All posts tagged homelessness
I'm not always wearing my full habit...
Sadly, feeding the homeless has been banned in major cities all over America. Other cities that have not banned it outright have put so many requirements on those who want to feed the homeless (acquiring expensive permits, taking food preparation courses, etc.) that feeding the homeless has become “out of reach” for most average people. Some cities are doing these things because they are concerned about the “health risks” of the food being distributed by ordinary “do-gooders.” Other cities are passing these laws because they do not want homeless people congregating in city centers where they know that they will be fed. But at a time when poverty and government dependence are soaring to unprecedented levels, is it really a good idea to ban people from helping those who are hurting?
Paul Craig Roberts (via azspot)
In answer to Mr. Roberts’ question: No. No, it is not a good idea to ban people from helping those who are hurting.
Jesus weeps. Undercover Nun weeps with him.
(via azspot)
The saddest part of this? That the “read more” link goes to BBC News. Why aren’t we outraged here in the US?
America’s homeless resort to tent cities
Panorama’s Hilary Andersson comes face to face with the reality of poverty in America and finds that, for some, the last resort has become life in a tented encampment.
Just off the side of a motorway on the fringes of the picturesque town of Ann Arbor, Michigan, a mismatched collection of 30 tents tucked in the woods has become home - home to those who are either unemployed, or whose wages are so low that they can no longer afford to pay rent.
Conditions are unhygienic. There are no toilets and electricity is only available in the one communal tent where the campers huddle around a wood stove for warmth in the heart of winter.
Ice weighs down the roofs of tents, and rain regularly drips onto the sleeping campers’ faces.
Tent cities have sprung up in and around at least 55 American cities - they represent the bleak reality of America’s poverty crisis …
According to census data, 47 million Americans now live below the poverty line - the most in half a century - fuelled by several years of high unemployment.
One of the largest tented camps is in Florida and is now home to around 300 people. Others have sprung up in New Jersey and Portland.
In the Ann Arbor camp, Alana Gehringer, 23, has had a hacking cough for the last four months.
“The black mould - it was on our pillows, it was on our blankets, we were literally rubbing our faces in it sleeping every night,” she said of wintering in a tent …
See Documentary Above / Read More: BBC News
(via truth-has-a-liberal-bias)
If you approve of that – you think that’s peaceable assembly – you need to be peed on. See how you like it.
Tennessee Rep. Eric Watson, sponsor of a bill to remove Occupy Nashville protesters, with a penalty of nearly a year in jail or a $2,500 fine.
The House Judiciary Committee voted 14-2 to approve a ban on unauthorized camping on public grounds, in a bid to force the four-month-old Occupy encampment from War Memorial Plaza. The committee also approved an amendment that raised violations to a Class A misdemeanor, the highest class of penalties short of a felony.
(via mockingbirds)
Yup, now being homeless in Tennessee is one step short of a felony. Nice.
(Source: tennessean.com)
"Patient Dumping" Alleged Against White Memorial
In the latest case of suspected hospital “patient dumping” on Southern California streets, a court complaint filed last week accuses a hospital and doctor of improperly discharging a patient against his will and dropping him off in front of a homeless shelter.
The complaint alleges that White Memorial Medical Center personnel used plastic restraints to tie the hands of patient Jesse Bravo, loaded him into a van, dropped him off in front of a homeless shelter and didn’t follow up to make sure he was admitted.
Bravo, who [has schizophrenia] and who had requested to be taken to his mother’s house, wound up wandering Skid Row for two nights and dislocated his shoulder in an attack, the complaint said. He had no warm clothing, money, ID or medication, court papers said.
Jesus tells us that when we care for the sick, house the homeless, and feed the hungry, we do these to him. And when we shitcan the sick, push them out onto the street, and leave them mostly helpless to fend for themselves, we do this also to Jesus.
Way to go, White Memorial. Undercover Nun is praying for your immortal soul.
(Source: abbyjean)
Economic recovery? Half of Americans are low-income or poor.
This is depressing.
Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income.
The latest census data depict a middle class that’s shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government’s safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families.
“Safety net programs such as food stamps and tax credits kept poverty from rising even higher in 2010, but for many low-income families with work-related and medical expenses, they are considered too `rich’ to qualify,” said Sheldon Danziger, a University of Michigan public policy professor who specializes in poverty.
“The reality is that prospects for the poor and the near poor are dismal,” he said. “If Congress and the states make further cuts, we can expect the number of poor and low-income families to rise for the next several years.” …
How long, O Lord? How long?
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.
Undercover Nun is overwhelmed at the moment. I am grinning like a wild woman, while tears run down my cheeks. What has overwhelmed me so?
Each week, my parish sends an e-newsletter to our members. Usually the e-news opens with a reflection from our rector, but this week’s is different. This week, the newsletter opens with an excerpt from a letter that the parish received from a man who had come to us homeless, addicted, and full of pain and grief. His fianceé had kicked him out, and he yearned powerfully to be good enough for her to love again.
I remember this man, and I’ve been wondering about him over the last few months. I hoped he was in a home again, and not on the streets. I hoped he’d been clean from alcohol and drugs. I hoped he’d found forgiveness and love from his family and his fianceé. I prayed for him every day. And now I know just a little bit of his story:
I haven’t smoked or drank anything since September 19, 2010. God gave us another chance and now we are together in a suburban neighborhood in Fort Worth, TX. Tomorrow (July 8) we will be married. My seizure condition hasn’t gotten any better so I set up an office in our new home. I work from home…and will begin college in September to finish the pursuit of my Bachelors of Psychology.
I could not rest until I said thank you to you and to let you know how much that I love you for being so helpful and influential. We stayed for one week at St. John’s in the (winter) shelter and all you asked was for us to come to church the following Sunday. Four of us came and I still remember the tears (you) shed because you were glad to see us there. Genuine sincerity is what you…have in your hearts.
When he first came to my parish, I was leading the discussion time in the Adult Forum. I’d gotten there early to copy my handouts and make sure the room was set up properly. Over the next several weeks, I got to know this man a bit more. He told me some of his story and asked me to pray for him. I would see him before the Sunday school hour each week, and we’d talk a little while I got set up.
A few weeks later, our interim rector invited the homeless support organization through which our parish does a lot of work, so they came and spoke at the Adult Forum. Since I wasn’t leading the forum, I attended the first part before slipping off to the choir room for our warm-up and rehearsal. I learned later that this man had spoken about me, that if I’d heard what he said, I would have been just as overwhelmed, grinning like a madwoman through the tears of awe and joy. I don’t think I’ll ever know what he said, but that doesn’t matter.
What matters are these.
- God is at work in the world around us. We may not understand how or why, but we are never alone.
- Prayer changes things. Prayer isn’t the dollar bill you slip into a vending machine God, who dispenses the item you request. It may be that prayer changes God, or that prayer changes the world, or that prayer only really changes me. But it does something.
- There is hope. There is always hope. Even when you have been kicked out of your home by the love of your life and rejected by your family, even when you are living on the streets, even when you are ill and addicted and have no place to turn — even then, there is hope.
- God is the king, queen, and entire royal family of second chances. And third chances. Seventh chances, Eighty-fifth chances, four-hundred-ninety-fourth chances. God never gives up on us, even when we give up on God.
The prodigal fiancé has returned home, and there is rejoicing in heaven! He was lost, and now is found! He had died, and now is alive! Thanks be to God!
You have to stay with the one crucified or stand with the crucifiers.
Kip Tiernan, of Rosie’s Place.
Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord; let light perpetual shine upon her. And give courage to those of us who remain: courage to stand in the face of the crucifiers, courage to love every one of God’s children, courage to work tirelessly for justice.
Amen.
(Source: telling-secrets.blogspot.com)
It is not illegal to be homeless… or at least, it shouldn’t be.
(Source: sixkindsofbullshit)
"I'm just one small person."
This news story is so incredibly sad.
A homeless man whose story was told in the News-Democrat on Sunday says library staff confiscated his library card because they found out from the article that he doesn’t have an address.
Steven J. Johnson lost his job and Belleville apartment last summer, so he now spends his days at the Belleville Public Library’s main branch on East Washington Street before sleeping in his car each night. …
That’s right. This man got his library card legitimately when he still had a home, before he lost his job… and the library invalidated it because the learned from a newspaper story that Mr. Johnson was homeless.
… Johnson, 47, said he uses the computers to play games and to use the social networking website Facebook, but also for job applications. He said he has applied for about 30 jobs since losing his position at Lumiere Place Casino in St. Louis last summer, and about 70 percent of them required him to fill out applications online. He said that because some of them are lengthy, he’d likely just be getting started on one by the time his 30 minutes would be up. …
So basically, Mr. Johnson treats the library like his workplace, where he does the work of the unemployed: job hunting. You may ask why this nasty, dirty, strange homeless man — certainly unsuitable to be in the presence of nice, clean, attractive, white children — hangs out in the library?
… Johnson’s story Sunday was one of several about current and former homeless men in Belleville, and about a group of community organizers that are trying to open a homeless shelter in the city. Belleville hasn’t had one since the Salvation Army shelter closed in 2009. …Why doesn’t he just go to a shelter? Oh! Because THERE ISN’T ONE.
It makes me so angry to hear people talk about the homeless with condescension and judgmentalism.
- Why don’t you just go flip burgers?
- Why don’t you just go to a shelter?
- We don’t want people like that in our neighborhood!
- … in our church!
- … in our library!
- … in our fast food restaurant!
- … near our school!
News flash: Mister Steven J. Johnson is a He is a child of God, precious and unique, beloved of God. Just like us. He has a mother, a father, a grandmother who loves him. Just like us. He has dreams, and they don’t include living in his car. Just like us. He has thoughts and feelings, hopes and wishes; he gets hungry, thirsty, and tired. Just like us. And he deserves to be welcomed and included in the community. Just like you, and just like me.
We shun people like Mr. Johnson because we’re terrified that we will become poor, hungry, and homeless too. We know that we’re one lay-off, one car wreck, one freak accident or illness away from the street. So we avoid eye contact, and we brush past, and we ignore them. We try to shut them all away in shelters and deny them access to our public places. All because we are afraid, so we refuse to look on these as as beloved children of God who have hopes and dreams, mothers and fathers, and the same needs for companionship that we have.
My heart cries out for Mr. Johnson when he says,
Oh, and Ms. Harriet Zipfel? Undercover Nun prays for your immortal soul.
You know, it’s easy to have a War on Drugs or a War on Poverty. These are never really won or lost, but you can point to all the things you’re busy doing, and say “We’re winning! We’re great! Look what we’re doing! Yay, us!”
The truth of the matter is, in the US, we wage War on the Poor.
We lock people up for being homeless. Oh, we call it different things, like loitering or trespassing or illegal camping, but we know the truth. We want those lazy bums out of our sight, whether they’re “properly” housed in shelters or locked up in jail.
We blame the poor for not just pulling themselves up by their bootstraps like our Great-Great-Uncle John did 100 years ago. We blame poor people for their poor nutrition, their poor education, their poor health, their poor fashion sense. And all the while, we’re terrified that we’ll become just like them.
We laugh at those who beg for money. At best, we pass them, assiduously avoiding eye contact. We point to the nice shoes they’re wearing, even though we don’t know where those very nice shoes came from. For all we know, our next-door neighbor donated them to a thrift store or to a church clothing closet last week! But we know it’s okay; it’s what they deserve for trying to get something for nothing.
We diss on the unemployed, too. Even though every one of us knows someone who has lost his or her job due to recession-related layoffs, we still blame them. “You wouldn’t have gotten laid off if you weren’t _____.” Just fill in the blank: lazy, unmotivated, drunk all the time, constantly challenging the boss, making mistakes, late, going to doctor’s appointments, whatever. Even when we’ve been in the same place before, we still do it. We may even mean to help them, but we just never get around to it, do we? And forget about extending unemployment benefits! Why should you get something for nothing, when I have to work hard for my money?
This cartoon is so very true, so very revealing, and so utterly sad. May God have mercy on our immortal souls. God knows we sure don’t deserve it.
(via silas216)
