Tag: homelessness

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10…

The striking thing here, is that no one is looking, or even cares, and if they are caught the situation likely gets even worse.  They’re not even bothering to keep the statistics.  

Let’s shovel some more cash to General Dynamics and Goldman Sux.  

(posted earlier this eve at The Orange)

Today  as World Habitat Day shines a light on the basic  human right to adequate shelter, Mark Horvarth, creator and producer of InvisiblePeople.TV, sits down with progressive talk show host Angie Coiro to discuss homelessness in America. Horvarth, who hails from Los Angeles, swung into San Francisco late last night, at the tail end of his  2 1/2 month roadtrip across America. He has some fine suggestions to share, like a Yelp for nonprofits and an iPhone app to direct volunteers to the nearest location in need of their help.

So tonight, in acknowledgement of WHD, EcoJustice joins Angie and Mark Live from the Left Coast.

(note liveblog will be archived at Green960.com

Let’s go LIVE from the streets of San Francisco!



The number of low-income families in the US that lack safe and affordable housing is related to the number of children that suffer from asthma, viral infections, anemia, stunted growth and other health problems. About 21,000 children have stunted growth attributable to the lack of stable housing; 10,000 children between the ages of 4 and 9 are hospitalized for asthma attacks each year because of cockroach infestation at home; and more than 180 children die each year in house fires attributable to faulty electrical heating and electrical equipment. World Habitat News Facts

Women from Afghanistan, Bolivia, Cameroon, Mail, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia are training to become barefoot solar engineers in Tilonia, home of the Barefoot College in India. After 6 months training in India, they will return to their home countries and solar-electrify their own communities.Link

For a full third of our nation, home is a noteworthy topic.  For these 95 million people home isn’t a given.  It is a search, a hope, a goal.  Whether they have housing problems because of poverty, mental illness, or loss of family, they have them.  Many of these people are chronically homeless, and some are working 3 jobs and still unable to afford decent housing for their families.Thoughts on World Habitat Day; Mobile Loaves & Fishes.

What if we could find ways to engage the nation’s homeless in projects which could lead them out of poverty?   What if, instead of turning our homeless out onto the streets early each morning, we converted shelters in 21st century workshops… what if we took the ‘bottom up’ localized principles of social entrepreneurship and sustainable development that are most effective in international projects — I’m thinking here of Seva Foundation and India’s Barefoot College, and the phenomenal work of  …. hmmm … what was that guy’s name anyway? You know, the one who was hired by the Obama administration to take on molding a community based approach to greening the economy? …. ohhhhhh

…. What if we hired Van Jones to tackle this problem????

(wherein i assemble a mini VJ swag bag)Van Jones Green for All”

“Is there anyone here who ever swallowed hard and took a stand for something that you knew was unpopular? Has anybody in this room ever really, really screwed something up, and then tried again? Well, I would say if you answered yes to any of those questions, you are a social entrepreneur.”  Van Jones

“Adopt a policy or implement a program that creates environmentally beneficial jobs in slums and/or low-income neighborhoods.”

The adoption of these accords marked the beginning of the global movement for “green jobs.”

… Princeton University professor and political commentator Melissa Harris-Lacewell frames Jones’s resignation as a “kick in the gut” to the environmental justice movement, whose initiatives include creating green jobs and advocating against improper land uses and health problems in poor and minority neighborhoods … Green The Block  launches last week in DC and  from the Ella Baker Blog “Center for Human Rights where Jones was a co-founder and worked for ten years: “While most Americans would now agree that climate change is real, a new report by the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity and UC Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources uncovers what researchers call a “climate gap” or hidden pattern revealing that poor people and people of color in the United States suffer more from environmental changes than other whiter and wealthier Americans.

One more call lauding the extraordinary work of another social entrepreneur,  MacArthur Fellowship recipient David Green. Green’s lifework is about providing affordable, accessible and financially self-sustaining health care and medical technology throughout the developing world. Through the Seva Foundation, he partnered with India’s Aurolab to develop an affordable intraocular lens for cataract patients. Aurolab provides intraocular lenses to poor cataract patients at a cost of $4 – $6. (In contract, US manufactures lenses at a cost of $100-$150.) His most recent project, Conversion Sound,is based upon three concepts:  wealthy clients pay higer prices to subsidize the lower price of hearing aids to poorer clients; battery prices are lowered through use of a solar or crank-powered battery charger; and non-medical personnel are trained to fit hearing aids in a little over an hour. Additionally, custom molds are manufactured on site utlizing an instant mold making process.

Green says what motivates him is analogous to Chinese acupunture: the redirection of energy from where it is most focused to where it is most needed. He says he doesn’t work with companies;rather, he works with individuals who possess technical competence and deep rooted integrity. Green is currently addressing applicatin of his well-tested concepts of social capitalism in the design of a “Bottom of the pyramid approach to healthcare delivery to develop financially self sustaining paradigms for health services. He recently spoke at a forum in San Francisco discussing this extraordinary paradigm.

Sugggestion: What if we hired Van Jones to handle this problem? And he talked to David Green and they both talked to David Horvarth and then they all get together for a roundtable special on Angie Coiro’s Live From The Left Coast? Maybe we could get something done! (In my attempt to get things started, I’ve got the Ella Baker Center following my tweets and am following the tweets of a wide array of social entrepreneur networks in the hopes I can generate some cross-tweeting.)

As soon as the downpour started the children were out on the streets in the slums of Dhaka, celebrating the rain

One out of every three city dwellers n the world – nearly a billion people – lives in a slum. (Slum indicators include: lack of water, lack of sanitation, overcrowding, non-durable structures and insecure tenure.)

Dharavi – Asia’s largest slum, is located in the centre of Mumbai. Studies show that more than 60 percent of population of Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) lives in the slums. These slums lack basic infrastructure and is very low in hygenic and health care.

LOS ANGELES – The city attorney stood on the roof of a homeless shelter high above the human misery of Skid Row in April and announced a $1.6 million settlement from a hospital accused of dumping about 150 mentally ill patients on the streets.

Rocky Delgadillo trumpeted the penalty, castigated those who took advantage of society’s most vulnerable and praised the Union Rescue Mission’s chief executive as an inspiration for the investigation that led to the settlement.

What seemed like a big payday for the shelter and other nonprofits that have fought homelessness, mental illness and drug abuse on Skid Row for years, however, turned out to be no such bonanza. Instead, the lion’s share went to an organization in Pasadena – a suburb a dozen miles away – to provide grief counseling to school children. Link

Compare this

A member of the Tulag Tribe in Africa comments on the magical moment, as the sun sets, the world settles, the tribespeople get into their tents, boil tea …

VMA: Tell me about a moment of deep happiness for you in the desert.

MAA: It happens every day, two hours before sunset. The heat decreases, there is still no cold air, and men and animals slowly return to the compound, and their profiles are painted against a sky that is pink, blue, red, yellow, green.

VMA: That sounds fascinating.

MAA: It’s a magical moment. We all get into the tents and we boil tea. Sitting in silence we listen to the sound of the boiling water. We are immersed in calmness, with our the heart beating to the rhythm of the boiling water, potta potta potta……

VMA: How peaceful.

MAA: Yes…here you have watches; there, we have time.



from LIM News Interview with by Victor-M. Amela with Moussa Ag Assarid, a journalist and member of the Touareg tribe in Africa.

with this …

an American photographer rushes back for his camera to capture a picture of a Hobo’s tent …

i was driving past, the sun was setting, the smoke was brewing, they were still sleeping. i parked and ran back, adjusting the setting to my camera, ready set go. and then the hobos came out of their cardboard house, they didnt realise that the fire was going, they had been saving it. so this one guy stomped it out, while the other guy just sat on the curb and watched the cars go by. (i’ll put that photo up soon).

the guy who was sitting on the curb has claimed this yard for years. i used to buy him coffee every morning when i worked around the corner. he used to smile and talk some banter to me. sadly, as the years have passed he has become even more estranged with this world, he no longer talks, he can barely look me in the eyes. he rarely smiles. his smile was once so sweet, the cheekiness of a child.

recently his friend, the guy putting out the fire, set up camp next to him. they watch the people go by, the day go by, silent, but together. Cybele

Photo credits:

World Habitat Day Mosaic

Barefoot Photographers of Tilonia

Please Color My Eyes by Bu Saif

Masai Mara, by Lyndon Firman

Hobo Home by Cybele

The start of the monsoon, 2009-05-17, by Martien Van Asseldonk.

Dharavi, Mumbai by Soumak Kar

Urban Camping by James Hermann

EcoJustice series discuss environmental justice, or the disproportionate impacts on human health and environmental effects on minority communities in the U.S. and around the world. All people have a human right to clean, healthy and sustainable communities.

Almost 4 decades ago, the EPA was created partially in response to the public health problems caused in our country by environmental conditions, which included unhealthy air, polluted rivers, unsafe drinking water and waste disposal.  Oftentimes, the answer has been to locate factories and other pollution-emitting facilities in poor, culturally diverse, or minority communities.

Please join EcoJustice hosts on Monday evenings at 7PM PDT. Please email us if you are interested in hosting.

Movie marques in cities across America tonight showcase “free admission” to Michael Moore’s latest film,”Capitalism: A Love Story” for anyone who’s “fallen on hard times.”

“To kick off the national release of “Capitalism: A Love Story,” I’ve asked the studio to offer a number of screenings in the nation’s hardest hit cities — the ones with the highest unemployment rates and highest foreclosure rates — where those who’ve lost their jobs or who are in foreclosure (or have already been evicted) may attend my film free of charge,” Moore writes.  “They’ve agreed, and so tonight (Thursday), the night before our opening day, ten cities will grant you free admission if you have fallen on hard times. The list of theaters and cities is below. You don’t need to bring any proof of your situation — just show up — it’s the honor system, no questions asked. Link

The free 7:30 p.m. screenings are scheduled in Saginaw, Michigan; Elkhart Indiana;Peoria, Illinois; Las Vegas, Nevada, Fresno, California, Phoenix, Arizona, Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina;Baltimore, Maryland, Tampa/St. Pete/Florida and Cleveland, Ohio. For information on theater locations, click here.

“Capitalism, A Love Story” debuts tomorrow.

(from dmott9’s flickr photostream

It’s all over save for news on what’s next for residents of Nickelsville, a Seattle, Washington, homeless camp where earlier today 12 residents were arrested after refusing to comply with police requests that they leave the property or face arrest.

This is not the first ‘wipe out’ for this homeless population, which last September was booted from its makeshift homes and tents and relocated in July to a park at the Port of Seattle’s Terminal 107.

As promised, at around 2 p.m. this afternoon, 30-40 police officers, entered the encampment. By that time most of the residents had left, after being informed through loudspeakers that they faced arrest and charges of second degree criminal trespassing.

Arrestees were led in ones and twos out of the camp accompanied by two or three police officers. Kevin Dockery, a Nickelsville resident, was sitting on a milk crate in a central location of camp, visible to all spectators. Several officers encircled him. An officer took his cane and laid it down next to him. Dockery and the officers talked for several minutes. Eventually he stood and was led out of camp by a few officers, unhandcuffed, using his cane. A couple of other arrested Nickelodeons were also allowed to leave camp without being cuffed.

Another arrestee was supporter Dorli Rainey, who is 82 years old. Link

Yesterday, homeless advocate Shannon Moriarty, who writes for End Homelessness for change.org, called for a protest to support allowing Nicolodeans to remain where they had settled, but despite a sleepover outside the Mayor’s house, today’s wipeout of Nickelsville went off without a hitch.

Nickelsville: September, 2008.

The state has ordered campers to clear out of their current site on Port of Seattle Property along West Marginal Way. The port says the camp is there illegally.

The deadline to leave was 1 p.m., but some residents elected not to leave. They face the possibility of arrest as events unfold this afternoon.

Police were on site after the deadline today, talking to the residents who remained.

There are roughly 80 residents at Nickelsville. They’ve been camping on Port of Seattle land for two months. Link

The eviction  began last Friday when residents were forced to move to a parking lot nearby their encampment.

“The newly built structures were torn down by police, stakes were broken and some of the tents lost. Estimated property loss of the sweeps is over $2,000.” September ’08. (See nickelsvilleseattle.org)

No word on any plans for where these homeless will be offered shelter.

The 26 September 07 raid. “Police fenced off the Nickelsville campground & toilets) after moving everyone to the concrete parking lot. Does not make sense to me.”

Once again, America forgets its promise:

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus (The Statue of Liberty

The residents held sleepover demonstration outside the Mayor’s house two nights back.

(crossposted at DailyKos on Sunday)

After ten years on the beat, a former San Jose, California, police officer reflects – in poignant pictures and words – on her lifelong experiences with the homeless. Even during her childhood years, when her parents (caring for the needs of a family of 12) had difficulty making ends meet from time to time, Paula Craig Steele learned the importance of giving to those less fortunate.  

Tonight, Steele, disabled since 2005 with skeletal and mental health problems incurred during her years of public service, shares her story. She reports from San Leandro, California, where homelessness is an ever-present reality, highly visible by dozens upon dozens of foreclosures in her middle-class neighborhood.  She fears that if her husband loses his job, it may be a matter of a mere six months before they too become just one more statistic in the alarmingly expanding population of those who are ‘Homeless in America.’

Take it away, Paula.

A Fallen Angel, taken on Howard St. @ 6th St., in the “6th Street Beautification Corridor” of San Francisco, CA, on 11/20/2006. Photo by Paula Craig Steele.

(crossposted at DailyKos)Can a single individual make a dent in the homelessness crisis in America?  

Meet Jory John, former programs director at 826 Valencia and creator of The Peanut Butter Plan, and Mark Horvarth, a formerly homeless Hollywood video producer, who is heading back home from a 2 1/2 month long road trip blogging (he’s Hardly Normal), photographing, filming, and interacting with community service organizations, volunteers and the nation’s homeless for InvisiblePeople.tv.

As new P&J volunteer centers spring up across the US and The Peanut Butter Facebook group swells past 2000, John discusses his quest to expand and improve his fledgling organization, to maximize impact. And Horvarth, on the final leg of his road trip across America, is undoubtedly changed forever by the ‘shock and awe’ of documenting our nation’s ‘invisible people.”

The most significant thing uniting these two men? The realization that “there’s no turning back.”

stellaroo’s diary:

On any given night, 671,859 people are homeless in America.  More than 40,000 of us catch what zzz’s we can within LAs “Skid Row,” a 50-square foot block which is rapidly gaining prominence as ‘ground zero’ for homelessness in the U.S.

People experience homelessness for a host of reasons: unforeseen financial emergencies, addiction and mental illness, and – often – financial/economic distress.

Shannon Moriarty, who writes regularly in her change.org series >End Homelessness, urges all of us to recognize and avoid the three euphemisms recently being used to identify the crisis: economic refugees, structurally challenged, and transient. The word ‘homeless,’ she writes, conveys specific images which in turn give rise to judgments and stereotypes.

“But the word “homeless” should mean nothing more than a person’s state of being at a moment in time,” she says. “It should not imply anything about a person’s character, work ethic, appearance, health, or intellect.  

“In other words, “homeless” means just that – not having a home.”

Early today Mark Horvarth, on a road trip across the US for InvisiblePeopleTV, interviews Steve Berg, Vice President of the National Coalition of the Homeless.

Haight Ashbury Homeless. 2009. Photo by Lizzy Phelan.

According to new figures compiled by the Coalition, California ranks second only to Florida in the number of attacks on homeless individuals: 22 homeless people were attacked in California in 2008, including 10 deaths. California Second in the Nation in Attacks on Homeless Aug. 21, 2009.  Due to increased violent attacks against the nation’s homeless population, the  Coalition is taking the lead in a countrywide campaign to include homeless in groups protected by federal hate crime legislation. After Maryland earlier this year expanded its hate crime laws to include attacks on the homeless, five other states are considering following the lead of Maryland, where earlier this year hate crime laws were amended to include attacks against homeless individuals and groups.

In July, nearly 86,000 YouTube videos portrayed situations which were degrading homeless people. The media is reporting that there is an increase in online videos that record beatings and violence against homeless people.

Ending Homeless writer Moriarty discusses why homeless are victims of“Bum Fight” videos:

“Bum fights” are videos of homeless people being beaten or forced into humiliating acts. Usually, those filming (and instigating the antics) use money or alcohol to lure homeless people into participating in these schemes, often with no knowledge that they will be posted on the web.”

A federal bill addressing violence against the homeless was introduced in Congress just prior to summer recess.

More from LA: Visit Holes in Safety Net Getting Bigger

Chicago



Chicago Union Station. 2009. Photo by Neal Rauhauser.

Five homeless Chicago teenagers were awarded $2,000 college scholarships by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) for succeeding in school despite facing homelessness. Three of the students lived alone, without family, while finishing school.  

Arizona

Scottsale, AZ. First Homeless Shelter

Family Promise recently moved its offices to Scottsdale after purchasing a small apartment complex near Scottsdale and McDowell roads. The property at 7221 E. Belleview St. serves as the Family Promise offices, and includes a family center as well as a place to help parents in the program look for jobs, work on resumes and list an address for their job search.

Within 60 to 90 days, about 70 percent of the families have found better housing and a job, Love said.

Homeless interventions traditionally involve a van picking up families from participating churches at 4:30 am and returning them in time for dinner by 5pm. Many programs are available for one to three months. Now, Family Promise’s transitional housing is available for six to nine months, with the hope that the additional time and support will assist more families in becoming self-sufficient.  

Photo by Neal Rauhauser

Boston

Be the changer or the changed

Boston Street Retreat: Episode One

“I spent the last three days and two nights sleeping out on the streets in Boston with no money, food, water, or anything other than the clothes on my back, a towel, a sweatshirt, my camera, and a street pack.

“It was the most powerful experience I have ever had; welcoming, frightening, relaxing, sketchy, beautiful, and inspirational.

I will be writing several blogs about the people I met the experience I had throughout the week so check back soon.”  

From the Streets of San Francisco

Haight Homeless. 2009. Photo by Lizzy Phelan.

Starting with 2003 when the 1993 SF Chronicle series Shame of the City,reporters and photographers began spotlighting the growing crisis of homelessness in the city. Even with Mayor Gavin Newsom’s Project Homeless Connect, the homeless crisis in this city escalates … and the SFGate has re-activated the ’03 series with new stories.

Homeless#2. 2009. Photo by Lizzy Phelan

The federal government has granted San Francisco nearly $9 million of the $1.5 billion Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HRRP)in federal stimulus funds aimed at combating homelessness through a program designed to intervene at the community level with preventive and re-housing measures. Listen to NPR: Some Stimulus Money Preventing Homelessness, July 2009



San Francisco Homeless 3.2009 Photo by Lizzy Phelan

Nine years ago, the National Alliance to End Homelessness stated: “As a nation, we do a lot to address homelessness-build shelters, distribute food and blankets and the like. What we don’t do is prevent homelessness or help people exit homelessness.” And though the funds from HPRP are not sufficient, the organization is hopeful in the about the change in direction towards prevention with rental assistance and housing search.

Live from New York

The New York City Rescue Alliance, a faith-based partnership of ministries and churches “focused on offering every man or woman living on the streets of New York an alternative to their plight” recently produced the powerful video Don’t Walk By, a call out to New Yorkers to reach out to more than 3000 city homeless city residents and who is my neighbor.  

“People sometimes ask, will the stimulus money we receive be enough to help us through this unprecedented difficult period of time? And, you know, I don’t know the answer to that. But what I do know is it would give us a fighting chance” ROB HESS (Department of Homeless Services, New York City) who plans to utilize most of the plans to use most of the $74 million in stimulus money his agency will receive to improve community centers as they deal with a growing number of families in need of assistance.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, DC Homeless. Photo by Neal Rauhauser

LA Homeless Blog: Can a new bill end homelessness for veterans?



Homeless Media

The Soloist

“Then picture your life unraveling at lightening speed, your confidence eroding, your grasp on reality slipping away. One day you’re at the Juilliard School of Music with a promising future and then, in just a few years, you’re homeless, living on the sidewalks of Los Angeles, serenading passers-by with rambling attempts at classical music.” from What ‘The Soloist’ Tells Us about Homelessness and Mental Illness

Take Action

1. 10 actions

2. Take the Pledge never to judge a homeless person link

3. Give Kids a Shot  Play word games and for each answer you get correct, the organization donate funds to purchase .01ml of vaccine for the GAVI Alliance

4. Add your archives, report in from your community, volunteer for a diary, or join our project.

Archiving Homelessness

One Brave Kossack: Medically Homeless Archive

Homelessness Poverty Blogs

InvisiblePeople TVInvisible People.TV Group Pool

“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 DK BrokenRoots project team will discuss, create and promote Daily Kos diaries on these issues, connect bloggers; create projects, and share related news and resources.”

Last month I wrote a diary at GOS, Criminalization of the Poor regarding  an increasing trend in many urban areas in arresting homeless people for minor infractions in order to get them off the streets and into the penal system. Barbara Ehrenreich has addressed the same issue in an op-ed in today’s NYT with Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor?

Ehrenreich raises the point that, “I’d be content with a consensus that, if we can’t afford to truly help the poor, neither can we afford to go on tormenting them.” It seems very clear now that even if the nation’s economy is reaching a plateau in certain sectors, it will be a long and painful road for many in finding their own equilibrium or comfort zone with the basics of employment, shelter and life’s other necessities. We as a nation must make sure that we do not become increasingly authoritarian with those who have the least among us. We should avoid turning our safety nets into dragnets.