Local news just reported that there are more homeless children per capita

[Skidmore]

in the state of Iowa than anywhere else in the union. I am frankly shocked. I did not know that. Local guy said that there was a camp by one of the rivers where kids live for the duration of the river. He didn't mean camp as in one with buildings either.

I need to find out more about this.

[napi21]

1. WOW, and it gets COLD there! By a river doesn't sound like the right place to be. Surely there

has to be somewhere better than that!

[twilight_sailing]

6. It's the water. Gott have it.

[Monkeyman]

2. I been telling you about

196,000 homeless veterans. The homeless have doubled under Bush. Veterans from our current war zone have their families in tow. The Homeless Coalition has been reporting that next year alone about 30,000 will be homeless children. Time to fight back call your Rep and tell them we are the riches Country in the world do something now.

[aquart]

3. Has there been one public housing project under Bush?

[bobbolink]

5. It was a project, all right.. cutting housing funds again!

HUD has been cut over 63% in 25 years, so it isn't only *.

It's a crime, and about time Dems took action!

It's desperate!!

[Monkeyman]

8. No

Here is our Idea the Veterans Commission wants to close 16 VA hospitals. Turn them into homeless shelters. But not them they want the land to sale

[partylessinOhio]

4. Homelessness without helping them is a national disgrace.

Cutting taxes for the rich has made the situation worse. Taxes are needed to provide safety nets for the poor.

No person - woman, man, child, veteran or elderly - should be homeless in America.

We can and must do better than this!

Remember that most Americans are only two paychecks away from the same fate.

[ninkasi]

7. I agree with you

If conservatives choose to portray themselves as the party of "values", then those values must include much more than being against gay marriage, and abortion. Any country which claims to have a shred of morality, or values, is obligated to care for the poor, children, and the elderly. Cutting taxes for the wealthy, and paying for those cuts by saddling our children and grandchildren with the cost, is immoral. Cutting taxes for the wealthy, and for profitable companies, like the oil companies, is immoral.

Can any self-respecting self-proclaimed Christian claim to be a follower of Christ, if they refuse to follow his commandments to care for the poor, the sick, and the needy? Rather than building mega-churches, and having their reverends live in mansions, why don't these oh, so moral hypocrites collect money for those who are homeless, or without medical care, or hungry?

If Jesus came back today, and walked among the homeless, while the rich looked the other way, which group would get to see him? Would it be the ones he charged us with helping, or the ones who sped by in luxury cars, bedecked with diamonds, on their way to a social event, and blind to the poverty of others? This need not be phrased as a strictly Christian issue, because all religions, so far as I know, have commandments to be charitable.

The same Bible thumpers who can cite chapter and verse against homosexuality, or the passages they believe condemn it, yet utter not a peep of the Beatitudes. They can screech against adultery, and not address hunger, or homelessness. They are hypocrites, and need to recede to a distant corner in American politics. They are strictly against anything even remotely connected to sex, but blind to the issues that cause despair in so many. I hope our new Democratic wins an change the direction this country has been going in since St. Ronnie blinded the masses, an made them accept greed as a just way of life. Nobody in America today should be without a home, food, and medical care. Nobody.

[Kindigger]

9. Not sure where that is but

I know I'm fortunate to find the place I'm in now. It is Section 8 housing for elderly or disabled only. There is a two year waiting list for Section 8 families. You wouldn't believe the way I was treated to get in here. In fact, I believe they violated several HUD regulations, which I've documented for later reference. After the manager visited my former apartment I felt so violated. I mean this beotch was blabbering on, thinking I didn't notice her opening my closets and drawers! I wanted so bad to come back, and be closer to my parents so I let it slide. I think they already know they let a trouble maker in though LOL. I remember the day the manager said, "We've never had anyone ask to accompany us on a move-in inspection." Then I told her it was the law. There are NO minorities in the building either.

Anyway, the only Section 8 housing in our area is about five blocks from here. It was mixed in with side by side duplexes. Some of them were 3rd generation residences. It is a really nice lower/middle income neighborhood. My brother moved to town for his job back in September, and rented there.

Developers came in, and promised to build a shopping center. The city is using imminent domain to buy everyone's home, and passing out $2,000? to Section 8 renters to get lost. The developers haven't given the city money, signed anything, nada.

My brother was in his apartment three weeks before anyone found out about it. He had to up and disconnect utilities, etc. Fortunately he had the money to buy a nice mobile home.

They're hoping all the Section 8 "low lifes" just leave town. There is nowhere for them to go. People here are furious (understatement).

There are several elderly people over there who say they will have to be dragged out of their homes; the only home they've ever lived in. When I found out about it I was pissed as 'ell, but it seems people around here just bitch and moan in private, but nobody wants to do anything beyond that.

I hope they bulldoze the whole neighborhood, and the developers back out. Teach 'um a lesson.

[Skidmore]

13. You've really had a tough time.

Finding affordable housing is tough enough without people bringing their prejudices into it. Landlords find ways to do that though. When I was single parenting and my kids were about 14 and 7, I was trying to get out of living in apartment buildings with large numbers of partying college students around--we lived in a Big Ten town. I wanted to rent a house, and houses are pretty pricey there. Well I found a little house I could afford--a slab house with about 770 sq. ft. of living space and 3 tiny bedrooms, a galley kitchen, 1 itty bitty bath, and something that could pass as a living room. The landlady started out by asking me if I'd ever sued a landlord. She asked me if I had a "boyfriend" (I was separated from my ex at the time) and told me that if anyone came to visit me for more than 4 days, I was to let her know. I used to bring my mom up to stay with us for a week every year to give her a change of scenery from her little town. So now the expectation was that I needed to get permission from my landlady to have my mother come and visit. I still have resentment at the way she conducted that whole deal because I went there in good faith to see if I could negotiate housing. A simple credit check and background check on her own would have given her all the information she needed. Instead she chose to pee in the corners. I sucked it up to get a reasonable and safe home for my kids. I know property owners get burned but I've seen so many good responsible tenants have to fight to get back huge deposits they couldn't really afford either. Yes, the housing situation in this nation really needs to be addressed.

[UrbScotty]

10. But enough about that - how are Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes doing?!

:sarcasm:
:eyes:

[jwirr]

11. I wonder if they have the same problem that I see around my area?

Housing ends up with multiple generations living under one roof because young members do not have access to education or good jobs. I live with 4 generations in a 3 bedroom home. And I know a lot of others who do to. Rent is simply too high for minimum wage workers to live like we did when I was in single housing in the 60s-90s.

[Jed Dilligan]

12. The states don't collect comparable data, really,

but most anecdotal evidence indicates more homeless children everywhere since the 1980s and the number steadily increasing.

Most of the world (i.e., the Third World) has ubiquitous "street kids"--the last twenty-some years in our history will come to be known as our race to join those countries, by destroying the middle class, enriching the rich, and immiserating the poor.