ADDENDUM::Is California Back?

Normally when I post about social issues such as homelessness, it is a one sided affair. The Repgugs/TPers usually close their eyes and plug their ears hoping the issue(s) will go away. They have denial down to a science, whether it be as the "party of no" or denial just because well, you know,,,because that guy in the White House thinks it's a good idea. So any time there is an inkling of "concern" from the right, it is news. Or in this case, a PR event for a political campaign.

That was my mind-set going into watching the attached video and I will admit it hasn't changed all that much. BUT I think what Kashkari did was admirable, a Republican drawing attention to poverty and homelessness within California.

",,,but I leave here optimistic because the people I have met haven't given up on themselves or California."

Is California Back?

What Happens When A Congressman Spends A Night Among The Homeless | ThinkProgress

But blending in wasn’t really the point. Bonding was. “The more interesting part of the evening,” Takano said, “was that for the most part homeless people are invisible to most of us. There’s very few of us who will voluntarily interact with them in a normal homeless setting, whether it’s a part of town where homeless people are, or they’re panhandling, or somewhere on the street, we’re not apt to find some reason to interact with them.” Ever since Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) spent her own night in a shelter back in February and challenged colleagues to do the same, people like Takano have started trying to familiarize themselves with what homelessness is really like in America.

What Happens When A Congressman Spends A Night Among The Homeless | ThinkProgress

This Ingenious Hoodie Could Save Homeless People's Lives

Normally I am all for innovative ideas that help the homeless, this, I just can't get behind. Many here in the US rail against the wearing of niqab in conjunction with a hijab because we consider it de-humanizing to women. How is this any different? Doesn't covering up someone's face tend to de-humanize them thereby making them easier to victimize? Joseph Merrick comes to mind.

"...[I]t allows the wearer to be in public, and remain somewhat inconspicuous." Ask Tryvon Martin how well that worked out.

Sorry I don't see anything good about this product and not just in regards to use by the homeless.
__
When Anders Hsi constructed a hoodie that zips up the front of a wearer’s face, he had in mind a person who values his privacy, like a passenger on an airplane.

But when a homeless man named Joe approached Hsi and was eager to try on the innovative sweatshirt, Hsi realized his product could take on an entirely new mission, Mashable reported.

This Ingenious Hoodie Could Save Homeless People's Lives

UPDATE::Florida Couple Cleared of All Fines for Feeding Homeless People - NBC News.com

Daytona Beach police dismissed Wednesday more than $2,000 in fines levied against a Florida couple - and four of their friends - for feeding homeless people at a park, local authorities confirmed to NBC News.

"They've dropped all the charges. But we’re not going to stop feeding people around here. We’ve been doing that all along," said Debbie Jimenez, who, with her husband, Chico, was ticketed for trespassing and violating a local law that bars individuals from sharing food with homeless people in public places.

The Jimenezes met Wednesday with Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood and a city attorney, who agreed to waive the citations and accompanying fines, and urged the couple to apply for a city permit if they seek to continue publicly providing food to homeless people, Debbie Jimenez said.

[,,,]
Chico Jimenez vowed to return to city offices on Thursday to apply for a permit to re-launch the weekly hot-meal service. He is not expecting to be granted that legal paperwork, he said.

"I still want to be able to feed at Manatee Park because we’ve been feeding people there for a year. I'm more than positive that they’re not going to allow me to do that," Chico Jimenez said. "And when they turn me down, my lawyer will file a lawsuit against the city for violating our civil rights."

Florida Couple Cleared of All Fines for Feeding Homeless People - NBC News.com

Florida Couple Fined, Threatened with Jail for Feeding Homeless - NBC News.com

Leaving the politics and religion out of this situation, how can a compromise not be found? As a country we have a tendency to pretend that the homeless do not exist. They do exist and we should be addressing ways to eliminate the reasons they are growing in numbers.

The article doesn't cite what laws or codes where violated, but I do not believe their court case will bode well for them. Maybe some good can come of it.

And WTH is the Police Chief Mike Chitwood thinking with his comments?

In all, police officers ticketed six people, including four volunteers who helped the Jimenezes on Wednesday – one of them, a man in a wheelchair who recently escaped homelessness and participated “to pay it forward,” Debbie Jimenez said. The fines levied by authorities total $2,238.

But Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood said the Jimenezes had been warned one week earlier to stop their weekly feeding sessions after local residents complained that some homeless people gathering in the park were defecating and urinating on the grounds, and that some were showing up drunk at dawn.

"We as a city have spent millions of dollars to turn that park into a place for families, kids and dog lovers," Chitwood said. "We have an ordinance that says when people want to perform acts of kindness or charity that they must coordinate with our local social service agencies.

"They were told (the previous Wednesday) that if they come back there, they would be cited and they could risk going to jail," Chitwood said. "There is a segment of the homeless population that is homeless by choice. I don't want to impugn them all. But some are homeless because they are sex offenders, substance abusers and bank robbers. That's why we ask (Good Samaritans) to coordinate with our social service agencies, because they know who needs to be served."

"We as a city have spent millions of dollars to turn that park into a place for families, kids and dog lovers."

The big-buck investments made by Daytona Beach to rebuild Manatee Island Park include boat docks, kayak-launching sites and spots to view families of manatees - plus playgrounds, picnic areas and a dog area, Chitwood said.

The Jimenezes contend they never were warned to stay away.

Florida Couple Fined, Threatened with Jail for Feeding Homeless - NBC News.com

See also:  Police halt homeless feedings in Daytona Beach park

This article offers a bit more back story, though I still find it troubling. I am smelling partisan politics with a tinge of profitability through privatization.

“The ordinance is there, so if we catch you, we're going to cite you,” Police Chief Mike Chitwood said Thursday. “If you want to feed people, and you want to do a good, Christian act, we encourage you to coordinate with the social service agencies.”

[,,,]
Each case pits the case for charity against city governments that are trying to keep parks from becoming regular destinations for the homeless. That is especially true in Daytona Beach, which recently hired a nationally known consultant, Robert Marbut, to work on plans for Volusia Safe Harbor, a proposed transitional shelter that would become the central place for the homeless to stay, eat and seek help.

“We've always done it,” Chitwood said of enforcing the no-feeding law, “but clearly we're hoping we're on the threshold here of making this Safe Harbor project come through. There's plenty of places and plenty of ways you can do acts of charity without violating an ordinance.”

Marbut has told city leaders that feeding the homeless in parks or handing out supplies under bridges worsens the cycle of homelessness because it doesn't get people the lasting help they actually need.

Artist Builds Charming Mobile Homeless Shelters Out Of Garbage

I love how this man thinks and what he has done with his talents. Hopefully this will become another viable option in dealing with homelessness and not a target in some shortsighted political figure's mind.
__
A California-based artist recently gave up peddling expensive sculptures to rich people to build shelters for the homeless -- made completely out of garbage.

When Gregory Kloehn realized that his pricy sculptures were just "sitting there" in wealthy people's homes, he decided he needed to make a meaningful change, he told the Oakland Tribune. Inspired by the home environmental movement, the Oakland, Calif., artist started building and selling non-traditional houses, and giving away mobile shelters to people in need.

The resourceful artist collects illegally discarded garbage and uses it to build shelters that are about the size of a sofa, according to the news outlet. The foundation is usually composed of wood pallets and some are insulated with pizza delivery bags. All come equipped with wheels and a pitched roof and some have a mirror and a cup holder.

To date, Kloehn has built 10 such homes.

[,,,]
As word of his homelessness project has begun to spread in Oakland, Kloehn has seen an influx of volunteers willing to help. He noted on his Facebook page that people have come forward to donate money, materials and workspace, and he's invited supporters to come by and help him build.

Kloehn isn’t the only advocate out there who’s using unconventional materials to build housing for people in need.

Timothy Pain, CEO of Forest YMCA in London, was tired of seeing vulnerable youth graduate from his group’s supported housing program, only to be priced out by the area’s soaring rent.

That’s when he got the idea to launch mYPad, a program that imports shipping containers from China and turns them into affordable studio apartments.

Artist Builds Charming Mobile Homeless Shelters Out Of Garbage

People Disguised As Homeless Ignored By Loved Ones On Street In Stunning Social Experiment

If a family member posed as a homeless person, would you recognize him or her?

That's the question a new campaign -- Make Them Visible -- is asking. In a video produced by ad agency Silver + Partners and Smuggler for the New York City Rescue Mission, several people come face-to-face with their relatives and significant others dressed as homeless people. However, not a single participant recognizes their mother, brother or wife.

"There’s only one person that didn’t make it into the film -- because they couldn’t handle the fact that they walked by their family," video director Jun Diaz of Smuggler production company told Fast Company. "It happened every time."

The jarring social experiment, staged in Tribeca and Soho near the mission's shelter, shows just how invisible homeless people are to pedestrians on the street.

People Disguised As Homeless Ignored By Loved Ones On Street In Stunning Social Experiment

Florida City About To Make It Illegal For Homeless People To Have Possessions In Public | ThinkProgress

A backpack. Spare clothes. A notebook. Some keepsake photos. Crackers.

Though they may not have a home in which to secure their stuff, homeless people still have possessions like everyone else.

Yet the city of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida is on the cusp of passing a new regulation that would make it illegal for anyone to store their personal things on public property. Specifically, it would empower police to confiscate any personal possessions stored on public property, provided they have given the homeless person 24-hours notice. If the homeless people wish to retrieve their items, they must pay the city “reasonable charges for storage and removal of the items,” though that fee is waived if the person is able to demonstrate he or she cannot afford to pay. The city may dispose of any possessions not retrieved within 30 days. One of the driving factors behind the measure, according to the legislation, is the city’s “interest in aesthetics.”

Last week, the City Commission gave unanimous preliminary approval to the measure, despite overwhelming opposition from local residents who testified.

Florida City About To Make It Illegal For Homeless People To Have Possessions In Public | ThinkProgress

Tiny Houses for the Homeless: An Affordable Solution Catches On by Erika Lundahl — YES! Magazine

I knew I had briefly written about the "Tiny House Movement" before just couldn't remember when or under what context. It was in January in regards to Senator Tom Murphy's vacation day spent with a homeless gentleman.

In my comments about having just the basics necessities (food and shelter), I pointed to an article concerning the Tiny House Movement. It's good to see that this idea is gathering support and so many are volunteering property, supplies and time.

Erika Lundahl, in this piece lays out the continuing growth as well as some of the challenges faced by the grass-root organizations pushing to house the homeless.
 --

On a Saturday in September, more than 125 volunteers showed up with tools in hand and built six new 16-by-20-foot houses for a group of formerly homeless men. It was the beginning of Second Wind Cottages, a tiny-house village for the chronically homeless in the town of Newfield, N.Y., outside of Ithaca.

On January 29, the village officially opened, and its first residents settled in. Each house had cost about $10,000 to build, a fraction of what it would have cost to house the men in a new apartment building.

The project is part of a national movement of tiny-house villages, an alternative approach to housing the homeless that's beginning to catch the interest of national advocates and government housing officials alike.

[,,,]
Many other tiny-house projects are just beginning to get of the ground, raise money, find land, and gain approval from local officials and members of the public. But the unorthodox nature of the small houses presents unique legal zoning limitations and barriers that limit where tiny houses can be stationed.

In Madison, Wisc., Occupy Madison has been facing this very challenge, as the group forged ahead with plans for a tiny house village.

[,,,]
"There were some great moments throughout the Occupy movement where a lot of dialogue was going on between the people without homes and the people with homes," says Allen Barkoff, one of the board members of Occupy Madison, Inc., a nonprofit formed in December 2012 to address the need for legal places where homeless people in Madison could congregate and stay safe. The organization first looked into buying an apartment building or a shared house for the homeless but ultimately settled on tiny houses as the most flexible and economical way to create homes for people.

[,,,]
Efforts to break through the red tape and raise money to house the homeless almost always pay off for a community. Even the most expensive tiny-house projects—such as a new, ambitious $6-million campaign to build a 200-person tiny-house park this year in Austin, Texas—can't rival the cost of homelessness to taxpayers, which was more than $10 million per year in Austin, for example, as YES! reported in December 2013.

"Chronically homeless people—people who have disabilities and are homeless for long periods of time—can be very expensive to systems of public care," explains Roman. In 2007, the National Alliance to End Homelessness compiled three studies showing that it costs the same or less money to provide permanent housing as it does to allow people to remain homeless. In Denver, Colo., a housing program for the homeless reduced the costs of public services (including medical services, temporary shelter, and costs associated with arrests and incarceration) by an estimated $15,773 per person per year, saving taxpayers thousands of dollars.

Government officials and city planners are beginning to see the tiny-house village as one viable solution for addressing homelessness.

Tiny Houses for the Homeless: An Affordable Solution Catches On by Erika Lundahl — YES! Magazine

Program to End Homelessness Among Veterans Reaches a Milestone in Arizona - NYTimes.com

In 2011, by a city count, there were 222 chronically homeless veterans here, a vulnerable, hard-to-reach population of mostly middle-age men, virtually all battling some type of physical or mental ailment along with substance abuse. Federal and city officials acknowledged that was not an exact number, but it is widely regarded as the best measure of the veteran population.

Last month, the last 41 members of that group were placed in temporary housing. Shane Groen, a director at the Arizona Coalition to End Homelessness, one of the city’s partners in the program, said the goal was to have them all in permanent housing by Feb. 14.

[,,,]
“We do think we can get to the point where we can say there are no more homeless veterans in the country,” Laura Zeilinger, deputy director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, which coordinates the federal response to homelessness, said in an interview. “And if we do this for veterans, it’s something that as a nation, if we set our mind to, we can achieve for other populations as well.”

Arizona has more homeless veterans than most other states — roughly one in five homeless adults, according to statistics from the state’s Department of Veterans’ Services. In an interview, Greg Stanton, the mayor of Phoenix and a longtime proponent of increasing investment and partnerships on homeless outreach, characterized the recent achievement as “important because we’re helping people in need, but also important because it helps our economy.”

[,,,]
Across the country, the strategy is centered on an approach called Housing First, through which a home is not treated as a reward for good behavior. As Ms. Zeilinger put it, it is instead “the platform of stability that lets previously homeless people work on the other issues they’re facing,” like mental illness and addiction, which are particularly common among the chronically homeless. The term is defined as those who have continuously lived on the streets for a year or have done so at least four times over three years.

Program to End Homelessness Among Veterans Reaches a Milestone in Arizona - NYTimes.com

Congresswoman sleeps in a homeless shelter - Politics Blog

So, I have highlighted some of the recent negativity surrounding homelessness and how states have been dealing with the issue(s). Let's look how one representative of Congress who is trying to put people behind the statistics, “It would help us appreciate who we are talking about. We rattle off numbers, but it doesn’t speak about the people themselves.”

Just as Neel Kashkari and Chris Murphy before her, Speier wanted to learn first-hand about poverty. Reminiscent of the SNAP challenge she partook in last year, this foray into learning about poverty lasted only one night.

But now, with the most extreme split in generations between rich and poor in America, the issue of want and inequality is more urgent than it’s been in a long time. Democrats have one way of approaching it, Republicans another. Speier thinks both sides of the aisle would find her experience at the Redwood City shelter instructive.

[,,,]
The point, she said, is that there were a lot of working poor with nowhere else to go. You don’t wind up in a homeless shelter because your life is humming along — plenty of homeless have mental, substance abuse or other troubles that threw them off line and need counseling to fix. But it seems an increasing number are landing in the street because, in this economy, they can’t make enough money at their jobs to pay for their own place to live.

“It was such a profound experience to realize that we have just allowed our safety net to fray to the extent that the people in poverty who are homeless are not all drunks on the street,” Speier said. The stereotype was never accurate, she said, and it’s less so now than ever.

{For those of you old enough to remember Speier's name may sounds familiar. In 1978 she was a member of Congressman Leo J. Ryan's entourage that was gunned downed at the beginning of the Jim Jones fiasco in Guyana. Shot 5 times she lay for 23 hours on the airstrip before being rescued. Nine hundred people lost their lives in that tragedy.]


Congresswoman sleeps in a homeless shelter - Politics Blog

'Exile The Homeless' City Now Requires Permits And Large Fees To Feed The Homeless | ThinkProgress

As I mentioned in the previous postings, this apparent attack on the homeless is not just a Florida thing. Florida just happens to be in the news this week (along with South Carolina). Numerous states and cities, over the course of the last few years, seem to be under the impression that they can simply make being homeless illegal and it will go away.

The list is large: Atlanta, Phoenix, San Diego Los Angeles, Miami, Oklahoma City and more than 50 other cities have previously adopted some kind of anti-camping or anti-food-sharing laws, according to the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty.

But lets take a look at what South Carolina has done:

Last August, the city of Columbia, South Carolina approved a new plan to give its homeless population an impossible choice: leave downtown or be arrested.

The city is now taking even more steps to criminalize homelessness. On Saturday, it will begin to strictly enforce an old and seldom-used ordinance requiring groups of 25 or more to obtain a permit and pay a hefty fee before congregating in a public park.

One impacted charity that was interviewed by the Free Times, Food Not Bombs, has been serving food to the homeless in Finlay Park every Sunday for 12 years. The group’s organizer, Judith Turnipseed, noted that the group has an impeccable track record and always tidies up after the meal. But with the new crackdown, Food Not Bombs will have to pay at least $120 per week for the right to feed the homeless, an extremely tall order for a group that’s not even an official 501(c)(3) organization but just serves out of the goodness of its heart.

'Exile The Homeless' City Now Requires Permits And Large Fees To Feed The Homeless | ThinkProgress

Florida Town That Banned Blankets For The Homeless Reverses Course

So we have one municipality in Florida burning $5 million every ten years or so. Then in another part of the state we have dimwits who thought it would be fun to watch homeless individuals turn into popsicles.

Thankfully the backlash has been swift and severe for Pensicola:

A Florida town is attempting to repeal its ban on homeless people using blankets and other means of shelter and comfort.

The Pensacola City Council voted unanimously on Thursday to upend what became known as the “blanket ban,” and pending a second vote later this month the ban will be repealed, the Pensacola News-Journal reports. The 2013 law made it illegal to sleep “out-of-doors…adjacent to or inside a tent or sleeping bag, or atop and/or covered by materials such as a bedroll, cardboard, newspapers, or inside some form of temporary shelter.” The initiative referred to homelessness as “camping,” a benign term that minimizes the plight of people lacking reliable access to food and shelter.

And to be clear, this is not "just" a Florida thing:

Columbia, South Carolina has threatened to arrest homeless people for congregating in public and wants to charge high fees to charities that feed the homeless. St. Louis, Los Angeles, Raleigh, and Harrisburg have all considered or passed measures that make it harder to help the homeless. Pensacola Councilman Charles Bare assessed the nature of such initiatives by lambasting his own city’s criminalization of homelessness.

Florida Town That Banned Blankets For The Homeless Reverses Course

A Florida County Spent Over $5 Million Jailing Homeless People. It Could've Spent Less On Shelter

I find this interesting as it is such a contrast when compared to what Utah is doing (add to that Arizona as per the article.)

A Florida county has spent more than $5 million over the past nine years throwing chronically homeless people in jail, when it could have spent considerably less finding them shelter.

In its annual report on the state of homelessness in Osceola County, Fla., Impact Homelessness -- a local advocacy group -- found that the county continues to spend a pretty penny on imprisoning people who live on the streets, instead of helping to rehabilitate them.

The county has at least 300 homeless people sleeping on the streets every night. Most of those people have physical disabilities and/or mental illnesses. Many of them are veterans.

Impact Homelessness investigated the number of people who have been put in prison because of "crimes" related to homelessness, including panhandling, sleeping outside and trespassing. One section of the report focused on the "frequent flyers" -- people who have been arrested over and over again for homeless-related crimes.

[,,,]
Part of what makes "no sense" is the fact that the county could spend considerably less money on finding housing for the homeless instead of temporarily sending them to jail.

Providing permanent supportive housing and ongoing case management for one person would come to $9,602 annually, according to the report. That's 35 percent less than what it costs to put homeless people in jail.

[,,,]
The Obama administration has pledged to put an end to veteran homelessness by 2015 and Salt Lake City, Utah, and Phoenix, Ariz., have already succeeded in doing so, The New York Times reported.

Two years ago, Phoenix, Ariz., identified 222 homeless veterans and the remaining 56 were placed in housing last December -- an accomplishment officials attribute to a collaboration between the city council and key state and federal partners, azfamily.com reported.

A Florida County Spent Over $5 Million Jailing Homeless People. It Could've Spent Less On Shelter

What to do about the RV guy on my Brentwood street - latimes.com

"Will his eyesore of an RV lower property values?"
__________
There is a drama unfolding on the street in front of my condo building in Brentwood. For the last four months, an RV with a trailer hitch has been regularly parked on the block. Clunky and well worn, it easily takes up two parking spaces. A fluffy white American Eskimo dog often perches in the passenger seat.

How to get the man who lives in the RV off our block has been a constant topic of discussion in my building. He complies with most city ordinances. He drives off the block for weekly street cleanings. He seems to move his RV just enough to avoid being towed. There is a city law against living or sleeping in your car, but it's difficult to enforce and is being challenged in court.

[,,,]
He says he is willing to work at almost anything. So I have a proposition for my neighbors. Instead of putting all that effort into making calls to impose new restrictions, what if we made a few phone calls to homeless advocates who might help find Alexander-Alizadeh some work and a place to live?


What to do about the RV guy on my Brentwood street - latimes.com

Utah is Ending Homelessness by Giving People Homes | NationofChange

How did Utah accomplish this? Simple. Utah solved homelessness by giving people homes. In 2005, Utah figured out that the annual cost of E.R. visits and jail stays for homeless people was about $16,670 per person, compared to $11,000 to provide each homeless person with an apartment and a social worker. So, the state began giving away apartments, with no strings attached. Each participant in Utah’s Housing First program also gets a caseworker to help them become self-sufficient, but they keep the apartment even if they fail. The program has been so successful that other states are hoping to achieve similar results with programs modeled on Utah’s.

It sounds like Utah borrowed a page from Homes Not Handcuffs, the 2009 report by The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and The National Coalition for the Homeless. Using a 2004 survey and anecdotal evidence from activists, the report concluded that permanent housing for the homeless is cheaper than criminalization. Housing is not only more human, it’s economical.

This happened in a Republican state! Republicans in Congress would probably have required the homeless to take a drug test before getting an apartment, denied apartments to homeless people with criminal records, and evicted those who failed to become self-sufficient after five years or so. But Utah’s results show that even conservative states can solve problems like homelessness with decidedly progressive solutions.

Utah is Ending Homelessness by Giving People Homes | NationofChange

From the Pentagon to life in a van - Philly.com

This is,,, I was going to say wrong, but."He receives an annual pension from the military of more than $40,000." So why is he homeless,,,

"His struggle to find a job after retiring from the Air Force collided with the end of his marriage nearly two years ago. Unable to return to the home he shared with his estranged wife, and faced with expenses including bills for two sons in college and debts that mounted when he maintained a nicer lifestyle, he took up a nomadic existence."

Despite my reservations concerning this particular story, this should not be happening to our veterans: "As of January 2012, more than 60,000 veterans were homeless, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Reducing that number has been a priority for the Obama administration - and the number of homeless veterans dropped 24 percent nationwide from 2009 to 2013. In Pennsylvania, however, it jumped 46 percent, to more than 1,400."
__________

After a 30-year military career in which he earned three graduate degrees, rose to the rank of colonel, and served as an aide to Pentagon brass, Robert Freniere can guess what people might say when they learn he's unemployed and lives out of his van:

Why doesn't this guy get a job as a janitor?

Freniere answers his own question: "Well, I've tried that."

Freniere, 59, says that his plea for help, to a janitor he once praised when the man was mopping the floors of his Washington office, went unfulfilled. So have dozens of job applications, he says, the ones he has filled out six hours a day, day after day, on public library computers.

So Freniere, a man who braved multiple combat zones and was hailed as "a leading light" by an admiral, is now fighting a new battle: homelessness.

From the Pentagon to life in a van - Philly.com

A Senator Walks In A Homeless Man's Shoes | New Haven Independent

One caveat before I begin, I am very well aware that there will always be some type of suffering around us. I spoke of it briefly in regards to Stephen Fincher's asinine interpretation of 2 Thessalonians 3:10 and how he, in his zeal, ignores Christ's teachings in Matthew, "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal."

To those that say, "Stop using these poor people as propaganda." I ask, where the hell is the Reich. They sure didn't show any concern in June, when 26 Democrats took the SNAP Challenge to draw attention to House Republicans cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

And no, being poor does not highlight the Darwinian concept of survival of the fittest.  To borrow a bit from Aristotle, we are rational, thinking animals who are able to come together to form a society whereby everyone should be properly cared for.  Unless of course you are a member of the Reich. Mankind (should) continue to evolve as a society, the so-called law of the jungle, no longer applies.

Here's my point, have we learned nothing in our time on this flying rock we call home.  I am not asking for a Utopia here, just some order and stability. Imagine what we (as a nation) could accomplish if everyone had, at the very least, the basic necessities of life; food  and shelter (see also this innovative idea: Could a Tiny House Movement End Homelessness?) And yes, I do blame the Reich for their greed, nothing good ever happens when a select few keep everything for themselves when there is more than enough to go around. It is impossible to have a stable society that way.

With that being said, I applaud Senator Murphy for at least exploring this issue by stepping "outside the boardroom."

“I learned what’s involved in getting out at 7:30 a.m.”—when the shelter expects residents to be up and about job searching, going to their support groups—“and keeping your life together until they let you back in” at 3 p.m., said Murphy.

[,,,]
“This is a guy who’s trying hard, with kids, trying to get a job back. He’s clean; he’s in recovery. He’s worked his entire life. His path is getting himself straight, and then he’s whacked by a bad economy,” said Murphy.

Of course the picture is complicated. Murphy said that he and Fred as they trudged also spent a lot of time talking about Fred’s difficult upbringing, the drug culture from which it’s difficult to break free.

[,,,]
Murphy said his eight hours on the hard urban streets with Fred didn’t so much provide new illumination as put flesh and bones and shoe leather on what he’d already perceived.

He did say that he was moved by the amount of hope and planning out there.

“As sobering as a day like this is, it’s slightly inspirational to hear these guys think there is still a better day coming. Each of these guys has a path, but without the resources to execute the plan, they’re stuck,” he said.

A Senator Walks In A Homeless Man's Shoes | New Haven Independent

See also:
Senator Spends Vacation Day With Homeless Man To Learn About The Challenges He Faces

His drive to get back on his feet is clearly strong. What was really holding Nick back, however, was his lack of an address. Even though Nick has worked for 20 years and has an impressive résumé, he’s caught in something of a catch-22, Murphy told ThinkProgress by phone Thursday. “He can’t get a job without a permanent address and can’t get a permanent address without a job.” Nick used the address of the shelter on applications, but some employers might harbor prejudice against those who can’t afford a home.

If there’s one thing Murphy took away from the experience, it’s a better sense of how critical stable housing is as a foundation for solving other problems. “Without a place to live, Nick can’t find a job,” Murphy said. “Without a house, it’s much harder for him to kick his drug habit.” But without more affordable housing in Connecticut and funding for the poor, it’s extremely difficult for people like Nick to leave the shelter and break out of the cycle of poverty.

The challenge became even more difficult this week as Nick’s only source of income — $100 in unemployment benefits — wasn’t renewed by Congress. “If we don’t extend unemployment benefits this month, you’re going to see a lot more homeless people here in Connecticut and across the country,” Murphy said.

Homeless US programmer creates social app which can help lower gas emissions in NYC — RT USA

Last month I posted a story about Patrick McConlogue, a software engineer in New York City who made a potentially life-changing proposal to a homeless man while walking to work one day. In the original story Leo Grand, the homeless man learning to code, spoke of creating an app. Well as of yesterday that app is a reality,,,

The result? An app named Trees for Cars, which attempts to help lower greenhouse gas emissions by connecting local users who’d be willing to carpool together. The driver chooses a meeting point, and the app then suggests nearby riders. If both the driver and riders accept each other’s invitations, they’ll be connected and can meet together for a carpool. The app also details how much carbon dioxide is saved by each ride, which encourages people to continue decreasing their carbon footprint.

Grand is hoping to rent his own apartment with the sales off the app, but while his story is certainly inspiring, it’s one of the few bright spots in New York City’s homeless epidemic. As RT reported on Tuesday, the number of homeless residents sleeping in city shelters each night has reached its highest level since the Great Depression in the 1930s, and it has increased by 69 percent since 2002.

Homeless US programmer creates social app which can help lower gas emissions in NYC — RT USA

Mormon Bishop Goes Undercover as Homeless Man to Teach about Compassion and Gratitude | KUTV.com

When this story first popped 10 days ago, I had mixed feelings. I still do.

The basic story line, an LDS bishop went undercover as a homeless man and greeted people to give a lesson in kindness and acceptance of others. It's not so much the reactions of his congregants, that I consider the norm, I think what bothers me is that he "had" to do this to prove a point: "The main thing I was trying to get across was we don’t need to be so quick to judge." Musselman said he wasn't trying to embarrass anyone or make them feel ashamed of themselves, he just wanted to remind them to be kind to people from all walks of life every day and not just the holidays. But how pathetic is it that he needed to dupe his church in order to teach a lesson. It makes me wonder what he is teaching that this was necessary, or is it a matter of his parishioners hearing vs listening.

A second issue I have, if "we" were to re-visit Musselman and his congregation in 12 months, how much of change would we see? Christ was pretty clear in his message: "Then they themselves also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?' "Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' "These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." (Matt 25:44-46, NIV) So why is this a "lesson" that had to be learned?

If we are a so-called Christian country there would be no homeless, no orphanages and free hospitals/clinics. Conservative Christianity is incompatible with the teachings of Jesus Christ, this bishop has taught his congregation an important lesson. But I wonder if their shame comes from the fact that their indifference was exposed for all to see, or if they woke up and were forced to look deep inside their hearts

I wont go far as to say that Mussleman played dress up and used the reality of other human beings pain and suffering to further his own interests or the agenda of his church. But I do struggle with his dressing up as a homeless person as being an offensive stunt. I would like to know what he will be doing to combat the issues of poverty and homelessness.

Mormon Bishop Goes Undercover as Homeless Man to Teach about Compassion and Gratitude | KUTV.com