WP: Homeless Services Adjust to Closings

[Southpaw Bookworm]

How ironic -- the Shrub's speech will probably wax poetic about the terrific economy and God's love, while a mile away homeless people (including many who fought rich men's wars while Bush and his cronies were sitting in the National Guard) are missing their meal of the day because of all the "festivities"

:grr: :grr: :grr:

Street closings for the pomp and partying that will accompany tomorrow's inauguration have prompted nonprofit groups to engage in a different kind of inaugural planning: how to care for the homeless in the downtown area where traffic will be blocked off.

Some groups with feeding programs inside the security zone have canceled meals tomorrow because of the traffic ban, while others are trying to provide regular services to the homeless without running afoul of security regulations.

Social service providers, noting that many homeless men and women sleep along the section of Pennsylvania Avenue NW where tomorrow's parade will be, said they also are making an effort to get those people into shelters because no one will be allowed in that zone as of tonight.

"We will find alternative areas for the homeless to sleep, outside of the restricted area, because they can't be there, they and everybody else," said Cornell Chappelle, chief of program operations for the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19125-2005Jan18.html