Homeless News

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

With a focus on veterans, and including a few interesting videos I’ve run across lately, and a few other items of note.

Catholic Church Ready to Throw Homeless Under Bus in Order to Stop Gay Marriage

November 12, 2009

by Michael A. Jones

gayrights.change.org

The Catholic Church in Washington, D.C. has issued an ultimatum to the District’s city council: approve same-sex marriage, and the Church will stop serving the city’s disadvantaged, including the homeless.

Guess that Catholic Church commitment to the poor is only skin deep. For the Catholic Church to threaten the lives of homeless people and others who depend on church social services just to gain political points on the issue of gay marriage is sad, sorry, and a sign that no religious instutition in the country is willing to stand in the way of civil rights for gays and lesbians more than the Catholic Church.

Backlash over report showing big drop in L.A.’s homeless population

LA Times

November 11, 2009

An L.A. County report showing a 38% drop in the homeless population has been met with consternation by  the region’s homeless providers, who say the findings are inaccurate and could cost them funding at a time when the need is great.

The homeless providers have written op-ed articles, public letters, blog postings and tweets – all taking issue with the census, conducted over three days in January, which showed the number of homeless people in the region had dropped 68,808 in 2007 to 42,694.

The change shown in the report, by the  Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, seems puzzling to some because it comes in the midst of a recession, when people across the region have lost their homes.

Stars sleep out to help homeless

BBC News

November 12, 2009

Celebrities will join hundreds of people sleeping rough on Thursday night to raise money for a homeless charity.

Centrepoint hoped the sleep-out in east London’s Spitafield’s market would help raise more than £250,000 to help house young homeless people over Christmas.

Casualty actor Joe McFadden, Loose Women presenter Lisa Maxwell and Radio 1 DJ Sara Cox will be among those sleeping rough for the night.

Report: Thousands of homeless veterans on LI, NYC

November 11, 2009

by Michael Frazier

Homelessness among veterans was higher  in Suffolk County than in Nassau and any county in New York City, according to a federal report Sen. Charles Schumer cited Wednesday.

The number of homeless vets in Suffolk totaled 1,261, compared to 1,023 in Nassau, according to a 2008 survey by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Suffolk County United Veterans, a nonprofit advocacy group in Yaphank, characterized the data as an accurate portrayal of the number of veterans living on county streets or in shelters.

Report: Number of homeless veterans down in Ga.

Associated Press

A national report shows that homelessness among veterans is declining in Georgia.

The report released Tuesday by the National Alliance to End Homelessness examined the number of military veterans who are now living on the streets.

It found there were 3,032 without permanent homes in Georgia in 2008. That’s down from 3,299 in 2007.

Blind veteran on a mission to help homeless and jobless veterans

by Larry Collins

November 11, 2009

Glenn Davis is on a mission to make sure all our local veterans are well taken care of.

A veteran himself, he started an organization dedicated to making sure veterans have food, shelter and health care.

His latest push is helping those veterans find employment.

Although Davis is blind, he sees a problem that many of us refuse to see…. veterans in need.

On Holiday, Considering the Plight of Homeless Veterans

November 11, 2009

by Andrew Kew

NYT

Good article with a lot of data.

There are nearly 10,000 homeless veterans in New York City, on Long Island and in northern New Jersey, according to estimates in a new report from the Department of Veterans Affairs, which also found that veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are falling into homelessness earlier than those who served in Vietnam.

Speaking at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center on East 23rd Street in Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon, Senators Charles E. Schumer of New York and Robert Menendez of New Jersey outlined new legislation for a veterans’ housing program they are referring to as Homes for Heroes.

Schumer releases data on homeless Vets

November 11, 2009

by Eli George

Schumer today said that, out of the 603,238 veterans living in Upstate NY, an estimated 8,626 may be homeless.

In New York State, there are 14,132 total homeless veterans out of a total of 988,217 veterans. Nationwide, the study found that there are approximately 131,000 homeless veterans sleeping on the street on any given night. Below are how the numbers break out across the state:

One Homeless Veteran Is Too Many

November 11, 2009

by Mark Horvath

homelessness.change.org

The day I met Dale, he was in the middle of a crowded San Francisco sidewalk. But he was very much alone. He was in his wheelchair, trying to position his body upright so he could pick through the contents of a garbage can. Swarms of people, tourists and businesspeople, hurried past. They all seemed too busy to stop and notice one man’s struggle, one man’s devastating plight.

If these people knew Dale’s story, maybe they would not have hurried past so quickly. Dale spent 14 years serving our country, including two tours of Vietnam. As a result, he has serious health issues that confine him to a wheelchair. Yet, he says the only help he gets from the VA is free coffee and donuts.

10 Reasons Why Homeless People Choose To Be Homeless

March 5, 2009

Homelesstales.com

This well-done piece is less about choosing than be homeless than choosing to decline services available to the homeless, for reasons that often involve safety concerns.

Food, Clothing, Shelter, and….Karaoke?

Shannon Moriarty

homelessness.change.org

November 10, 2009

Joy is just as important to the human existence as food, clothing, and shelter. But when you’re living on the streets, it is easy to forget how to find it; among service providers, joy is a need that is too often forgotten.

But on LA’s Skid Row, one couple has adopted the task of cultivating joy with a boom box and a microphone. They have turned their love of karaoke into an outlet for LA’s homeless. They have no hidden agenda, no underlying motive. Each week, they simply set up the karaoke machine, open the doors and watch the room come alive with music, dancing, and community.

(short ad at beginning, sorry)

Gary Jules – Mad World

The Year I Was Homeless, by Becky Blanton

BrokenRoots is a group for bloggers/advocates interested in issues about and facing homeless people. Our goal is to a create a network of regional ‘stringers’ who can dispatch news and photos from communities across the country to report on the impacts of the economic crisis on the homeless situation. We welcome first person stories, analysis, and reporting. The BrokenRoots

project team will discuss, create and promote journalism on these issues, connect bloggers; create projects, and share related news and resources. (photo by Stranded Wind)