex in a trash bin, and moves in into an intelligently-written essay on the general subject of homelessness)
The story below has been on my mind ever since it arrived via email a few weeks ago.
First, I’ll present just the story itself, which my friend thought amusing (as did all the commenters at the site). After you read it and decide for yourself what this situation is about, I’ll give my interpretation of the events. Having saved our email exchange, I’ll also give my friend’s arguments against my interpretation.
Several blogs posted this when it first appeared. Unfortunately, I no longer remember where I ran across their posts, though I do remember they drew the same conclusion as my friend, i.e., that it was simply a weird amusing story from Kansas:
NEW MEXICOCrew, cast of TV series ‘Crash’ raise money to feed homeless in New MexicoOctober 4, 2009
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The cast and crew of the TV series “Crash” have done a good deed for some of Albuquerque’s homeless.
The series, which airs on the Starz network, has shot several scenes at the Noon Day Ministry center, so the cast and crew raised enough money to feed between 300 and 400 people at the downtown shelter on Saturday.
CALIFORNIAHelp Buy Shoes for Homeless Children with Project 680by Anne Lowe
October 4, 2009
Project 680, a grassroots organization dedicated to improving the lives of homeless students in Rancho Cordova, has started a shoe drive to raise money and provide new shoes for homeless students living in the area.
The organization is hoping to raise $1,500 for 100 pairs of shoes by Nov. 10, but they will accept any donations to the cause throughout November.
Ginger Rutland: Homeless 'safe ground' not quite Eden, but a stepOctober 4, 2009
Eden - that's what Sacramento's homeless campers and their advocates call the legal campground or "safe ground" they hope to establish in an empty field behind two existing homeless shelters north of downtown.
No one - not the homeless campers, not their advocates and certainly not their legions of critics - believes safe ground will solve the problem of homelessness. Nor will it end the proliferation of illegal campgrounds that have popped up all over our region.
Ken Williams: 25th Homeless Death and a Woman’s StorySanta Barbara
October 1, 2009
Even though this story happened several months ago, it still lives with me daily.
It had been a brutally dry winter with every forecast rain event a no-show. Perhaps that was why the storm that actually delivered rain was jacking the emotional level of the shelter toward a manic meltdown. The shelter was crowded with all sorts of homeless: those seeking escape from the elements as well as those trying to elude the terrors of the mind, be it mental illness, the scourges of alcohol and drugs, or simply plain despair.
Homeless addicts: Next door, worlds awaySeptember 28, 2009
Homeless heroin addicts are far closer than most people realize, according to research by medical anthropologist Phillippe Bourgois.
For more than a decade, Bourgois, the Richard Perry University professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and graduate student Jeff Schonberg have studied the lives of heroin addicts as they struggle to survive while living on the streets of San Francisco.
To compile the research for their book, Righteous Dopefiend, Bourgois and Schonberg spent time with heroin injectors and crack smokers—listening and talking to them, observing how they live, photographing them and sometimes sleeping in their encampments.
WASHINGTONHomeless group sets up camp in front of Conlin's house, will be back Saturday nightOctober 2, 2009
Councilmember Richard Conlin's home looks out on a homeless camp tonight. A group of more than 40 homeless people and advocates rolled out sleeping bags in the parking strips and along this Madrona sidewalk in a camp-out to protest the City Council president's role in denying their group funding.
Seattle Housing and Resource Effort is protesting the City of Seattle's decision to not provide the group $50,000 so it can purchase bus vouchers, which it says the people who use its services need to get between SHARE's 15 shelters and three tent cities to services downtown. Spokesperson Beatrice Friberg said the group plans to spend Friday night in front of Conlin's home and will return again on Saturday.
"It's a matter of deep belief," Friberg said. "We will not rest until we have the vouchers."
“The city is not the enemy - the homeless are not the enemy”September 29, 2009
West Seattle News
I am formally of tent city 4 and I refused to do this protest because I didn’t agree with it from what was conveyed to me about the city wanting some kind of guarantee if it gave money.
It is invasive to crash out at the mayors home.
I find it a violation as well of one’s privacy when the media is pre-invited in mass to ensure lots of press. One had to choose to either participate in this protest or depart for the duration of the protest. It wasn’t painted out as something you can do or not do. They are getting so desperate to try to get the needed bus fare that civil rights even among their own kind seem marginal.
SHARE/WHEEL: the homeless
Posted by Letters editor
October 3, 2009
(five letters)
Wednesday’s editorial criticizing the tactics of SHARE/WHEEL implies the poor and homeless should simply shut up, remain invisible, and wait patiently and quietly until constructive long-term solutions finally resolve the tragedy of homelessness [“Homeless theatrics,” Opinion, Sept. 30].
How long will this wait be? Another 20 or 30 years? As a social worker who has worked for more than 30 years with many thousands of impoverished and homeless individuals, I can attest to the ongoing and exigent needs of increasing numbers of marginalized citizens.
Media Analysis of Homeless Encampment “Sweeps”by West Raven
October 2, 2009
(refers and links to substantial and impressive article on this subject)
(The following is a short excerpt from an excellent report that just came my way.
Check it out at http://faculty.washington.edu/stygall/homelessmediacoveragegroup/
ALASKAAnchorage groups see link between needs of the body and soulOctober 3, 2009
By Patricia Coll Freeman
The chill of fall is descending on Anchorage, along with bright yellow birch leaves – signs of a disappearing summer. But for the hundreds of city residents without a home, these are harbingers of their own dying season. This year, 11 men and one woman have died — living homeless in Anchorage. As winter looms, Mayor Dan Sullivan is rushing to stem the tide, while advocacy groups and the public chime in with ideas, too.
But largely missing from the discussion is mention of the deep spiritual problems that often lie at the heart of chronic homelessness.
CANADASurrey Used Bird Feces To Scare Away HomelessWomanist Musings
October 1, 2009
I am a bit late to this story but it certainly deserves commentary. Once again the generosity and caring of the Canadian government must be heralded for the world to see. It seems that the city council, in conjunction with the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), and local business owners decided that the best way to reduce the visual presence of the homeless, was to spread a concoction of chicken feces and dirt.
AUSTRALIAJournal of a Homeless YouthOctober 4, 2009
by Dominic Mapstone
The best way to get a glimpse into life on the streets is to talk to someone who has experienced. I want to share with you the journal of an Australian homeless youth that has been written over more than five years at the Homelessness Forum. Over 70,000 people have read her journal already -- now it's your turn. I believe it's the most engaging and educational first-person account of homelessness available online.
GENERALHomelessness not confined to citiesOctober 3, 2009
by Shannon Moriarty
If you think homelessness is primarily an urban issue, think again. A new study from a national advocacy group illustrates the prevalence of homelessness in urban and rural areas across the country. The numbers - and the noted challenges of collecting homelessness data - speak for themselves.
Pets of the Homeless -Their valuable possessionOctober 4, 2009
by madhavgopalkrish
(photoessay)
How can you choose between shelter and a best friend? It’s an impossible decision pet-lovers face when losing their homes. Only two pet-friendly homeless shelters exist in the United States (in Florida and California) and homeless people with pets often choose to stay on the streets rather than part with their four-legged friend.
Feeding Pets of the Homeless is a nonprofit volunteer organization that provides pet food and veterinarian care to the homeless and less fortunate in local communities across the United States and Canada. Won’t you help?
BOOK REVIEWS‘The Man Under the Bridge’: Tales from the HomelessSeptember 30, 2009
BOGART, Ga., Sept. 30, 2009 — Get a real-life glimpse into what it’s really like to be homeless in America today with “The Man Under the Bridge” (published by AuthorHouse), the new novel by Jillian Wright.
As a child, Wright remembers her mother feeding a homeless person lingering at the back of her house. As a teenager, she remembers seeing a similar man, the person she referred to as “The Man Under the Bridge,” and wondering what hand fate had dealt him that led to such a lonely, destitute life.
