Clipmarks | Homelessness Clips

Catholic Church gives D.C. ultimatum

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:00:57 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Same-sex marriage bill, as written, called a threat to social service contracts.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn't change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care.

Under the bill, headed for a D.C. Council vote next month, religious organizations would not be required to perform or make space available for same-sex weddings. But they would have to obey city laws prohibiting discrimination against gay men and lesbians.

Fearful that they could be forced, among other things, to extend employee benefits to same-sex married couples, church officials said they would have no choice but to abandon their contracts with the city.

Several D.C. Council members said the Catholic Church is trying to erode the city's long-standing laws protecting gay men and lesbians from discrimination.

Tags: catholic church, d.c., law, discrimination, services, poor, needy

UN Investigator Says USA Negelct of Homeless is Shameful

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:21:09 GMT

clipped by: DanaGarrett
clipper's remarks: So much for the idea that the USA is the "best nation in the world." If we won't house our most vulnerable citizens, how can we be described as the "best?"

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

UN special rapporteur says wealthy US ignoring deepening homeless crisis while pumping billions into bank rescues
• Investigator meets homeless victims of American dream

A United Nations special investigator who was blocked from visiting the US by the Bush administration has accused the American government of pouring billions of dollars into rescuing banks and big business while treating as "invisible" a deepening homeless crisis.

Raquel Rolnik, the UN special rapporteur for the right to adequate housing, who has just completed a seven-city tour of America, said it was shameful that a country as wealthy as the US was not spending more money on lifting its citizens out of homelessness and substandard, overcrowded housing.

Fighting For The Welfare State

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:14:47 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: This makes me really proud to be Danish. Anyway, why ARE we so happy? Well... we all know how we are all are in the grip of the worldwide economic crisis at the moment, right? Well, despite this, a huge number of Danes are now calling for the government to please let us pay more taxes! "Please raise taxes, so we can afford more!". .Now... I know this might seem odd and counter-intuitive to some, but please lend me your ear and I'll try to explain....

In a society like for example the US, where Wall Street reigns supreme and the gap between rich and poor just grows every day, how can it be expected that there is anything in it all, for the little guy? Capitalism is all good and fine, but money shouldn't be the goal, but merely the means. It's not about how much you have, but how much you give.

Clip Source: www.oprah.com

In October 2009, Oprah traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark's charming capital city

her first visit to the country that's considered one of the happiest places on earth.

For the past 30 years, scientific researchers and survey results have all reached the same conclusion—Danes are consistently happier than the rest of the world

So what makes the Danes so happy?

people are very environmentally conscious.

Homelessness, poverty and unemployment are also extremely rare

If you lose your job, Nanna says the government continues to pay up to 90 percent of your salary for four years. And not to worry…healthcare is free for everyone.

Clip Source: www.oprah.com

The Danish government also takes a special interest in mothers and their children.

And, when it's time to go to college, citizens get paid to go the universities. "When you go to university, then you get paid $400 or $500," Nanna says. "You have free education. Then, you have healthy, well-educated people in the world. What could beat that?"

Tags: people power, social democracy

Convert The UN Building Into NYC Homeless Shelter

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:24:58 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: wallowing in desperate poverty, with crime so rampant and violent that the police won’t even venture into them. And you have the nerve to come here and investigate us ?

The United Nations has become nothing less than a shabby podium used by corrupt third-world demagogues to do what they could never do in any other way - attempt to destroy and bring into disrepute the United States. We’re being nibbled to death by ducks. And we’re letting it happen. Not only that, we’re paying for it.

I’d like to see the Obama Administration tell the U.N. to pound sand (but they won’t). Take your investigation to somewhere that needs it, and that list is endless. North Korea, Darfur, Tibet, Cuba….I could go on almost ad infinitum about third world hell holes where people have no rights whatsoever, where food is something that may or may not come your way today - or tomorrow. Where “housing” consists of whatever you can scrape together to try to keep out the cold, where women . .

Clip Source: sayanythingblog.com

Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman reports that Raquel Rolnik, a Brazilian urban planner and the UN’s choice for the task, will be investigating issues of concern to the UN vis-à-vis the United States, including public housing, homelessness and foreclosures.

I’d like to say that the U.N. is a joke but I’m afraid it’s gone way beyond even that petty insult.

The U.N., which is funded in huge part by the United States, has decided to send a “Special Rapporteur” to initiate a probe into whether or not there is enough affordable housing in our major cities:

Isn’t that special?

I’d like to point out that this “Special Rapporteur” is from Brazil, and I’d like to ask her this question: How are those slums in Rio working out for ya, Raquel? You know, the ones your government builds walls around to keep the poor people and crime away from the more affluent members of your enlightened society? You know, like this one illustrated in an article from the Chicago Tribune?

There are slums in Rio that are

Tags: united nations-raquel rolnik, brazilian urban planner, slums in rio, rampant crime and violent

Running from Homelessness (Literally!)

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:52:56 GMT

clipped by: chestnut501
clipper's remarks: A radically new approach for helping the homeless

Clip Source: www.britannica.com

Back On My Feet, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit, sets homeless youth and adults on a path to recovery by having them jog three times a week.

“We use running as a vehicle to show individuals they are capable of accomplishing anything, but it’s not going to happen overnight — it takes hard work, dedication, and perseverance,”

Back On My Feet organizes homeless people into teams of 10–25 runners, who follow designated routes. Attendance at every workout is mandatory during the six-month program.

“Through running, we create a community of love, hope, trust, friendship, encouragement, and support that allows positive decision making for all our members,”

Runners who complete two months with a 90% attendance rate can enroll in educational classes, job training, and job placement. Those who reach six months are eligible for grants to help with apartment, education, or job-related expenses.

“I guess that, simply put, Back On My Feet establishes that somebody cares

Tags: sociology, homelessness, programs, self-help, compassion

The IMPORTANCE of Volunteering...Sir Richard Branson

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:25:37 GMT

clipped by: leevardi

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Richard Branson, Concert-Goers On The Importance Of Volunteering

At the end of August, Virgin Mobile presented the FreeFest, a free music festival dedicated to encouraging young people to devote time to public service, and to raise money to prevent youth homelessness. Additionally, a few ambitious volunteers were given a free plane ride out to Columbia, Maryland, to see the show in reward for their service.

Causecast was there as well, in association with The Voluntour, to talk to Sir Richard Branson and some of the contest winners about the cause and how volunteering has improved their lives.

Americans are being sacrificed on the altar of big business

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:57:33 GMT

clipped by: gemfemfox
clipper's remarks: First manufacturing, then IT.

And, even in midst of the worst "recession" since the Depression, it continues on.

Yet we, the still employed, don't care. We stock our homes with foreign made goods and spend our money with companies that are slaughtering our middle class.

The irony is starting to show itself. Good luck to our children with the future. They are going to need it.

Clip Source: washtech.org

How Well-Educated, Hard-Working Americans are Treated in America

Rennie Sawade

Many American IT workers are being forced out of their careers, while corporations continue to offshore jobs and hire non-immigrant guest workers on corporate Visas, such as the H-1B and L-1.

Some of these American IT workers are being forced into homelessness, due to the lack of an adequate social safety net in this country. One such homeless IT worker is Bruce Richall, an IT consultant in Connecticut. You can read his story on the BBC news site.

I am an American citizen, displaced Microsoft employee, and one of the MS1400 (1,400 workers laid off from Microsoft Corporation January 22, 2009).

On January 22, 2009, I was the only person on a team of seven people laid off.

My team of seven, a supervisor and six Microsoft Office Product Managers, in similar roles, employed four guest workers.

Tags: economy, layoffs, visas, foreign workers

Welcome to Hotel Honda - Homeless While Guest Visa Workers Work

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:58:41 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: The IT industry is being overrun by Guest visa workers at the expense of hard-working well-educated Americans.

Clip Source: washtech.org

Many American IT workers are being forced out of their careers, while corporations continue to offshore jobs and hire non-immigrant guest workers on corporate Visas, such as the H-1B and L-1.

After his lay-off from a bank, he has been unable to find another job. After going through his savings, he was forced to leave his apartment. "I now sleep in the back of my car, while I wait for a bed to become available at the homeless shelter. I call it The Hotel Honda."

Another IT worker, Alice (not her real name), was laid of by Microsoft back in January. She worked on a team of 7, four of which (including the manager) are on guest-worker visas. She was the only one on her team that was affected by the lay-off.

The Housing Crisis Ann Arbor

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:41:20 GMT

clipped by: peoples movement
clipper's remarks: Why do individuals have to result to such when there's enough land and money in this nation to serve everyone equally, What will it take for everyone to put their differences aside and address these issues as one to the corporate profit driven government.

Clip Source: www.annarbor.com

Ann Arbor's 'Camp Take Notice' put on notice by State Police

When the tent community known as Camp Take Notice was evicted from its unauthorized camp site behind Arborland Mall Tuesday, campers already had a Plan B in mind: They'd move to the field behind the park-and-ride lot at Ann Arbor-Saline Road and I-94.

The very name of the tent community - Camp Take Notice - bespeaks its social mission: Beyond providing a safe, supportive, drug- and alcohol-free community for the Ann Arbor-area homeless, Camp Take Notice intends to bring the issue of homelessness to the forefront of the community consciousness. The camp is in the process of obtaining nonprofit designation.

Danielle Mack, a supporter of the community, said being recognized as a nonprofit might help Camp Take Notice qualify for grant funds that would allow it to buy a camp site to call its own. You can't get evicted from your own property.

Canadian City Uses Feces to Repel Homeless

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:33:41 GMT

clipped by: brightlight4
clipper's remarks: It's tough to believe that anyone -- especially a city official -- actually thought this was a good idea. But it's downright bizarre that a plan so ridiculous, so "bird-brained" was actually implemented; city officials located the dung, transported it, spread it, so on and so forth. It was only after the negative press that the city manager had it cleared (and deodorized the area, apparently).

To many, this bird dung story will be kind of funny, really nasty, or completely outraging. But to me, it's just really sad.

Sad for the people who usually sat outside of those city buildings, most likely because they had nowhere else to sit. Now the whole world knows what city officials really think of them, perhaps even what they equate them to.

Sad that it takes an extreme story of such hate and ignorance to bring the issue of homelessness to the front of people's minds.

And sad because this story really isn't about homelessness at all. Because homelessness should be about not ha

Clip Source: homelessness.change.org

Canadian City Uses Feces to Repel Homeless

We have seen cities go to great lengths to clear the streets of "unsightly" homeless people; sit/lie ordinances, feeding restrictions, unfriendly benches. But the city of Surrey in British Columbia has taken cruelty towards the homeless to an entirely new level, which can be summed up in two words: it stinks.

City officials had rancid bird droppings spread around the perimeter of a city social services building and trees in a nearby park to deter homeless people from loitering in the area. According to the Vancouver Sun, the move was the brainchild of members of Surrey city government, RCMP (that's Royal Canadian Mounted Police, FYI), and representatives from the area business owners association.

Sad for the people who usually sat outside of those city buildings, most likely because they had nowhere else to sit. Now the whole world knows what city officials really think of them, perhaps even what they equate them to.

City uses feces to repel homeless

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:11:52 GMT

clipped by: masbury

Clip Source: homelessness.change.org

Canadian City Uses Feces to Repel Homeless

sad because this story really isn't about homelessness at all. Because homelessness should be about not having a home, not the indifference ignorant and uninformed people.

Tags: homelessness, poverty

surge in homeless pupils strains schools

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:06:34 GMT

clipped by: djenne

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Surge in Homeless Pupils Strains Schools

Her family is facing eviction, but Charity Crowell, 9, and her younger brother are enrolled in elementary school in Asheville, N.C. More Photos >

Charity is one child in a national surge of homeless schoolchildren that is driven by relentless unemployment and foreclosures. The rise, to more than one million students without stable housing by last spring, has tested budget-battered school districts as they try to carry out their responsibilities — and the federal mandate — to salvage education for children whose lives are filled with insecurity and turmoil.

Still, Charity said of her last semester, “I couldn’t go to sleep, I was worried about all the stuff,” and she often nodded off in class.

There were 679,000 homeless students reported in 2006-7, a total that surpassed one million by last spring, Ms. Duffield said.

Tags: children and homelessness

Pets of the Homeless

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:54:45 GMT

clipped by: EddieIsSteady

Clip Source: www.zuzafun.com

Pets of the Homeless

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.

Photo by Tim Hulsizer

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?

Photo by Kirsten Bole

Photo by Rick Takagi

Photo by Steve Crane

Photo by Marilyn Keopenick

Photo by Dan Lee

Photo by Kathi Guiriani

Photo by Franco Folini

Tags: pets, homelessness, photography

Homeless and Struggling In New Orleans

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 05:27:07 GMT

clipped by: nuttyriv3r

Clip Source: dissidentvoice.org

by Jordan Flaherty / August 25th, 2009

They are outreach workers for the New Orleans organization UNITY for the Homeless, and they do this all day long; searching empty houses and buildings for homeless people, so they can offer services and support. “We joke about having turned criminal trespass into a fulltime job,” says Rohn.

Palmer is one of thousands of homeless people living in New Orleans’ storm damaged and abandoned homes and buildings. Four years after Katrina, recovery and rebuilding has come slow to this city, and there are many boarded-up homes to choose from. The Greater New Orleans Community Data Center counts 65,888 abandoned residential addresses in New Orleans, and this number doesn’t include any of the many non-residential buildings

Overall, about a third of the addresses in the city are vacant or abandoned, the highest rate in the nation.

Using conservative estimates, UNITY estimates at least 6,000 squatters, and a total of about 11,000 homeless individuals in the city.

Tags: fema, homelessness, hurricane katrina, new orleans

SF First's P.O.W.E.R. Group of Former SF Homeless Interviewed on KALW Radio 91.7 FM

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 06:00:01 GMT

clipped by: sfhomeless
clipper's remarks: This fascinating group is made up of� dedicated, independent and capable local residents, formerly homeless, homeless, advocates, staff and contracted workers from SFDPH, Mental Health, SF First, SF Hot, SF MOST, CATS and has the support of local businesses who supply coffee and organic berries, vegetables and bread products for their weekly foot massages, coffee socials and P.O.W.E.R. Team Lunches at Dolores Park Church in the Mission District, where Ali from local Public Radio Station KALW 91.7 FM, attended and recorded part of this Radio Broadcast linked below.

POWER stands for Peer Outreach Workers Exemplifying Recovery...

you can see them at work at the main SF Public Library where they monitor health and safety to assist their peers who may need services or hear some advice from someone who has recently walked in their shoes, who's been there.

This is empowerment in action which works because the team members were treated with love, kindness and healing for a year or

Clip Source: www.crosscurrentsradio.org

P.O.W.E.R. Lunch with the Former Homeless

8/24/09

4:04 pm

According to mayor Gavin Newsom’s annual homeless count, roughly 6,500 people are living without reliable shelter this year in San Francisco. Homeless advocates say the figure is actually double that. Even though the city offers a wide variety of services and resources, finding a way out of homelessness can be difficult—First, there are waiting rooms, lists, and lines to deal with that can make a person feel more like a number than a human being. Then, there are the looming struggles after you’re off the street—shelters can be dirty and/or violent; SROs can feel isolating and unsustainable. One group in San Francisco provides an alternative— creating a supportive new community for the city’s homeless. KALW's Ali Budner reports. Note: Some of the names in the following story have been changed due to protectional privacy rules from the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

CALL US 415.264.7106

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Tags: community, empowerment, homeless, outreach, health, sf hot team, sfdph, sffirst, sfhomeless, sfpowergroup