Month Three: More Lost Jobs

This time 80,000 jobs were lost. The previous month 63,000 jobs were lost. It’s becoming a tragic trend.

I do believe there is a direct correlation between lost jobs and an increase in homelessness. Don’t listen to what the political leaders say, when they say homelessness is decreasing around the country. They are defining this as a decrease in “chronic homelessness”—those who have been on the streets more than a year, or homeless numerous times.

Is chronic homelessness decreasing? Or are they being swept into other communities, so they can set up tent cities on the outskirts of urban areas, like Ontario, California?

The cities that are truly helping to decrease chronic homelessness are those who are actually building affordable housing linked with intensive services specifically for this population. Otherwise, they are sweeping them out of sight.

The downturn in the economy not only affects the employment rate, it affects the government’s willingness to fund programs and housing to help the poor. States around the country are decreasing their budgets, and also decreasing funding for services and housing.

It’s a sad phenomenon during these times—there is an increase of people in more need of services and housing, but there is a decrease in the funding to help them.

It’s a backwards reality.

(Pic from http://activerain.com)

Mayor Decides To Move His Family Onto The Streets

In a bold move to provide leadership and support for building a proposed homeless campus in the center of the city, the Mayor of Chattanooga, Ron Littlefield, has decided to move onto the site with his family.

“It is important for Chattanoogans to understand what this homeless campus means to me—I mean, them,” Littlefield proclaimed. “Therefore, my family and I will live here on the spot of what I imagine might be the shelter’s commissary or shuffleboard court until an official groundbreaking happens.”

“We’ve pitched our tent and have even brought our Colman stove which we plan to use to heat up our Beanie Weenies, potted meats and other hobo delicacies,” said Littlefield, sporting a plaid flannel shirt and a fishing hat dotted with lures. “I’ve got my old Army cot, you see, and a flashlight with fresh batteries, and some bug spray, a snake-bite kit, my canteen, and so forth.”

It’s rare to find political leaders willing to stick their necks out to promote a cause that is politically unpopular. It’s also rare to find leaders who are compassionate enough to support fighting homelessness even though they might lose votes over it.

Note: I think this article better fits in a satirical publication like The Onion. Thanks to a commentor for pointing this out.



(Pic is from http://imgsrv.homes.com)

Publicly Embarrassing The Mayor Doesn’t Do Much…

A few papers picked up the “impromptu” (I put this in parenthesis because I don’t know if it was actually an impromptu response) protest against L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa yesterday. He was in Skid Row to highlight new street lighting in the area.

It’s a good city response to increase lighting in order to make a neighborhood safer. PATH helped our local community do the same thing. Why an advocacy group would protest such a press conference doesn’t clearly make sense.

Although they were seeking to use these new lights as a way to accuse the Mayor for not doing enough to help the homeless. They were also making a statement that the Safer Cities Initiative is criminalizing homelessness.

I do agree that the city needs to do more to provide permanent affordable housing and emergency housing to the city’s 40,000 homeless people. I don’t think it is wrong, however, to want to make streets safer.

Besides, I don’t think embarrassing the Mayor is going to force him to spend more money to help the homeless. Especially when the city's budget is hurting.

“The English Tradition of the Plucky Dickensian Dodger”

We’ve been hearing lately of the airport mess at London’s Heathrow airport, given that they just opened their $8.5 billion airport terminal. Thousands of lost baggage and delayed flights have overwhelmed Europe’s busiest airport.

We now hear that hidden in the middle of the airport’s busy-ness are homeless people (the British call them “rough sleepers”) seeking to find a place to sleep while posing as tired passengers waiting for their next flight.

Here’s the beginning of the article:

FIVE OR SIX HOMELESS PEOPLE have flocked to London's Heathrow airport, camouflaging themselves with tacky floral shirts and bum-bags to blend in with the stranded tourists in order to get a good warm night’s kip on one of the airport’s benches.

According to Time Magazine, the phenomenon has become so prominent that last month Heathrow was forced to hire a local homeless outreach organisation, called Broadway, to go on regular patrols in the airport to try to wheedle the Hawaiian shirt clad homeless into temporary accommodation.

Apparently the homeless (or “rough sleepers”, as we Brits supposedly call them), have come up with a whole host of clever ruses to avoid being chucked out by airport security. Some hide behind open newspapers, whilst others sleep under coats in departure lounges. The really resourceful even manage to pick up the odd duty free bag to blend in.

So taken was Time by the ingenious efforts of the British homeless, that they even speak of their embodiment of “the English tradition of the plucky Dickensian Dodger”. Yes, British homeless people are infinitely more charming than American ones. It must be their adorable soot stained faces and rickets.

(Pic from www.airport-technology.com)

Homelessness: Convictions, Resignations, and Relief

Last Friday, a man who had recently been paroled was convicted of stomping to death a homeless woman in downtown LA’s skid row. It happened two years ago on one of the most dangerous streets of LA—San Julian. Though justice was served, it still doesn’t bring back the life of the woman who had already struggled with the hardship of being homeless on LA’s streets.

Today, the Housing and Urban Development secretary, Alphonso Jackson, resigned. As a White House appointee, he had a powerful and influential position in shaping how housing and homelessness was addressed in America. He was forced out of office because of a criminal investigation regarding cronyism and favoritism. Secretary Jackson visited PATH a few years ago with Governor Schwarzenegger. Did homelessness get any better in the last seven years of his leadership? You decide.

Finally, a witness in the trial of two older women who took out life insurance on homeless men, and then murdered them, revealed an interesting fact. He said that he too almost fell for these women’s criminal ploys. He is relieved that it didn’t happen to him.

The world of homelessness is already at a difficult and disempowering state. Clearly, when the top federal housing leader resigns because of a criminal investigation and those struggling on the streets are murdered or convicted because of criminal behavior, we have a major problem in our country.

From the top down, we need to fix a very broken system.


(Pic fro www.ich.gov)