...is our own place."
While wrapping gifts and reading news stories online I came across this USA Today story titled: "Homelessness Catches Families Even Amid Affluence".
Christine Fuller finds holiday kindness at unexpected moments, such as before sunrise at a bus stop 7 miles from the White House.
A bus driver sees her switching buses each weekday morning at 6:15 with four neatly dressed children, ages 6 to 10, as she escorts them to a before-school program. The driver lauds their behavior and says he wants to give each child a Christmas present.
Fuller doesn't know his name. He doesn't know hers. She says presents would be fine.
The bus driver also doesn't know that Fuller and her children are homeless. They've been living at a shelter since September. Fuller has a full-time job that pays her $23,000 a year but says she can't afford an apartment in this affluent suburb of Washington, D.C., where a typical two-bedroom apartment rents for $1,225 a month.
Fuller says Beatrice and Jhavona had wanted dolls, and Isaiah asked for firetrucks. William wanted a Sony PlayStation 3, which costs at least $600, but he knew his mom couldn't afford it.
Fuller says William told her: "All I really want for Christmas is our own place." (bolding mine)
"They're shiftless, lazy drug-addicts."
"They don't want to work."
"They don't want help."
"We should round them up and ship them somewhere else."
The above quotes aren't necessarily word for word, but they sum up how many feel about the homeless population. I know that is not the feeling here on Daily Kos, but so many others, too many, feel this way. In the above article I linked to, it states that 55% of the homeless in Fairfax County, VA are families. It also states that two out of every five homeless adults in Fairfax County are employed. The woman featured in the article, after taking her four children on two different bus lines and dropping them off at a before school program at 6:15am, then gets onto another bus to go to her full-time job of three years where she earns $23,000/year. At the end of her work day, she does it all over again. Now correct me if I am wrong, but she doesn't sound like a lazy drug-addict who doesn't want to work to me.
A major reason why so many are homeless is the lack of affordable housing. Rising real estate prices and rents mean a hard-working mother of four can't afford a place to live in Fairfax County, or many other places for that matter. Despite the many generous folks who volunteer much of their time and money to trying to help the homeless, there is little to no help coming from all levels of government. Many homeless also suffer from a variety of mental illnesses. Thanks to a relentless national effort to cut taxes and spending, many resources to help these people have been eliminated. Drug and alcohol addiction and a lack of comprehensive treatment programs are yet another reason for homelessness. "It's all about personal responsibility" many will say. "Why should my tax dollars go to support those who choose to drink and do drugs?" Such short-sighted and selfish thinking is maddening.
Hawaii, considered paradise by many, is a tough place to eek out an existence even if you hold a steady full-time job. Visit the beaches on the leeward side of Oahu and you're likely to find thousands of families 'camping' outin tents on the beach. Most visitors probably think that it's great that so many families could camp out on a beautiful white sand beach and enjoy the warm blue ocean waters. The reality is that these families aren't camping out, they are more or less at the only home they can find and rely on the thin fabric of that tent for privacy and a roof over their head. The children must do their homework before it gets dark because they have no lighting. They share a dilapidated, filthy public restroom with drug users and dealers in order to use the toilet and to bathe. Many of the parents work, some receive public assistance, but none can afford a place to live in The Aloha State. Many of these homeless workers toil day in and day out in the hotels and resorts making sure that guests in the $300/night rooms enjoy their time in paradise.
NYT article Hawaii’s economy has been strong in the last two years, and the state consistently has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation. The real estate market has skyrocketed along with the job growth, and houses on the Waianae Coast that rented for $200 or $300 a month a couple of years ago are now advertised for more than $1,000.
Nobody knows exactly how many people are living on the beach. Kaulana Park, the state’s point man for the homeless, estimated that more than 1,000 people lived on the Waianae Coast beaches, but he cautioned that any count was good only on the day it was taken. And that estimate does not account for the hidden homeless: people who sleep on a relative’s sofa, or in their cars, or camp in areas not as visible as the public beaches.
Many living on the beach have jobs, mostly in the service and construction sectors. They include families with children, who attend public schools by day and sleep in tents on the beach at night.
Some have heard about Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman's war on the homeless.
The king of Las Vegas sat in his throne, a wooden and leather replica of one that belonged to a mid-19th-century Bavarian king. Resting his hand on the lion's head carved into its arm, Mayor Oscar Goodman talked of his empire's poorest.
"I love the homeless," said Goodman, who once proposed shipping them to an abandoned prison 30 miles away. "Unfortunately," the former Mafia defense lawyer said, "they're really interfering with the quality of life."
I've heard that the population of Las Vegas grows by thousands every day. With that rapid population growth comes a tighter, and naturally more expensive, supply of housing.
Yesterday, garth wrote a diary about four heartless Escondido, CA councilmembers who denied a request by the local Salvation Army facility to temporarily provide housing to homeless folks in the area in the midst of an unusual cold streak.
Four of the five council members said during their last meeting of the year that they couldn't support a request by officials of the Salvation Army and Interfaith Community Services to open a temporary winter shelter in the gymnasium of the Salvation Army at Las Villas Way near Centre City and El Norte parkways.
The council didn't vote on the matter because no motion was made. Only Mayor Lori Holt-Pfeiler, who put the item on the meeting agenda, said she supported opening the shelter. No city money was requested for the shelter, only the council's approval of the building's additional use.
None of this is news to any of us. We're a very compassionate lot here at the Daily Kos. Me, I've been aware of the homeless crisis for a while now and have done small bits to help out from time to time, but I've never felt like I've done enough. At this moment, while I sit here looking at the few gifts that I've bought for family members, I myself am not far from losing my apartment. I'm fortunate to have a landlord who despite being very wealthy and owns many rental properties, has the patience of a saint and so far hasn't tried to evict me, although I'm sure I am testing the limits of his patience. Luckily, I have family in the area and would always have a sofa to crash on. However, many others don't. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, 1.35 million children are homeless on any given night. As a matter of fact, years ago I used to drive down Walton Avenue in the Bronx in my repair van every morning and see the homeless families being led out from a city owned office building where they spent the night and loaded onto yellow school buses being sent god knows where. How fortunate was I to have a good paying job with excellent health benefits? Yet what did I do to help them? Little, if anything.
So while I sit here trying to figure out what I'm going to do to help effect even a little bit of change in my area, I know many of you have been actively working to fix this situation. I'd love to hear your ideas and thoughts. Are you currently working to help end homelessness and if so, what are you doing? What ideas do you have to put an end to this crisis? Any recommendations for me?