“Souper Bowl,” “home snatchers”, and a not so small victory.

I thought I was going to have to suspend this blog for a while, due to internet access problems and a temporary return to work for the tax season. But I have connectivity, at least for the time being, and there’s been a lot of homeless news already this year.
Read up, get involved, volunteer or donate if you can. As hard as we have it in our warm caves, it’s even harder on the street.

---

Well, we have a lot going on so far in 2011: Dying animals, killer floods, deranged gunmen. That is not the worst of it. According to the latest findings by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, “The New Depression” (as I am wont to call it) has led to a great increase in people experiencing homelessness. Of course, that’s something you and I already knew, innit? The stats are broken down into regions, states, and subcategories such as families, unsheltered, and youth. Go to the NAEH website for a summary of their data. You can also read the entire 48-page study, The State of Homelessness in America, or download it for later if you have that capacity. Click the image above and use the “interactive tools” page to view maps charting economic indicators, demographic drivers, and states with multiple risk factors in relation to homelessness.
With things going on like the shameless shenanigans of voraciously greedy financial institutions reported in an article from the November 25, 2010 Rolling Stone, it’s no wonder there are more people on the street. Subtitled ...how foreclosure courts are helping big banks screw over homeowners, Matt Taibbi’s Invasion of the Home Snatchers is jaw-droppingly unbelievable. Let’s hope the expose, which accuses our courts of complicity in pushing through obviously fraudulent foreclosures, to the banks’ favor, rings some bells.
With nosebleed seats for Super Bowl XLV starting at $2586 each, I don’t know anyone who is going to Arlington, TX on February 6. How many children could the price of one crappy ticket feed? Well, you don’t have to pony up that kind of dough to make a difference. Beginning Monday, and ongoing until the game day, you can donate some of the money you would have spent on partying to help homeless people in Salt Lake City. Just $1 from everybody is all they’re asking. More details on The Road Home’s “Souper Bowl of Caring” here, or on Facebook.
Also Salt Lake City Mission’s, ABC News Good Morning America and Burlington Coat Factory’s Warm Coats & Warm Hearts Coat Drive has been extended to February 13th. Join these fine organizations in helping to keep our homeless friends warm through this exceptionally cold winter.
Last, but not least, is a tale of great victory for three homeless panhandlers who were cited by Salt Lake City police officers for holding a sign to solicit funds. Even though the Salt Lake City Council suspended a December vote on a new panhandling ordinance, I guess the cops were already enforcing one of their own. Well, Terry Lee Wilkinson, Patty Eagle, and Jackie Sanchez filed a lawsuit against the city, the police chief, the mayor, and the state’s Attorney General. With the help of Brian Barnard and other attorney’s from Utah Civil Rights & Liberties Foundation, Inc. THEY WON! The plaintiffs now have to pay the legal costs, and it’s still our 1st Amendment right to ask for help. Click here to view Judge Ted Stewart’s ruling, or read my recent Special Bulletin. You can read the ridiculous proposed ordinance in yet another recent post.

Some of us lucky enough to be employed have a three-day weekend, so enjoy it, remember what Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. fought and died for, and do something to make the world a better place.
Until next time...
---your editor
Next Report: Hate crimes against homeless people.

---

Related links:
Salt Lake Street News and related local news coverage
North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA)
Salt Lake City Mission
Rescue Mission of Salt Lake
National Coalition for the Homeless

A multitude of ways to help people who are homeless for the holidays

With the approach of winter and the holiday season, more attention falls upon those people in need, and their need is greater. Here are some easy and some fun ways to help your homeless neighbors right here in SLC. Thanks to these organizations and the people who make their work possible. I have also linked to a few national and international sites. Of course there’s not the time or space to include everyone, so why not help your editor by leaving comments and links to your favorite charity. As you donate goods, money, and time, please keep in mind that homeless people need your help the entire year...

---

Fun Events:

Utah Food Bank Fundraiser with Cameron Rafati this Saturday at In The Venue .

The good folks at Northplatte Records hit us with the lowdown on a great cause, and for music fans in Utah, it's a no-brainer. Headlining this gig is Cameron Rafati, who has worked with the likes of The Fugees and who just completed recording his first... Read More 

cityweekly.net 5 Spot: Coat Exchange With Deanna Taylor
By Rachel Piper

Six years ago, Deanna Taylor organized Utah's first annual Community Coat Exchange. The coat exchange takes place every year on the day after Thanksgiving (also referred to as Black Friday or Buy Nothing Day) at Library Plaza from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Coats are being collected now at four drop-off points, and on the day of... Read More

 

More sites to visit:

Local:

Salt Lake City Mission

Salt Lake Street News

 

Local News Coverage... By John Hollenhorst

Local News Coverage... By Julia Lyon

Crossroads Urban Center 

 

Thank you Harmon’s, Ten Thousand Villages, and Indian Walk-in Center.

 

The Road Home 

for the Red & Blue Rivalry Classic click on the pic above

Rescue Mission of Salt Lake 

Salvation Army 

United Way of Salt Lake (Season Of Sharing) 

(in partnership with 1430 KLO & Now 97.9)

Utah Food Bank 

Volunteers of America (VOA):

Homeless Youth Resource Center (HYRC)

Watch the video: (CBS News story on Utah’s homeless youth)

Homeless Outreach and Housing 

National/International:

Street News Service (SNS)

National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH)

International Network of Street Papers (INSP)

North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA)

---

The holidays are a time for giving, not just to friends and family, but to all who are in need. Won’t you please share with them? Please leave a comment to tell how you help those in need, or to make others aware of ways to help of which we might not be aware. Look for updates from now until the New Year, have a great holiday season, and blessed be for helping.

---your editor

 

New books, homeless youth scholarships NAEH Facebook post

There is a predominant stereotype that homeless people are homeless because they are lazy. I often tell people I was busier when I was homeless than when I wasn’t (experienced two separate bouts of homelessness, 3 years, then another 2 years AFTER 2 straight years of employment).
My experience was to survive, get what you needed to survive, and learn how to get out of my situation, I was constantly on the move. Sure, there are those who will probably always be homeless. Some want to be. Some are severely mentally ill, some have just given up. I’m glad I didn’t.
The majority of homeless people are lucky enough to be homeless only a short time. Those who are chronically homeless have very little support from government, family, and friends. They depend on what sparse assistance there is
Local, state, and government support for people in poverty and crises is minimal. There is talk of cutting them even further. At a time when the homeless population is growing at an alarming rate, this is disastrous.
Please donate time and money to organizations that helps homeless people. Not just because the holidays are here, but because they need your help, and they deserve it.
---your editor
It is a long fight up from the streets, but it’s worth it.

---

Welfare Reform Failing Poor Single Moms, Books Claim
Stretched Thin, Both Hands Tied, and The War on Welfare are three new books that lay bare the origins of welfare reform and its failure to address the enduring poverty of single mothers and their children.

---

I know there are thousands of resourceful, intelligent, talented kids on the street. It’s a growing epidemic. These kids have the right to an education, and their families aren’t going to give it to them.
Kids, you have to trust adults that do support you, and take every chance you get to better yourselves and follow your dreams. Don’t give up. If we give up, those who believe we are worthless will win.

National Alliance to End Homelessness This Saturday, October 30, is the deadline for homeless, formerly homeless, and at-risk high school students to apply for the nearly 1,000 college scholarships made available by the Horatio Alger Association. Please encourage eligible high school students to apply for this scholarship! There are over 100 national scholarships worth $20,000 each as well as state-specific scholarships of $2,500-$10,000.

Last Chance! Scholarships available for HS students

bit.ly

Nearly 1,000 scholarships are available this year. The Horatio Alger Association helps students who have overcome hardship attend college. This year, through a partnership with Give US Your Poor: The Campaign to End Homelessness (part of UMass Boston’s McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies)...

 

Until next time
-y.e.

NAEH weekly bulletin

National Alliance to End Homelessness website

Friday News Roundup: Youth Aging Out, Elderly Homelessness, and Domestic Violence

22nd October 2010 written by Catherine An
So, truth – it was a pretty slow news week. It seems like the news media covers homelessness in cycles: it gets really good (covering solutions and strategies and communities) and then it gets really bad (covering pan handling and camp outs).
I think we’re in an in-between phase.
This week, we noticed a very long feature on youth aging out of foster care in the Seattle Post Intelligencer written by reporters at Investigate West. While we at the Alliance wholeheartedly agree that this is an oft-overlooked and very important issue, we took serious issue with the article’s wildly inaccurate depiction of our own organization:
“At the national level, it’s barely on the radar of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, a powerful advocacy group that provides information the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.”
In fact, not only is youth homelessness a 2010 Policy Priority for the Alliance, but in the last year alone, we’ve:

• published a series profiling the way some communities are using HPRP funds to assist youth,
• launched a youth site visit campaign encouraging legislators to examine the issue in their own communities,
• hired new staff to work on the issue,
• and – just this week – wrote a toolkit encouraging communities to fully incorporate youth in their January 2011 point-in-time counts.

I’m hoping that next time, before writing such inflammatory remarks, it would occur to a journalist to pick up the phone as I’m always happy to chat!
Moving right along: On Sunday, the Los Angeles Times put out a piece on the elderly living at (or below) the poverty line. Hat tip to writer Alexandra Zavis for covering an issue that, in my opinion, doesn’t get examined enough. We focus on children and adolescents and their parents but rarely, I think, do we shed any light on those in their golden years.

And it turns out, the years aren’t so golden. Zavis reveals that too many California seniors are just barely scraping by – and we agree. Last year, the Alliance published a brief called Demographics of Homelessness: The Rising Elderly Population in which we project that elderly homelessness will grow by a third by 2020 and double by 2050 if the current rate continues. It’s time to start talking about this problem.
And finally, Kamala Harris (currently the District Attorney of San Francisco and the Democratic nominee for California Attorney General) penned a piece for the Huffington Post on protetecting survivors of domestic violence.
In the piece, Harris writes about a San Francisco-started-turned-state law that prohibits landlords from evicting tenants who are survivors of domestic violence. Harris explains that in California, domestic violence is one of the leading causes of homelessness for women and families. And for such vulnerable families, homelessness makes everything worse: women are less likely to access services or press charges, children’s schoolwork, health, and well-being suffers.
The relationship between domestic violence and homelessness is little acknowledged but significant. Here at the Alliance, we’re paying more and more attention to this relationship and researching ways to divert survivors from homelessness. Kudos to Harris for pointing it out so eloquently.
And that’s a wrap from us – have great weekend!
Tags: Youth Site Visit Campaign