I’ve actually never stopped to think that having 200 people inside of a structure as not being productive. This blog post raises a good point.

Living with more than 10 people is unnatural unless you come from a very big family. Ideally, there would be no more than five people in a shared dwelling, to simulate normal living conditions. I’ve always said that learning to live with 50 or more people is no kind of preparation for independent living beyond homelessness. Any community that size takes a lot of work to remain healthy and can cause significant stress to its members if it isn’t. In fact, there should be some kind of guidebook for living in any of the bigger homeless shelters as the experience is overwhelming, stressful, and an unrealistic representation of life off the streets.

I was reading the current issue of DC’s Street Sense newspaper and came across a good editorial on why efforts to end homelessness in DC have fallen somewhat short.

Here is a key excerpt that I wanted to highlight:

When one considers all that is being done to combat homelessness, they can’t help but wonder why it is that the problem hasn’t been solved yet. While the answer is many-faceted, the fact that DC’s 10-year plan for ending homelessness didn’t include any type of work program is a large part of it. This speaks volumes to the fact that the Williams’ administration assumed that homeless people don’t want to work and, therefore, didn’t write that into the plan. (The present administration should make an effort to fix this problem and to operate under a new paradigm.)

All of these non-government organizations are not cohesive. Each one is doing its own thing. People from these different groups and organizations often attend the same meetings. They may exchange e-mails. They might even make attempts at collaboration. But they fail to coordinate their efforts or to speak truth to power with a unified voice, as there is strength in numbers.

Just think about it the Williams’ administration didn’t think that homeless people wanted to work. He bought right into a terrible stereotype. The comment about there being better coordination among NGO’s dealing with poverty in DC is also a good point.

I’m heading back home to the DC Metro area tomorrow but I wanted to blog about three observations I’ve made in traveling back and forth from Manhattan to Hartsdale, NY to visit mom & sis. The first thing was an ad I saw in a subway car about a local police union that wanted to take police officers off of desk jobs and get them on the street. They want civilians at desk jobs. It makes sense when you think about it. If the public is asking for more police officers on the streets, wouldn’t you want to take them off of desk assignments (providing that they are not on a desk job for a medical reason)?

The second thing that drew my attention happened while riding in a cab in Hartsdale. I overheard someone on the radio talking about the Bowery Mission in NYC. The voice on the radio struck me as he spoke with passion and conviction about the Bowery Mission helping a homeless woman in poverty. If I recall correctly, she was sleeping on the streets until someone told her about the Bowery Mission. I went to the Bowery Mission’s website this morning and viewed a video that goes into detail about what they do. I’ve embeded it below.

As a deist while I may not like the religious tone of the Bowery Mission I applaud and salute them! In the war on poverty–a war that’s been fought for centuries–we need everyone working together. Non-profit organizations such as churches &c., have always played a major role in fighting poverty. As they say in Bowery Mission’s video “tonight thirty-six thousand men, women & children will sleep in New York City’s shelters.” “Nearly four thousand more will sleep in the subways and on the streets.” At this time I always like to interject with some thoughts from Joel Berg who has said that NGO’s alone cannot end poverty the government has to do more. Of course government spending is always a problem, but we need to evaluate what we spend on and reallocate funds to what is important.

Lastly, riding in a subway car heading from E 86th Street back to Grand Central Station yesterday I happened to read one of the MTA’s Subway Talk “Train of thought” posters. The poster displayed an interesting quote.

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.

This morning I did not entirely remember the quote but Googled something I paraphrased, and lo and behold, Google actually found the right quote and who it was attributed to! The author is Arthur Schopenhauer.

Did you miss out on Hurricane Katrina in 2005? Do you wish you were there for all the action? Well boys and girls turn those frowns upside down!

Looking to own a piece of history — or just want someplace to put those pesky in-laws when they show up unexpectedly? The General Services Administration has a deal for you! The government agency is selling of thousands of FEMA trailers leftover from the Hurricane Katrina period at rock-bottom prices. Of course, as with any second-hand product, these come with some caveats. In this case, it’s a warning that "the government may not have tested all of these units for formaldehyde."

Now that’s a heckuva job! I think George W. Bush should get out for his ranch actually. Maybe Brownie can even live in it.

Today I bought a copy of Street Sense here in DC and read about a rather disturbing trend. That trend is the rise in homelessness and it’s criminalization by cities around the country. In the article there was one fact that I also wanted to share.

During one eleven-month period, Los Angeles spent $3.6 million repeatedly prosecuting 24 homeless individuals. For the same amount, according to the Lewin Group, a management research consultancy, the city could have provided housing for over 350 people.

Now isn’t that amazing? That is absolutely shocking! I wonder how many homeless people does the District of Columbia have? It makes you wonder what could be done here.

Top Ten Meanest Cities:

1. Los Angeles, CA
2. St. Petersburg, FL
3. Orlando, FL
4. Atlanta, GA
5. Gainesville, FL
6. Kalamazoo, MI
7. San Francisco, CA (that liberal bastion! Say it ain’t so!)
8. Honolulu, HI
9. Bradenton, FL
10. Berkeley, CA (another liberal enclave?!! Wow it’s like Cambridge, MA!)

With the way the nation’s finances are headed. I find this information to be very important, sad and resourceful for those afflicted by eight years of a horrible economy & the housing bubble speculation along with the Internet speculation of the 90’s.

One of the ten tips:

Learn the best bathroom options, where you won’t be rushed, turned away or harassed. Find restrooms where it’s clean enough to put your stuff down, the stalls are big enough to change in and there’s hot water so you can wash up. If you’re in New York City go to Restrooms in New York.

Yes, it is getting that bad. Most of us are truly only a few paychecks away from poverty. Secondly, there really needs to be more class unity. We have to look out for each other. The huge majority of us work. Therefore we are all “workers.” There is not much difference between what you do and what someone who belongs to a union does. We all work. Therefore, workers should organize to ensure their workplace rights, work place health and economic well being (healthcare included). It’s that simple. Many of us aren’t even middle class but rather working poor (hell, I just made middle class in ‘07 myself). A lot of people think they are one day going to become rich but social mobility is at an all time low in this country.We need to work together and include people who are homeless in the equation because we’re never far from where they are. Many of them were once middle class themselves.

A member of a group called Food not Bombs was arrested for feeding the homeless in Orlando, Florida. As ridiculous as this was for the police to do it raises another issue. I’m reading Joel Berg’s book and I’ve come to agree that charity cannot make up for government inaction. It is obvious that there are a lot of hungry people to feed in Orlando and throughout the country. Some of them are homeless some of them are working poor. Even people in the middle class are relying on food banks as times get tough. Yet, charity alone is not capable of ending hunger in America.

Jennifer from invisible people on Vimeo.

She panhandles to get money for transportation, visits clinics for prenatal care, gets food from churches, and does whatever she can to survive. Despite the fact that she’s pregnant and sleeping on the streets of New York, she’s hopeful about her family’s future.

Despite all the hardship she’s faced being homeless for two years in California and in New York and being pregnant. Jennifer is going to college! She wants to finish her education. She was going to school out in California and she is going to continue it in New York. I find that really inspiring. What’s also good to know is that she is going to get housing from PATH which started the day she did this interview.

Tony from invisible people on Vimeo.

As I watched this video I saw that Tony is actually a homeless veteran. He served in the United States Marine Corps. While it’s sad that a lot of veterans end up homeless and in poverty it did not surprise me to see that Tony was in this situation.

Here are some hard facts for you:

The U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) says the nation’s homeless veterans are mostly males (4 % are females). The vast majority are single, most come from poor, disadvantaged communities, 45% suffer from mental illness, and half have substance abuse problems. America’s homeless veterans have served in World War II, Korean War, Cold War, Vietnam War, Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), Operation Iraqi Freedom, or the military’s anti-drug cultivation efforts in South America. Forty-seven percent of homeless veterans served during the Vietnam Era. More than 67% served our country for at least three years and 33% were stationed in a war zone.

The next question which the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans highlights is also important. That question is why are veterans homeless?

In addition to the complex set of factors affecting all homelessness — extreme shortage of affordable housing, livable income, and access to health care — a large number of displaced and at-risk veterans live with lingering effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and substance abuse, compounded by a lack of family and social support networks.

A good documentary on this problem is When I Came Home. I remember listening to Heorld Noel on WBAI in NYC when this documentary was being promoted in 2007.

Tony also mentions that there are a lot of homeless veterans out where he is panhandling.

In these times of The Great Recession I was really touched to read this story.

The question posed to the panel this week really struck a nerve, especially after my recent conversation with George Jones, executive director of Bread for the City, one of Washington, D.C.’s most respected nonprofit community organizations. Under George’s leadership, Bread’s managerial team recently agreed to a 12% pay cut, and the staff to a 10% reduction, so as not to eliminate their programs that serve D.C.’s poor. This was not a unilateral decision made by the executive director and board. Staff members had an opportunity to weigh in on the difficult choices before them: cut programs, lay-off some colleagues, or take pay cuts across the organization.

This is simply amazing. Yet I have to ask the question. Why are vital NGO’s making sacrifices? Why are the working poor and the middle class making sacrifices? Why are they making all the sacrifices when there are institutions receiving money from these same people, in the form of bailouts, doing wrong by us all? Why did we have to make such an uproar to get some AIG execs to return their bonus money? If no one had said anything would they have still returned it? Why are Congressional Republicans getting so upset about Wagoner but they could care less about what really matters?