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Fade to black – Is government leveraging homeless agencies out of business? Thursday, March, 4, 2010
Is politics the problem or the solution to homelessness? Monday, March, 1, 2010
Why do you hate in the name of God? Monday, February, 22, 2010
Cardboard is for shipping, not for housing Thursday, February, 18, 2010
Throw the bums out—RPG game re homeless should be sent back Monday, February, 15, 2010
Down-sizing affordable housing could increase the reduction of homelessness Thursday, February, 11, 2010
Down and exploited in Beverly Hills - Is TMZ.com exploiters? Monday, February, 8, 2010
Is marriage the solution to poverty or is it the cause of poverty? Saturday, February, 6, 2010
Book on homeless man and Los Angeles journalist is highlighted by Long Beach Book Week Thursday, February, 4, 2010
Why homelessness is decreasing while hunger and poverty is increasing
Tuesday, October, 14, 2008
Homeless and Burned to Death
I track hate crimes against homeless people across the country. Last week, I added John Robert McGraham to the list. He was doused with gasoline and set on fire at 3rd and Berendo streets, in the heart of Los Angeles, by an unknown assailant or assailants. He died.
It happened close to where a homeless woman, Margaret Mitchell, was accidentally shot and killed by a police officer nine years ago, and not far from where homeless people were assaulted by four teenagers last year.
Of course, Los Angeles is not the only locale for hatred. Homeless people have been murdered in Denver, Milwaukee and in Fort Lauderdale and Daytona Beach, Fla. The most recent study by the National Coalition for the Homeless documents 160 attacks on homeless people in 2007, an increase of 13% over 2006. Twenty-eight were killed; California had the second-highest number of attacks.
What leads people to bash or kill others who are trying to survive on our streets? Such violence is sadistic, perhaps random. And yet homeless people are the easiest of targets: We have systematically refused to solve the problems they represent.
Last month, California passed a budget that eliminated $4 million for homeless services and housing. In the next fiscal year, the cuts will wipe out the Emergency Housing and Assistance Program, which provides annual funding for shelters, food banks and transitional housing. These are the frontline efforts in the war, creating places for the homeless to go. Fewer people living on our streets means fewer hate crimes against them.
Because of a bad economy, powerful political leaders in Sacramento decided to defund efforts that help the poorest of the poor. This seems to be backward logic. Shouldn't we be increasing programs for such people when times get harder?
There is a call in Los Angeles to create a task force to protect homeless people from hate crimes. Many states have considered legislation to add homeless people to hate-crime laws -- Alaska, California, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, Ohio and Texas. The impulse behind such efforts is good, but why not take a more fundamental approach to the problem? If we house all of our citizens -- and if we include in that systems for those who have mental health problems -- we won't have to worry about people sleeping on our streets and being bashed or killed. What about legislation to give all citizens a right to supportive housing?
Not providing enough shelters or housing for the homeless, defunding programs that get people off the streets and an increase in violent crimes against homeless people show that the poorest of the poor are not high enough on society's priority list.
McGraham's life ended horrifically. Let's respond to that crime by increasing our compassion -- and our programs -- for the needy and vulnerable who live on our streets.
Originally published in the Los Angeles Times.
Providing housing for every person who will accept it is fine, but that won't stop the hate crimes against those who choose to be homeless.
Posted 2009-12-12 08:50:57
I consider someone humiliating and terrifying my by handcuffing me for living in my vehicle because I am homeless to be qualified as a hate crime.
The main purpose of this law was to cause fear in the homeless so that they will move on.
Its terrifying For someone thats never been arrested, taken to jail or ever treated in such a way. I have never been arrested in my life nor ever accused of any crime in my life short of a traffic ticket [which I paid].
Now in the span of 1 month out of the 3 I have been living in my van I have been arrested once and threatened with arrest once.
This was the solution to get me out of a neighbor I actually lived in for more than 17 years because some people noticed I was living in my vehicle.
Not a clunker, but a clean vehicle, I am clean, I shave, take out my trash etc and if you saw me walking with me laptop you'd never know I was homeless.
I did not violate the 72 hour law, but the officer said doesn't matter. I was sleeping in my vehicle and its against the law and if the neighborhood called him again I'd be handcuffed and arrested [ and it would be humiliating, he made a point to let me know in no direct way]. He already ran my tags so I know he had all the info he needed.
Now I have to drive around spending money on gas to find a safe place to sleep just to avoid being woken up in the cold with police officers at my vehicle.
This has caused me so much stress and anger that its hard to manage my day looking for a job.
So this was the solution the city came up with to address the homeless sleeping in their cars in better or safer neighborhoods.
I was parked on a side street [commercial zoned, but unfortunately near someones garage at the back of their house. It took them almost 3 months to even figure I was actually living in it.
There is no need to comment on the law.
It violates my human rights, and is nothing but urban terrorism.
Posted 2009-11-30 17:44:37
Posted 2009-10-29 13:26:29
A Third Wave Of Addressing Homelesness Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Civil Overestimation Friday, April 3, 2009
WWYD? Monday, November 13, 2006
705 Missing Homeless People: Where Did They Go? Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Body Found In A River Near Long Beach
Linda Rosenberg, MSW Juan was a delivery driver, but his health problems were putting him at risk of losing his job. His diabetes was poorly controlled and had caused foot ulcers that made it difficult for him to walk. He also had bipolar disorder, which was not being controlled. When he joined the Working Well program in Harris County, Texas, Juan worked with a case manager to get orthopedic shoes, to receive support in developing a diabetic diet and exercise plan, and to make an appointment with a psychiatrist to bring his mental health condition under control. As a result, Juan was able to continue working full time as a delivery driver and received a raise for exceptional performance (Bohman, Stoner, & Chimera, 2009). Working Well is part of the....
Homelessness Resource Center "I believe that people who are trained in Motivational Interviewing have a different perspective on building relationships. Many people are trained to view clients in a paternalistic manner, like they are children. This attitude says that providers always know what is best for a client. This attitude makes us think that we must convince clients that we know what is best for them. In this view, success is measured by the provider’s actions, not the client’s." In the spirit of Motivational Interviewing, Alan Pickett, a Mental Health Outreach Nurse at the Project Outreach Team (PORT) for Washtenaw County Community Mental Health in Ann Arbor, Michigan, does not define success this way. He believes his first task to is to make himse
David J. Jefferson “The prevalent fear of poverty among the educated classes is the worst moral disease from which our civilization suffers.” When William James, ostensible father of American Psychology, penned this line over a century ago, he had embedded the idea in a discussion on religious experience, in which he also extolled the virtues of voluntary poverty. Today, in a totally distinct context, James’ words are imbued with new meaning. Due to economic recession and what many economists have deemed a jobless recovery in contemporary America, people who never before feared poverty—the educated, or middle class—must now confront harsh new realities. The current conditions are like nothing we’ve ever seen. Conspiring myriad circumstances....
Jamie Van Leeuwen When Denver’s Road Home began over four years ago, we never could have anticipated a year like we just had. Who could ever imagine that our economy would shift into a global recession unlike anything the country has experienced since the Great Depression? And yet, in the midst of unparalleled economic shifts, there comes great opportunity. We believe there has never been a more important time for Denver to have a plan to end homelessness. During the past year, our homeless plan has been tested and we expect the coming year will continue to pose new challenges for us. Housing foreclosures, unemployment and funding cutbacks will continue to place new demands on our ten-year plan to end homelessness. As a result, we updated our plan so....
Linda Valverde & General Dogon The authors have lived and worked in Central City East—commonly known as Skid Row—for a combined thirty years. During all of our decades of living in Los Angeles, neither of us had ever heard of gentrification until about five years ago, when we became members of the Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN). Now it seems that gentrification has become a common household word in cities throughout the United States, and nowhere more than downtown Los Angeles. When redevelopment really took off in downtown L.A. in 2002, LA CAN and our allies created five principles for fair redevelopment. We wanted to see our neighborhood revitalized, not gentrified. The principles were....
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